Modern Greek Course Descriptions

The following courses are offered regularly as a part of our Modern Greek language program and Modern Greek minor. For all GREEKM catalog listings and current scheduling information please check the PS Mobile Course Catalog.

Core Modern Greek Language Courses

This four credit course, offered every fall, is an introduction to the Modern Greek language that provides students with a solid foundation in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in Greek, both through a sound understanding of the basic structures of the Greek language, as well as through the cultural context within which Greek is used. In class, emphasis is on oral communication and the acquisition of fluency in speaking. 
Building on skills acquired in Modern Greek 1, this four credit course, offered every spring, provides you with the tools to talk about your past experiences and make plans for the future. Through numerous group and individual activities you will begin to build confidence in using a wider variety of sentence patterns and an expanded vocabulary.
This is an exploration of Modern Greek at the intermediate level that builds on the skills acquired in first year Greek (GREEKM 0101 and GREEKM 0102). Its aim is to help you develop further your linguistic competence, expand your vocabulary, discover your writer’s voice and develop your speaking skills.
This course aims at further enhancing your conversational skills as well as improving your ability to narrate and express opinion. It also provides you with opportunities to grow as an independent reader and express yourself creatively in writing.
Third-year Modern Greek builds on skills acquired in first and second year Greek (LING0231/2/3/4). It is a thematic exploration of Greek culture at the advanced intermediate level. Through a combination of movies, songs, poems and newspapers, it exposes students to aspects of traditional and pop Greek culture as well as to important current issues.
GREEKM 0106 - Modern Greek 6
This course continues the thematic exploration of Greek culture at the advanced intermediate level. By the end of this year, you will be able to participate in most conversations employing common idiomatic language and express your opinion and arguments with clarity and fluency.

Elective Courses for the Modern Greek Minor

What makes Greek culture appear both familiar and distinct? What are some of the root metaphors through which contemporary Greeks make sense of the world? How do Greeks approach their history and their future today? These are some of the questions that will inform our exploration of Greek culture and society in this course. Focusing on both history and social context, this course will introduce students to issues such as language and identity, continuity and social change, food and memory, narrative and metaphor, heroes and symbols, performance and ritual, crisis and transformation. It will expose students to the complexity and richness of experience and cultural expression in the Greek world and provide them with the tools to better analyze, understand, and appreciate both the Greek as well as their own cultural practices.
GREEKM 1909 - Special Topics in Modern Greek
The topic and content of this special topics course are variable.
Through this class, students will read literature about the impact language has on interactions between different cultures. There is discussion of the differences in communication within and between various communities.
While giving an overview of the types of languages present in each area of the world, this course explores the composition and trends within and between language families. The course incorporates study of language structure differences as well as sociolinguistic variations.
This course will survey the major achievements of ancient Greek civilization. Arranged on a roughly chronological basis, the readings and lectures will move from the epic poetry of Greece's heroic Bronze Age, through the great intellectual innovations of the Archaic Age, to the Classical era dominated by the contrasting contributions of Sparta and Athens.
Course Description Coming Soon!
This course will survey the history of ancient Greece from the Minoan civilization in the second millennium BC to the end of the Classical Period in the 4th century BC. We will investigate the major political, intellectual, economic and social factors that contributed to the nature and development of Greek history. We will pay particular attention to the Golden Age of Athens in the 5th century BC and its relations with the Persian Empire, Sparta and the other Greek city-states. Also, we will look at the many political and cultural institutions that combined to make this age unique. Finally, the course will close with the Greek's efforts to cope with the rising power of Macedon.
This undergraduate course surveys the literary and material evidence of marginality in the ancient Greek world. The course begins with foundational material, namely an introduction to Greek culture, a discussion of common terms associated with marginality (e.g., marginality, social exclusion, and disenfranchisement), the consideration of what it means to be marginalized, the model of the ‘ideal’ citizen, and Greek theories of ‘Otherness.’ Then we will explore different groups of individuals who were marginalized in Greek society, such as those of differing ethnicity and race, the disabled and deformed, the mentally ill, slaves and others of low socioeconomic status, and we will end with a discussion marginalized individuals (e.g., Pythagoreans and Socrates).
Introduction to economy of Europe, including theory and institutions of European community as they relate to economic systems, its economic relations with other European states and the world, its economic problems and policies. Elementary economics will be reviewed, but no specialist knowledge is required. European economic policies are examined in a critical manner. Some study of breakdown of eastern bloc and the implications of eastern European crisis for European community and the United States.
In this course students will study changes in the history of Greek society and the material culture that it produced, from the Bronze Age palaces to the Age of Alexander, in both the area known now as Greece and to a lesser extent in the broader Greek world.
This course focuses on the modern history of three representative small countries of the European Union--Denmark, Latvia and Greece—and upon their relationships with larger countries of the EU, and with the European Union as a whole. We will look at the long process, beginning in the 19th century, which brought each country to its present state, and at each one’s current condition and problems as a member of the EU. We will use this knowledge to generalize the experience of all the 21 small countries of the EU, and to critique current models of governance and power in the European Union.
This course is designed as an overview of the history, teachings and rituals of Orthodox Christianity in its multinational context. Geographically, this context refers primarily to southeastern Europe (aka the Balkans), Russia and the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean. The course examines specific historical experiences of Orthodox Christians, starting with Byzantine empire, through major historical shift in the life of the Christians under Ottoman rule and, finally, to the diverse experiences of various autocephalous churches under communism. Through lectures, readings, discussions, films, and a field trip to a local Orthodox church, students will gain an insight into and broaden their awareness of the multifaceted world of Orthodox Christianity, its spiritual practices, rich artistic, musical and ritual expressions.