Schedule - CLAS 199 - S24
This schedule links to the notes and charts that you’ll need throughout the semester.
Week 1: 1/22 - 1/26 | Week 2: 1/29 - 2/2 | Week 3: 2/5 - 2/9 | Week 4: 2/12 - 2/16 | Week 5: 2/19 - 2/23 | Week 6: 2/26 - 3/1 | Week 7: 3/11 - 3/15 | Week 8: 3/18 - 3/22 | Week 9: 3/25 - 3/29 | Week 10: 4/1 - 4/5 | Week 11: 4/8 - 4/12 | Week 12: 4/15 - 4/19 | Week 13: 4/22 - 4/26 | Week 14: 4/29 - 5/3 | Week 15: 5/6 - 5/10 |
Week 1 (1/22 - 1/26)
Wednesday, January 24
- Course introduction
- Learning about race
- Homework (due before class): Have a look through the course website and read our course objectives, course policies, assessment, and course schedule. Bring any questions that you have to class.
Week 2 (1/29 - 2/2)
Monday, January 29 (slides)
- 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 (slides)
- 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.
Week 3 (2/5 - 2/9)
Monday, February 5 (slides)
- Key Concepts: Race as Technology
- Reading (due before class): Read Sheth’s article on race as a technology.
Wednesday, February 7 (slides)
- Race in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Part 1
- Reading (due before class): Read selections from McCoskey’s chapter on race in antiquity and give a listen to her podcast on the same topic.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #2 due.
Week 4 (2/12 - 2/16)
Monday, February 12 (slides)
- Race in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Part 2
- Homework (due before class): Listen to the conversation between Jackie Murray and Rebecca Futo Kennedy, focusing in particular on the bit from 18:00 - 38:00.
Wednesday, February 14 (slides)
- Reading Ancient Sources: A Primer
- Assessment: Creative project #1 due between 2/14 and 2/18.
Week 5 (2/19 - 2/23)
Monday, February 19 (slides)
- Defining Difference: Environmental Factors
- Homework (due before class): Read the selections from Chapter 3 from Kennedy, Roy, and Goldman’s race and ethnicity sourcebook.
Wednesday, February 21 (slides)
- Defining Difference: “Genetic” Factors
- Homework (due before class): Read the selections from Chapter 4 from Kennedy, Roy, and Goldman’s race and ethnicity sourcebook.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #3 due.
Week 6 (2/26 - 3/1)
Monday, February 26
- Defining Difference: Custom and Culture
- Homework (due before class): Read the selections from Chapter 5 from Kennedy, Roy, and Goldman’s race and ethnicity sourcebook.
Wednesday, February 28 (slides)
- Defining Difference: “Divine” Difference
- Homework (due before class): Read Hesiod’s myth of ages and Plato’s noble lie.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #4 due.
SPRING BREAK (3/2 - 3/10)
Week 7 (3/11 - 3/15)
Monday, March 11 (slides)
- Race and Warfare: Greeks and Persians
- Homework (due before class): No homework! Enjoy your break!
Wednesday, March 13 (slides)
- Race and Warfare: Rome and Gaul
- Homework (due before class): Read the following selections from Livy and Cicero about the Gauls.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #5 due.
Week 8 (3/18 - 3/22)
Monday, March 18 (slides)
- Race and Slavery: The Slave Trade and the Rise of Ethnography
- Homework (due before class): Read Harrison’s article on the interconnection of Greek ethnography and the slave trade.
Wednesday, March 20 (slides)
- Race and Slavery: Aristotle’s Politics
- Homework (due before class): Read the following selections from Aristotle’s Politics on natural slavery.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #6 due.
Week 9 (3/25 - 3/29)
Monday, March 25 (slides)
- Race and Immigration: Barbarians Inside the Roman Gates
- Homework (due before class): Read Juvenal’s third Satire and Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s article on Roman immigration fears. .
Wednesday, March 27 (slides)
- Race and Empire: Becoming Roman
- Homework (due before class): Read Woolf’s article on becoming Roman while staying Greek.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #7 due.
Week 10 (4/1 - 4/5)
Wednesday, April 3 (slides)
- Race and Empire: Ptolemaic Egypt
- Homework (due before class): Read McCoskey’s chapter on the racial dynamics and practices of Ptolemaic Egypt.
Week 11 (4/8 - 4/12)
Monday, April 8 (slides)
- Race and Empire: Carthage
- Assessment: Creative project #2 due between 4/5 and 4/9.
Wednesday, April 10 (slides)
- Race and Gender: Intersectionality in the Greco-Roman World (Part 1)
- Homework (due before class): Read Shelley Haley’s chapter on the intersection of race and gender in the Greco-Roman world.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #8 due.
Week 12 (4/15 - 4/19)
Monday, April 15 (slides)
- Race and Gender: Intersectionality in the Greco-Roman World (Part 2)
- Homework (due before class): Read Shelley Haley’s chapter on the application of critical race theory to studies of race and gender in the Greco-Roman world.
Wednesday, April 17 (slides)
- Race and Religion: The Origins of Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World
- Homework (due before class): Read the excerpts from Kennedy, Roy, and Goldman on depictions of Jews in antiquity.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #9 due.
Week 13 (4/22 - 4/26)
Monday, April 22 (slides)
- Race and Religion: Racializing Christians in the Ancient World
- Homework (due before class): Read the following excerpts from Minucius Felix’s defense of Christianity in antiquity.
Week 14 (4/29 - 5/3)
Monday, April 29 (slides)
- Color Prejudice in the Ancient World: Whiteness and Blackness, Part 1
- Homework (due before class): Read Sarah Debrew’s chapter on the depiction of Blackness in art.
Wednesday, May 1
- Color Prejudice in the Ancient World: Whiteness and Blackness, Part 2
- Homework (due before class): Listen to Shelley Haley’s podcast on Cleopatra.
- Assessment: Commonplace Book entry #10 due.
Week 15 (5/6 - 5/10)
Monday, May 6
- Concluding Thoughts
- Assessment: Sign up and prepare for your final oral exam.