From understanding famous pop culture references to sharpening medical and scientific vocabulary, Brock University students can investigate how ancient history continues to shape contemporary life this spring and summer.

Spring/Summer Term courses offered by Brock’s Department of Classics and Archaeology will connect the dots between ancient Greece and Rome and contemporary culture, politics, language and even health care.

For future nurses, doctors, medical assistants or health-care professionals, mastering complex medical terminology is critical. In CLAS 1P94 Understanding Medical and Scientific Terminology, students will learn tools to decode and confidently use medical terms rooted in Ancient Greek and Latin vocabularies.

Professor Michael Carter, Chair of Classics and Archaeology, says medical science lectures, study and clinical work can feel overwhelming without a basic understanding of the terminology and how the words are constructed.

“So much scientific and medical terminology continues to be built on ancient Greek and Latin vocabulary, and this course will help you to understand this vocabulary,” he says.

For those looking for a broader foundation in antiquity, CLAS 1P92 Discovering Ancient Rome will take students from the ruins of Pompeii to the gladiatorial games in amphitheatres, introducing the history, culture and society of Ancient Rome.

Carter says Rome’s influence on the modern world is felt through language, politics and religion.

In fact, Carter notes, many of the questions and problems experienced in today’s global landscape were first asked and felt by the ancient Romans 2000 years ago.

“The polarized political world that we see around us to today, for example, was experienced in ancient Rome at the fall of the Roman Republic and beginning of the Empire, when Rome lost the last traces of popular democratic government and fell to be controlled by an Emperor — polarization and factional strife still have consequences today,” he says.

Later in the summer, students will dive into the fantastical world of Greek mythology and be introduced to all manner of heroes, monsters and adventures in CLAS 1P97 Myths of the Heroic Age.

From Theseus, Heracles and Odysseus to the Minotaur, many headed Hydra and the Cyclops, Greek mythology brings thrilling characters to life but is much more than entertainment.

“The ancient Greeks told these stories not only to entertain, but also to explain the world they found around them and humanity’s place in it, and the stories continue to fascinate us today,” Carter says.

For more information on Brock’s Spring/Summer courses or to register on Tuesday, March 3, visit brocku.ca/springsummer