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Course Requirements: Active participation is the most important contribution to this class. All students will be required to report on their reading and finding on a regular basis. To structure your research, each student (or teams of two students) will select a region to work on. You should select your region after examining some of the resources listed below and consulting with the instructors. You should finalize your selection by January 29. After settling on a region or culture, the first stage it to prepare a working bibliography of relevant sources using different research tools such as online databases, library catalogs, and Internet search engines. The list should include at least 20 items; five of them should be book-length scholarly studies. Including an item on your list does not mean that you have read it, but that you have identified it as potentially relevant. Submit your working bibliography by February 14. The next stage it to locate and examine the material. It is likely that additional items will be added to your working bibliography at that point, and some of the items will be discarded as irrelevant. Narrow your list to at least ten items, four of them should be book-length studies, and decide on an order of priorities according to relevance. Read or examine very carefully all the items and prepare an annotated bibliography describing in one or two paragraphs the content of the source and assess its value. What is the main point that the author is making? Submit your annotated bibliography by March 19. Journals: The journal is a record of the student's involvement with all aspects of the course, including readings, individual projects, seminar discussions and other activities during class. While the primary purpose of the journal is to react to this course, feel free to comment on other courses, current events, or activities in your life (short of compromising personal privacy) you find relevant. In other words, if it stimulates your writing, it is probably a good idea to include it. Avoid summarizing readings. Rather, find points and junctures in the reading that trigger your reactions and engage with its ideas. Describe those reactions, and then explore where they might take you. Thus, you are using the readings to provide points of departure for informal essays that demonstrate issues and themes that concern you. Evaluation Schedule for Journals Try to write several pages a week in your journal, covering your individual research project as well as readings, music, art, and discussions featured in our class meetings February 15 Submit complete journal for the first evaluation
March 29 This is an optional but recommended date for submitting the journal for a fresh evaluation. You are welcome to submit your journal as often as you like, especially if you feel you need more feedback and guidance. May 10 Turn in the completed journal. The location for the journals is 208 Whitener (Jim Winders’s office). Look for the table just outside the office door. |
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Please send all comments and suggestions to
Eli Bentor |