Classics 102 (Section 2): Nature, Race, and Human Difference

What do we mean when we talk about nature? What does it mean to call something natural? Are humans part of nature, and is human difference a product of nature or culture? This course is an introduction to the concepts of nature, culture, and race in both the ancient Mediterranean and contemporary US society with an emphasis on how ancient accounts of human difference have shaped—and continue to shape—modern discourse. Approaching the topics of race, nature, and the environment using critical resources afforded by the humanities, we consider how the nature/culture binary is deployed in definitions of race and ethnicity, and show how the experiences of modern racialized groups are impacted by ancient debates surrounding nature and human difference, as well as the ways those debates transform during the intervening millennia.