Classics 273: Studies in Roman Civilization Imperial Women Beth Severy-Hoven Fall 2006 Macalester College

Course Description

This is an intermediate level research seminar in the field of Classics. This semester we will be analyzing ways in which women and the category of 'woman' were active in the first two centuries of the Roman empire. We will investigate both the lives of real women and the ways in which the category 'woman' was deployed in two forms of Roman imperial discourse -- in efforts to create, legitimize or resist the rule of emperors, and efforts to create, legitimize or resist the Romans' control of their empire. We will begin by discussing selected primary and secondary readings on the status of women in Rome, Italy and the empire, the nature of our surviving evidence (including literature, documentary sources, and material culture), and a variety of methodologies used to study women and gender in the context of the ancient Mediterranean. The bulk of the term, however, will be devoted to extensive individual research projects. A series of smaller assignments are designed to introduce students to the research tools available in the field of Classics and help them organize research processes and the complex stages of writing and revision. The articles students compose will then be submitted for review to the new undergraduate journal of the Macalester Classics department. Accepted papers will be published.