Student Research
Capstone ProjectsThe Department of Classics encourages students to explore their particular interests in Classics through conversation, class discussion, essays and papers. Every student majoring in Classics also writes a senior thesis, the culmination of a two-quarter project (CLAS 197A and B) in the senior year. These capstone projects can be on any classical topic of the student’s choice, and students are guided by regular meetings with a faculty advisor throughout the twenty weeks. We’ve asked some of our seniors to provide a brief summary of their intended research for the 2010-2011 academic year. At this point in the fall quarter, they’ve only just begun to explore their topics. As their research progresses, they will narrow down their topics. In Winter quarter they will provide an update on their work.
Morgan Hunter: The Envy of the Gods: Live Concept or Literary Trope?Several ancient Greek authors, especially Herodotus, claimed that people in earlier times -- for Herodotus, that meant Solon's day or earlier -- believed that the gods were aroused to jealousy and envy (phthonos) by any type of human success, irrespective of any considerations of justice. These authors further claimed that this was a relatively primitive notion, and that in their own times, the usual view was that the gods punished injustice, not simply success. I explore whether the idea of divine envy was a living concept or just a literary trope, by examining the use of phthonos, and related ideas, such as misama and nemesis, in Greek writing from Homer to Aristotle. I also look further afield and examine interestingly comparable ideas, such as karma, in contemporary Indian philosophies, including Jainism, Ajivikaism, Buddhism, and the Upanishads.
Liz Lozano: Storytellers in Ovid’s MetamorphosesOvid’s storytellers do not merely provide an opening for more stories to be inserted into the larger narrative, but reveal Ovid’s persona and intent for the Metamorphoses. The parallels in the meta-narratives and the Metamorphoses suggest this. By looking at the storyteller’s motives for telling their stories and their ultimate fate, it is possible to perceive how Ovid saw his own poetry. Specifically, Arachne, Orpheus, and the Minyeides’ stories (that is the story about the storyteller) demonstrate a defiance of authority and an alteration of traditional storytelling.
Travis Adams: Natural Law in the Classical WorldIn conjunction with my study of classical political philosophy (I am a double major in Classics and Political Science), I will be researching the role natural law has played in the Ancient world. In particular, I am concerned with that St. Paul calls "the law written on the heart." Given the sweeping nature of St. Paul's claim, the goal of this project is to better determine whether there was a dramatic moral paradigm shift after the advent of Christianity or whether pre-Christian world had already been governed by these moral tenets.
Alvaro Pires: Bede’s Adaptation of Latin Literary FormsMy interests lie in Latin literature, Roman culture, and all things Late Antique. I’m also fascinated by the transition from and the reception of the Classical past into later periods, as well as the development of Medieval Europe. As such, I plan to have my thesis be on Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, with attention to his adaption of Latin literary forms for 8th century Christian Europe. Here are some titles of theses from recent years:
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