Announcements

Welcome to Week 13!

15 May 2026

This week we’re discussing the ways in which women were involved in the Roman religion.

Things to ponder as you explore the materials. The religious practices and superstitions of the Romans themselves are interestingly peculiar, and the special cult of priestesses known as the Vestal Virgins, who were entrusted with the guardianship of the eternal flame, is distinctive. What do you think the existence and importance of the Vestals tells us about how the Romans thought about gender and the gods? The Chief Vestal is an unusual figure, too, representing the pure separateness of the Vestals and the status and responsibilities of a Roman noble matron. What else strikes you as telling about the prominence of women in Roman religion?

Personal letters are a great resource for historians because they offer a subjective, unguarded, and firsthand view of cultural norms and idiosyncratic relations to them. What stands out to you from Pliny’s letters about how he talks about women he admires?

Finally, Cato’s speech on the Oppian Law is in defense of conservative values, but it has an impact on wealthy women in Rome, who had been agitating politically to wear ornamentations again, even appearing in mass demonstrations in the Forum. What’s Cato afraid of?

Looking forward to an interesting discussion for our last regular meeting. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page

Reminder about emails, logins, OneDrive files, and SETL

13 May 2026

I've been asked to pass along to everyone the following important notices from the College.

Your New Email & Microsoft 365 Apps Account. Your new student email address is now in this format: firstname.lastname##@stu-mail.lehman.cuny.edu. Your MS 365 Apps account is firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu, which is the same username and password you already use for CUNYfirst, Navigate, Brightspace, and other CUNY accounts.

Your previous lc.cuny.edu email will be turned off at the end of the Spring 2026 Semester. Also, your OneDrive files from your previous account (firstname.lastname@lc.cuny.edu) were not migrated to your new account. You must move any files you want to keep to your new OneDrive app within your MS 365 Apps account.

To log in to your new email account: Step 1: Go to https://outlook.office365.com/. Step 2: Sign in with your CUNY Login: firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu. Step 3: Use the same password you use for CUNYfirst/Brightspace. Step 4: Complete Microsoft MFA if prompted. Step 5: Open Outlook and check your new Lehman/CUNY email.

It is strongly advised that you log into your Lehman email regularly even if it is not your routine email account. Some official CUNY emails are only sent to your official school email accounts.

Student Evaluation of Teaching and Learning (SETL). I’ve also been asked to remind and encourage everyone to complete the student course evals. The survey is open, completely anonymous, and available until May 14 11:59 pm.

Students can also access the SETL Survey through their email, directly through Lehman 360 under My Apps, or at this link. Sign in with your CUNY Login account (firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu, i.e., the same username and password used for CUNYfirst, Navigate, Brightspace, and other CUNY systems).

Link to Lehman 360

Welcome to Week 12!

9 May 2026

This week we’re attempting to get at the Roman sense of gender division and gender norms below the upper classes.

Things to ponder as you explore the materials. How do you think things are different for women below the nobility? What do documents like the Twelve Tables tell us about how genders and families related to each other? What’s your sense of what ideas the Romans in general shared when it came to the importance of women to the survival of Rome?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page

Welcome to Week 11!

2 May 2026

This week we’re starting with the Romans, whose approach to gender we’ll be discussing over the next three weeks.

Things to ponder as you explore the materials. The Roman perception of the maiden and the matron is very distinctive. What stands out to you about how the Romans understood the responsibilities of the maiden to Roman society? How does it fit in with the ideas of gender we’ve studied so far? Also, the stories from Livy give women symbolic importance to the survival of Rome. What do you think these stories are telling us?

I’m looking forward to hearing your takes on the gender roles of men and of women in Roman society. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page

Welcome to Week 10!

19 April 2026

This week we’re exploring the story of the Hebrews.

Things to ponder as you explore the materials. This is one of those cases where the backstory goes a long way in shedding light on specific and distinctive cultural norms. We’ve already seen how the Sumerians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks had different norms and values about women, mortality, and so on. But they all had two things in common: a homeland, and pagan gods that were rooted in the natural forces of that homeland. With the Hebrew tribes, we see cultural norms defined by exile, war, oppression, and more exile, and an ethnic and religious identity reshaped around a monotheistic god, rejecting paganism and any commonality with pagan peoples.

What do you think most affects their ideas about the role of women? What strikes you about the story of Esther? What kinds of women stand out in the stories preserved in Hebrew and Jewish history?

Looking forward to hearing your reactions and insights. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page