CLAS 325 Empire and Ethnicity in the Ancient World

This course seeks to question how ethnicities are born from, shaped and destroyed by empire. The purpose is to allow students to consider the ways in which ethnicity can be thought of as a product of empire. To accomplish this we will consider several empires from the ancient world, in particular: the Persian Empire, The Athenian Empire, The Empire of Alexander, the Carthaginian Empire, and the Roman Empire. They have been chosen not only for their geographical and cultural breadth, but also for the ways in which these empires interacted with one another. These empires will be used as jumping off points to explore theoretical notions of ethnogenesis, ethnocentrism, epistemicide, and genocide. The course will draw heavily from primary source material and theoretical analysis in classical, historical, and political science scholarship.

OWU Units: 1.00. Crosslisting(s): None. Prerequisite(s): None. Corequisite(s): None. Antirequisite(s): None. Fee: None. Core Competency: Examine Power and Inequities. Offered: TBD.