| Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College | |||||
| PS# | CRS# | CR | TITLE OF COURSE | Professor(s)/Instructor(s) | DIV |
| 1419 | B160 01 | 1.0 | Daily Life/ Anc Greece/Rome | Donohue MWF 1:00 PM-2:00 PM | HU III TH104 |
| 1951 | B203 01 | 1.0 | High Middle Ages Cross listed with HIST B203. | Truitt TTH 1:00 PM-2:30 PM | HU I or III BYC127 |
| 1192 | B205 01 | 1.0 | Greek History Cross listed with HIST B205. | Edmonds MW 1:00 PM-2:30 PM | SO III CARP17 |
| 1416 | B274 01 | 1.0 | From Myth to Cinema Greek Tragedy in Contemporary Film This course explores how contemporary film, like Greek drama, a creative medium appealing to the entire demographic spectrum, looks back to the ancient origins. Examining both films that are based on Greek plays and films that insert, adapt or distort classical material, it applies a variety of methodological approaches such as film and gender theory, psychoanalysis and feminist theory in addition to literary-historical interpretation. Enrollment limited to 35 students. Cross-listed with COML B274 | Baertschi TTH 1:00 PM-2:30 PM | HU III TAYE |
| 1460 | B368 01 | 1.0 | Topics in Medieval History The Inquisition The study of intellectual culture through investigation of systems of education within their cultural, political and social settings, considering the social implication of literacy rates, the recipients of education, and the political and cultural exclusions of those lacking education. Also considers the material culture of education and the modified systems of education which expressed and reinforced distinctive values. Cross listed with HIST B368.Enrollment limited to 15 | Truitt W 1:00 PM-4:00 PM | HU III DAL1 |
| 1518 | B403 01 | 1.0 | Supervised Work | HU | |
| Classical Studies at Haverford College | |||||
| H121A01 | 1.0 | The Roman Revolution | A.Fenton MW 12:30-2:00 | HU III Shrp 217 | |
| H221A01 | 1.0 | The Ancient Novel Cross-listed in Comparative Literature | R.Germany TTh 2:30-4:00 | HU III Stokes 207 | |
| H398A01 | 1.0 | Senior Seminar | B.Mulligan M 7:30-10:00pm | HU III Hall 112 | |
| H460F01 | 0.5 | Teaching Assistant Qualified students may, with the consent of the instructor, serve as teaching assistants in certain courses. May only be taken twice. | B.Mulligan | HU | |
| College Seminar at Bryn Mawr College | |||||
| 2016 | B001 00 | 1.0 | College Seminar Worldviews and Ways of Life In this seminar we will construct debates over two large questions, using as our materials literary and philosophical texts from three different cultural settings, ancient Greece, ancient China, and early modern Europe: “What is the nature of reality?” and “What kind of a life should I lead?” Our first set of readings comes from Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC: Sophocles (Antigone) and Plato (Apology, Crito, and Meno) are our primary authors, though we will also consider parts of Thucydides’ history of the great war between Athens and Sparta. We will then move to an analogous moment of controversy over worldviews and ways of life in ancient China, focusing on the writings of Confucius, the great champion of ceremony and tradition, and of Zhuangzi, a distinctively unceremonious early Taoist. Turning last to early modern Europe, we will compare four different visions of how a modern “self” can be fashioned: Machiavelli’s Prince, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Descartes’ self-portrait of a new-model “scientist” in his Discourse on Method, and Mary Shelley’s deeply ambivalent reflections on all these matters in Frankenstein. In all three of these settings, we will consider how these texts illuminate our own contemporary situation as thinkers and actors in a world we have not made. Themes aside, this is a seminar designed for students who love to read, discuss, and write about difficult, challenging, and rewarding books. | Salkever TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Worldviews and Ways of Life | RCSEM |
| 2017 | B001 01 | 1.0 | College Seminar The Origins and Fortunes of Biography In philosophy all roads lead back to the Greeks and Romans, and it is the same for biography and history. The seminar will examine how biography came to be as preserved in the writings of the Greek Plutarch and the Roman Suetonius and consider the similarities and differences between writing biography and writing history then and now. | Scott TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Roman Law | TH223 |
| 2018 | B001 02 | 1.0 | College Seminar Holding the Mirror to Nature While we often think of fiction and non-fiction as distinct genres, the lines that divide them are not always so clear. How do we read George Orwell’s account of seeing a man executed by hanging differently if Orwell actually witnessed the event—or if it was “only a story,” as he claimed long after “A Hanging” was published? How can reading both the fictional accounts of the Russian Red Cavalry found in Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry Stories and earlier accounts of the same events found in Babel’s diaries help us understand why some writers of war narratives present their texts as non-fiction, while others write fiction clearly derived from first-hand experience? And what distinguishes the kind of story Ishmael Beah tells of his experiences as a child soldier in West Africa from how he might have told it as a fiction like Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation? In this course we will use close readings of a group of stories, novels, essays, and films that blur the lines separating non-fiction and fiction—in form and in content—to make inquiry into the nature of the dialectics of the reporting of empirical facts, memory and storytelling. While engaging these texts, we will develop and hone the writing skills expected on the college level. | Torday TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Holding the Mirror to Nature | RCCON |
| 2019 | B001 03 | 1.0 | College Seminar Islam, Politics and Modernity Islam has been concerned with the practical problems of politics and society since the Prophet Muhammad sought to create a just community in seventh century Arabia. The subsequent relationships between religion and politics in different Muslim societies were battled out between rulers and rebels, scholars and dissidents, invaders, new dynasties, armies, and ordinary people. Both scriptural demands and the necessities of rule have kept religion linked to politics. We will use readings that focus on three broad themes concerning Islam, politics, and modernity during the course. First, we will look at models of leadership as presented in contemporary and modern representations of Saladin, the 12th century military leader. Second, we will look at different relationships between religious and political authority in Islamic history. Finally, we will look at documentary film to examine different practices concerning women and public space in Islamic societies today. Our texts, then, will be drawn from fiction, history, political science, anthropology, and documentary and feature films, to examine how Muslims have understood the relationship between politics and religion and how the challenge of modernity is understood. We also consider the importance and reliability of different kinds of sources. The College Seminar format means we work continuously to improve analytical skills, through critical reading, writing, and discussion. No prior knowledge of Islam is assumed. Because the course is thematic, though, it does not provide a systemic introduction to Islamic history and civilization. | Harrold TTH 2:30 PM-4:00 PM Islam, Politics and Modernity | CARP25 |
| 2020 | B001 04 | 1.0 | College Seminar Rebellion and Dissent What motivates people to rebel? And what determines our reactions to various forms of nonconformity? This course examines the notions of originality and dissent from both a social and an aesthetic perspective. Our readings and analyses during the semester will question whether there exists a clear-cut separation between these two spheres, or whether in fact artistic and social idiosyncrasy may be thought of as mutually constitutive elements. Our syllabus will include works by Herman Melville, Jorge Luis Borges, Philip Roth, J.D. Salinger, Ken Kesey, Italo Calvino, and films by Quentin Tarantino and Spike Jonze. | Benatov TTH 2:30 PM-4:00 PM | TAYSEM |
| 2021 | B001 05 | 1.0 | College Seminar Urban Identities: Difference, Conflict & Community In this course we will investigate life in the contemporary U.S. city, particularly in light of how city dwellers negotiate their diverse identities in shared living spaces. How do different people experience and express their experiences of the city? What can we learn from investigating how race and ethnicity, social class, and other identity markers including gender, sexuality, and religion both shape and are shaped by urban spaces? How do culturally diverse people deal with conflict and build communities? We will look at life in cities as represented in memoir, drama, essays, and fiction, as well as in photographs and film. Our readings will include texts by sociologists Elijah Anderson, Douglas Massey, and Nancy Denton, writer and performance artist Anna Deveare Smith, and fiction writers Maxine Hong Kingston, Truman Capote, and Octavia Butler. We will view films including Crash and Fires in the Mirror, and examine other visual representations of the city. We will also consider the city of Philadelphia, exploring and writing about this shared site. In this course we will write descriptively, analytically, and creatively. In addition to conferences and written comments from the instructor, students will serve as a community of readers for their peers’ work. Students will engage in a process of drafting and revising toward mid-semester and final portfolios. | Cohen MW 1:00 PM-2:30 PM Urban Identities: Difference, Conflict & Community | EHLEC |
| 2163 | B001 06 | 1.0 | College Seminar The Journey as Act and Metaphor A journey can be seen as a manifestation of freedom, of resistance, of oppression, even of commodification. Our aim is to use literature, history, cultural studies, science and our own travels to develop critical insights into the journey as an act and a metaphor. We will begin our investigation as the first humans began their travelson foot, examining the history of walking and its relationship to consciousness, and exploring spaces where journeyers might rest and reassess: the labyrinth, the Renaissance memory palace, a Balti village in Pakistan, nineteenth-century Parisian arcades, and the public squares and walkways of Philadelphia. Our syllabus will include classics such as the Sumerian The Descent of Inanna, scientific and literary essays, fiction and poetry by more contemporary writers, such as Walter Benjamin, Jane Jacobs, Greg Mortenson, Rebecca Solnit and Henry David Thoreau, and films, Run, Lola, Run, The Fast Runner, and Bjorks video, Wanderlust. Engagement with these texts and films will lead to discussion, fieldwork, journaling and analytical writing and revising toward mid-semester and final portfolios. In addition to conferencing with the instructor, students will form a community of readers, commenting on the writing of their peers. One Saturday field trip is mandatory; date TBA. | Todd TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM | CARP25 |
| 2164 | B001 07 | 1.0 | College Seminar Feminist Interpretations of Plato to Marx In this course, you will be introduced to feminist critiques of the Western canon. We will examine how the category of gender transforms the way we read capstone works in political thought. The course readings will include excerpts from Plato, Aristotle, Niccola Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Karl Marx. Alongside these readings, we will consider contemporary feminist engagements with each of these thinkers. We will also read Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding and Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as competing state of nature's political allegories with very different gendered connotations. Several themes will underlie our inquiry throughout the course. First, in tracing some of the fundamental arguments of selected canonical thinkers, ranging from the ancient to modern, we will question what constitutes the canon and why. Second, we will look at the kinds of questions feminists ask of the canon. Here we will consider works by both contemporary feminists as well as feminists of the past. In what ways have the ideas generated from within the canon historically contributed to the rights of women, and in what ways have they reinforced gender inequality? Over the course of the semester you will learn to critically read classic texts by asking questions of contemporary political importance. | Barker TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM | DAL25 |
| 2165 | B001 08 | 1.0 | College Seminar Alone Together: The Difficult Community The "I" who writes—or paints, drafts, films, and sketches-does so in isolation, right? Under what circumstances does artistic production actually take place, and to what extent do we consider our individuality or our group affiliations when we formulate our identities on paper, canvas, film, etc.? Textual and material artists of every ilk have faced the proverbial "blank canvas" with trepidation and decided to act, but do they act alone? This course places the group and the individual at odds in order to investigate the degree to which artistic work occurs in a community, whether we acknowledge its existence or not. Traversing the history of 20th Century literary and artistic communities (or the lack thereof), we will examine the social dimensions of aesthetic movements and the ways in which a profound sense of community or isolation alters the character and quality of these movements. We will investigate several self-proclaimed literary schools and artistic coteries, as well as a number of authors and artists whose masterpieces were the result of strict (often self-imposed) confinement. Readings will include various political and artistic manifestos—we will read widely from Manifesto: A Century of Isms, Ed. Mary Ann Caws—as well as poems by H.D., LLaura Riding, and Frank O'Hara, and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. Visual texts will include examples of Bauhaus architecture and object designs, the films Breathless and Jules and Jim, photographs by Bernice Abbott, and early 20th Century fashion sketches by Mina Loy and Elsa Schiaparelli. As we focus our critical attentions on these texts, students will be asked to compose a series of 4-6 page papers and engage in drafting and revision processes. Ultimately, our seminar class will constitute its own kind of literary community that will allow us to examine the effect of the group on our work as individuals, and to experience first-hand how we think and write "alone together. | Malcolm TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM | CARP17 |
| 2023 | B001 09 | 1.0 | College Seminar | TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM CSEM Planning Section | |