The Mediterranean Perspective on Global History and Culture offers an interdisciplinary, team-taught course on the Mediterranean, usually taught in the Winter semester. Mediterranean 253 provides an introduction to the history and culture of the Mediterranean from a cross-disciplinary perspective. We examine the ways in which the sea has served over time as a medium of contact, exchange, and interaction among multiple societies, nations, religions, ethnicities, and languages. Through a close study of texts, documents, images and material objects from the medieval to the modern period, we consider what the interconnected histories of Mediterranean cultures can contribute to our understanding of global relations in the world today. Visits to local collections are a prominent element of the course.
The course includes both a lecture and seminar component. Students attend one weekly team-taught lecture and meet twice weekly in smaller specialized seminars offered through the Departments of History of Art (HISTART 253.002), Judaic Studies (JUDAIC 253.002), Classical Studies (CLASSCIV 253.002) and Romance Languages and Literatures (ROMLANG 253.002). Students enrolling in any one of the seminars are automatically enrolled in the jointly taught lecture.
The course fulfills the LSA “Humanities” requirement and may be used in the "Comparative Culture and Identity" subplan of the International Studies major.