Athens, Greece
June 28 - August 9, 2008
Language Courses | Courses in English | Graduate Courses | Costs | Dates
Undergraduate Language Courses
Undergraduate students must register for 8 points.
Elementary Modern Greek
V56.9103 (Level I), V56.9104 (Level II) - Kargiotis - 4 points
No previous language experience required for V56.9103.
Prerequisite for V56.9104: V56.0103 or placement test.
As an introduction to modern Greek, this course provides students with the fundamentals of grammar, syntax, oral expression, listening comprehension, reading, and composition. Students develop the skills and vocabulary necessary to read simple texts and hold basic conversations. Students are introduced to modern Greek culture, history, and society, since the ultimate goal of the course is to enrich their understanding of multiple, living Greek realities through the language. Teaching materials include current newspaper articles, graded literary passages, songs, and various linguistic games.
Intermediate Modern Greek
V56.9105 (Level I), V56.9106 (Level II) - Kargiotis - 4 points
Prerequisite: V56.0104 or placement test.
Designed for students who already have a familiarity with modern Greek. Students are expected to be acquainted with the most significant structures of grammar and syntax and to have acquired the foundations for basic conversation in Greek. The course introduces students to more complex linguistic and grammatical analysis, advanced composition, and graded reading. It also provides further practice in speaking and works to enrich the student's vocabulary. Readings and discussions of selected works of prose, poetry, and theatre serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek civilization and as an occasion for comprehensive discussions of contemporary Greek society.
Undergraduate Content Courses Conducted In English
Greek Drama
V27.9143 - Taxidou - 4 points
Identical with G27.9201.
Conducted in English.
This course approaches Athenian tragedy as a performance practice that is inextricably linked to the development of the democratic polis. Through close readings of play-texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, students consider tragedy as a specific set of performance conventions that derives from its contemporary sociohistorical context but also helps to shape their understanding of the function of theatre within modernity. Athenian tragedy is a contested site that celebrates the achievements of the classical paradigm, even as it tests the limits and boundaries of the democratic project itself. Students read tragedy as a performance event wherein complex relationships between the private and the public, Athenian and barbarian, slave and citizen, female and male are constantly negotiated. Athenian tragedy does not simply represent Athenian democracy; it helps to shape it. Students have the unique opportunity of attending performances of the plays in the ancient theatres of Herod Atticus and Epidaurus. There will also be additional workshops with leading theatre directors.
Virtues and Values in Greek Thought
V56.9140.001 - Vasiliou - 4 Points
Conducted in English.
According to Greek philosophers, understanding what we value and why we value it is part of the essence of a human life. Western thinking about these topics owes much to the Greeks. This course seeks to provide an understanding of Greek ethical and political thought from ancient times to the present. The course begins with the ethical and political philosophy of Socrates and Plato, readings of "Socratic" dialogues, as well as parts of the Republic. Students then study Aristotle's enormously influential Nicomachean Ethics, as well as the thought of the Stoics and Epicureans. In the final section of the course, students examine how ancient philosophical thinking affects later Greek thought from the Byzantine era to the present. How was ancient ethical thought transformed in Greece by Christianity? How did later Greek thinking manifest itself in the modern period not only in canonical philosophical texts but also in prose and poetry? Students learn how twentieth century Greek thought develops an ethical perspective that owes much to its roots, often responding to the horrors and pain of the century and the existential issues they raise through the lens of ancient philosophy.
The City of Athens
V56.9130 - Theodoratou - 4 points
Conducted in English.
Assuming that Athens serves as a window into Greek history and culture, this course provides students with an opportunity to encounter Greece through the architecture, monuments, art, and music of Athens. From its early beginnings as a center for art and literature, for commerce and industry, to its emergence as the capital of the new Greek state, Athens has always been a city in transition, a museum of Greek history as well as an active, living entity. It retains the traces of the political, economic, religious, and cultural history of Greece—in its streets, its buildings, its glorious artifacts and ruins—even as it struggles to move forward. Students are introduced to the beauty and history of a city whose identity is inextricably bound to mythology and to the history of a country that many regard as the birthplace of Western civilization. Visits to archaeological centers, museums, music bars, and several of the city's most important cultural and historical sites are included.
The Archaeology of Greece
V27.9352 Ð Worman - 4 points
Conducted in English.
In the worldÕs cultural imagination, Greece is a land of ruins and monuments. The filtering of archeological sites through the lens of ancient and modern literature has played a crucial role in conceptualizing and idealizing GreeceÕs ancient past, and contributed substantially to how these spaces are understood as culturally and ideologically significant. In this course, students are introduced to several of GreeceÕs most significant archeological sites by considering their reception in ancient and modern literature, including drama, poetry, and travel narratives. The course will focus especially on the ways in which modern conceptualizations of Greece's "glorious past" overshadow ancient ideas about civic space, thereby shaping the reception of archeological sites in contemporary Greece. Field trips to archeological sites and visits to museums are included. Through individual projects and written assignments, students are expected to develop their skills of observation and analysis, as well as pursue an in-depth "reading" not only of Greece's past, but also of present day Greece in all its complexity and richness.
Graduate Courses
Greek Drama
G27.9201 - 4 points
Identical with V27.9143.
For description, see V27.9143, above.
Costs
Undergraduate Tuition
$5,752 8 points
Graduate Tuition
$923 per point
Program & Activities Fee
$650
Housing
$2,900 Double Room (includes breakfast)
There is an additional registration and services fee of:
- $186 students registered at NYU spring 2008
- $213 students not registered at NYU spring 2008
Dates
Program Dates
June 28 - August 9
Housing Dates
June 28 - August 8
Arrival Date
June 28 before 5pm
Orientation Dates
June 28 and June 29
First Day of Classes
June 30
Last Day of Classes
August 8
Departure Date
August 9