David Ringo Miano

COURSES TAUGHT

Courses Taught:        World History I: This course examines the growth of civilizations and the inter relationships of peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and America from the birth of civilization to 1650. Topics in social, intellectual, economic, and political history are covered.

                                    World History 2: This course examines the comparative history of the world's civilizations in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe from the dawn of the modern era (1600) to the present. Topics in social, intellectual, economic, and political history are covered.

                                    The Foundations of Western Civilization: Israel and Greece: Texts from the Hebrew Bible and from Greek epic, history, drama, and philosophy in their cultural context.

Rome, Christianity, and the Middle Ages: The Roman Empire, the Christian transformation of the classical world in late antiquity, and the rise of a European culture during the Middle Ages. Representative texts from Latin authors, early Christian literature, the Germanic tradition, and the high Middle Ages.

Ancient Greek Civilization: The social, political, and cultural history of the ancient Greek world from the earliest settlements to the empire of Alexander the Great (c. 2000-323 B.C.E.).

Ancient Roman Civilization: The political, economic, and intellectual history of the Roman world from the foundation of Rome to the disintegration of the Western empire. This course will emphasize the importance of the political and cultural contributions of Rome to modern society.

Ancient Egypt: Using ancient Egyptian texts and material culture as a basis, this course surveys the political and social history of ancient Egypt from the Neolithic period to Cleopatra VII (c. 9000-30 B.C.E.). Topics include: anthropological origins and ethnicities, political and historical development, geography, social institutions, status of women, religion and magic, daily life activities, language and writing and more.

The Early Christian Church: A study of the origin and development of early Christian thought, literature, and institutions from the New Testament period to the Council of Chalcedon.

Ancient Explorers: Ancient travel into unexplored regions of the world and the discovery of new civilizations. Look at actual voyages, focusing on the remarkable figures who braved the unknown, the objects of their journeys, and their crude equipment and knowledge.

Sex, Love and Desire in the Ancient World: Ancient Mediterranean conceptions of emotional and physical love through analysis of ancient romantic poetry, love letters, and romance novels. Students learn to interpret primary sources and to conduct independent critical assessment of documents and ideas.

Ancient Historiography: The Book of Genesis: This course examines the biblical book of Genesis in an effort to understand better the form and function of ancient historiographic texts, comparative historiography of the ancient world, methodological problems related to employing ancient historiographic texts for modern historical reconstruction, as well as various themes and tropes in biblical and cognate historiography. Comparative material will be brought to bear on the understanding of the historiographic texts of the Bible.

Learning to Read Biblical Hebrew:  The Hebrew Bible in its original tongue and historical context. Emphasis is placed on acquiring a basic vocabulary, mastering fundamentals of grammar, and practice at reading.

MMW 12: The Classical and Medieval Traditions: Covering ca. 100 BCE to 1200 CE, MMW 12 examines the development of classical empires from China to the West, their collapse, and their transformation into distinct medieval forms. It also examines the rise and spread of Christianity, Islam, and Mahayana Buddhism. This course is the first of two writing-intensive quarters in the MMW sequence.

Introduction to Western Civilization I: This course is an historical survey of Western Civilization from the early human communities through early modernism.

Introduction to Western Civilization II: This course is an historical survey of Western Civilization from early modernism to the present.