Global Arc

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of scholarship under the supervision of a faculty member. A continuation of CLA 498, there will be no departmental deadlines for thesis progress during the spring semester before the final due date.

In this class you will learn about Roman encounters with the histories and peoples of the Middle East. In the first weeks, you will think about the legacy of Alexander the Great and the Macedonians in the Middle East and Central Asia. Then you will examine the shape and the devastating effects of Roman imperialism in the Middle East, as described by the peoples who experienced it. In the third part of the course, you will consider the limits of Roman expansion that were imposed by Iran's Parthian horse-lords. Finally, you will analyze how the Roman, Parthian, and Han empires became entangled across the Silk Roads, before the system collapsed.

The ancient Greeks and Romans invented trial by jury. But their trials were much different than those in modern societies, including our own. The extant speeches tell us a great deal about Greek and Roman culture and society. We will do several things: consider the strengths and weaknesses of this system; examine the notions of relevance in the legal system; and investigate the values, attitudes, and beliefs that the speeches reveal. We will also appraise the strengths and weakness of the arguments and debate which side the jury would have decided in favor of. This will include occasional reenactments of the speeches that we will be reading.

This course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods for conceptualizing trauma in Ancient Greek and Roman texts. Using a range of theories about trauma and memory, we will consider how these concepts expand our interpretations of ancient texts. We will consider how ancient authors approached rhetorical, aesthetic, and ethical considerations involved in representing suffering, especially with the aim of making audiences "sympathetic," as well as social historical concerns with how trauma narratives shape group identity. Finally, we will look at how these texts have been used to address trauma therapeutically in contemporary contexts.

Undefeated General, Legendary King, Colonizer. Over millennia, these and several other labels have been ascribed to the Macedonian ruler, Alexander III (r.336-323 BC), best known as Alexander the Great. Egypt, Babylonia, Iran, India. Alexander's domination of the Persian Empire brought the Greeks into more direct and violent contact with the peoples of these regions than ever before, with reverberations that are felt till today. Each week, we will use ancient literature to first trace how Alexander's conquests unfolded. Then we will use inscriptions and archaeology to explore the rich pasts of the communities affected by Alexander's arrivals.

The past few decades have seen an explosion of scholarly and popular writing on ancient and modern slaveries. Much of this work has adopted a comparative perspective, and multiple global histories of enslavement have now appeared in print. Ranging from the Neolithic to the 21st century, this course will offer a survey of the history of human bondage. Topics to be explored include the role of slavery in the rise of the first Neolithic states; the institutionalization of slavery in ancient Mesopotamia, the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and ancient China; and the proliferation of slave systems elsewhere in Eurasia and on the African continent.

Junior Independent Work requires students to complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. The work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the semester. See below for details on works-in-progress submissions and due dates.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to ancient languages across language families and script types from early alphabets to hieroglyphs. No previous experience needed. We journey into these languages and cultures through the story of the Trojan War in several sources (ancient Greek of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey) and Latin but also texts from ancient Anatolian (Hittite, Luwian) to Mesopotamia (Akkadian, Sumerian) and beyond. We will also look at how history becomes myth and myths travel between these ancient cultures. Students will have weekly readings and biweekly problem sets, as well as a midterm and final.

This lecture-style course familiarizes participants with the origins, characteristic institutions, and political ideology of the first democracies as they emerged in the Classical Greek world (fifth and fourth centuries BCE). Demokratia ("people power") in ancient Greece represented something similar to, but also strikingly divergent from, the constitutions we know as democracies today. Topics will include direct-democratic assemblies, courtroom procedure, the relationship between democracy and slavery, female citizenship under democracy, democracy and religion, and the collapse of democratic regimes.

Reading is ubiquitous in modern life, but 'reading' as a practice is widely thought to be in decline. This class seeks to counter the declinist narrative by surveying reading practices through the ages, and experimenting with different modes of reading today. Through experiential, project-based learning, students will follow the thread of European book history, reading in various personae ranging from medieval monk to modern critic. Weekly assignments will challenge students to engage with historical and contemporary reading practices and reflect on their affordances and limitations, shaping their own approaches to reading in response.