Schedule

Jump To This Week

Friday, September 2nd: Course Introduction

Today we’ll have a chance to meet the faculty of the Classics department and to share some of our initial ideas for thesis projects. We’ll also have a visit from Margaret Schaus, Haverford’s research librarian for Classics. So that we can get underway quickly, there are a few things I’d like to ask you to do before our first meeting.

Required Post

Take a look at the instructions for posting to the course website. Set up your login, nickname, and avatar.

Before our first class meeting today, post your initial idea for your thesis to the course website: you’ll find instructions for this post here. This will be a reflection, in writing, that can include your questions, hesitations, thoughts, hopes, and dreams.

Required Assignment

Before class today, complete the start of term survey.

Readings

View and take careful notes on the following tutorials prepared by our research librarians. You can find the complete set of tutorials here if you’d like to revisit any of these or explore others.

Margaret Schaus, Haverford’s research librarian for Classics, will be visiting our class today. As you work through these tutorials, please note down at least one question or topic you’d like to discuss with Margaret during her visit.

Friday, September 9th: Antiracism and Classics

Sign Up

Before class today, click here to sign up for a date for your thesis workshop. You can read all about hosting a workshop here.

If you have already made some progress with your thesis (e.g. during a summer research program), I would encourage you to sign up for an earlier date, so that students who are just beginning their thesis work have more time to develop their ideas.

Readings

Required Post

Before the start of class today, post at least two comments on Discussion: Community Standards. Before the end of the weekend (Sunday, 9/11, 5:00pm eastern) post a third comment.

Required Assignment

Before class today, email your “Lay of the (Research) Land” to Prof. Farmer.

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. No one needs to do all of these, but each has a specific deadline, and if you skip too many, you’ll miss your chance to earn the grade you want. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Antiracist Classicism 1.

Friday, September 16th: Black Feminist Classics

Readings

Community Standards

If you have time, I would encourage you to read back through the full Community Standards discussion forum before class today, to get a sense of the overall conversation.

Required Post

Before class today, post your “Questions Please” assignment to the course webpage (as an independent post, not in a comment in a discussion forum).

Mentorship

Before class today, meet with at least two faculty members (those suggested by Prof. Farmer, or others) to discuss your ideas for your thesis. Email Prof. Farmer a very brief (2-3 sentences) description of the conversations you had.

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. No one needs to do all of these, but each has a specific deadline, and if you skip too many, you’ll miss your chance to earn the grade you want. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Antiracist Classicism 2 [remember that if you did Antiracist Classicism 1, you must choose a different option for this assignment].

Friday, September 23rd: Re-Rooting the Tradition

Readings

Required Post

Before class today, read and comment on at least two other students’ “Questions Please” posts. Make sure to take a look at your own post before class to see what comments have been left for you; you’re welcome (but not required) to respond to them as well!

Required Assignment

Before class, email your “Preliminary Bibliography” to Prof. Farmer.

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Just Classics Manifesto OR a third option from “Anti-Racist Classicism“.

Friday, September 30th: Layla & Claire

Required Assignment

Send “Writing Into Your Thesis 1” to Prof. Farmer.

Layla’s Workshop

Partner: Laken

Primary Readings

DO NOT TRY ANY OF THE REMEDIES LISTED IN THESE TEXTS. Consult a licensed medical professional for treatment. CONTENT WARNINGS: These texts include bodily fluids, including those involved in infection. There is also vivid anatomical description involving sexual organs.You will be very confused and that is normal. These anatomical descriptions and remedies are very different from modern medicine. I will explain some of the jargon in class, but you are welcome to simply google it if you don’t want to wait.

Secondary Readings

Data Set

Claire’s Workshop

Partner: Rose

Secondary Readings

  • Edmonds III, Radcliffe G. Redefining Ancient Orphism: A Study in Greek Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
    • Available on Tripod and through Cambridge University Press.
    • Read Chapter Three: The problem of definition. If time is an issue, focus on reading at least pgs 71-82.
      • This chapter gives a good introduction to thinking about what makes something “Orphic,” but also frames the idea of “polythetic categories,” the methodology that I will be working with. Here, Edmonds looks at Orphism itself as a polythetic category; I believe that this framework can be applied much more broadly, and things like “gender,” “the divine,” and “bodies” can all be looked at as polythetic categories.
    • Read part of Chapter Six: Orphic Mythology: The content of Orphic poems. Specifically, it would be helpful to read the section on Orphic Cosmogony, pgs 162-172.
      • Orphic cosmogony relies on familiar tropes, but inverts and subverts them in surprising ways. It might be helpful to take a look at this explanation of Orphic stories of creation.

Primary Readings

Read these texts with these questions in mind:

  • How do these texts build the bodies of their divinities?
  • How is the gendered body constructed, or more generally, how is the divine gendered?
  • What is the role of the body/the gendered body in Orphic cosmogony? (Cosmogony = the creation of the cosmos/universe)
  • Also a note: these texts are super weird and there are so many varied readings of both. So feel free to have your own take on them, and also don’t worry about not understanding what they’re about. Scholars have been debating that exact question for decades and still don’t have a satisfactory answer.

The Derveni Papyrus

  • The best/only translation that doesn’t attempt to fill in the lacunae of the papyrus is the one on Loeb; if you access Loeb Classical Library through Tripod (BMC; HC) and search “Derveni Papyrus,” it will take you right to the translation.
  • It would be great if you could skim the whole thing; realistically this might not be possible, so I would focus on Col. XII – XXIII.
    • This section is super weird, but has some of the most interesting bodily descriptions.

The Orphic Hymns

  • Download texts and transations
  • Note to the English translation – there is currently no satisfactory English translation of the Orphic Hymns; I am using Athanassakis’ translation, but Ricciardelli’s Italian translation is currently considered the most accurate and is referred to by most scholarly work on the Hymns.

Friday, October 7th: Elise & Eden

Required Post

Before class today, post your “Thesis Portrait” assignment as a new post on the course webpage.

Mentorship

Before class today, reach out to your assigned thesis advisor to set up a meeting to discuss your plans and progress. Once you’e been able to meet with your advisor (not necessarily by this deadline), email Prof. Farmer a short (1-2 sentences) description of your conversation.

Elise’s Workshop

Partner: Hannah C.

Readings

Eden’s Workshop

Partner: Alexander

Readings

Fall Break

No classes Monday October 10th – Friday October 14th

Friday, October 21st: George & Celine

George’s Workshop

Partner: Liam

Readings

Content warning: within these poems and readings there is frequent mention of forced penetrative sex being used as a form of punishment. For the most part, the action is simply stated rather than described in detail, but there is still some rough content. Please feel free to only read what you want from the optional secondary readings, and to skim/pass over some of the poems if you are uncomfortable with them.

Celine’s Workshop

Partner: Marion

Readings

Content warnings: derogratory language, violence (against and by women; threats of), sexual violence, blood, slavery, incest, death (esp. murder). 

When you read through these texts, consider reading them all as primary sources. How do they converse with one another? How do they illuminate or inflect your understanding of the others?

Mentorship

Before class today, meet with a research librarian to discuss library resources and research tools relevant to your project. Email Prof. Farmer a short (1-2 sentences) description of your conversation, along with the following assignment.

Required Assignment

Before class today, post your Categorized Bibliography on the course website.

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Revised Writing Into Your Thesis 1.

THURSDAY, October 27th: Senior Majors’ Speaker

This evening, we’ll host our Senior Majors’ Speaker, Prof. Sasha-Mae Eccleston. After the talk, you are invited to dinner with the faculty at Wyndham Alumnae House. If you plan to attend the talk over Zoom, please use this link to pre-register.

Friday, October 28th: [Zoom] Conversation with Prof. Eccleston & Hannah K.’s Workshop

Our Senior Majors’ Speaker, Prof. Sasha-Mae Eccleston, will join our seminar today for an open conversation about the discipline of classics, the future of the field, processes of self-care in scholarly life, and other topics of interest to our community. Class will meet over Zoom today; please check your email for a link to the meeting.

Readings

Required Assignment

Before the start of class today, send your “Writing Into Your Thesis 2” assignment to Prof. Farmer.

Hannah K.’s Workshop

Partner: Eden

Readings

Friday, November 4th: Marion

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Categorized Deep Dive.

Marion’s Workshop

Partner: Elise

Readings

  • Neil, Bronwen, and Pauline Allen, eds. 2020c. “The Christianisation of the Late Antique Letter-Form.” In Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity: The Christianisation of a Literary Form, 24–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • I’d like people to focus mostly on Pages 12-23 (Common Tropes of the Christianization of the Letter and after).
  • White, Carolinne, ed. 1992c. “Some Problems of Christian Friendship.” In Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century, 45–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511520594.004.
    • Content note: there is a paragraph on the last page that is hostile to the interpretation of Christian friendship between men as erotic/gay. It is short, but note that it is there.
  • Primary sources
    • https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/358.html
    • This is a letter from the abbess Eangyth to Boniface, a bishop who was in Germany at the time. I am especially trying to focus on the language of friendship and epistolary tropes. Also, Eangyth loves to quote the Bible and other writings to develop her arguments. I would prefer that people focus on “How to Begin a Letter” so if you need to skim Eangyth’s letter that is fine!
    • “How to Begin a Letter”: document that contains the first line of several letters. I am interested in how all of these writers choose to open their letters. Note that the last two are both from Boniface to women, the others are from women to Boniface.

[POSTPONED: Alexander’s Workshop

Partner: Layla

Readings

Friday, November 11th: Hannah C. & Laken

[POSTPONED: Hannah C.’s Workshop

Partner: George

Readings

Laken’s Workshop

Partner: Celine

Readings

Workshop Links

Elevation Assignment

If you plan to elevate your final grade above a 3.0 this semester, you’ll need to do a set of Elevation Assignments. See the Syllabus for full details.

Today’s Elevation Assignment due date is: Revised Writing Into Your Thesis 2 [note: deadline postponed since I haven’t had a chance to send feedback yet; you’re welcome to submit any lingering required or elevation assignments instead today]

Friday, November 18th: Rose & Liam

Required Assignments

  • Before class today, email your “Annotated Bibliography” to Prof. Farmer.
  • Please also email me the working title of your thesis for inclusion in the Symposium program.

Rose’s Workshop

Partner: Hannah K.

Slides

Readings

[Content Warnings: rape, abduction, death]

Primary Readings: (on pdf)

  • The Rape of Proserpina – Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book V Lines 385-571
  • Orpheus and Eurydice – Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book X Lines 1-85

While you read, try and think about how the myths can work together – Are there any similarities or common themes? What role do Hades & Persephone play in the Orpheus myth and how does that connect back to their own myth?

For people more familiar with the Greek names: Proserpine/Proserpina = Persephone, Dis = Pluto = Hades, Ceres = Demeter, Jove = Jupiter = Zeus

Secondary Reading:

  • Hadestown review
    • Mostly just need to read the first (actual) paragraph (you can ignore the little introductory bit at the beginning) so you can get an idea of the characters & plot of the musical, the rest is a review of the actors and performance-centered stuff so you don’t need to read all of it
  • A Classicist Reviews Hadestown
    • Compares some of the major plot points that are different between the musical and the myths it draws from, the article also gives some description of events in the musical though plot summary isn’t its main focus
    • If you run out of time you can skip this one, though I would recommend it because it’s a pretty interesting article

We’re going to mainly focus on the myths from Ovid for our class discussion, but I wanted you guys to have at least an idea of what Hadestown is about and how these two myths feature in the musical. If you’d like to listen to any (or all) of Hadestown just for fun, I highly encourage it! Some songs I would recommend include Road to Hell, Come Home With Me, Chant, If It’s True, How Long?, and Wait For Me (Reprise) as some of my favourites, but again this is just a suggestion!

Liam’s Workshop

Partner: Claire

Readings

Hi all—to prepare for my presentation on Friday, it would be great if you could read these sources before class. You should start with Lorde (only ~3 pages). We will be spending most of our time discussing Silas Jones’ play, so I’d like you to focus most of your attention on that. The Reading Guide I’ve put together should be useful for assisting your reading. I’d also like you to read from bell hooks, “Teach 14, This is Our Life” (p.165-174 according to the text, 182-191 in the pdf). If you have time and are interested, this MalcomX reading is an amazing speech on Black Nationalist political organization in the 60’s, but it is entirely optional.

Thanksgiving Break

No classes Thursday November 24th – Friday November 25th

Friday, December 2nd: Symposium I

Symposium Program

Required Assignment

Prepare your Symposium talk. Whether you are presenting today or next week, you should plan to finalize your Symposium talk by this date.

Program

Today we’ll hear Symposium presentations from:

  • Claire
  • Layla
  • Laken
  • Rose
  • Elise
  • Liam

Friday, December 9th: Symposium II

Symposium Program

Program

Today we’ll hear Symposium presentations from:

  • Hannah C.
  • Celine
  • George
  • Alexander
  • Marion
  • Eden
  • Hannah K.

Final Deadlines

Submit your Thesis Portfolio to Prof. Farmer, your advisor, and your second reader by Dec. 16th at 12:00pm (noon) eastern.

This will also be your final chance to complete an Elevation Assignment by submitting your “Writing Into Your Thesis 3” assignment to Prof. Farmer.

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