Every academic year I teach a number of classes for the undergraduate students of Classical Philology as well as the general courses open to the students of various majors from across the university.
See also / Patrz także: MATERIALS (handouts etc.)
Latin for first year Classical Philology
This is a 180-hour course (3 times a week for 1.5 hours for two semesters) for students of Classical Philology who have no previous knowledge of Latin. The aim of the course is to teach students the fundamentals of grammar and vocabulary of classical Latin and to prepare them to read the original texts independently at the end of the first year and to attend classes focusing on translating, analysing and interpreting Latin prose and poetry in the second year. This year (2024/2025) I will teach the class in the second semester.
Latin poetry – translation class
This is a 60-hour course (once a week for 1.5 hours) for second and third year Classics students in which we read a selection of Latin poems. We translate, analyse and interpret, study the metre, but also discuss the manuscript tradition and the critical apparatus. This semester (winter 2024/2025) I am focusing on Publilius Syrus and Phaedrus.
Latin for the students of other philologies
At NCU, a lectorate in Latin is part of the curriculum in a number of other philologies (French, Italian, Polish) and linguistics. It is either a 30-hour course (1.5 hours of instruction once a week for one semester) or a 60-hour course (1.5 hours of instruction once a week for two semesters). The goal of the course is to introduce students to the basic concepts of Latin grammar, teach them some useful vocabulary, and highlight the cultural and linguistic contexts that are most relevant to their major. I taught this class since the year 2020/2021 but do not teach it this year.
History of ancient Greeks
This course is a compulsory course for first year Classics students, but is also open to other students who wish to enrol. The format of the course is a discussion seminar in which we read together selected texts (from Homer to Hellenistic inscriptions) that shed light on the main developments in the history of the Greeks in the Mediterranean from the archaic period to the Roman conquest. The course aims to prepare students for the principles of historical study of antiquity and independent reading of source texts from distant times (more than instilling a detailed knowledge of factography!).
History of art (ancient Rome)
Analysis and interpretation of the texts of culture
The course (a compulsory for third year Classics student but available for general enrollment) centres on the reading of selected Latin and Greek texts (in translation) as well as corresponding mediaeval, modern and contemporary texts. The key to the selection of texts read during the semester is the motif of death and the afterlife (the four main themes are the descent into the underworld, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the immortality of the soul and the vision of the end of the world). The aim of the course is to familiarise students with selected outstanding works of classical literature, to analyse their composition, their means of expression and their genre characteristics, to become familiar with the possibilities of interpreting these works in the main currents of modern literary criticism and theory and to understand how the motifs and ideas presented in the classical works are implemented in literary texts of other epochs.
Studying Roman Antiquity through its Objects
In the summer semester of the academic year 2024/2025 I will teach a class in English which will explore the cultural history of Roman antiquity by examining a variety of objects and artefacts ranging from everyday objects such as pottery, combs, toys and caskets to monumental structures such as temples, porticoes and aqueducts. The main aim is to develop a new perspective on cultural developments in the ancient world, focussing on material culture and its profound influence on daily life, beliefs and social relations. During the course, students will be able to independently select specific objects from a list provided by the instructor (with the option to go beyond this by arrangement). They will develop the ability to gather information, gain critical insight and write narratives about the objects in order to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the cultural nuances of Roman antiquity.
The Fall of Rome and Its Myth
In academic years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 I taught a class in English for Erasmus students focusing on the complex historical process which transformed the forms of governance and social organization in the West of Europe from the fifth to the seventh century was conceptualized in the European historical, political and cultural traditions as „the fall of Rome”. In this online discussion seminar I try to show that the idea of the collapse of the great empire was not an innocent description of the „historical facts” but a powerful philosophical and historiographical construct which was variously employed in the following centuries up to contemporary times. During the course, we investigate four main motives which recur in various retellings and explanations of the „fall of Rome”: a) stagnation and decadence; b) the barbarian invasions; c) Christianity; d) resilience. We examine the genealogy of these concepts in the primary sources, their development in the modern interpretations and their reverberations in contemporary culture and politics.