THIS IS A SAMPLE SYLLABUS FROM THE FALL 2007 SEMESTER.
THE SYLLABUS FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER MAY BE DIFFERENT.

ANCS 320/GWST330 WOMEN AND GENDER IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD

Fall 2007                                              Tues/Thurs 1:00-2:15                           FA 018

Instructor: Prof. Marilyn Goldberg                                                                     Office: FA 454

Tel: 410-455-2970                               E-mail: goldberg@umbc.edu

Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 2:30-3:30 or by appointment

Description: An introduction to the lives of girls and women in ancient Greece and Italy; the written, visual and archaeological sources that are used to “find” these girls and women; ancient conceptions of women; and the ways in which scholars have interpreted the ancient evidence.

Methods and Goals: This course will combine short lectures with group discussions that will be based on the assigned readings.  We will concentrate on the process of evaluating the evidence.

A full list of the learning goals of the course will be handed out in the second class after class members have time to voice their own goals in the first class meeting.  Broadly speaking, however, the goals of the class are (1) to learn to identify the most important public and domestic activities of girls and women in the cultures studied, (2) to be able to analyze the material remains and primary written sources for information about women, (3) to synthesize scholarly material for important data, and (4) to write analytically and make oral presentations on aspects of ancient women’s lives.

Required Work: Core reading assignments are given from the two required textbooks.  Occasionally readings will be on Reserve in the Library.  Each student must be able to discuss in class the material from the assigned readings.

You are expected to do three hours of studying and preparation outside of class for EACH class period.

In the bookstore and on Amazon.com, inter alia.

Elaine Fantham, et.al., Women in the Classical World (Oxford: Oxford 1994).

Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, Women in Greece and Rome, 3^rd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 2005).

Susan B. Rotroff and Robert Lamberton, Women in the Athenian Agora (American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2006).

Material on E-Reserves (username = ancs320; password = sappho).

Required listserve, sappho: Every class member is required to subscribe to sappho. 

Required assignments will be posted by me.  It is also a place for you to get help from your fellow students.

https://lists.umbc.edu/lists/subscribe/sappho

Prerequisites: at least one of the following: any ARCH or GWST course, ANTH 211, ANCS 201 or 202, HIST 453, 455, or 456.

Class attendance: Required.  For your final grade, 10% is based on class participation.  You are expected to pay full attention during class and not multi-task.

Academic Integrity: By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBCs scholarly community in which everyone’s work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty.  Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty and they are wrong.  Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, suspension or dismissal.  To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult myUMBC.

If you are having trouble in the class, GET HELP EARLY, by the end of the 2^nd week or the beginning of the 3^rd week of class.

            Come to seem me: goldberg@umbc.edu; 410-455-2970.

            Classmates can provide help; study groups can improve success in class.

            For help with writing, the Writing Center.

            Very good skills workshops (e.g., time management, procrastination, test anxiety) at the                                     University Counseling Center (www.umbc.edu/counseling).

            Learning Resource Center.

Grading:

            Quizzes                                    15%

            Homework                               20%

                        10% for handing in a serious attempt at homework, on time;     

                        10% for Homework Portfolio (due at end of course)

            Participation                             10%     (including class attendance)

            Exams (each 10%)                   30%

            Short Paper (ca. 3 pp.)              5%

            Research Paper (8 pp.) 20%

All homework assignments are due in class on the day for which they are assigned.

There are no make-up quizzes, but you may drop your lowest quiz grade.

The only excuse for late exams, homework assignments, or papers is a note from a health professional or a verifiable family emergency.

If you will be absent, let me know ahead of class, if it is at all possible.

Extra credit: Written summaries of scholarly lectures, films, TV shows, plays or museum exhibits on any aspect of the history of the ancient Mediterranean basin or the Near East.  If your final grade is computed to be an 89, for example, and you have handed in 4 extra credit reports, your grade will be raised to a 90; 6 extra credit summaries will raise an 88, for example, to a 90.

Extra credit reports must be handed in by the last day of class.

                                                            Proposed Schedule

ALL ASSIGNMENTS, INCLUDING WRITTEN HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS, ARE DUE IN CLASS ON THE DAY INDICATED ON THE SCHEDULE. 

If religious holidays will interfere with your class participation, please tell me in the first week of class.

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UNIT ON EVALUATING THE EVIDENCE

Aug. 30 – Introduction to course

Sept. 4 – Class learning goals; evaluating the evidence, pt. 1

            Fantham 5-9; Lefkowitz xviii-xxv.

Written assignment – What types of primary sources are used in discovering ancient women?

            List the factors that have an impact on our interpretation of these sources.

            Make certain that you receive a copy of the “Evaluating the Evidence” assignment.

Sept. 6 – Evaluating the evidence, pt. 2

            Fantham 39-44.

Written assignment – Answer questions given on the Evaluating the Evidence handout

Sept. 11 – Evaluating the Evidence, pt. 3

Written assignment – As above.

Practice quiz.

            Make certain that you receive the Sappho assignment and the Short Paper assignment.

            n.b. You need to have gone to the Walters to choose an artifact for your short paper before class on Sept. 20 in order to get the greatest benefit out the class discussion on the paper.

UNIT ON ARCHAIC GREECE

Sept. 13 – Introduction to Archaic Greece – sources, rites of passage, Sappho

            Fantham 10-22; Lefkowitz #1-6, (cont. on next page).

Written assignment – What types of sources are used to study archaic Greek women?  What factors influence the usefulness of these sources?  (Skim the whole chapter in Fantham for your answer.)  What information can be gained about rites of passage?

Sept. 18 – Sappho – the problem with working with translated texts.

Written assignment: Sappho translation handout.

Sept. 20 – From marriage to mourning; issues of class; the misogynists; discussion of paper 1.

            Fantham 22-39, 44-53.

Written assignment – What is the evidence for women’s roles?  What sources are used to document misogynistic attitudes about women and how are women characterized?

Quiz

UNIT ON ATHENIAN AND SPARTAN WOMEN OF THE CLASSICAL ERA

Sept. 25 – Written and visual sources for Athenian women, women in Athenian tragedy

            Fantham 68-74; Lefkowitz #28-35; Rotroff 3-5, examine figs. on pp. 6-18.

Written assignment: Can tragedy and other written sources provide evidence about the lives of Athenian women and men’s attitude toward them?  Provide evidence to support your answers.

Short paper 1^st draft due to writing partner, with bibliography.  Second copy to Dr. Goldberg.

Sept. 27 – Women and the polis

            Fantham 74-96; Rotroff 12-22, Lefkowitz #216, 397-399, 399A.

Written assignment: henceforth written assignments will be sent via sappho.

Quiz

Oct. 2 – Women’s work inside the home; the question of the seclusion of women

            Fantham 96-113; Rotroff 27-39; Lefkowitz # 207, 267, 322-325, 329-332,    379, 212A, figs. 2, 3, 10, 12, 20.

Paper partners return 1^st drafts.

Oct. 4 – Seclusion of women, cont.; wild women, pt. 1: the Amazons

            Fantham 128-135; Rotroff 3-11; Lefkowitz 88.

Quiz

Oct. 9 – Adultery and prostitution; the case of Neaira

            Lefkowitz 88, 90, 235, 286-288, 287A-288A; Rotroff 40-43; Fantham 113-118.

Short paper due.

Oct. 11 – Spartan and South Italian women; discussion of research paper topics

            Fantham 56-67, 237-239; Lefkowitz 39 (1269b12, 1270a15), p. 83, #95-98, 202, 401, 426.

UNIT ON HELLENISTIC WOMEN

Oct. 18 -  Hellenistic women; the sources; elite women – Cleopatra, Berenike

            Fantham 9 (“chap.5”), 136-151; Lefkowitz 101-106, 175, 203A, fig. 14b; Hamer, “Signs        of Cleopatra” (E-Reserves).

Rewrite of short paper due.

Paper 2 subject and initial bibliography due. 

Oct. 23 – Women in public and the cult of Isis

            Fantham 151-167, Lefkowitz 194, 197, 204.

Quiz

Oct. 25 – Prof. Roger Bagnall, Phi Beta Kappa lecturer on women in Hellenistic Egypt – discussion on women in Greco-Roman Egypt

            Reread assignments for previous classes: also Lefkowitz 215, 248, 249 252, 257, 268, 269, 271.

Oct. 25 – 4 pm Library Gallery. ANCS Week/Phi Beta Kappa Lecture: “Women Writing Letters in Greco-Roman Egypt,”  Roger Bagnall. Reception to follow.

Oct. 30 – The female body and ancient medicine

            Fantham 169-205, Lefkowitz 388-342, 340A.

Quiz.

Oct. 30 – 4 pm Library Gallery– ANCS Week/Humanities Forum Lecture: "Exploring the Origins of the Temple of the Goddess Mut at South Karnak,” Prof. Betsy Bryan, Library Gallery, 4 pm. Reception to follow.

Nov. 1 – EXAM 2

______________________________________________________________________________

UNIT ON ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN WOMEN

Nov. 6 – Etruscan women

            Fantham 243-259; Lefkowitz 100.

Paper 2 – Preliminary outline, updated bibliography and list of any problems due.

Nov. 8 – Roman women: the sources; the Vestal Virgins

            Fantham 211-215, 234-237; Lefkowitz 211, 408-411.

                                                AND

             Late Republican women, aristocrats and working women

            Fantham 260-279; Lefkowitz 285-288, 295-300, 326, 285 A-B.

Quiz

Nov. 13 – Wild women, pt. 2: the “new woman”

            Fantham 212 (1^st para.), 280-293.

Paper 2 – Thesis, updated outline, bibliography, and 1^st draft due to Prof. Goldberg.

            First draft due to writing partner, with bibliography. 

Nov. 15 – Women and the court of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor

            Fantham 212 (2^nd para), 294-314, Lefkowitz p. 102 (Julian marriage), 120-122, 334,   331A, 337A.

Quiz

Nov. 20 – Sexuality in the early Empire

            Fantham 314-327; Lefkowitz 22-23.

Writing partners return first draft.

THANKSGIVING VACATION

Nov. 27 – Women in Pompeii

            Fantham 314-327; Lefkowitz 196, 179, 425.

Nov. 29 – Women in Pompeii, pt. 2

            Lefkowitz 293, 235, fig. 4.

Paper 2 final draft due.

Dec. 4 – EXAM 3

Dec. 6, 11 – Oral reports on research

Dec. 18, 1 pm (Exam week) – Homework portfolio due.

            Paper 2 rewrite due.