Class Schedules

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

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Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth.

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Course Materials

This course surveys the political, economic, and cultural development of the peoples of the ancient Greek world from the late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era. Students will hone their critical thinking skills while working with translations of ancient literature, archaeological remains and works of art. The basic structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the interaction between physical landscape and historical change; rule by the one, the few and the many; the nature and development of literary and artistic genres; the economic, military, and/or cultural dimensions of empire; or the intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, slave/free status and civic identity in the Greek world.

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Humanities

Course Materials

This course studies the interaction of Jewish, Christian, and pagan cultures, and the protracted struggle for self-definition and multi-cultural exchange this encounter provoked. The course draws attention to how the other and cultural and religious difference are construed, resisted, and apprehended. Readings include Acts, Philo, Revelation, I Clement, pagan charges against Christianity, Adversus Ioudaios writers, the Goyim in the Mishna, and apologetic literature.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How can we use literature to help us understand life in an ancient world? Novels, poetry and satire provide a window into the Roman Empire -- a window tantalizing for its details, humor, foreignness and familiarity, as well as clouded by its elite and male biases. Together we will explore a variety of Roman literary texts and how scholars have used them to reconstruct everyday life. We’ll supplement these studies with remains of material culture as we delve into topics such as the family, sexuality, slavery, and dining. We will read a lot of ancient literature and modern scholarship, and class will be based primarily on discussion. We will devote time to the study and practice of crafting and supporting an academic argument in writing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A thorough review of Latin grammar followed by a study of a Roman prose author or authors. Students build reading skills while gaining an appreciation for the literary and cultural aspects of Latin prose. Particular texts to be studied may include Petronius' Satyricon , the letters and/or speeches of Cicero, letters of Pliny, or Livy's History of Rome. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 212 or its equivalent

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This course focuses on expanding vocabulary and grammar through simple texts, dialogs and stories. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 214 or equivalent

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This course focuses on expanding vocabulary and grammar through simple texts, dialogs and stories. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 214 or equivalent

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Course Materials

This course focuses on expanding vocabulary and grammar through simple texts, dialogs and stories. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 214 or equivalent

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​This course surveys the visual and material culture of Europe, the Middle East and the broader Mediterranean world from prehistory through the late Medieval period, including early Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures. We consider the artistic and archaeological remains from the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, Greece, Etruria, Rome, and western Europe from a contextual perspective in order to understand each culture's ideologies, and the diverse social and artistic purposes for which art and architecture was created and used.

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Fine arts

Course Materials

This third course in the ancient Greek language sequence involves review of basic grammar and extensive reading in works of ancient prose. Students will build familiarity with forms and vocabulary while gaining confidence as readers and an appreciation for ancient literature. Authors may include Plato, Herodotus, Attic orators, or Lucian. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 235 or equivalent

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What characterizes the responses to collective or individual crises? This course investigates poetic expressions of lament and resistance generated out of national or private catastrophe in the classical Mediterranean and Middle East. We start in the Mesopotamian civilization of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. and move through time and space culminating in the early Islamic era. This course will be framed by a variety of questions, foremost of which is what is crisis literature. Other questions of import focus on stylistic features of the genres, intended audiences, the topoi of sorrow, gendered rhetoric, portrayal of the enemy/source of crisis, the ritual functions of the literature, concepts of self/group, intertextuality and referential language, to name but a few. We will use as our primary sources English translations of Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Arabic texts. This course serves as a context course for Classics majors and minors, and also fulfills the major research project requirement for Classics majors.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the making and function of art and architecture in ancient Egypt along with its socio-economic and political context from pre-dynastic times (ca. 5300 - 3000 BCE) to the Roman era (30 BCE - 391 CE). The lectures and class discussions will focus on concepts of design, representation and aesthetics in Egypt, and explore the uses of art objects and monuments in politics, religion, private and state cults, and burial practices. Addressing topics such as pharaonic ideology, imperialism, gender, and afterlife, this course will help students comprehend the fundamental place of art and visual culture in the creation and sustenance of one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

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Course Materials

This course will explore the art and architecture of the Islamic world from the time of the Prophet Mohammed to the 18th century. The lectures and class discussions will focus on culturally specific concepts of design and aesthetics in the vast geography from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Subcontinent, and analyze a variety of genres including architecture, glass, wood and metal working, painting, calligraphy and ceramics in their political and socio-economic contexts. Within these chronological, geographical and typological frameworks, this course will focus on special themes such as patronage, art and politics, figural representation, religious vs. secular art, and the impact of pre-Islamic Near Eastern heritage and Christianity on the development of Islamic forms and styles.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Students who pursue Latin at the advanced level will study closely one or more works and explore relevant problems in literary or textual criticism, linguistic, social or cultural history, and/or reception. Authors may include Tacitus, Seneca, Apuleius, Juvenal, Martial or others. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 332or equivalent

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Senior Seminar caps the experience of being a Classics major. Students in all three tracks (Archaeology, Civilization, and Languages) join together to explore the history of the discipline and its relationship to their own histories and future plans. Students learn about, draft and critique documents useful for their next steps, including resumes, personal statements and cover letters, along with discussing selected readings in a seminar setting. Each student also works with an advisor from the department to develop and execute a major piece of work in their chosen field, Majors who have completed the Senior Seminar have thus executed a substantive independent project and can articulate the place of their Classics major within their personal and professional development. Prerequisite(s): Must be a declared Classics major

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Why are Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin all taught in the same department at Macalester? Today Islam and the Arab world are often presented in contrast with the West in a sort of timeless and unending 'clash of civilizations.' Classics 101 aims to counter this narrative by exploring the multiple deep, long-term connections among the languages, religions and peoples around the Mediterranean Sea. What were the relationships among speakers of these languages in the past? How did Judaism, Christianity and Islam develop among them? Why are Greek and Roman traditions sometimes seen as in tension with Christian or Arab traditions -- and has that always been the case? Readings include selections from Genesis, Exodus, Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, Vergil, the Gospels, Josephus, Imru Al-Qays, the Qur'an and 1,001 Nights. Legendary and historical figures include Moses, Helen of Troy, Cyrus, Darius, Pericles, Alexander, Cleopatra, Jesus, Augustus, Perpetua, Constantine, Muhammad, Fatima, Aisha and Omar. Suggested subtitles for the course include Before East and West, We Hear Dead People, Great Books Reimagined, and Hey, You Should Know This Stuff. Required for all majors in the Classical Mediterranean and Middle East.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course investigates contemporary approaches to studying women, gender and sexuality in history, and the particular challenges of studying these issues in antiquity. By reading ancient writings in translation and analyzing art and other material culture, 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 and why have gendered classical images been re-deployed in the modern U.S.- from scholarship to art and poetry?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course studies some of the world's great storytellers-the ancient Greeks. First, we read from translations of Greek poetry to become familiar with the key figures and events in mythology, including the Olympian gods and their origins, the major heroes, and the Trojan War. Then we explore more broadly the adaptable nature of these myths and the variety of forms in which the Greeks told stories, from epic and personal poetry to philosophy, drama, sculpture and vase painting. At the same time, we investigate the ways in which moderns have interpreted these stories. We analyze myths using Freud's psychoanalytical techniques, as folklore and ritual, and through theoretical perspectives including structuralism, new historicism and feminism. Finally, we investigate the later life of Greek myths, focusing on how and why these stories have been retold by the Romans, later European authors and artists, American film makers and playwrights, and science fiction writers.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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Collecting habits and presentation choices have the ability to shape knowledge about the past and expectations in the present. These practices affect what is valued, how objects are acquired, and which narratives are told. This course will explore how the history of collecting and displaying archaeological and cultural artifacts continues to affect individual and institutional behavior today. We will examine the ethics of collection and display in the past and present as well as relationships to politics and social justice.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 111

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This two-term sequence introduces the grammar and vocabulary of Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. Students learn through reading adapted passages, by breaking down grammatical structures into recognizable patterns, and through tutorials and drills. We aim to cover all basic grammar by the end of the year. In the second semester, students begin to read easy Latin such as the Bible, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos and/or Caesar. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 111

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this two semester 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. Students will also participate in tutorials and/or practice labs. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 113

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 117

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 117

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to the language and literature of classical Hebrew. The study of grammar and vocabulary is supplemented with practice in oral recitation and aural comprehension. Basic biblical texts are analyzed and translated, including selections from the books of Genesis and Ruth. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 117

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Course Materials

This course introduces students to archaeology, the study of the material remains of human culture. Students will explore the history of the discipline and profession, its basic methods and theories, and the political and ethical dimensions of modern archaeological practice. Students learn to examine and interpret evidence using specific examples, from artifacts to sites to regions.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course reflects on the way multiculturalism has been defined and evolved in two different but intertwining contexts: al-Andalus (8th-15th centuries) and the contemporary Americas (20th-21st centuries). We will study the cultural influences of Moorish Iberian peninsula on 20th and 21st century American and Latin American cultures by analyzing literature, film, visuals arts, and music produced by Arab-American and Arab-Latin American artists. The course is divided into two parts. The first part covers Andalusia, the Medieval cultural hub, with readings from key literary and philosophical texts of the period. The second part of the class focus on contemporary American and Latin American works that can be understood with the backdrop of Islamic Spain and Portugal. Issues of multiculturalism, immigration, race, and ethnicity are central to the course.This course will be co-taught in English. It satisfies the Area 1 or Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Trauma and Drama will focus upon the lasting psychological injuries depicted and explored in ancient Greek tragedy and epic poetry. Greek drama and epic poetry raise timeless and crucial questions about the effects of martial aggression and the toll that it takes upon both the victims of warfare and the combatants that suffer and inflict violence. We will pursue targeted readings of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, as well as explore the growing body of scholarship around how these authors respond to the aftermath and consequences of war. We will also seek systematically to draw connections between modern-day understandings of combat trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and injuries endured by familiar figures in the Greek mythic tradition (such as Achilles, Ajax, Medea, Odysseus, and Hecuba). The primary goal of these efforts will be to open new avenues of understanding between the distant past of ancient Greece and the present, as well as to foster a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by victims of war, systematic violence and institutional betrayal.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course explores the art and architecture of the Ancient Near East from the earliest agricultural societies in the 10th millennium BCE to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE. Within this historical framework the lectures and class discussions will focus on culturally specific concepts of design, representation and aesthetics in ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia and Syro-Palestine, and explore their uses in politics, imperialism, burial practices, private rituals and state cults. The lectures will explore topics such as the development of narrative representation, monumental public art, portraiture, small-scale glyptic arts and the design, and production of personal ornaments such as jewelry.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

A course in the poetic literature of the Republican and/or Augustan Ages with concentrated study on one or two authors. Students work toward grammatical and lexical mastery while learning about the forms, styles and cultural aspects of Latin poetry. Authors to be studied may include Plautus, Catullus, Horace, Vergil, or Ovid. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 231or equivalent

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This course introduces students to more authentic texts and samples a variety of authors and genres from around the Arab world. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 241 or equivalent

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Course Materials

This course introduces students to more authentic texts and samples a variety of authors and genres from around the Arab world. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 241 or equivalent

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Course Materials

This course introduces students to more authentic texts and samples a variety of authors and genres from around the Arab world. Prerequisite(s): CLAS 241 or equivalent

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials