This course studies Homer's Iliad, the single most important text of the Greek literary canon. The aim is to acquire fluency in Homeric Greek; to become familiar with the distinctive form and main themes of the Iliad; to gain a good grasp of Homeric scholarship; to place the Iliad within the wider context of early Greek poetry and Mediterranean storytelling more broadly; and to trace the more important stages of the poem's ancient reception.

A seminar that introduces graduate students to current methods and debates in Roman history and historiography. Provides a chronological overview of the history of Rome and her expanding empire from the early Republic (5th century BC) to Late Antiquity, accompanied by the study of a wide variety of ancient sources, including texts, inscriptions, coins, material culture, art, and archaeology, and the methods commonly used by modern historians to analyze them. Students acquire the basic tools needed to do research in Roman history.

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.

The seminar explores the transformation of the Roman World from the late ancient to the medieval West with a particular focus on Gregory of Tours and his world in the second half of the sixth century. The rich evidence allowd us to study the reconfiguration of the social, religious and political resources of the Roman world in the Frankish kingdoms of the sixth century and their transmission and reception allow us to explore the ongoing social, religious and political experimentation in the most enduring successor-state of the Western Roman empire.

The theme is premodern Arabic biographical literature, with readings from a wide range of tabaqat works.

An introduction to Ottoman paleography and diplomatics. The documents are in divani and rika scripts.

Selected topics in Islamic law and jurisprudence. The topics vary from year to year, but the course normally includes reading of fatwas and selected Islamic legal texts in Arabic.

The historiography of ancient Mediterranean religion has often been bound with concepts such as the self, individuation, and privatization. These concepts have been used to explain developments in a broad range of areas, including Christian asceticism, Rabbinic Halakhah, literary authorship, the reconfiguration of rituals, and images of the afterlife. The very definition of this period has been tied to how it presented a "new care of the self" or an "interiorization" of religion. This seminar considers the opportunities and challenges these concepts pose by examining scholarship on the period and the evidence it seeks to explain.

A weekly, year-long workshop providing students in the Religions of Late Antiquity with the opportunity to present their current research for discussion. Note: REL 525 (fall) and REL 526 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. In order to receive credit and/or a grade, students must take the course both semesters.

This course serves as a continuation of REL 555: Intro to Coptic Language and Literature. The focus of this term is on building Coptic reading competency. The class focuses on reading a selection of Coptic texts in Sahidic and samples in other dialects and serves as a basic introduction to the generic and literary forms of this corpus. We read texts both in English translation and prepare shorter selections of the Coptic for each session. Students walk away from the course with stronger reading comprehension as well as a knowledge about the theologies, philosophies, and historical contexts of the ancient codices.