Welcome to CLAS 199 - Race in Antiquity - Spring 2024
Course Information
- Meeting Time: M, W 3:00 - 4:15 PM
- Meeting Place: Stein 118B
- Instructor Prof. Machado
- Student Hours: Tu 1 – 2:30 PM, Th 2:30 – 4 PM, Fenwick 413
- E-mail: dmachado@holycross.edu
When we think about race in 21st century America, our minds immediately think of its epidermic manifestation: skin color. Indeed, due to the realities of the transatlantic slave trade and the colonization of the Americas, our perception of race revolves around the dichotomy between Blackness and whiteness. But race, as scholars over the last half century have shown, is not simply reducible to skin color - it is malleable, mercurial technology that serves to distribute power abd privilege within society.
In this course, we will study how race functioned in a society - the ancient Mediterranean world - where skin color was not a primary marker of difference. We will examine the different ways in which the people of the ancient Mediterranean world constructed racial difference to create social and political hierarchies as well as how this thinking was shaped by the unique historical circumstances of the period. My hope is that our examination will unveil what is at the heart of what we refer to as race and, in the process, reveal much about the way the ancient and modern worlds work.
Important Links
Everything that you need to know about this course is on this website. You can find out about course objectives, course policies, assessment, and our full course schedule.
There is no textbook for this course. You will be able to find all readings for this course linked our course schedule. If you want to learn more about anything we are discussing in class, feel free to check out the resources below:
- Kennedy, Roy, and Goldman’s sourcebook on race and ethnicity in the ancient world
- Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Methods, Sources, and Assessments from Barnard College
- Resources for Teaching Race and Ethnicity, Immigration, and Marginality in Classical Antiquity
- Holy Cross Classics resource guide
This Week at a Glance
Week 2 (1/29 - 2/2)
Monday, January 29
- Key Concepts: Race and Racism
- Reading (due before class): Read Omi and Winant’s chapter on racial formation as a historical process.
Wednesday, January 31
- Key Concepts: Racecraft
- Reading (due before class): Read Fields and Fields’ chapter on their conception of racecraft.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #1 due. Please share your commonplace book with me via Google Docs prior to class.