Ancient History Seminar

Research & Methodology II

(CLA 5902)

Professor:Jitse H.F. Dijkstra

Office:DMS, room 10110

Telephone:562-5800 (ext. 1325)

E-mail:

Class:Wednesday, 2:30 – 5:20 p.m. VNR 3076

Office Hours:by appointment

Aims of the course

This course is a sequel to ‘Research and Methodology I’ given in the first semester. The latter course provided a historical background of the Late Antique period, supported by introductory classes on basic methodologies used to study this period. In this course the acquired knowledge will be deepened with detailed discussions of several larger themes of study. Presentations by scholars will give the students an idea of the variety of research that is conducted and the problems at stake. A further aim of this course is to prepare the students for the writing of their MA-thesis through the presentation of a chapter in a seminar.

Text Book

Mitchell, S. 2015. A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641, 2nd ed.[Blackwell History of the Ancient World]. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing.

Evaluation

Oral presentation and outline MA Research Paper: 10 %

Mid-term test: 30 %

Seminar presentation:20 %

Paper:40 %

Classes

This course consists of two parts. In the first half (until the mid-term test) the emphasis will be on acquiring a profound theoretical knowledge of important themes in the study of Late Antiquity, focusing especially on religious and social history. In addition, the themes will be illustrated by reading key texts in their original languages (Greek and Latin). Students will be required to prepare either a text (preparation of texts in Greek and Latin means knowing to translate them in good English or French and being able to explain them adequately!) or a piece of secondary literature (an article or book chapter), or both. If these are not given at the start of the course, they will be announced well in advance so that the students have enough time to prepare them.

Class attendance

Needless to say, attendance in this class is absolutely required. This means not only that students are expected to be physically (and mentally!) present in class but also that they have thoroughly prepared the required reading for it. It should also be noted that the readingsrequired for the specialized topic classes should be prepared as thoroughly as classes in the first half of the course.

Oral presentation

After four weeks of theoretical classes, the students have to present the primary and secondary literature they have collected for the topic of their MA-thesis in an oral presentation of no longer than 8 min. The source material should be presented in the form of a hand-out, which is given to both the professor and a referee (to be announced) the class before the presentation. Secondly, the students need to present a logical question emanating from their material and give clear directions as to the ways in which they are going to answer this question (= a first draft of outline of MA-thesis; 1-2 pp.). The presentations are followed by a short discussion started up by the referee.

Outline MA-thesis

With the feedback of their fellow students and the professor, they can then modify the ideas they have on their topic and make it into an outline of the MA-thesis (ca. 2 pp.), which has to be handed in the week after the reading week. The outline should contain more detailed information about one specific chapter of the Research Paper, which they will then turn into the final paper of this course. The presentation of the first draft of the outline, the amount of literature collected, the participation in class and during the presentation, the clarity of the outline and arguments will be factors in coming to the first mark, which is, essentially, a progress report.

Mid-term test

Directly after the reading week the assigned parts of Mitchell’s book, articles and other book chapters as well as the primary texts discussed in the first series of classes with accompanying class notes will all be tested.

Specialized topics

After the mid-term test there will be two specialized topics classes. The first class will be devoted to the texts that tell us about the so-called ‘destruction’ of the Serapeum in 391/2 and the murder of Hypatia in 415. Another class will be given by an invited speaker with a topic that will be announced later. Both classes serve to stimulate the research done by the students on their topics and illustrate the various methodologies and strategies scholars use and the problems they encounter in their research.

The homework for these classes will be significantly less than in the first half of the course, which gives students extra time to work on their papers. Students should use this time to start writing their papers.

Assignment

With the detailed knowledge of the sources on the Serapeum incident and murder of Hypatiaof the first specialized topics classin mind, students have to watch the movie Agora and write down, in a take-home assignment of 1-2 pp., what their opinion is of the movie, both its positive and negative points. The assignment must be handed in a week later. Students will not receive a mark, but the assignment is a part of the course, and therefore students who will not receive a pass cannot complete this course.

Writing week

After the two specialized topics classes, there is no class for a week. This time the students must use to finish a preliminary version of their paper. There is room for personal feedback from the professor upon appointment or through e-mail before and in the writing week.

Seminars

In the last two classes the students have to present preliminary versions of their papers. This means that the student has to pretend that he/she is already handing in the final version of the paper. After a summary of the project by the presenters not exceeding 15 min., referees will be appointed (to be announced) who have to ask at least one question. The referees should briefly state in their comments what they find attractive/not so attractive about the papers, leading to one or more questions (in total not exceeding 5 min.). After these 20 min. there is ample room for a group discussion, in which both the professor and supervisor of the student in question will participate.

The papers need to be circulated before class. The student must hand in the preliminary version of his/her paper to the professor and the referee at least one week before the presentation (one could think of sending the paper to the others by e-mail). The professor will mark the presentation on how it summarises the main line of thought in the paper (the student has to concentrate on: 1. the main question of the paper; 2. the evidence collected, eventual problems with collecting and the limitations to the evidence; 3. the results of the research/answer to the main question), originality and familiarity with the subject, and the way the questions from the audience are answered. In addition, the quality of the remarks by the referee will be taken into account for his/her mark.

Final Paper

After the seminar, the student has two weeks to adjust the paper, and in support of that he/she will receive the comments by the referee and the professor. This final paper consists of 15 to 18 pp.’s with line spacing 1.5, which conforms to the regulations of the MA-thesis. The paper will be marked on the basis of clarity of style, the adduced material and the argumentation.

Schedule

Wednesday January 11:

-course outline; What is expected of my Research Paper? Where to start?

Discussion of ‘Research Paper Rules’

-The religious transformation of Late Antiquity

Required reading: Mitchell, Ch. 7 (pp. 242-76 = 35 pp.)

Further reading: P. Garnsey, C. Humfress, The Evolution of the Late Antique World (Cambridge, 2001) Ch. 7 (‘Religion’)

Wednesday, January 18:

-The religious transformation of Late Antiquity (2)

Required reading: Mitchell, Ch. 8 (pp. 277-324 = 58 pp.) and selected texts

-The religious transformation of Late Antiquity (3): Church history

Wednesday, January 25:

-the many conversions of Constantine

Required reading: Selected texts from PanegyriciLatini, Lactantius, Eusebius

-Barbarians and Empire

Required reading: Mitchell Ch. 6 (pp. 206-41 = 36 pp.)

Wednesday, February 1:

-The ‘Fall’ of Rome in 476: a Turning Point?

Required reading: Mitchell Ch. 3 (pp. 95-102), 4 (pp. 108-28) (= 29 pp.); G.W. Bowersock, ‘The Vanishing Paradigm of the Fall of Rome’, Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 49.8 (1996) 29-4; P.J. Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire (Basingstoke and Oxford, 2005) 431-59 (Ch. 10)

Further reading: B. Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford, 2005)

-The Legal Codes and the effect of Laws on Late Antique Society: The Fate of the Temples

Required reading: Selected texts from Codex Theodosianus (esp. 16.10)

Wednesday, February 8:

-Oral Presentations

-Late Antique archaeology: the birth of a (sub)discipline

Required reading: L. Lavan, ‘Late Antique Archaeology: An Introduction’, in L. Lavan, W. Bowden (eds), Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology (Leiden, 2003) viii-xvi