CLST 389-01W / CATH 300-01W / HIST 300B-01W / MSTU 398-01W Classical Backgrounds: Augustine - Writing Intensive Spring Semester 2012 Dr. Jacqueline Long MWF 10:25am-11:15am Mundelein 308

---

Research Projects

---

Goals

• To develop and pursue a project of cultural-historical research complementing course work
• To cooperate on research and collaborative presentation
• To share your research and conclusions with your classmates through a joint oral presentation
• To report on your individual research and conclusions, and contribution to the collaboration, formally through writing

---

Directions and deadlines:

• Wednesday 18 January - Wednesday 22 February: begin to explore areas of cultural-historical inquiry relating to Augustine you would like to investigate further with research during the second half of the term. Identify topics (e.g., religious controversy, sexuality and scandal, women's rights, Classical traditions of literary education), source-materials (specific works of Augustine and relevant other primary and secondary sources that will help you investigate them), and methods of investigation (e.g., rhetorical analysis, prosopography, correlation with imperial legislation, quantification and statistics) that interest you, and 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.
• 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. The group is intended to serve two ends in course-activities: to provide each individual researcher with a couple of colleagues working on related topics, with whom you can share resources and insights and exchange feedback on the ideas and arguments you're developing, and to work together on a brief joint presentation that will share some points of interest where your separate projects intersect, with the class as a whole. 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
  • 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
• Wednesday 29 February (if not earlier): receive group assignments, exchange contact information, and start planning your collaboration (Groups will be established for you in Blackboard, but of course it can only pick up your Loyola addresses)
  • discuss how your assigned topic meshes with group-members' interests, how you can support one another as you each pursue your individual research projects, and how you can develop a collaborative presentation of areas where your individual work intersects, so that the whole class can be enriched by your endeavors
  • agree on a distribution of individual responsibilities within the collaboration
  • agree on a schedule of further consultations as you each pursue your individual projects and responsibilities to the group, 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 Friday 16 March
• Friday 16 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
• Two actual class-meetings before your group's date (i.e., usually a bit less than a week, but extra around 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 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 20-minute's time total for the group (no more, no less), present to the rest of the class results of your research in the areas where your individual projects intersect. 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 Augustine's world, work, and thought you have developed
  • 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 presentation. Your report should
  • follow the format of an essay, defining and proving a brief but cogent central argument built out of your analysis of primary and secondary sources
  • 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
• Friday 27 April: each member of the class submit a formal report of your whole individual research project. Your report should
  • follow the format of an essay, defining and proving a brief but cogent central argument built out of your analysis of primary and secondary sources
  • be 2000-2500 words long (8 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 19 February 2012 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/