Religious Studies

Vlad Naumescu is teaching at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology since 2007. He has conducted extensive fieldwork on Greek Catholics in Ukraine and Romania and recently started fieldwork on St. Thomas Christianity in South India. His research focuses on religion, particularly Eastern Christianity, and cultural transmission, on which he published a monograph Modes of Religiosity in Eastern Christianity: religious processes and social change in Ukraine (Lit 2007) and a coedited volume (with Stephanie Mahieu) Churches In-Between: Greek Catholic Churches in Postsocialist Europe (Lit 2008).

Latin Intermediate is open to all students whose level is above Beginner, i.e., who have already mastered most of Latin morphology and have at least a basic knowledge of syntax, and who would like to improve their skills in reading and interpreting Medieval Latin. The main aim of the course is to offer the students a chance to get acquainted with and explore Postclassical Latin as represented in the late fourth-century pilgrimage account known as the Peregrinatio Egeriae ad loca sancta. We will read, translate, and analyze a representative selection of passages from Egeria’s travelogue. All throughout the semester, the translation of the texts will be accompanied by a detailed linguistic commentary meant to identify the specifically postclassical features of the language as well as by a cultural introduction meant to place the readings in their intellectual context so as to foster their better understanding.

This course comes as a continuation of the similar one offered in the Fall Semester and is intended to enlarge the students’ basic knowledge of Medieval Latin so as to enable them, by the end of the semester, to handle simple sources written in that language beyond beginner’s level. By the end of the semester the overview of the verbal and nominal morphology will be completed. In addition to this, the course will also provide a basic overview of Latin syntax. All throughout the semester special attention will be paid to specific grammatical and lexical features of Medieval Latin.