ACASA bachelor’s introduction

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/L_AABAAGO0IN

Course Objective

The joint introduction of the three ACASA Bachelor's programmes in Ancient Studies, Archaeology and Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (GLTC), starts on Tuesday 6 September and ends on Friday afternoon 9 September. During these four days, you will be getting to know each other, your teachers, get information about your programme, and you will be doing a small group project that introduces you to the interdisciplinary aspects of the ACASA Bachelor's programmes. You will also meet other students from your study in an introduction to the student associations Laverna and Synkratos.

Course Content

Below the Surface Every city consists of co-existing layers of different professions, classes, cultural identities, area’s and so on. In these same cities, however, there are also other sets of layers, lying under our feet and superimposed through time, from the earliest phases of civilisation to the recent past. The latter, vertical layers yield valuable insights into our different pasts as they are revealed by archaeologists; the former, horizontal layers tell us what we are now, or want to be. All these layers are connected to us by texts, the stories we tell each other, write down, or carve or paint to remember our pasts by and fashion our identities. Even in a relatively new city like Amsterdam, these layers stretch out into the farther pasts of classical antiquity, revealing subtle, deeper meanings in our culture. In this introduction you will study the interaction between different layers in ancient cities that still function as cities today. As an example, and also as an introduction to the city you so wisely chose to pursue your studies in, we present, in a nutshell, the case of Amsterdam. Then you will split up in groups to prepare your own, brief, video-essay on some form of stratification in an ancient city, either at a given moment or through time. You will be doing so with fellow students from different disciplines: students of Ancient studies, Archaeology and Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (Classics) will be mixed in each group – the Amsterdam Centre of Ancient Studies and Archaeology is an interdisciplinary institute, and we want you to experience the fascination of connecting to different disciplines to expand your view right from the start.

Teaching Methods

NVT

Method of Assessment

NVT

Additional Information

To get an impression of what the introduction will be about, we ask you view the documentary about Amsterdam "Below the Surface" at: https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/pagina/documentaire in advance. For the introduction schedule see: https://rooster.uva.nl/schedule and search for your Bachelor programme and look at the schedule of 6 – 9 September.

Explanation Canvas

For the ACASA 2022
- 2023 Introduction Days a separate Canvas module will be created (at VU Canvas)