MCL 360: Calamities and Catastrophes in the Ancient World and Afterwards: Course Guide

Project 1 (15%) "Catastrophic Moments in History" 

• Create a series of infographics that illustrate various catastrophic events in Ancient Greece and Rome.
• In groups, use tools like Canva (free online tool) or Adobe Illustrator (free to download through UKY IT Software Downloads) to design visually compelling and historically accurate infographics. Each infographic will focus on one catastrophic event, to provide key facts such as causes, consequences, prominent figures involved, and the long-term impact on society.
• Each group creates 4 infographics (At least one modern catastrophe and 1 or 2 from Greece and 1 or 2 from Rome.)
• Take care to appropriately attribute all images and information from your sources.
• Present your group's results.

Project 2 (15%) "A History of Catastrophes in the Ancient World and Afterwards" 

• Create an interactive timeline presenting catastrophic events in Ancient Greece and Rome.
• In groups, design a timeline that provides factually accurate explanation, images, and primary sources including like ancient texts, artifacts, maps, etc.
• Each group creates 1 timeline of 8 or more events from the ancient world and 2 events from the modern world, to focus on the USA.
• Take care to appropriately attribute all images and information from your sources.
• Present your group's results.

To find journal articles, please consult the following research guides for a list of recommended databases:

• MCLLC
• Classical Studies

Books on Catastrophes in the Ancient World

• Vesuvius, By Gillian Darley (2012)
• Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome, By Gregory Aldrete (2007)

• Living with Seismic Phenomena in the Mediterranean and Beyond between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Proceedings of Cascia (25-26 October, 2019) and Le Mans (2-3 June, 2021) Conferences

• Geophysical Phenomena and the Alexandrian Littoral, By Niki Evelpidou (2019)

Other Books on Catastrophes

• The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters, By Jan Kozak and Vladimir Cermak (2010)
• Natural Disasters and Culture Change, By Robin Torrence and John Grattan (2002)
• Catastrophes: A History and Theory of an Operative Concept, By Nitzan Lebovic et al. (2014)
• Waiting for the End of the World? New Perspectives on Natural Disasters in Medieval Europe, By Christopher Gerrard, Paolo Forlin, and Peter Brown (2021)
• The Culture of Disaster, By Marie-Helene Huet (2012)

Images

• Oxford Art Online: Provides online full-text access to two major art reference works: the Grove Dictionary of Art and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Our Oxford Art Online subscription offers access to the Grove Dictionary of Art, the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia ("Grove Art"). It provides global coverage of visual culture from ancient to contemporary times, described in encyclopedia-style entries that are written and vetted by expert scholars. 
• The British Museum: Images: The British Museum's image licensing service offers unrivalled access to over two million years of human history and culture through its extensive collection of footage and images.

When searching in databases, use keywords that best represent your topic and separate those terms with the word OR in the search box. Relevant keywords for this topic include: catastrophes, natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, fires, tsunami

Use different search boxes for distinct concepts. See below for an example of a properly formatted database search. 

Be sure to put quotation marks around any search term with more than one word (e.g. "ancient greece"). You can also insert an asterisk in a search term to see all variations of the word in the results list (e.g. catastroph* = catastrophe, catastrophic, etc.).

Use the limiters on the left-hand side of the search results screen to narrow your results. Usually, limiting by date and source type are good places to start. See image below. 

Depending on which citation format you use, cite your sources using either the MLA Handbook or the Chicago Manual of Style. The Purdue OWL is a very helpful resource that has formatting guides for both MLA and Chicago styles. Be aware that you can often copy citations when searching in databases (see image below) by clicking the quotations mark icon. While this is a quick and convenient trick, you will need to double-check the accuracy of the format because there will often be errors.  
 

I am here to help you. You can always email me (taylor.c.leigh@uky.edu) with questions. You can also request a individual or group consultation. That is a opportunity for us to discuss whatever issue you are having with your research process. Consultations can be done on Zoom, in-person, or even on the phone. You can email me or schedule a consultation by clicking the buttons under my profile picture at the top-right of this page. 

For definitions and information about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, please see the following guide: Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources