This course is designed to offer students the chance to review and engage with some of the major theoretical trends which have affected the study of ancient material culture, broadly construed.

Readings include extracts from seminal theoretical works (Brendel, Bourdieu, Giddens, Marx, Hillier and Hanson, Panofsky, etc.) which are balanced by examples of case-studies from work on the ancient world.

The class is intended to offer a friendly and supportive atmosphere in which participants can get to grips with some of these major works and debate their significance and usefulness in the context of our discipline.

The ultimate goal of the course is to offer participants a forum within which to become comfortable discussing and using theoretical ideas, as well as a starting place from which to develop the theoretical aspects of their own work. It also provides the opportunity to explore how theoretical ideas contribute in different ways to the range of subfields incorporated within classical archaeology.

The readings will not be comprehensive, but will provide a sampling from a range of different theoretical debates, and a range of examples of ways in which they have been applied in these different contexts.

Course Requirements:

Contributions to class discussion and a final paper.

Intended Audience:

The course is intended for graduate students working with the the ancient world and interested in thinking about how to interpret its material culture. It is the required core course in theory for students in the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology, but students in allied programs (such as History of Art, Near Eastern Studies, Ancient History or Classical Philology) will be most welcome!

Class Format:

One meeting per week (subject to change to two meetings per week).