CLST 277: The World of Late Antiquity Spring Semester 2017 Dr. Jacqueline Long

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Collaborative Research Projects

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Goals

• To design, develop, and pursue a project of historical research complementing course work
• To collaborate on cooperative research and presentation
• To share your research and conclusions with your classmates jointly through performance
• To report on your individual research and conclusions, and contribution to the collaboration, formally through writing

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Directions and deadlines:

• Wednesday 18 January - Wednesday 22 February: begin to explore areas of historical inquiry in which you would like to collaborate on research during the second half of the term.
  • identify topics (e.g., imperial administration, visual culture, social relations), source-materials (e.g., narrative history, personal correspondence, monumental urban spaces), and methods of investigation (e.g., epigraphy, philosophical analysis, topography) that interest you
  • begin to consider how they can relate to one another and to course-materials and topics headlined on the syllabus for our joint work in the second half of the term
  • in the course of this preliminary investigation, read primary sources and scholarly secondary research to see what you will get the most out of as you continue to pursue your project: serious followup now will save you time and effort later
  • one general caution: Good scholarly encyclopedic sources (like the Oxford Bibliographies, Brill's New Pauly, the Oxford Classical Dictionary, on-line or in print) are great places to start. Do credit them in your bibliographies. But they are not sufficient: follow up the information you get there and verify it. General encyclopedic sources that don't hold themselves to academic-quality standards (like Wikipedia and even "household" encyclopedias) can be trusted only as far as you can verify any information they give you - and they are far too likely to incorporate anachronisms, simplifications, and partisan interpretations to be desirable even as starting-places. If you use them, you must credit them, but you're better off going to something more rigorously researched and transparently reported.
• Friday 24 February: written statement of two (2) tentative proposals due at the start of class. These statements will provide your instructor with the basis for group assignments. For each of the two possible topics you are proposing, you should state concretely
  • the goals of your inquiry: what you want to learn more about
  • the material of your inquiry: what you wish to examine (again, primary and secondary sources)
  • the methods of your inquiry: what you will do with your material so as to approach your goals
  • the aspirations of your inquiry: what about your material, methods, and goals you expect to make your inquiry historically interesting
• Friday 3 March: receive group assignments, exchange contact information, and start planning your collaboration
  • discuss how your instructor-confirmed topic meshes with group-members' individual interests and how you can develop the collaborative project working in cooperation with one another in ways you each find interesting and satisfying
  • agree on a distribution of individual responsibilities within the collaboration
  • agree on a schedule of further consultations as you each pursue your individual responsibilities, so that you can keep the collaboration on-track and refine your plans according to your developing research
  • each group, distribute to each member and to the instructor (1 copy apiece) a one-page statement of group members' e-mail addresses that they actually use, individual responsibilities within the collaboration, and group schedule, at the start of class Wednesday 15 March
• Wednesday 15 March - the date for which your group's presentation is scheduled: pursue your research and consult among your group according to your schedule and more often as needed
• Three actual class-meetings before your group's date (i.e., if your group is scheduled to present on a Monday, on the preceding Monday - or earlier around any interruptions in the schedule of class-meetings such as the Easter break): submit to the instructor a brief substantive outline of what the group will cover in your 17-20-minute presentation. It is understood you will be continuing to finalize details, but indicate concretely what material, methods, and main ideas the presentation will involve, so that appropriate heads-up can be given to the rest of the class in time for them to be ready to appreciate your work.
• On the date for which your group is scheduled, within 17-20-minute's time total for the group (no more, no less), present to the rest of the class the results of your collaborative research. Presentations may take whatever form you judge will communicate your insights, evidence, and arguments, the most effectively in the time allotted: feel free to use the resources of the classroom creatively. It is understood that substantive contributions to the presentation may take many different forms. The presentation should enable the rest of the class and the instructor to learn
  • what insights into later Roman history you have developed into your project
  • the evidence and analysis that have formed your insights - and how they have formed them
  • how your project relates to the class as a whole (presentations will be scheduled so as to coincide as neatly as possible with assigned study-material for the class as a whole, but the connections will vary and your research may open up additional connections to other course-material that you find even more significant)
• At the next class-meeting after your group's presentation-date, at the start of class: each member of the group submit an individual report of your own research and contributions to the collaborative project. Your report should
  • follow the format of an essay, defining and proving a brief but cogent central argument
  • be 1000-1200 words long (4 typed pages), not counting bibliography
  • document primary and secondary sources that contribute to your argument in footnotes and a separate but attached bibliography
  • follow all principles of academic integrity

Revised 16 January 2017 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/