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Most college students would not expect a trip to a dairy barn, an observatory and an insect museum to be part of their Greek and Roman Religion class. However, for students taking this class with Paul Robertson, such field trips help make connections to ancient religious thoughts and practices.听听听 听

Robertson, who recently joined 易胜博官网 after 5 years at Colby-Sawyer College, is a lecturer in the Department of Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies. He challenges his students to explore the ways ancient religion might have been practiced using resources around the Durham campus. For example, students studying the role of honey in ancient Greece visited the 易胜博官网 Dairy Barn and fed honey to a cow (with permission of course). The act represented the ancient reverence for bees as divine agents of fertility and agriculture. Another group of students set out for the 易胜博官网 College Woods and reenacted an ancient ritual, using a teddy bear to represent an actual bear, which they 鈥渟acrificed鈥� and offered to the nature goddesses.

鈥淢y goal in teaching is to get students to understand the average ancient Greek or Roman person. Instead of sitting in the classroom going through texts, written by the elite for the elite, I have tried to get them to physically engage with the activities that represent what 99 percent of the people during that time were doing religiously,鈥� Robertson says. 鈥淎ll the literature shows that active learning is much more successful听鈥� students learn and remember more and are able to make more connections.鈥�

For another field trip, Robertson collaborated with astronomy instructor John Gianforte of the Department of Physics so that students could visit the 易胜博官网 Observatory and discuss how the ancient world viewed the constellations in relationship to the gods.

鈥淚 was excited to work with him (Gianforte) and show students how we as professors work together in an interdisciplinary way,鈥� Robertson says.

Although some of this hands-on work might sound playful, it resonates deeply with students. For some, the class has sparked an interest in religion and philosophy in students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects. A.J. O鈥橬eil, an information technology major, says the experiential work is an integral part of the course.

鈥淚t鈥檚 more engaging and helps demonstrate many things that may have been overlooked, like how they (ancient Greeks and Romans) felt during rituals, the intuitive process involved in spinning a story based on the birds, and the sheer social bravery diviners must have had going person to person giving prophetic messages,鈥� O鈥橬eil says. 鈥淚 certainly plan on taking more classics courses at 易胜博官网, hopefully minoring in it, actually. There's so much we can learn from past societies and so many interesting ways in which they were surprisingly advanced, especially so in the field of philosophy.鈥�

A specialist in religion and ancient thought, Robertson has studied the 鈥渄ead鈥� languages: Greek, Latin and Syriac. His research spans ancient Mediterranean religion and philosophy, the history of western thought, and the theory of religion that looks to answer what religion is and why it exists. Robertson, who earned his doctorate in religious studies at Brown University, began his academic career as a physics major before switching to the classics and religion. His most recent research focuses on the cognitive science of religion听鈥� the intersection between science and religion听鈥� and investigates the human brain鈥檚 biological evolution to better understand religious beliefs and practices across cultures.

鈥淭he humanities and hard sciences are productive joint partners in trying to figure out our world. The big question is how we bring the humanities and sciences together,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f we were all just focused on science and engineering, we wouldn鈥檛 be able to understand our differences, which is essential to democracy. You have to understand differences if you want to have democracy.鈥�

Camryn Luby, a sophomore humanities major, says that Robertson鈥檚 approach to learning allows students to learn through experience. She also credits classes in the classics and humanities as helping expand critical thinking skills.

鈥淗umanities provide a deeper understanding of how communities and civilizations throughout time work, and therefore how humans interact, which is an understanding that can be used in the modern world,鈥� Luby says. 鈥淭hey also teach students to synthesize information, which is an important skill for any career.鈥澨�