The University of British Columbia
Vancouver campus
WHY STUDY LATIN?
Improve your English vocabulary and writing skills by learning the language of the Caesars, slaves, philosophers and demon hunters! Read More
CLASSICAL ARABIC
Classical Arabic offers special rewards to the dedicated student, with its unusually rich vocabulary, architectural grammar and treasury of literature from history, philosophy and the natural sciences to poetry, belles letters’, mysticism and, especially, scripture or Qur’an. Read More
SEX, LIES, AND VIOLENCE IN THE HEBREW BIBLE
SUMMER TERM 1: An exploration of the Bible’s “dark side,” with emphasis on texts that center on sex, deceit, and murder. Read More
30th Jan 2020
Have you ever wondered what you can do with your CNERS degree? Are you thinking about what options are out there for you after graduation? Come join us for our Alumni Night where we will be hosting a Q&A panel with some awesome CNERS alumni, chosen from all the streams! Feel free to bring questions...
Have you ever wondered what you can do with your CNERS degree? Are you thinking about what options are out there for you after graduation? Come join us for our Alumni Night where we will be hosting a Q&A panel with some awesome CNERS alumni, chosen from all the streams! Feel free to bring questions...
4th Feb 2020
My lecture reviews recent excavations at Bronze Age sites in East Crete supported by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete (INSTAP SCEC), paying particular attention to new evidence for craft production. Interestingly enough, the finished goods are not the pots, the metal tools, and stone vases that we typically associate with...
My lecture reviews recent excavations at Bronze Age sites in East Crete supported by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete (INSTAP SCEC), paying particular attention to new evidence for craft production. Interestingly enough, the finished goods are not the pots, the metal tools, and stone vases that we typically associate with...
26th Feb 2020
Using biblical and archaeological evidence, Dr. Sonia examines the intersection of birth and death ritual in Israelite religion, particularly the argument that Israelite burial evokes imagery of gestation and childbirth.
Using biblical and archaeological evidence, Dr. Sonia examines the intersection of birth and death ritual in Israelite religion, particularly the argument that Israelite burial evokes imagery of gestation and childbirth.
20th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference: “Colonialism in the Academy”
29th Feb 2020In privileging the material, scientific, observable world over the spiritual, experiential, and unquantifiable aspects of archaeological sites, ancient peoples, and artifacts, archaeological practice demonstrates that it is solidly grounded in Western ways of categorizing, knowing, and interpreting the world. Sonya Atalay, “Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice” In recent years, Humanities and Social Science departments in...
11th Mar 2020
From the time when writing was invented in Mesopotamia until over 3000 years later when the last wedge was pressed into clay, scribes were trained to read and write cuneiform. To master this extremely complex, non-alphabetic writing system consisting of hundreds of signs with multiple pronunciations and meanings, students copied thematic word lists, proverb collections,...
From the time when writing was invented in Mesopotamia until over 3000 years later when the last wedge was pressed into clay, scribes were trained to read and write cuneiform. To master this extremely complex, non-alphabetic writing system consisting of hundreds of signs with multiple pronunciations and meanings, students copied thematic word lists, proverb collections,...
21st Mar 2020
All human settlements require water for drinking, making things, for religious/spiritual purposes, and for transportation. However, water is far from a passive actor in this relationship, often pushing back with floods, hiding during droughts, and sometimes acting in cooperation. At the same time, the needs and wants of the human cultures that interacted with water...
All human settlements require water for drinking, making things, for religious/spiritual purposes, and for transportation. However, water is far from a passive actor in this relationship, often pushing back with floods, hiding during droughts, and sometimes acting in cooperation. At the same time, the needs and wants of the human cultures that interacted with water...
“The Battle of Cannae in the Roman Poetic Imagination” (Dr. Neil Bernstein, Ohio University)
1st Apr 2020Cannae was the greatest battle of the ancient Greco-Roman world. In The Allure of Battle, the military historian Cathal Nolan has written of the dangerous illusion cast by Cannae, from antiquity right up through the Schlieffen plan of World War One. This paper examines how the Roman poet Silius Italicus represents Cannae in his epic...
7th Apr 2020
This lecture discusses the results of the last few seasons of investigations by the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project. This collaboration among UBC, Cornell University and the University of Chicago is investigating the relationship between urbanism and social change on Late Bronze Age Cyprus (c. 1650-1100 BCE). We’ll focus mainly on the UBC...
This lecture discusses the results of the last few seasons of investigations by the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project. This collaboration among UBC, Cornell University and the University of Chicago is investigating the relationship between urbanism and social change on Late Bronze Age Cyprus (c. 1650-1100 BCE). We’ll focus mainly on the UBC...
Dr. Anthony Keddie’s New Book is Published
The Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies Department is pleased to announce a publication by Dr. Anthony Keddie, which has just been published by Cambridge University Press. The title of Tony’s book is Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins and here is a blurb: Anthony Keddie investigates […]
Dr. Siobhán McElduff Receives a Public Humanities Course-Release Award
The Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies is pleased to announce that Siobhán McElduff has been named as a recipient of a Public Humanities Course-Release Award. This award, bestowed by the new Public Humanities Hub (PHH) at UBC-Vancouver, supports research excellence among Humanities scholars in the Faculties of Arts, Law, and Education at […]
CNERS STATEMENT ON CLIMATE STRIKES
The Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies stands in solidarity with the students, staff and faculty at the University of British Columbia and worldwide who will participate in the Global Climate Strike on September 27, 2019, to demand urgent action on the climate emergency. The Department and its instructors resolve to accommodate, wherever […]
Diamond Foundation donates $1M to support Jewish studies at UBC
The Development Office has announced a generous $1M gift made by the Diamond Foundation to support Jewish Studies at UBC. The announcement can be found here: https://support.ubc.ca/news/diamond-foundation-donates-1m-to-support-jewish-studies-at-ubc/ Congratulations to Dr. Gregg Gardner, current Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics, on this incredible gift, which will open up all kinds of new and exciting opportunities […]
Dr. Susanna Braund is Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Dr. Susanna Braund has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in the Class of 2019. She is one of the ninety-three new Fellows in the Academies of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science who have been elected by their peers for their exceptional scholarly, scientific and artistic achievement. Here is […]
CNERS Faculty Members Win SSHRC Competitions
The Department of Classical, Near Eastern and religious Studies is very pleased to announce the success of three of our faculty in the SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) competitions this year. Gregg Gardner has won an Insight Development Grant for his project entitled “The Horvat Midras Excavation Project: Cultural Interaction in Rural Roman […]
Peter Wall Institute Produces Video about Dr. Sara Milstein’s Work
Watch the promotional video about Dr. Sara Milstein’s work on biblical and Near Eastern law produced by the Peter Wall Institute: Dr. Milstein’s is a Wall Scholar (2018-2019) and her project is titled Making a Case: The Emergent Legal Mind in the Ancient Near East. She aims to probe the rich collection of practical legal […]
Dr. Gregg Gardner is awarded the Jody Ellant and Howard Reiter Family Fellowship
Dr. Gregg Gardner has been awarded the Jody Ellant and Howard Reiter Family Fellowship at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He will be in residence at Penn during the Spring 2020 semester and on leave from UBC. The Katz Center’s fellowship program takes roughly twenty scholars […]
Dr. Matt McCarty Wins a Dean of Arts Faculty Research Award
Dr. Matthew McCarty has been awarded a Dean of Arts Faculty Research Awards for junior faculty, which will allow him to spend spring term 2020 on research leave finishing his monograph Empire and Child Sacrifice in Roman Africa.
Dr. Michael Griffin is awarded a UBC Killam Teaching Prize
The department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies is pleased to announce that Michael Griffin has been awarded a UBC Killam Teaching Prize, which is an annual prize to faculty nominated by students, colleagues and alumni in recognition of excellence in teaching. A certificate will be awarded to Michael at the May Congregation and […]
Sessional Lecturer Position – Winter 2019-2020
Sessional Lecturer Position Winter 2019-2020 The Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies is now accepting applications for a Sessional position in Winter 2019-2020. The successful candidate will teach the following course: LATN 101 – Beginning Latin I Winter Term 2 (MWF 12-1PM) Details of courses can be found at: https://cnrs.ubc.ca/for-undergraduates/courses/ Please send your […]
Sessional Lecturer Position Winter 2019-2020 The Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies is now accepting applications for a Sessional position in Winter 2019-2020. The successful candidate will teach the following course: LATN 101 – Beginning Latin I Winter Term 2 (MWF 12-1PM) Details of courses can be found at: https://cnrs.ubc.ca/for-undergraduates/courses/ Please send your […]
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History of Classical Studies at UBC
Read A Brief History of Classical Studies at UBC by Robert B. Todd, Professor Emeritus