There is one major assignment for this course that requires work outside of class, namely, your research paper. You will do part of this paper in the middle of the quarter, when you research and write about the evidence of gender at one archaeological site in early Christianity . After that, you will expand your research to address a contemporary topic related to the issues that appear in the literature related to your dig site. Your final research paper, due during finals week, will integrate your original archaeological site with your contemporary issue, analyzing the way gender is constructed in each social context and comparing them as well. The final paper will also include your reflection on what archaeological, literary and feminist methods can and cannot tell us, and your reflection on your own beliefs about gender and religion in light of your research. Here is a little bit more information about each of the four sections; links take you further down the page for more complete prompts:
Dig Site: Research on the archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence for one site in early Christianity, with attention to the performance of gender;
4-page draft due on date of presentation to the class in 4th-to-9th week; final draft incorporated into final paper as the first four pages (after a one-paragraph introduction to the entire paper).
Early or current debate: Research that extends beyond the site you chose to explore the early Christian evidence more deeply or to connect it to a contemporary debate, using your archaeological evidence and feminist analysis;
8 pages presenting research and connecting research topic to evidence from dig site paper; not due until final paper is submitted on Wednesday, March 20.
Reflection on methods: Discussion of the usefulness and interplay of archaeological, literary and feminist methods together to approach your topic; and
2 pages reflecting on the methods you used (not the content or results); not due until final paper is submitted on Wednesday, March 20.
Reflection on your own beliefs: Reflection on how the study of your topic has reinforced, expanded, or otherwise affected your own beliefs (religious or secular) about the topic.
1 page of reflection on the integration of your research with your own ideas and beliefs; not due until final paper is submitted on Wednesday, March 20.
The two major sections, 1 and 2, are somewhat separate and are designed to involve separate work. However, it's in your interest to choose a dig site project (a site and related early Christian evidence) that dovetails well with a past or current topic that you're interested in, so that they can inform each other in the final paper.
This assignment is spread out over the course of the quarter to help you with the various stages of it. Here are the stages and deadlines, along with links to specific directions, sample assignments, and templates you can use to draft your assignment:
All papers are due in electronic form and in the Microsoft Word format before class (or for the final paper by the end of our exam period). The templates above set the right margins, type face, and styles, but if you have any formatting questions, follow the Style
Sheet (also in the navigation to the left) for directions. There is a separate Camino drop box for each paper. You do not need to turn in a hard copy (that is, a printed copy) of these papers.
The paper is worth 40% of your grade total: 15% for your Dig Site draft, 5% for the punctuality of all stages, and 20% for the final paper. You'll find links to the evaluation rubrics for the Dig Site paper/presentation and the final research paper in the table above; each lays out the learning objectives and performance standards for your work.
Dig Site
For access to the presentation schedule, use the "Dig Sites" button on every course page (upper left) or click here.
The first stage of the research paper assignment for this quarter is to study one site in early Christianity. You are looking for evidence of how gender categories were understood or practiced in that place in early Christianity. Since evidence from the past is fragmentary, we'll need to look at everything available: material artifacts, structures, inscriptions, and literary texts. These various data require some facility with different methods of feminist archaeological, literary and theological analysis. We'll get a lot of practice with the latter two throughout the quarter, but this article in the Dig Sites folder (Files tab) will help you with feminist archaeological analysis:
Spencer-Wood, Suzanne M. "Feminist Gender Research in Classical Archaeology." In Women in Antiquity: Theoretical Approaches to Gender and Archaeology (ed. Sarah Milledge Nelson; Gender and Archaeology; New York: AltaMira, 2007) 265-99.
This article is the first item in the Dig Sites folder on the course Camino page.
The next step is to select five sources listed for your site on the Dig Sites page: 2 should be drawn from the archaeological and epigraphic sources, 1 should be drawn from the primary texts we will read that day in class (be sure to pick a Christian text), and 2 should be drawn from the secondary literature about the evidence (you'll find the sources for your topic grouped in these categories, to make your selection easier). Once you've selected your sources, read them and prepare your paper and presentation. You'll find most of the articles on the course Camino site; just go to the Dig Sites folder in "Files" and find your site folder. Many of the books are on reserve at the circulation desk in the library. Some of the sources may have to be ordered from Interlibrary Loan.
Next, write your paper. Spend a paragraph introducing the history of your site (focus only on the time period of early Christianity, ideally the even narrower time period of your primary Christian text), and then discuss in about two pages the material evidence you researched and what it tells us about gender construction or performance. The final page and a half should introduce your primary Christian text and the research you did on it, analyzing once again what it tells us about gender construction or performance. Finally, consider whether the material and literary evidence dovetail or contradict. Integrate Spencer-Wood's article as it is helpful. Complete the paper and submit it to the assignment drop box on Camino before class on the date of your presentation.
Lastly, you'll present your research to the class on the date of your presentation. Prepare a 15-minute presentation and discussion, including images of the sites and significant artifacts as you think they will be useful. Prepare your presentation in advance in Powerpoint, Keynote or Google Slides and upload the file to our shared class file folder on Google Drive by 9pm the night before your presentation. Arrive early to class to cue up your presentation. At the end of your presentation, students will ask questions and evaluate your presentation, and will be quizzed by the professor to assess how well they understood your main points.
This draft of your research on the archaeological and Christian literary evidence from early Christianity will count as 15 of the 40 total points for the Research Paper. Here is the evaluation rubric that the professor will use for this written and oral stage. You'll receive feedback on your draft from the professor, and you can incorporate these suggestions in the final version of these pages that become part of the final research paper. In a sense, this dig site material gets graded twice, once now at a draft stage (15 points), and later as part of the remaining 25 points allocated for the complete, integrated assignment.
Early or Current Debate
This is the part of your paper in which you expand your research to an issue or debate in early Christianity or in our contemporary world that is related to your Dig Site project. This part of your paper will comprise eight pages. Possible topics tied to each Dig Site project are listed under the dig sites at the Dig Sites page, but you'll find more ideas and some bibliographic leads at the Research
link to the left. Feel free to develop another option in consultation with the
professor; the only stipulations are that your topic needs to tie in to early Christian literature and use gender analysis. In addition to the topics, the Research link in the navigation to the left also has research tips, advice on writing with
integrity, Scripture Tools, and Exegesis tools for critical reading of scripture. Following are further guidelines for the various stages of the research paper.
Topic Statement
You will be
required to submit your topic statement and intended sources in the 4th week.
The topic statement should have the usual personal information in an upper corner
(see the Style Sheet),
and 3 other parts:
identification of your dig site;
a 1-3 sentence statement of the wider topic you intend to examine with some idea of how it might tie in to your dig site project; and
a list of the sources you intend to use. You should have 10 professional sources
at this stage of your research: 6 for your Dig Site paper (1 the Spencer-Wood resource listed in the Dig Site directions, 2 on archaeological/epigraphic evidence, 1 primary Christian text, and 2 on the secondary literature discussing the literary evidence), and 4 for your wider topic. These sources should be typed up as bibliographic
entries; see the Style Sheet
for directions on the proper format, and click
here if you'd like to see what the final product should look like.
There are five databases on the library website that may be useful, depending on your project:
Here are some videos to help you use the databases:
Find sources through the ATLA Religion Database
5.40
Find more sources in other databases
2.24
Set up your document properly
4.34
A sample of the assignment and templates you can use to format your paper are posted above.
Outline
In addition to the topic statement, you will be required to submit an outline in
the 9th week to the assignment drop box on Camino. The outline should be 2-3 pages single-spaced and should be broken
out into the four required sections of the paper (plus an introduction and conclusion of one paragraph each):
your introduction
wider issue or debate
how your dig site paper factors into the discussion of the issue
your reflection on the feminist archaeological and literary methods used in your paper,
your reflection on your own beliefs in light of what you have learned, and
your conclusion.
The introductory paragraph should simply introduce the topic, thesis and scope of the paper: it should not have any quotations or details of your topic yet. Its role is to introduce the paper, not the whole topic. Likewise, the conclusion should remind the reader of the topic, scope and thesis and what has been demonstrated and learned through the project.
Your real work comes in the nested subtopics of sections 2 and 3 above, for this is where you lay out for your reader how you're going to be developing your argument about your thesis and indicating what archaeological and literary evidence from early Christianity is relevant. Think of the outline as a map laying out
the logic of your paper. A sample and templates you can use to start the document are posted above.
Reflection on Methods
These two pages discuss whether and to what extent the literary, archaeological and epigraphic methods you used in your research convey the
same picture or diverge from one another. In this section, you want to compare the usefulness of the methods, not the details of the results they produce. Here are the sorts of questions you might ask to help you compared the methods:
Which of the methods (literary analysis, archaeological analysis) yields the most information about gender?
Were all of your sources using genderor feminist questions? If so, what types of questions from which feminist "wave," did they use (see Spencer-Wood and our class notes)?
Are there reasons why one type of evidence is readily available and others are not?
Do the methods produce a consistent or a contradictory picture of gender, or is the evidence they produce so different in kind that comparisons cannot easily be made? If the pictures they provide of gender at the site differ from each other, on what grounds would you rely
on one method more than another to build a picture of gender roles in antiquity, and why?
Reflection on Beliefs
This final page of your paper is more of a personal reflection. Consider why you chose your topic in the first place; what did you want to find out? Did these methods and the evidence you studied confirm, expand, or challenge your existing beliefs? Your "beliefs" can be religious beliefs, or beliefs about religion, or secular beliefs about things like gender roles, social interaction, etc.
