rstephan

rstephan@arizona.edu

Phone

(520) 621-3019

Office

Learning Services Building

Office Hours

Please email professor to schedule a meeting or refer to class syllabus.

Stephan, Robert

Associate Professor of Practice; Undergraduate Advisor

Rob Stephan is an archaeologist by training and has taught in the University of Arizona’s Department of Religious Studies and Classics since 2016. He hails from Cincinnati, OH but made the unpopular decision to attend the University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies. While in the glorious land of maize and blue he studied Classical Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, and Near Eastern Studies. Upon completing his BA in 2005, he left the Midwest to take his talents to Stanford University's PhD program in Classics. His thesis took an archaeological perspective to look at how the Roman Empire affected economic growth in the Mediterranean world, and he earned his PhD in 2014.

Rob's research interests focus on how the material remains of the past can inform us about the economic performance of ancient societies. What factors lead to improvements in economic well-being? How does political development correlate with material wealth? More recently, he’s also been researching the intersection of technology and teaching, exploring how we can use video games and virtual reality to give students a better understanding of the ancient world.

During the course of his studies, Rob has worked on archaeological excavations in Italy, Cyprus, Britain, Armenia, and the American Southwest. His current project, the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey (BEARS) uses archaeological data to investigate the bay of Porto Raphti in Greece from prehistory through the medieval period. In addition to supervising undergrads on these archaeological projects, Rob has led study abroad programs in Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land.

Rob's pursuit of teaching excellence has earned him the 2021 University of Arizona Five Star Faculty Award, the 2021 Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence, the 2020 College of Humanities Distinguished Teaching Award, and the 2019 College of Humanities Distinguished Advising/Mentoring Award at the University of Arizona.

In his free time he likes hiking, eating nachos, and watching watching Michigan, Stanford, and Arizona on the gridiron. Bear down and Go blue!

Sample Research Presentations

Do High Production Videos Lead to Better Online Learning? (Center for University Education, Guest Speaker, 2023)

Gamifying Greece & Rome: Student Perspectives on Video Game Pedagogy (Online Learning Consortium Accelerate, 2022)

Digitzing Delphi: A Case Study in Virtual Reality Pedagogy (Computer Applications in Archaeology, 2021)

Sample Course Lectures

Akhenaten: The Heretic King (CLAS 150C1: Pyramids and Mummies: The Pharaoh in Ancient Egyptian Society)

The Ancient Olympic Games (CLAS/TLS 240: Ancient Athletics)

Sounion: Sanctuary of Poseidon (CLAS 315: The Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece)

Demeter: Goddess of the Harvest (CLAS 160D2: Classical Mythology)

The Founding of Rome (CLAS 160B1: Meet the Ancients: Gateway to Greece and Rome)

Wine Consumption in Ancient Rome (HUMS 150B1: Mind-Altering Substances in the Ancient World)

Currently Teaching

CLAS 160B1 – Meet the Ancients: Gateway to Greece and Rome

Journey into the past to discover the worlds of the ancient Greeks and Romans. From democracy and republicanism to literature, philosophy and art, the contributions of these two cultures serve as the foundation for much of what has been described as ""western"" culture. This course explores who these peoples were, how these civilizations developed, what ideas and institutions they created, and why the Greeks and Romans matter today.

Through this exploration into the Greco-Roman world, this course builds connections between the multiple types of evidence that scholars draw upon to paint a picture of the ancient past. Close readings of texts provide a humanistic perspective on classical culture; archaeological data inform us about social scientific trends in demography and economics; environmental evidence from ice cores, botanical remains, and soil samples enable a natural science perspective on the past; and some of the world's most famous objects--from the Venus di Milo to Grecian vases--allow for artistic insights. In this course, students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each disciplinary approach to understanding the past, and ultimately weave together multiple strands of evidence to create their signature assignment.

Upon completing "Meet the Ancients", students will not only have a better understanding of Greco-Roman history and culture, they will, above all, have a deeper understanding of the different perspectives used to approach ancient history and the skills to evaluate and synthesize diverse types of evidence.

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CLAS 160D2 – Classical Mythology: Ancient Stories and What they Tell Us

The myths, legends, and folktales of the Greeks, Romans and the peoples of the ancient Near East have remained popular for thousands of years. Together we'll not only learn about these stories themselves, but also think about why these stories are so popular, where they came from, and what insights they give us into the various people and cultures who created and reinterpreted them across the millennia.

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CLAS 150C1 – Pyramids and Mummies: The Pharaoh and Ancient Egyptian Society

Pyramids and Mummies focuses on the role of the pharaoh in ancient Egyptian Society and its portrayal in modern culture. It centers on the overarching question of how political rulers consolidate, exert, and maintain political power over their constituent populations. To do this, Pyramids and Mummies takes an interdisciplinary approach to Egyptian history, examining it from Natural Science, Social Science, Arts, and Humanities perspectives, assessing how Egyptian pharaohs utilized a diverse array of tactics to rule their kingdom. This course then moves from ancient to modern, analyzing the portrayal of ancient Egyptian kingship in the modern world, with a special focus on the ways in which issues of race, ethnicity, diversity, and equity are addressed in cinematic adaptations of ancient Egyptian culture and kingship. Upon completing this course, students will be able to critically analyze issues of political rule from a variety of disciplinary lenses, and synthesize these multifaceted strategies in clear, concise, and powerful written prose, and they will be able to address issues of race, equity, and inclusion in the reception and adaptation of ancient Egyptian culture.

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CLAS 240 – Ancient Athletics

This course investigates athletics, sport, and spectacle in ancient Greece and Rome. From the birth of the ancient Olympics in the early days of archaic Greece, to the blood in the arena of the Roman gladiatorial games, this course looks at the ways in which ancient athletics articulate with the societies and cultures of the Classical world.

Through this exploration of ancient Greek sport and ancient Roman spectacle, this course builds connections across the humanities, social sciences, and arts. Students analyze how ancient athletics, and the evidence for it, can be studied from various perspectives, each providing their own strengths, weaknesses, and unique insights. Students use a humanist lens to conduct close readings to look at the roll of sport within Classical literature; they employ social scientific model building to construct economic models for the Panhellenic games; and they leverage an artistic perspective to consider the messages sent by portrayals of athletes on Panathenaic vases and in Greco-Roman Sculpture.

Upon completing "Ancient Athletics", students will not only have a better understanding of sport and spectacle in ancient Greece and Rome, they will have a deeper understanding of the different perspectives used to approach ancient history and the skills to evaluate and synthesize diverse types of evidence.

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