Program in Early Cultures
Courses Supported by the Program in Early Cultures
Graduate Seminars
From 2022-3 onwards, a designated PEC graduate seminar is offered each semester. These fulfill requirements for our Graduate Certificate in Early Cultures, as well as providing interdisciplinary and comparative training in Early Cultures for students across the University. A larger list of relevant current and past courses open to graduate students can be found in the sidebar. To view all courses being offered at Brown University in the current academic year, visit the university's online listings, Courses@Brown.
ANTH 2515: Material Matters. Prof. Robert Preucel (Anthropology, Haffenreffer Museum)
In the past decade there has been a growing interest in the study of material culture as an explicitly interdisciplinary endeavor involving the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art history, literary theory, museum studies, and philosophy, among many others. These perspectives exhibit a range of approaches to interrogating how people make things, how things make people, how objects mediate social relationships, and how inanimate objects can be argued as having a form of agency. This graduate seminar is designed to encourage reflection upon material culture and its influence in shaping our lives.
ASYR 2100: The Ancient Near East: Early Modern Intellectual Histories. Prof. Felipe Rojas (JIAAW) and Prof. John Steele (Assyriology and Egyptology)
This course explores how the early modern study of the ancient Near East took shape, paying particular attention to relevant debates from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Students will engage in thorough analysis of topics such as the history of decipherment of cuneiform; the development of systematic archaeological excavation; the rise of historical linguistics; debates about the historical value of classical Greek and Roman sources on the ancient Near East; the entanglement of European imperialist projects beyond Europe and the expansion of first-hand knowledge about Mesopotamia; the role of local collaborators in the production of academic knowledge; the place of non-western cultures in European constructions of ancient history; etc. The course is primarily aimed at graduate students (or advanced undergraduates) interested in the history and archaeology of the region in antiquity and/or early modern intellectual history.
Suggested Courses
These courses have been suggested by Early Cultures faculty as especially relevant to interested students. Courses marked with an asterisk have also received PEC funding for additional programming.