Classics/Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies 127: Women, Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome Fall 2009, Macalester College Professor Beth Severy-Hoven

Course Description

In this course we will investigate contemporary approaches to studying women, gender and sexuality in history, and the particular challenges of studying these issues in classical antiquity. By reading ancient writings in translation, analyzing art and other material culture, and working through significant modern research, we will address the following questions: How did ancient Greek and Roman societies understand and use the categories of male and female? Into what sexual categories did different cultures group people? How did these gender and sexual categories intersect with notions of slave and free status, citizenship and ethnicity? How should we interpret the actions and representations of women in surviving literature, myth, art, law, philosophy, politics and medicine in this light? Finally, how have gendered classical images been deployed in the modern U.S. – from scholarship to art and poetry?

Beth Severy-Hoven, Macalester College
8/31/9