Requirements and Assignments

Class Participation: (20%) Class participation will be based on your attendance, your overall contribution to the discussion, and how prepared you are to engage with the class and subject matter. You should expect to join in all classroom activities and any class discussions. Paying attention to lectures, visual media, AND completing your reading assignments are thus vital to your ability to participate with your classmates.

Google Docs Journal (20%) You are required to make journal entries on your reading assignments. These entries are notes, not finished papers, but they must have some substance (at least 200 words) and show real thought on your part. Entries should:

  1. note the major points of the reading
  2. identify the reading’s point of view. Is the reading trying to persuade you of something? What? How? (By an authoritative tone? an appeal to emotion? etc. Examples?
  3. comment on the writing style. (clear and matter-of-fact? Colorful? Poetic? Irrational?)
  4. Note at least one open ended question for class

Your journal entries will be graded on completeness, accuracy, depth of critical thinking. Journal entries must be completed prior to the class for which the reading is due.

Discussion Leader: (20%) This course operates as a seminar, utilizing the philosophy of a “flipped classroom,” where students lead class discussions, and teach the articles to the class. It is expected that you will: 1. Summarize or have other students clearly and succinctly review the readings. 2. Pose questions to the group to develop the main ideas, as well as highlighting strengths and weaknesses. 3. Bring in outside resources (films, video clips, news articles, etc.) to highlight important points and to develop the overall discussion.

Annotated Bibliography/Historiographic Essay: (10%) Over the course of the semester, each of you will construct a cumulative research paper. You will need to choose a topic for your research early in the semester*. Once you have chosen a topic in consultation with the instructor, you will prepare an annotated bibliography (with at least two books and five articles) on that topic, along with a brief (1-2 pages, double-spaced) summary of the historiographic “state of the field” on that topic. This bibliography will be due in class on 23 February.

*your research proposal is due on 2 February

Primary Source Analysis Paper: (15%) Based on your preliminary research, you will need to choose one (or a couple, at most) primary source representing a perspective on your topic and write a careful analysis of that source. Your analysis will need to place the primary source within your broader field of inquiry, describe what we can learn about your topic from the specific text or artifact, and assess the significance of the primary source. This paper will be 2-3 pages (double spaced), and will be due in class on 23 March.

Final Project: (25%) The final research paper (4-6 pages) or Podcast (9-12 minutes) provides you with an opportunity to explore a topic in depth. I expect you to engage creatively and critically with primary sources and with secondary literature beyond what I have assigned for the course. Your final paper should be well-researched, polished, and proofread, with complete citations  and should include the information you researched for your Primary Source Analysis Paper.

You are required to write a research paper or present a podcast centered on a witchcraft trial, an Inquisition trial, or other official investigation of possession, or supernatural activity.

Starting with the primary source records (in translation) from a case/investigation of your choice from the classical, early modern, or contemporary period, your goal will be to collect additional information through secondary sources and then to make an argument about how that particular case was connected to its specific religious, social, and political context — in other words, why did that case develop at that particular time, in that particular place, with its particular form and consequences?

Official university, archive, or library websites are acceptable sources for your primary source material.

All sources for your paper or podcast (including assigned readings and any information cited from class lectures) must be clearly cited using footnotes formatted according to Chicago Style (unless cleared by me in advance).

You are welcome to come and discuss your ideas with me at any time.

In order to guide you through the process of composing a polished research paper, I ask you to complete interim assignments on which I will give feedback. Each of these will count for 5% of your final project grade. These assignments are: