Royal Holloway MA Courses 2018-19

This is the core course for the Intercollegiate MA in Classics; all students on this degree programme will automatically be enrolled on it. Please ensure that you complete an intercollegiate registration form if you are a student at KCL or UCL so that you can be given access to the course Moodle as quickly as possible.  

The core course provides support for students as they prepare to undertake theid dissertation. The individual seminars draw on the expertise of academics at RHUL, KCL and UCL. The module will acquaint students with the range of sources available, and methods required, for the advanced study of Classical languages, literature and thought. Thereafter, students are trained to undertake independent research, and to present their findings clearly and coherently.  

Course convenor: Professor Ahuvia Kahane.
Teaching: autumn term, with a colloquium day in the summer for students to present on their dissertation research.
This course is taught in the Royal Holloway Bedford Square building in central London.
This course carries no credit weighting.

The course studies the practice of architecture and construction in the Greek world investigating themes such as the development of architectural orders, the role of architects,
the design process, building techniques, the sources and supply of materials, town planning, and religious, civic, domestic and funerary building types. Particular emphasis will be placed on research methodology related to Greek architecture and its reconstruction. The course gives the students a deeper understanding of architectural and archaeological analysis and interpretation to prepare them for writing the MA thesis. The coursework project includes photogrammetry and it is designed to provide the students with skills and project experience required for possible employment in the cultural heritage sector.

Previous classes of Greek archaeology are an advantage, but they are not a prerequisite.

Equipment: The students taking part on the course will need to have access to a computer they can bring to class and onto which photogrammetry software can be loaded.

Course textbook: Miles, M.M. (ed.), A Companion to Greek Architecture, 2016 [also available as e-book]

Indicative programme: List of lectures and seminars

Lecture 1:     Architectural material as a primary source
Lecture 2:     Architectural orders in Greece
Seminar 1:   Literary sources: Pausanias and Vitruvius
Lecture 3:     Building materials in Greece
Seminar 2:   BM tutorial on the Doric order
Seminar 3:   BM tutorial on the Ionic order
Lecture 4:     Early monumental building in Greece
Lecture 5:     Greek sanctuaries and architectural development before 480 BC
Seminar 4:   Early Ionic: the sanctuary of Iria on Naxos
Lecture 6:     Later Greek sanctuaries
Lecture 7:     Greek architects
Seminar 5:   Greek temples and architectural design
Lecture 8:     Siting and planning of towns in the Greek world
Lecture 9:     The city centre and the agora
Seminar 6:   Domestic architecture

Reading week excursion to Athens

Practical 1:   Introduction and setting up the photogrammetry software
Practical 2:   Taking photos for photogrammetry
Practical 3:   Making a model and scaling
Practical 4:   Project work 1
Practical 5:   Project work 2
Practical 6:   Project work 3
Lecture 10:   City walls and fortifications
Lecture 11:   Harbour installations in the Greek world
Practical 7:   Exporting 2D views
Lecture 12:   Theatres and other open structures
Lecture 13:   Fourth-century Doric and Ionic
Practical 8:   Project report
Lecture 14:   Reconstructing Greek architecture
Lecture 15:   Monumental tombs
Seminar 7:   BM tutorial on the Nereid Monument and the Mausoleion at Halikarnassos

Course tutor: Professor Jari Pakkanen.
Assessment: Project and essay, two essays of 5,000 words each (50% each). Students are reassessed in the failed ele­ments of assessment and by the same methods as the first attempt.
Teaching: The course is taught over the 11 weeks of the autumn term only. It includes a compulsory one-week teaching-intensive excursion to Athens in the reading week.
The course is taught in central London at Bedford Square and the British Museum.
There are 15 hours of lectures and 7 hours of seminars and 8 hours of practical classes on photogrammetry.

Due to the practical element of the course, the maximum number of students is
capped at eight.

Places on this module will be allocated in the first instance to those students from any College who are following the MA Classical Art and Archaeology degree programme. Any remaining places up the maximum size of the class will then be distributed proportionately between Colleges.

This course will address the political and ethical questions surrounding Roman archaeology in the modern world. We will look at the discipline and its practices through a range of historical, theoretical and practical lenses. Topics for consideration will include: the history of the discipline; the impact of modern conflict; archaeology in national and international law; museums and museum display; colonialism and archaeology; community and public archaeology. Throughout the course, you will be invited to think deeply about the material at hand and to view these thorny debates from a variety of angles, so that by the end of the course you have developed a fully-rounded picture of the issues, preparing you for how a modern archaeologist might handle these in the world.

Aims

This course aims to introduce you to, and provide opportunities for you to explore:

• Issues and problems in the presentation and preservation of Roman archaeology
• Practical and theoretical aspects encountered when attempting to answer who owns the Roman past
• A critical awareness of your own encounters with, and research into, Roman archaeology

Learning Outcomes

• Identify the key elements of debate over who owns the Roman past• Discuss the role of archaeology in the modern world
• Critique the uses (and abuses) of archaeology in a variety of historical and modern contexts
• Make informed decisions about the future of Roman archaeology
• Discuss key players and theoretical positions within the debate

Course convenor: Dr. Zena Kamash. 
Assessment: one 5,000 word essay on a topic of your choice. You will discuss your title and topic in advance with Dr Kamash and submit a formative essay plan of 1000 words. You will also be expected to make regular contributions to classes via presentations and general group discussion.
Teaching: autumn term; two hours per week. 
This course is taught on the Royal Holloway Egham campus.

Places on this module will be allocated in the first instance to those students from any College who are following the MA Classical Art and Archaeology degree programme. Any remaining places up the maximum size of the class will then be distributed proportionately between Colleges.

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the first works of Greek (and Latin) literature, the foundation of education in antiquity and the cornerstone of the ancient literary canon. To understand Homer is to understand the origins of ancient culture, social perspectives and historical consciousness.

In this course we will be reading selected books and sections from the Iliad and Odyssey in Greek, studying a wide range of aspects of the poems and considering major critical questions related to early Greek epic, poetics and traditions with the aid of influential, up to date, scholarly and critical research.

The course is suitable for students at all levels of knowledge of ancient Greek. Individual language help will be provided, where needed.

The course uses a variety of advanced digital linguistic, analytic and literary tools. See the Chicago Homer, Perseus, etc.

Course convenor: Professor Ahuvia Kahane. 
Assessment: two essays, each of 5000 words.
Teaching: autumn and spring terms; two hours per week.
This course is taught in the Royal Holloway Bedford Square building in central London..

Places on this module will be allocated in the first instance to those students from any College who are following the MA Classics degree programme. Any remaining places up the maximum size of the class will then be distributed proportionately between Colleges.

Tacitus’ historical works trace a subtle narrative of a critical period of Rome’s history in which Roman identity was under pressure. He is not only Rome’s greatest historian but one of its greatest literary stylists and the question of what it means to be Roman in the early imperial age is woven dextrously into Tacitus’ prose. Through close readings in the original Latin of selected key passages from the Agricola, Historiae and Annales, this course explores the ways in which Tacitus poses and addresses this question. The course is particularly concerned to investigate the ways in which Tacitus seeks to define Roman identity, asking whether the reader can draw a kind of model for ‘how to be Roman’ from Tacitus’ historical works or whether she seeks to do so in vain. Engaging closely with Tacitus’ texts, we shall find Roman identity taking form in the gap between appearance and reality. Our reading of Tacitus will be enhanced by engagement with a selection of critical material and other relevant texts, which students will read in translation. This course offers the opportunity to engage with this vital author in his own complex and rewarding Latin, enabling us to ask important questions about the literary, moral and political preoccupations that shape Tacitus’ historiography and his portrait of Roman identity in crisis during the early Empire.

Prerequisite: Students taking this course must have advanced Latin at BA level (equivalent to completing CL1776 ‘Latin Language and Reading’ at Royal Holloway).

Course convenor: Dr. Siobhan Chomse. 
Assessment: Two pieces of coursework, comprising one essay (50%) and one in-class test (50%).
Teaching: autumn term; three hours per week, of which two hours will generally be based on study and discussion of the texts and one hour will be a seminar.
This course is taught on the Royal Holloway Egham campus.

Places on this module will be allocated in the first instance to those students from any College who are following the MA Classics degree programme. Any remaining places up the maximum size of the class will then be distributed proportionately between Colleges.

This course develops questions and themes raised in the Autumn term course, ‘Tacitus on Being Roman: Defining Identity’. Having investigated in that course the ways in which Tacitus defines Roman identity, this Spring-term course builds on that inquiry by seeking to explore the experience of being Roman as represented in Tacitus’ historical works. Through close readings in the original Latin of a new selection of key passages from the Agricola, Historiae and Annales, this course examines the experience of Roman identity distorted by imperial subservience and striving for autonomy, challenged at the edges of the earth and destroying itself in civil war. Once again, our reading of Tacitus will be enhanced by engagement with a selection of important supplementary texts (in translation) and critical material. By exploring the often-fraught experience of being Roman as represented in Tacitus’ texts, this course offers students the opportunity to deepen their study of this literary master and his subtle portrait of Roman identity in crisis in the early Imperial age. 

Prerequisite: Students taking this course must have completed ‘Tacitus on Being Roman: Defining Identity’, taught in the Autumn term. They must also have advanced Latin at BA level (equivalent to completing CL1776 ‘Latin Language and Reading’ at Royal Holloway).

Course convenor: Dr. Siobhan Chomse. 
Assessment: Two pieces of coursework, comprising one essay (50%) and one in-class test (50%).
Teaching: autumn term; three hours per week, of which two hours will generally be based on study and discussion of the texts and one hour will be a seminar.
This course is taught on the Royal Holloway Egham campus.

Places on this module will be allocated in the first instance to those students from any College who are following the MA Classics degree programme. Any remaining places up the maximum size of the class will then be distributed proportionately between Colleges.