Guidelines for Independent Study or Directed Research with Adam Shear

RELGST 1901/JEWST 1901: INDEPENDENT STUDY

--This course is intended for students who want to do a set of readings on a subject not covered regularly in the curriculum. (I will not do an independent study on a subject that is covered in existing courses.)

--The reading can be at an introductory level (for a general topic that we do not cover in the curriculum, e.g. “The Jews of China”) or at an advanced level (building on the work of a previous course; e.g. someone who has taken Jewish-Christian Relations may wants to study Jewish-Christian polemics in-depth).

--Typical work: a set of readings on the topic, grouped into sub-topics; discussion; 2-3 short papers on the material or a longer bibliographic essay covering the whole course.

--Not a W course-- normally, writing will be not will not be the primary focus.

Schedule:

--Before term or within the drop/add period: definition of the topic; generation of a preliminary list of readings; schedule of meetings and deadlines.

--By week 5 of the term: development of a reading list; during this period, I will suggest readings and you will also be expected to do bibliographic research in the library to generate relevant readings as well.

--Weeks 6-14: weekly or biweekly meetings moving through the “syllabus”; short papers turned in at regular intervals.

RELGST 1903: DIRECTED RESEARCH - UNDERGRADUATE

--This is intended for students to pursue focused and advanced research:

--“focused”: i.e. the topic must be clearly defined and limited in scope so that a coherent research paper can emerge;

--“advanced”: i.e. the topic must build on/emerge from previous coursework to ensure that the student has the background and base of knowledge necessary to do research in this field;

--“research”: i.e. the resulting paper must involve original research on primary sources.

--W course: Writing will be a major focus of the course, and the end result will be a substantive research paper (15-20 pp). Drafts will be read and discussed.

Students should have completed their general writing requirement prior to undertaking this course.

--Work of the semester: development of a focused research topic; secondary source (background) reading and primary source research; the writing of a term paper based on original research.

Schedule:

--Before term or within add/drop period: definition of the general topic and description of how the topic builds on previous coursework and fits into your academic studies; generation of a preliminary list of readings--you will propose the topic (I can make suggestions but it is your research--I am the supervisor and advisor, not the primary investigator); schedule of deadlines and meetings set.

--By week 4 of the term: definition of research questions; development of a preliminary bibliography--most of this work will be based on your bibliographical research in the library.

--By week 6 of the term: clear statement of research topic and questions; full bibliography including list of primary sources.

--By week 8 of the term: preliminary thesis and preliminary outline.

--By week 10 of the term: rough draft.

--Final paper completed by exam week.

THE DIRECTED RESEARCH COURSE AS “CAPSTONE” EXPERIENCE

For Religious Studies majors and minors, this is considered the “capstone” to your undergraduate Religious Studies education. As such, it should ideally build on previous coursework and not mark a departure in a totally new direction. However, it may well be that the student becomes interested in pursuing original research in an area in which he or she does not have a great deal of background knowledge. In this case, I highly recommend pursuing a two-semester sequence: an independent study course to explore the area of interest and to do the necessary background reading in the secondary sources, followed by a directed research course in the second semester.