Course Offerings Fall 2012
Listed below are Hellenic Studies courses currently offered Fall 2012.
FRESHMAN SEMINARS
Narratives of Identity in the Other Europe: Reading Culture in the Balkans
FRS 167
FRS 167
The Balkans, the quintessential “Other” of Europe, conjure up a faraway realm on the edge of civilization — the proverbial crossroads between East and West. For Westerners, it is often an exotic, even mysterious, corner of the world, rich with ethnic, religious and especially cultural diversity. In this seminar, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Albania and Greece will provide the backdrop for examining a multitude of narratives in which voices of ethnicity, religion, gender, class and place all speak forcefully and poignantly. Through literature, language, music, folklore and popular culture, we will explore how these frames of identity inform contemporary Balkan culture. We will investigate how the past has sometimes been imagined and the present constructed to accommodate deeply held national, local, ethnic and religious convictions. Moreover, we will view how attempts to perceive the Other, coupled with associations of the Orient, have often been critical to the West’s recognition of southeastern Europe and, in turn, itself.
Margaret Beissinger Seminar 1:30-4:20 p.m Wed
City of Gold: Archaeology and Exhibition
FRS 193
FRS 193
“City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus” opens at the Princeton University Art Museum on Oct. 20. This exhibition features the art and archaeology of the ancient cities of Marion and Arsinoe, the focus of Princeton excavations since 1983, and provides a rich opportunity for a study of archaeology and exhibition. The importance of context in archaeological research is rarely included within museum and gallery displays that emphasize the object, often as an isolated work of art. This seminar will allow students to experience both practical and theoretical aspects of museum exhibition, using “City of Gold”; field trips to area museums that have different approaches to the display of objects found through archaeological excavation; as well as readings and class discussion. Students will have visits to the Princeton University Art Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia; and Morven Museum, the 18th-century former Princeton home of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Projects will not only involve students in museum display, but also in the theory and criticism of the relationship between archaeology and public exhibition.
Joanna Smith Seminar 1:30-4:20 p.m. Tue
Joanna Smith Seminar 1:30-4:20 p.m. Tue
Earth’s Environments and Ancient Civilizations (in Cyprus)
FRS 187
FRS 187
In this seminar, we will combine field observations of the natural world with quantitative modeling and interpretation in order to answer questions such as: How does environmental change alter the course of civilization, and how do civilizations modify their environment? How have Earth and human histories been recorded in the geology and archaeology of Cyprus, and what experiments can we do to query such archives of the past? In the classroom, through problem sets and on-campus excursions, we will gain practical experience collecting geological and geophysical data in geographic context and analyzing these data using software and programming languages such as ArcGIS and Matlab.
During the required weeklong fall break trip to Cyprus, we will engage in research projects that focus on the interplay among active tectonic landscapes, changing climate and ancient civilizations. (Note that the Cyprus field trip is the lab, and there are no additional lab periods during normal class weeks.) We will help you turn what you learn into three research papers. Scientific writing is an integral part of this course and its assessment. Students must plan on devoting their fall break to the class trip and have a valid passport. All costs of the fall break trip are covered by the University.
Adam Maloof and Frederik Simons Seminar 1:30-4:20 p.m. Thur
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
Elementary Modern Greek I
HLS 101/MOG 101
This course is the first part of the modern Greek language sequence regularly offered every year. It aims to set the foundations for acquiring a command of spoken and written modern Greek. The pace is intensive: readings and grammar from textbook, with accompanying daily exercises, and regular language laboratory attendance. Auditors welcome with instructor's permission.
Staff Class: 11:00-11:50 am MTWTh
Rhetoric: Classical Theory, Modern Practice
CLA 211/HLS 211
An introduction to the techniques of classical rhetoric both as a practical skill and as a philosophical approach to civic persuasion. Reading will consist of theoretical discussions of the proper means and ends of persuasion, along with exercises from Greek and Roman manuals of rhetoric. The goals of the course are: acquiring a historically informed understanding of the philosophical and ethical problems these techniques raised in their times; mastering the main classical techniques for persuasive reading, writing, speaking, and image-making; applying these principles to the analysis of a wide range of modern forms of persuasion.
Andrew L. Ford Class: 1:30 – 2:20 pm MW
Classical Mythology
CLA 212/HUM 212/GSS 212/HLS212
An introduction to the classical myths in their cultural context and in their wider application to human concerns (such as creation, sex and gender, identity, transformation, and death). The course will offer a who's who of the ancient imaginative world, study the main ancient sources of well known stories, and introduce approaches to analyzing modern myths.
Denis Feeney Class: 11:00- 11:50 am MW
Plato and His Predecessors
PHI 300/HLS 300
We shall investigate Plato's developing views on ethics, knowledge, metaphysics, and the nature of the soul, along with his perspectives on some of his predecessors (particularly Parmenides). We will read and discuss Plato's dialogues philosophically - for their philosophical content - rather than from a literary or cultural point of view.
John M. Cooper Class: 11:00 – 11:50 TTh
Topics in Greek Literature:
Mothers and Daughters in Epic and Tragedy
CLG 310/HLS 311
This course gives upper-level Greek students the chance for comparative, in-depth study of two canonical texts, each representing an important mythological mother-daughter relationship. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter examines the catastrophic consequences of disruption to the mother-daughter relationship and the possibilities for reconciliation. Sophocles' Electra is a study in the mother-daughter relationship gone wrong that culminates with the eternal virgin cheering on her mother's death. Together we will analyze how these works confront myth's family relationships, violence and social conflict, and narrative closure.
Brooke A. Holmes Class: 11:00 – 12:20 TTh
Greek Ethical Theory
PHI 335/HLS 338
We shall study the ethical theories and contributions to moral philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the Hellenistic philosophers.
Hendrik Lorenz Class: 11:00 – 11:50 am MW
Understanding the “Barbarians:
ART 416/ ANT 418/HLS 416
Civilizations of ancient history, like Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia, incorporated small ethnic groups who significantly influenced their society, history, and worldview. Yet they are often minimized in the study of the past because they had only a marginal effect on the sources that the large civilizations left behind. In this course we will examine their art, archaeology, and texts to understand the role of the peripheral "barbarians" on the past and how their ethnicity changed history. In a series of case studies we will analyze how ancient peoples created their own ethnicities and how other groups applied ethnic stereotypes to them.
Kate Liszka Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm Th
The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
NES 437/HIS 337/HLS 337
This course surveys the history of the world's most enduring Islamic state, the Ottoman Empire. With its beginnings in the fourteenth century, it lasted into the early years of the last century. At its height it ruled over much of the Mediterranean as well as Central Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and today's Turkey.
Heath W. Lowry Class: 1:30 – 2:50 pm TTh
GRADUATE COURSES
Survey of Selected Greek Literature
CLA 502/HLS 502
A survey of major literary forms and works from the Archaic to the Greco-Roman period.
Andrew L. Ford Seminar: 9:00 – 11:50 am W
Studies in Greco-Roman Religions:
Canon Formation and the Sociology of Reading in Late Antiquity
REL 504/HLS 504
This course examines the notion of sacred scriptures and the formation of authoritative bodies of scripture from a socio-historical and material culture perspective. The seminar will engage broader questions regarding the social life of religious texts, such as: How and where were these texts produced and re-produced, and by whom? What do ancient manuscripts reveal about reading practices? In what social settings were texts read and studied? What roles do orality and literacy play? How do these canons relate to larger issues of identity formation and community boundaries?
AnneMarie Luijendijk Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 T
Problems in Greek Literature:
Hesiod and the Hesiodic Tradition
CLA 515/HLS 515
This course begins from a study of Hesiod's Works and Days, an intriguing combination of cosmic myth, moral exhortation and agricultural advice, and moves to consider several important moments in the ancient reception and influence of that poem. In particular the course looks at the poem's reputation in the classical period (Plato and Xenophon), in Hellenistic poetry (Aratus and Callimachus) and in the Greek literature of the Roman empire (Plutarch and Lucian).
Richard L. Hunter Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm M
Problems in Post-Classical Byzantine Greek Literature:
Post Classical and Byzantine Greek Historiography
CLA 517/MED/517/HLS 517
As the late antique and mediaeval present began dramatically to assert its variance with the venerable Greco-Roman past, historical writing took on a significance hardly surpassed before, or after. This course will survey the diverse corpus of historiography in Greek from the 4th to the 10th centuries when an unprecedented number of registers entered and enlarged the historiographic genre in the Later Roman Empire and in Byzantium. We will read texts in Greek (for accuracy and formal concerns) as well as in translation (for scope). Scholarship will buttress our weekly discussion as we bring various theoretical concerns to bear on post-classical historiography as well as post-classical historical texts to bear on contemporary debates on the nature of historiography, its ideology, aesthetics, and epistemological underpinnings.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis Seminar: 1:30 - 4:20 pm Th
The Greek World After 1453
HIS 541
An examination of selected topics in Greek history and civilization, broadly defined, between 1453 and the early twentieth century.
Molly Greene Class: 9:00 - 11:50 am T
Problems in Byzantine History:
Rethinking the 11th Century in Byzantium
HIS 542 /HLS 542 /MED 542
The eleventh century is now generally seen as a period of economic expansion in the Byzantine and east Mediterranean world, on the one hand, but of military and political collapse on the other, chiefly as a result of the defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071 at the hands of the Selcuk Turks. Is this picture justified? How do contemporary sources view the empire and its politics at this time? What is the nature of the evidence for both the economic and social and political history of the empire? This course will re-examine key sources for the period to see how far the currently-accepted view is justified.
John F. Haldon Seminar: 1:30 - 4:20 pm W
Problems in Ancient History:
Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean
CLA 547/PAW 503/HLS 547
This is an interdisciplinary seminar on the problem of ethnicity and cultural identity in the ancient Mediterranean. Both the chronological and the geographical sweep is broad, including cases from the earliest phases of the Greek city-states to the post-Roman states in the West. Although Greek and Roman problems are at the core of the seminar, other ethnic identities in the period will be investigated. Central to the project is the consideration of a broad range of modern theoretical literature on the subject.
Nino Luraghi, Brent D. Shaw Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm T
Problems in Early Ottoman History
NES 571/HLS 571
The seminar is a study of the origins and development of the Ottoman state. The emphasis is on the characteristic features of its cultural, economic, and social life, as they were developed in the eastern Balkans. By retracing the establishment of Ottoman rule in Northern Greece it will examine the nature of Ottoman Administrative practices in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Heath W. Lowry Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm
Courses of Interest - Fall 2012
COURSES OF INTEREST
Intro History of Art:
Intro History of Art:
Ancient to Medieval
ART 100
An introduction to art and architecture from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages, including non-Western traditions. The course gives an overview of key monuments and works of art from diverse historical periods, regions, and cultures and introduces students to the basic interpretative tools of art historical research as well as to the history of the discipline.
Nino Zchomelidse Class: 10:00 – 10:50 am MW
Beginner’s Greek:
Greek Grammer
CLG 101
Designed to enable the student to read classical Attic Greek with facility; at the end of the year a short Platonic dialogue or comparable text will be read. Equal emphasis on acquiring a vocabulary and an understanding of the structure of the language.
Michael A. Flower Class: 10:00 – 10:50 am MTWTh
Socrates
CLG 105
A close reading of Plato's "Lysis" ("About Friendship") intended to improve students' facility in reading Greek prose.
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis Class: 9:00 – 9:50 am MTWTh
Class: 12:30 – 1:20 pm MTWTh
Thinking Translation: Language Transfer
TRA 200/ COM 209
What is translation? What is a language? So essential and widespread is translation today that it has become a central analytic term for the contact of cultures, and a paradigm for studying many different aspects of our multilingual world. This course will consider translation as it appeared in the past, but especially as it constructs everyday life in the contemporary world. It will look at issues of anthropology, artificial intelligence, diplomacy, film, law and literature that involve interlingual and intercultural communication. Students should acquire an understanding of the problems and practices of modern translation.
Sandra L. Bermann Class: 11:00 – 12:20 pm T
Class: 11:00 – 12:20 pm Th
Class: 3:00 – 4:20 pm Th
A History of the World Since 1300
HIS 201
An introduction to the history of the modern world, this course traces the global processes that connected regions with each other from the time of Genghis Khan to the present. The major themes of the course include the environmental impact of human development, the role of wars and empires in shaping world power, and the transformations of global trade, finance and migration.
Jeremy I. Adelman Class: 9:00 – 9:50 MW
Roman Art
ART 203
The course provides a general introduction to Roman art. It discusses various artistic media--portraiture, historical relief, etc.--and highlights important works. The goal is an attempt to understand the significance of the imagery that the Romans produced, and which embellished all aspects of their world - that is, to understand the role of artworks in the Romans' lived experience.
Michael Koortbojian Class: 1:30 – 2:20 TTh
Classical Roots of Western Literature
COM 205/HUM 205
An introduction to comparative literature, this course will investigate the many forms of cultural transmission: literary, historical, intellectual, political, religious. Readings of major works of the Greek, Roman, Arabic, and European traditions. From Greeks and barbarians to the Library of Alexandria, the foundation of Rome, the sacred texts of Christianity and Islam, and the traditions of learning in medieval Europe, we shall examine the different ways in which pagan, Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures of Europe and the Near East have understood themselves as products of transmission.
Daniel Heller-Roazen Class: 12:30 – 1:20 pm MW
Europe From Antiquity to 1700
HIS 211
This course shows how Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, nobles and merchants built the civilization of the west.
Anthony T. Grafton Class: 1:30 – 2:20 pm MW
Greek Prose Authors:
Lysias and the Attic Oratory
CLG 214
The course will introduce the students to Attic forensic oratory of the fourth century BCE, devoting attention to issues of style and argument. The speeches of Lysias and Demosthenes will also serve as starting points for discussions of Athenian politics and society.
Nino Luraghi Class: 11:00 – 12:20 pm MW
Jews, Muslims & Christian/Middle Ages
NES 220/HIS 220/JDS 220/MED 220
An introduction to the history and culture of the Jews in the Middle Ages (under Islam and Christendom) covering, comparatively, such topics as the relationship between Judaism and the other two religions, interreligious polemics, political (legal) status, economic role, communal self-government, and cultural developments.
Mark R. Cohen Class: 1:30 – 2:50 pm MW
The World of the Middle Ages
MED 227/HUM 227
An introduction to medieval culture in Western Europe from the end of the classical world to ca. 1400. The course focuses on themes such as the medieval concepts of self, humanity, and God; nation-building, conquest and crusade; relations among Christians, Jews, and Moslems; literacy, heresy, and the rise of vernacular literature; gender, chivalry, and the medieval court. Material approached through various cultural forms and media; some lectures by invited guest lecturers. Seminar discussion format with some lecturing.
Sara S. Poor Class: 11:00 – 12:20 pm TTh
Landmarks of European Identity
EPS 302/ECS 302
This course gives a broad and inter-disciplinary perspective on some of the very diverse cultural and historical roots of European identity. It examines contemporary debates over contested identity in the light of long historical trajectories in which identities were continually defined and reshaped. It is conceived as an introduction to many of the courses in Princeton dealing with European issues. The landmarks include, but are not restricted to, written texts. They include Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Marx and J.S. Mill, but also Fra Angelico, Beethoven and Thomas Mann. One three-hour seminar.
Harold James Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm
Introduction to Indo-European
CLA 336/LIN 336
This course provides an introduction to the study of the Indo-European language family from both a historical and a comparative perspective. The emphasis will be on the phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of the earliest representatives (Ancient Greek, Latin, Vedic Sanskrit, Hittite, Old Irish, Old English, etc.) and what they have to tell us about Proto-Indo-European and the culture of the speakers of this reconstructed "mother tongue."
Joshua T. Katz Class: 8:30 – 9:50 am TTh
Early Christian Biblical Interpretation
NES 344
In this seminar, we shall study the ways in which the Christian Bible, comprising the Old and the New Testament, was interpreted in the early Church. After a broad survey of the history of Biblical interpretation to the end of the sixth century, we shall focus on the exegesis of specific Biblical themes (The Creation Narrative; the Story of Cain and Abel; the Sacrifice of Isaac; themes from the Book of Daniel; the Adoration of the Magi; Christ's Entry into Jerusalem; Lazarus and the Rich Man). Primary sources will be read in English translation.
Emmanuel Papoutsakis Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 T
Europe in the 20th Century
HIS 365
The course will explore problems of modernity in European society, culture, and politics from the First World War to the fall of communism in Russia and East Central Europe. Part I will consider: the impact of the Great War, the crisis of liberal ideas and institutions, the ascent of communism and fascism. Part II deals with: post World War II justice and reconstruction, the cultural, and political divisions of the Cold War, and the Central European revolutions of 1989.
Anson G. Rabinbach Class: 11:00 – 11:50 am MW
Topics in Country and Regional Economics:
Economics of the European Union and Economies in Europe
ECO 372
This course studies the economies of current and prospective European Union (EU) members and economic integration in Europe after 1945. It explores the political motivation for, and the economic implications of, the European Union's moves towards ever deeper integration and enlargement. Topics include policy-making in the EU, adoption of common policies including European Monetary Union and the Euro and their implications for fiscal and labor market policies, problems raised by an EU enlargement to the East, and economic transition in EU applicant countries. The course uses economic analysis to study policy issues.
Silvia Weyerbrock Class 3:00 – 4:20 pm TTh
Senior Seminar in Translation and Intercultural Communication
TRA 400/COM 409
A required course for students taking the certificate in Translation and Intercultural Communication but open to all who are interested in translation or any of its aspects, that is in movements between languages of any sort. Readings will focus on recent contributions to the emerging disciplines of translation studies across a wide spectrum of thematic fields (science, law, anthropology, literature, etc.). The seminar will incorporate the individual experiences of the students in their contact with different disciplines and idioms and, where relevant, in developing their senior theses. One three-hour seminar.
David M. Bellos Seminar 1:30 – 4:20 pm M
Imperialism and Reform in the Middle East and the Balkans
NES 433/HIS 433
The major Near Eastern diplomatic crises and the main developments in internal Near Eastern history. The focus will be upon the possible connections between diplomatic crises and the process of modernization. Oral reports and a short paper.
M. Sükrü Hanioglu Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 W
Seminar in Comparative Politics:
Europe and the World
POL 434
This course covers Europe's historical and contemporary role in world politics. Topics include the legacy of the two world wars, the Cold War, colonialism and decolonization, the genesis and subsequent development of the EC/EU, and the challenges confronting present-day Europe. These challenges include immigration, enlargement, democratization, and the EU's role in military affairs. By the end of the course, students should have an understanding of the evolution of Europe's role in world affairs, an ability to explain and evaluate contemporary European foreign policy, and a greater capacity to critically analyze history's repetitive nature.
Ezra N. Suleiman Seminar: 1:30 – 4:20 pm M
Topics in Medieval Art and Architecture, and Theory:
Concepts for the Depiction of God
ART 436/MED 436
Discusses the conditions of image making and theory in the Middle Ages. The course will focus on how to represent God in the visual arts, introducing iconographic concepts and their reception. Single image-types will be analyzed on the basis of sociological and intellectual history and from different historiographic view points. Discussions of selected readings will raise questions and suggest approaches to the iconographic material. Issues covered in this course are: institutionalizing Christianity in Late Antiquity, the idea of authenticity for various types of icons, iconoclasm, the image of God in Scholasticism, and allegory.
Nino Zchomelidse Seminar: 7:30 – 10:20 pm T
Francophone Literature and Culture Outside of France:
Mediterranean Wonders and Wanderings
FRE 528
This course provides an introduction to the study of the Indo-European language family from both a historical and a comparative perspective. The emphasis will be on the phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of the earliest representatives (Ancient Greek, Latin, Vedic Sanskrit, Hittite, Old Irish, Old English, etc.) and what they have to tell us about Proto-Indo-European and the culture of the speakers of this reconstructed "mother tongue."
André Benhaïm Seminar 1:30 – 4:20 pm T
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