UPDATED: Nov. 21, 2019 at 12:41 a.m.

Professor Matthieu van der Meer’s new class, “Sex and Power before 1700 CE literature,” will be taught differently than most classes at Syracuse University — each lecture will be given by a different professor. 

Beginning next semester, all students with interests in history, religion, classical and medieval studies will have the opportunity to take this new class. The group will meet twice a week for lecture and a discussion section.  

This new setup, as proposed by course organizer and assistant teaching professor van der Meer, will feature a group of professors from the art history, music and anthropology departments who will take turns teaching each week’s lecture.  

Not only will van der Meer’s colleagues present their research and introduce students to their own disciplines, but students will also able to tackle contemporary issues by a sociological analysis that addresses gender power in a new form, van der Meer said.  

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs professor Albrecht Diem, who will be teaching one of the lectures, said that one of his main hopes in teaching one of the lecture series is that students will learn more about medieval and classical studies and enroll in other courses related to those topics.  

He said that while he will have his own spin on the topic of sex and power, most speakers will vary on the discussion. Diem added that class is aimed to showcase ancient and medieval studies at SU — a major topic not that many students know of.  

“We have a lot of expertise in the field, and it is my hope that it creates a community of people who are interested in the pre-modern European culture simply because we are really good at it and want to be recognized as being good at it,” Diem said.  

Through this historical perspective is rarely touched upon in the curriculum, Diem said the course will challenge students to explore issues that have effected global change and have shaped the culture of gender and power today.  

The first lecture and all the discussion sections will be conducted by van der Meer. He said students will explore how discourse enables political and social interventions and how it can either uphold, form or challenge the status quo, along with other kinds of analysis.  

The course will also narrow in on concepts including world religions, sex and power in the arts and architecture, the power of poetry and gender identity.  

van der Meer said that the class’s themes will let students explore their interests more in the College of Arts and Sciences. He said that the topics discussed are still as prominent as they were decades ago.  

“We highly encourage any student who may be interested to enroll. There will be a concentration on developing better presentational and collaborative skills, while improving textual analysis and essay-writing,” van der Meer said. “I look forward to sharing this class with the SU student body as it is something I have envisioned for a while.” 

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, … The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 19, 2019 at 9:31 pm