Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university

Learning outcomes

After passed examination of the course, students should be able to:

• demonstrate basic knowledge about different aspects of Roman social history.
• evaluate and compare the range of primary sources available in the study of Antiquity: historical texts, inscriptions, material culture and visual media.
• discuss a specific problem or area within Roman social history with deep knowledge.

Content

In many studies about ancient Rome "ordinary people" are overshadowed by an elite. In this course, the participants acquaint themselves with a broader segment of the population: slaves, freedmen and freeborn, children and adults, poor and "middle class", women and men. We meet them from birth to burial, learn more about their lives and everyday concerns, their joys and sorrows. We discuss questions like: What kind of work did they perform? What did they eat? How did you visit a toilet? How did you tend to your hygiene? What did you do in your spare time?

Our knowledge about shifting living conditions of "ordinary people" rests on a wealth of different sources: texts, inscriptions, material culture and different kinds of visual media. The course offers an overview of these sources and discusses ways in which they can be used to interpret the past.

Instruction

The teaching consists of seminars and lectures with written and oral assignments. All teaching is offered in English.

Assessment

Assessment is ongoing through oral and written presentations, individually or in groups. Active participation in seminars and group presentations is included in the assessment. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.