ARCH 385 Greek and Roman Archaeology Mediterranean Basin Traveling Seminar Program Spring 2020 J-Term

IAU's January Term (J-Term) Traveling Seminar promotes visual literacy in the history of art and archaeology as well as philosophical literature from the Mediterranean Basin from Antiquity to Middle Ages. It cultivates strong research and critical thinking skills, and develops students' abilities to synthetize cultural, historical, political, and social information as it bears upon the visual arts. The academic component consists of a series of on-site studies made by academic experts from IAU in addition to local guides and experts in the field of history, art history and archaeology.

Course Objectives
a) Improving students' knowledge and understanding of ancient material and visual evidence and its connections with the cultures, religions, and ideologies of the Greek and Roman World;
b) Learning how the disciplinary approaches of Art History and Archaeology can be applied synthetically to the study of lifestyle, economy, activities, and behaviors (Archaeology), as well as artistic movements, techniques, important figures and their relation to historical and cultural events (Art History), in the context of and auxiliary disciplines like Mythology or Geology.
c) Enhancing students' understanding of the fundamental importance of visual imagery in a largely nonliterate society, especially in relation to how iconography and architecture serves to instruct their audience in cultural values and norms;
d) Learning to recognize and analyze art objects, architecture, and the elements of material culture which exemplify the visual culture of the periods covered in the course, students will begin to create a historical framework with which to evaluate works of art of the same cultures and periods that they encounter after they complete the course.