Student Projects – Overview
- Bibliography and prospectus. By the end of September, each of you will have selected an area of interest in early Greek historiography. This can be more literary or theoretical, e.g. the intersection between historiography and political theory or rhetoric (theory or ancient practice) or other literary traditions (e.g. tragedy, epic); or more historical (sources from the east, Periclean Athens in the inscriptional record, and so forth); or more specific to Herodotus or Thucydides (problem of sources, narratology, oral traditions and collective memory, etc.); or the influence on later historiography; or whatever else connects with your deep interests. (More than one student may have the same area of interest.) Over the course of the term you will add to the class Projects page an annotated bibliography of your readings as you work through them: the goal here is not simply an abstract, but some indication of the contents along with what you find fruitful (or not). As you work on this, you should noodle hard on a viable project that could result from work in this area. That viable project (preferably a project of article or conference-paper length) will result at term’s end in a prospectus, at least one page and no longer than three pages. The prospectus will describe the viable project you have in mind, with reference to the bibliography you have surveyed; if far enough along, include an outline. This will be due by the last day of classes, and will form the basis for our last, round-table discussion.
- Brief article or Review Essay. No more than 10 pages. If your viable project is ready, you can make a first stab at it in a brief article, either in the manner of a 15-minute talk, or by focusing on one section of what will be a greater whole. (Vague 10-page summaries of a large project are discouraged.) If your viable project is too undeveloped, you will select either one book or coherent set of articles that are important to you, and write a review essay of 5-10 pages. I will offer examples and more guidance on this later, but to get the idea start focusing on longer reviews in the principal classical journals as you peruse them. Due by the noon on the Friday of exam week (Dec. 16).