UC Center, Castellammare di Stabia

This course explores the time when the “Peoples of the Sea” roamed the southern Italian coasts, to the epic era in which Rome and Carthage fought for control over the Mediterranean basin, all the way to the period when Rome lost control of the Mediterranean at the end of Antiquity. One key component of the course consists in a number of fieldtrips to the most famous archeological sites around Naples, including Ischia, Paestum, and Pompeii. The fieldtrips are organized in temporal sequence, and so are the readings and seminar discussion, so as to arrange the course roughly in historical progression from ancient times to late antiquity. The focuses intensively on certain periods and themes, oscillating from the local to the Mediterranean at large, and from the particular to the general. In-class meetings consist of lectures and seminar discussions focusing on the history of Mediterranean life, culture, and politics in a certain historical period; fieldtrips focus more specifically on local history in that period.

Alternating introductory lectures with seminar discussions and presentations by students, this course explores the time when Christians and Muslims fought for control over the Mediterranean continent, all the way to the wave of immigrants entering southern Italy today. One key component of the course consists in a number of fieldtrips to places such as Amalfi and Naples where students experience on site what they study in readings and in the lectures. The fieldtrips are organized in temporal sequence, and so are the readings and seminar discussion, in order to arrange the course roughly in historical progression from the early Middle Ages (ca. 800AD) to the present. The course focuses intensively on certain periods and themes, oscillating from the micro and local to the macro and the Mediterranean at large. Generally speaking, lectures present the outlines of Mediterranean life, culture, and politics in a certain historical period, and seminars focus more specifically on local history in that period.