This course engages creatively and deeply with the limits of historical knowledge by exploring the lives of women in antiquity. Focusing on the multicultural world of the Roman empire, we will examine the diverse, evolving roles of girls and women in the political, domestic, and religious spheres, as well as how they were implicated in major cultural transformations. In turn, the course will encourage you to trouble the very category of “woman” and critically examine the boundaries of gendered categories. Through sources that include literary texts, medical treatises, material culture, and works of art, students will learn to read against the grain in order to explore the contours of these categories and how they shaped the opportunities and obstacles many women faced long ago—and, in certain ways, still, face today.

Course Requirements:

Attendance, participation, exams, writing assignments

Intended Audience:

The course is open to undergraduates

Class Format:

The class will be a combination of short lectures and seminar-style discussion