New MALAS Class, Fall 2018: MALAS 600C: Modern Technology and the Ancient World, 4pm to 6:40pm -- Mondays, AL104 Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett

MALAS 600C: Modern Technology and the Ancient World 
Fall 2018, Seminar 1600-1840
Mondays, AL104

In the contemporary world, digital re-creations of sites and objects from the ancient world often appear in movies and tv, such as Ben-Hur and Game of Thrones, and even in video games, such as Assassin's Creed Origins.  Modern technology provides tantalizing prospects for a deeper engagement with the material culture in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

As technology changes and improves, we can explore the ancient world in entirely new ways, such as scanning for structure walls underground, analyzing the contents that a vessel once held, and creating immersive recreations of the ancient world. In this course, we will explore the emerging scholarship concerning digital humanities for the study of the Mediterranean world in a broad sense.

Even if you are not very familiar with the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean, this course will allow you to engage with the cultures, the materials, and the technology as long as you are willing to participate. This course is a seminar that will include weekly discussions that are led by topic and of the readings, lectures, and workshops for hands-on experience with some of these digital approaches. We will explore geography and mapping, digital dissemination of texts, and visual reconstructions of both sites and objects, including 3-D modeling through photogrammetry.

As part of the course, each student will create their own topic-focused project that incorporates each of these aspects, which will be presented on a webpage. Choose to explore the world of Ramesses II, Alexander the Great, or Cleopatra, among others, through interdisciplinary methods and learn how to integrate these different approaches into a deeper understanding of the ancient world. In this course, we will learn about the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean while also becoming critical consumers of the digital tools for the study the ancient world.

Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett completed her PhD in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College and has taught at Villanova University, Rutgers University, and La Salle University. Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett dcbennett@sdsu.edu Fall 2018 Office Hours: Mondays, 2-3 pm and by appointment

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