Schedule - CLAS 199 - F22

This schedule links to the readings and assignments that you will have throughout the semester.

Week 1

Wednesday, August 31 (slides)

Course introduction
Homework (due before class): Read the course objectives, the assessment structure,and grading rubric pages carefully. Jot down questions you have about the course setup and bring them to class.

Week 2

Monday, September 5 (slides)

Key Concepts: Race and Racism
Reading (due before class): Read Omi and Winant’s chapter on racial formation as a historical process.
Optional Response #1: Write a 3-2-1 response (3 key points - 2 things that were unclear - 1 question) on the Omi and Winant chapter in your response journal and share it with me.

Wednesday, September 7 (slides)

Key Concepts: Racecraft
Reading (due before class): Read Fields and Fields’ chapter on their conception of racecraft.
Optional Response #2: Write a 3-2-1 response on the Fields and Fields chapter in your response journal.

Week 3

Monday, September 12 (slides)

Key Concepts: Critical Race Theory
Reading (due before class): Read the following excerpt from Delgado and Stefancic on the key tenets of critical race theory.
Optional Response #3: Write a 3-2-1 response on the Delgado and Stefancic reading in your response journal.

Wednesday, September 14 (slides)

Key Concepts: Whiteness
Reading (due before class): Read the introduction of Alcoff’s book on whiteness.
Optional Response #4: Write a 3-2-1 response on the Alcoff reading in your response journal.

Week 4

Monday, September 19 (slides)

A Brief History of Racism
NB: No homework due today. Work on Creative Project #1 (due Wednesday, September 21).
Optional Reading: The Historical Foundations of Race

Wednesday, September 21 (slides

A Diverse Ancient World
Assessment (due before class): Complete and share Creative Project #1!
Optional Reading: The Multiethnic Ancient Mediterranean

Week 5

Monday, September 26 (slides)

Antiquity and Origin Stories: The White Perspective
Reading (due before class): Read Park’s article on the use of the story of Ham to justify racial hiearchies.
Optional Response #5: Reflect on how ancient texts are used by white antebellum writers to construct the argument for white superiority.

Wednesday, September 28 (slides)

Antiquity and Origin Stories: The Black Perspective
Reading (due before class): Read Glaude’s chapter on Black uses of the Exodus story in the 19th century alongside Garnet’s 1843 Address to Slaves of the United States.
Optional Response #6: Compare and contrast Black uses of the story of Exodus with the way that white writers used the curse of Ham and other stories.

Week 6

Monday, October 3 (slides)

Antiquity and the Development of Scientific Racism
Reading (due before class): Read Dain’s chapter on the role that ancient Egypt played in the development of race science.
Optional Response #7: Reflect on why ancient Egypt was of interest to those who were trying to rationalize racial fiction through science.

Wednesday, October 5

Antiquity and Black Critiques of Scientific Racism
NB: Prof. Nadine Knight will be leading class today!
Reading (due before class): Read Douglass’ 1854 rebuttal of race science as well as DuBois’ reflection on the topic in Of the Wings of Atalanta and Of the Training of Black Men.
Optional Response #8: Reflect on how Douglass and DuBois uses antiquity to make their arguments and compare and contrast the way they use the past with that of Morton and other contemporary race scientists.

Week 7

Monday, October 17 (slides)

Antiquity and the Defense of Slavery
Reading (due before class): Read Sepulveda’s 1544 Democrates Alter as well as Monoson’s chapter on the use of Aristotle to defend slavery in antebellum South.
Optional Response #9: Reflect on what specific aspects of Aristotle’s argument in defense of slavery in the Politics that appeals to defenders of slavery in particular.

Wednesday, October 19 (slides)

Antiquity and Abolition
Reading (due before class): Read the Preamble, Article I, and Article II of Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.
Optional Response #10: Reflect on the different ways that different cultures from antiquity figures in Walker’s rhetorical efforts.

Week 8

Monday, October 24 (slides)

Antiquity and the Invention of Western Civilization: The Narrative
Reading (due before class): Read Kennedy’s piece on the development of the discourse of “Western Civilization” in the wake of the abolition of slavery.
Optional Response #11: Reflect on how the use of antiquity in propagating the narrative of Western Civilization differs from the way that it was used to justify slavery.

Wednesday, October 26

NO CLASS
Reading (due before class): Read the articles by Hinds and Monteiro on whiteness and ancient art.
Optional Response #12: Reflect on how the perceived whiteness of ancient art has served the purposes of white supremacy.

Week 9

Monday, October 31

Antiquity and the Invention of Western Civilization: The Artwork
NB: No homework! Work on Creative Project #2!

Wednesday, November 2

Antiquity and the Rise of Nationalism Outside of America
Assessment (due before class): Complete and share Creative Project #2!

Week 10

Monday, November 7

Antiquity and Indigenous Peoples
NB: Prof. Sarah Klotz will be leading class today!
Reading (due before class): Read the article by Williams on the use of Latin by indigenous writers.
Optional Response #13: Reflect on how indigenous usages of the classical past differ from the way that we have seen other cultures and peoples use antiquity.

Wednesday, November 9

Blackness in Antiquity: Modern Visions, Ancient Problems
Reading (due before class): Read the following article by Sarah Derbew on how modern understanding of Blackness shaped our interpretation of Blackness in the ancient world.
Optional Response #14: Reflect on how modern understanding of Blackness continue to frame how we study ancient art featuring people from Africa.

Week 11

Monday, November 14

Slavery, Race Science, and the Birth of Classics in America
Reading (due before class): Read Denise McCoskey’s article on the role of slavery and race science in the works of Gildersleeve and Scott.
Optional Response #15: Reflect on how racialized narratives that were emergent in the United States influenced the early study of classics in the United States.

Wednesday, November 16

Anti-Blackness, Resistance, and Classics
Reading (due before class): Read the chapter by Malamud on the study of classics by African Americans in the late nineteenth century.
Optional Response #16: Reflect on the ways in which racialized ideas shaped the experiences of Black classicists in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Week 12

Monday, November 21

Applying CRT to Classics
Reading (due before class): Read Haley’s chapter and article on how CRT can help us to gain better understanding of classical texts.
Optional Response #17: Reflect on what Haley’s use of CRT reveals about the blind spots of classics as a field due to its particular racial characteristics.

Week 13

Monday, November 28

Slavery and the Teaching of Greek and Latin
NB: Prof. Kelly Dugan will be leading class today!
Reading (due before class): Read Dugan’s article on how ideas about slavery has shaped and continues to shape the teaching of Latin throughout the world.
Optional Response #18: Discuss the ways in which the teaching of Latin continues to reproduce certain racial project and reflect on the broader effects that this has on the study of the ancient world.

Wednesday, November 30

Asian and Asian-American Readings of Antiquity
NB: Prof. Benny Liew will be leading class today!
Reading (due before class): Read the chapters by Yamada and Yee on Asian and Asian American interpretations of biblical stories.
Optional Response #19: Reflect on how Asians and Asian Americans used their own racialized experiences to chart a new course for the study of the ancient world.

Week 14

Monday, December 5

Modern Immigration, Race, and Greek Tragedy
NB: Prof. Katherine Hsu will be leading class today!
Reading (due before class): Read this short article about the refugee crisis by UN Refugee Agency as well as this reflection on what ancient tragedy can teach us about modern migration.

Wednesday, December 7

Course wrap-up and reflections