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New Courses for Fall 2007
CLAS 113-01 Elementary Arabic I
Antoine Mefleh
This is the first course in Macalester's Arabic program.
Students learn to read, write and converse in Modern Standard Arabic,
the form of Classical
Arabic used in contemporary news media, documents, literature,
education and religious practice in the many countries of the Arab world.
The purpose
of this course is to develop beginning students' proficiency
and communication in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking,
reading, and writing.
Elementary Arabic II will be offered in Spring 2008.
CLAS 272-01 ANCIENT PORTS (STUDIES IN CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION)
J. L. Rife
This new course explores the many dimensions of experience
associated with ports in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Ports are points of transitivity in the settled landscape:
they are defined by the constant
movement of people, materials, and ideas. As a context for
exchange, ancient ports played a central role in local, regional,
and international commerce. As a context for habitation, both
indigenous and
immigrant
peoples lived and interacted in ancient ports. As a context
bridging land and sea, ancient ports were sites of environmental
variability. Students will examine textual and archaeological
evidence for ancient
ports and for coastal and seaborn travel during Greek, Roman,
and Early Medieval times. This will include not only the writings
of ancient
novelists,
poets, and geographers, but also the visible and submerged
remains of major ports, such as the Piraeus near Athens, Ostia
and Portus near Rome,
Carthage, Alexandria, and Caesarea. Our examination of this
evidence will address several related topics: the geology of
coasts; Mediterranean maps and conceptions of space; the construction
of lighthouses,
wharves,
and moles; ships, cargo, and wrecks; port-towns as cosmopolitan
centers; and the ideological significance of harbors. Class
meetings will involve
interactive presentations and seminar-style discussions.
Students will take two midterm exams, write short analytical
papers and a long research
paper, and deliver a presentation. This course complements
several other Classics courses in history, archaeology and
art history, and it might
be of interest to students of geography, geology, environmental
science, urban studies, and anthropology. It is also a valuable
corollary to Macalester’s
excavations at Kenchreai, the booming port of Corinth in
southern Greece.
CLAS 488 Junior/Senior Seminar in Archaeological Ethics
Mireille L. Lee
This new course will address the ethical aspects
of archaeological practice. We will begin with a series of introductory
readings on current issues
in archaeological ethics, including: the problem of looting,
the international antiquities market, the collecting of cultural property,
repatriation of
artifacts, museum displays of archaeological materials, site
conservation, the protection of monuments during wartime, and the responsibility
of archaeology
to living communities. Students will then research and present
case-studies of current controversies in archaeology. This course will
be offered in
close connection with Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE);
final projects will be published on the SAFE website: www.savingantiquities.org.
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