Thanks for being a great class this summer you guys! I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed getting to know all of you. I really appreciated your patience with me while figuring out how to teach this course on my own for the first time.
But, of course, I have more stuff for you :) If any of you have any remaining interest in what we've been talking about this summer, I've got a few course suggestions for you below.
CLCV course schedule for Fall 09:
CLCV 114 - Ancient Greek Culture. Kind of similar to what we've done but even more focused on the Greeks. You'll read the Iliad again in addition to Herodotus' Histories. Professor David Sansone generally teaches the course. He is the head of the department, a very knowledgeable man, and one of my favorite professors.
CLCV 131 - Classical Archaeology of Greece. I highly recommend this course despite not knowing much about the visiting professor, Dr. Stewart. Having a solid understanding of the archaeological record of the Classical period gives you more than just art history, it gives you cultural and architectural history. I would expect this course to be more on the difficult side but well worth the challenge and time.
CLCV 221 - Heroic Tradition. You'll read pretty much all of the important epics and other literature pertaining to ancient Heroes, so probably all of the Aeneid this time. Professor Traill is a wonderful professor and the Head of the Masters in the Teaching of Latin program. She is a very engaging instructor who clearly enjoys teaching the Classics. Again, it may not have the "easy" reputation of CLCV 115 but it's worth giving it a shot. You'll come away with a much deeper understanding of what we've already read and more.
CLCV 240 - Sex & Gender in Antiquity. I've never been able to take this class since it's generally a freshmen discovery course. But if you were at all interested in the little information I gave you regarding women, this would be great. I've had Tzanetou for 3 classes and loved each one.
CLCV 444 - Archaeology of Italy. Hostetter is the Roman archaeologist for the department though he mostly teaches Art History. His classes are always very difficult but Great! He has very high expectations of his students but he's a great instructor and is an invaluable source of knowledge on Roman archaeology. This would be difficult to jump into without any prior art history knowledge, but if you're willing to work hard I'm sure he'd allow you to register.
Now, what about Greek and Latin? Every TA always says, "you should take greek and latin because they will help you with your language skills and GRE scores, blah, blah, blah..." which is our way of saying, " we need more majors!".
But seriously, taking either language is a true challenge, of your patience if nothing else. It takes a lot of memorizing vocabulary. If you've never studied a romance language or German, it will be even harder cause it has this crazy nonsense called "cases" for nouns. And grading in the classes kind of sucks because generally speaking if your translation is not perfect, then it's not an A. That's just how Classicists think. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider taking a few semesters of either or both languages. They're really hard, they'll kick your ass, but in the end you really will have a stronger foundation in language skills all around because it makes you think about what the English means too. Plus, you get to learn all sorts of really goofy words that no one else knows. You read and translate languages that no one speaks anymore. And if you go far enough, you'll actually read some of the literature we read in translation this summer. So coming from an honest, working nerd... it's a serious challenge but it's worth the pain.
Thanks for a great summer and if you have any questions about any of these classes or anything else Classics related feel free to email me!
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