Requirements

Course Requirements

Students are expected to do weekly readings comprehensively, and contribute to seminar discussions as much as possible. A graduate seminar is only successful if all participants collaborate effectively with critical debate and collegial responsibility.

1. Presentations and leading discussion

All students will be asked to volunteer for short presentations in class on selected articles or a specific body of archaeological/textual material, and to lead class discussion around those materials. This will allow us to cover a larger body of literature collaboratively. The presentations should cover the gist of the argument in the article, raise relevant and provocative discussion questions, and should last somewhere between 8-10 minutes at most.

2. Response Papers

In the first half of the semester (Weeks 2-6), the written tasks will involve a series of brief response papers (5 in total) in response to our discussions during the seminars (to be posted on the wiki one week after each discussion). These response papers will be brief, creative and dynamic essays that are inspired by some aspects of your weekly reading and the discussion that ensues it.

3. Research project

In the second half, students will focus on their research project. There will be no exams. Students will choose a research topic in collaboration with Ömür and turn it into a project. The project should involve an analytical and critical discussion of a relevant art historical problem, or body of material or monument relevant to our seminar discussions (drawing comparisons from outside the Near East are always welcome when relevant). It would be very beneficial for the whole group if topics are elected from areas that are not comprehensively covered during the regular gatherings, such as iconoclasm, connoisseurship, issues of heritage and museum exhibition, wall paintings, etc.

The research project’s presentations will include

a project proposal of 250-300 words with preliminary bibliography (Due March 15th)
a 15-20 min class presentation (To be scheduled for April 18th and 25th)
a 6-8 page paper draft, due on the day of your presentation. Feedback will follow.
14-20 page final paper (12-font, double spaced, excluding images and bibliography) (Due May 13th)

Grading will be based on class participation (20%), oral presentations (10%), response papers (20%), research project (50%). Class participation includes regular attendance and contribution to seminar discussions. Since this is a seminar meeting only once per week, missing a class means missing a large quantity of material. Apart from sicknesses and family emergencies, please try not to miss any of the meetings. If you do have to miss the a seminar, arrange with Ömür for ways to make this up. Please note that an extra amount of writing assignment may be required from the students who miss seminar meetings.