Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome

Greco-Roman notions of gender and sexuality are some of the most interesting aspects of ancient culture for modern students living in a Judeo-Christian society. Therefore, this course includes both ancient views of gender and also the full evidence for the complexity of the notion of sexuality in the Greco-Roman world. The precise nature of ancient Greek and Roman patriarchy and the similarities and differences with the patriarchy of the modern world will be explored throughout. Students will also learn about the fluidity of gender and sexuality in Greco-Roman cultural thought, which will provide them with an important perspective from which to consider the traditionally binary notions of these phenomena in the modern world and the ways in which these binary dichotomies are currently being broken down. Fulfills Group II for History Major requirement.

When the Founding Fathers declared the new United States to be an independent nation in 1776, it was both a weak power and one that had already invaded Canada (and failed).  Almost 150 years later, as World War I came to an end, the United States was widely recognized as a great power that dominated the Western Hemisphere and had influence around the world.  In this course, we will cover this evolution of American power, focusing on economic, cultural, and military factors that made it possible, as well as the people and factors that checked American expansion.