What Makes This Course Different? (continued)
What is less common in academia, but not unique to my course, is when I did these mini-lectures. In my experience, most instructors discuss the subject at the beginning of a session, then begin looking at assigned readings. I ended each session by telling my students about the next topic and readings. First I gave a brief outline of relevant historical or social facts. Second, I tried to simply and accurately define new Greek terms from the next reading assignments and give at least one example of these concepts from the period. Finally, I suggested questions to be considered for our discussion during the next session.
My classical civilization course was different because I wanted my students to see that being a man in ancient Greece was both similar to and different from being a man today. Students and instructors want courses to be relevant now, something I’m sure all of us have noticed can be difficult to do with the ancient world. I had to actively ask for and offer comparisons and interpretations of then and now once I felt they understood the basics of Greek culture. I always clarified and demanded that the differences be clearly articulated and supported with evidence.
Many courses on gender, sexuality, and/or women in antiquity are designed thematically. The themes I chose are similar but not identical to most themes used in gender and sexuality courses, regardless of the time period or culture: The body, marriage, fatherhood, symposia and prostitution, sexuality, citizenship, and finally rape and adultery. Via these themes, my course looked at men as subject and object and focused on the male experience as opposed to males as agents and women as objects. It is rare for courses to attempt to treat all themes from a variety of angles for all people.
I had one great advantage that discussions, research and courses about women in antiquity do not normally have — men are primarily the creators and audiences of the evidence which survives. Because I could say, “This is how some men saw themselves and other people,” I could rely almost entirely on ancient sources and some modern secondary sources.
