University of Pittsburgh, SPRING 2007 [2084]
Religious Studies 1644/Jewish Studies 1644/History 1768
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 am-12:15 pm
HISTORY OF JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS
Instructor: Adam Shear
phone number: 412-624-2280
office hours: Mondays, 1-3 pm, and by appointment
office: 2603 Cathedral of Learning
e-mail: ashear@pitt.edu
course home page: http://courseweb.pitt.edu
Course Description:
The history of Jewish-Christian relations is a field that encompasses two thousand years of interactions
between individuals and groups, and can include the study of social, cultural, political, economic, and
intellectual interactions.
Although we will proceed chronologically, we are mainly interested in addressing key interpretive questions
that historians continue to discuss and debate about the relations between Jews and Christians in particular
periods. Each of these issues generates a set of questions that historians continue to debate. You will read
some key secondary sources and study some of the primary sources (as available in English translation)
that relate to these issues. You will then enter into these debates and try to answer some of the questions
on the basis of your reading of both primary and secondary sources.
UNIT I: Late Antiquity (1st-6th centuries) when Christianity and rabbinic Judaism emerge as distinct
religions and when Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman empire. Here we consider the
relationship between rabbinic Judaism and Christianity in their formative periods.
During this unit we will consider the following questions:
1. How and when did Judaism and Christianity split into different religions?
2. To what extent were anti-Jewish teachings embedded into Christianity from the beginnings of the
movement? When did anti-Jewish teachings enter Christian doctrine and how central are they?
3. How much did polemic with Judaism influence the theological development of early Christianity?
4. How much did polemic with Christianity influence the theological development of rabbinic Judaism?
UNIT II: The Middle Ages in the Latin West (the world of “Catholic” or “Roman” Christianity). Here we will
focus on a period in which Jews were the primary "Other" in Christendom.
During this unit we will consider the following questions:
1. How does Jewish status in Christian Europe compare to the status of other minority groups?
2. How does Jewish status in Christian Europe compare to Jewish status in the lslamic world?
3. Is there a decline in Jewish status in Christian Europe? If so, what accounts for this decline and when
does it begin?
4. Who is responsible for promulgating negative views of Jews in the Middle Ages?
5. What is the role of violence in the medieval Jewish-Christian relationship?
UNIT III: Towards Modernity (16th-19th centuries). Here we will mainly consider whether Jewish-Christian
relations changed in the process of modernization in Europe. One of the major issues here will be the
relationship between medieval anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism:
During this unit we will consider the following questions:
1. Is there a difference between the hostility toward the Jews in pre-modern Christian Europe and the
hostility toward the Jews that develops in the nineteenth century under the term “antisemitism”?
2. If so, in what does this difference consist?
3. Is modern antisemitism based on religion, on race, on politics, on economics, or on a combination of
these elements?
4. If there is a difference between religious or Christian antisemitism or anti-Judaism and modern
antisemitism, when does the difference emerge?
5. What are the crucial moments in 19th-century and early 20th-century European history that mark the
emergence of the virulent anti-Jewish hostility that will culminate in the Nazi Holocaust?
At the end of the course, we will briefly consider changes in Jewish-Christian relations in the aftermath of
the Holocaust.
Course Goals:
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Identify the major turning points and the key issues in the history of Jewish-Christian relations since late
antiquity.
2. Identify the major positions taken by historians in the scholarly debates over the questions listed above.
Specific skills that you will work on:
1. Reading a primary source and being able to understand the meaning of the source for its author and for
its intended audience.
2. Reading a primary source and being able to understand how later audiences may have understood the
text.
3. Reading a secondary source (a scholarly article or book in the fields of history and religious studies) and
being able to identify the author’s thesis and how he or she makes the argument.
4. Being able to assess the quality of a scholarly argument in the fields of history and religious studies.
5. Writing and speaking about primary and secondary sources as historian (the use of professional,
academic discourse).
6. Writing a critical review of a piece of scholarship that synthesizes scholarly arguments and historical
evidence.
Work of the course:
Our course will run as a hybrid of a lecture course and a historical seminar.1 Some days, the instructor will
lecture to introduce new material. On other days, we will discuss primary sources (the raw material of the
historian) and secondary sources (the work of other historians). You will be expected to take an active part
in these discussions and to engage with your fellow students and with the instructor as not only a student
but as a teacher.
Active participation in discussions is essential and will count as 20% of your grade.
Approximately once a week for the first half of the semester you will be asked to do a short informal writing
assignment outside of class, called a response paper, to help you prepare for the discussions. You may
Here’s a description of the original history seminar from Johns Hopkins University in the nineteenth
century when it was a revolutionary concept in history education: “Rather than delivering lectures and
examining the students on what they remembered, the seminar method required students to research a
defined topic themselves and present their findings to the professor and the class. Participants were
expected to critique fellow students' presentations, and were graded based on their research and critiques.”
(James Stimpert, “Hopkins History: Pioneer of Graduate Seminars in the U.S.” Johns Hopkins University
Gazette [October 23, 2000], http://www.jhu.edu/gazette/2000/oct2300/23adams.html, accessed March 11,
2007.) We will adapt this slightly as this is an undergraduate class but the basic philosophy holds: the
class will form a community that will educate itself about this topic, under the guidance of the instructor.
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then be called on in class to discuss your paper. 6 of these response papers are assigned and you are
required to submit 5 of the 6 papers. These writing assignments will count as 20% of your grade.
You will also be asked to specialize in one of the first two units above and complete additional
readings related to that issue. Once during the semester, you will be asked to summarize a reading for
your classmates in a short summary that will be posted to Courseweb (10% of your grade). You will be
asked to work with the other students specializing in your issue to plan a two-session seminar on that issue
and you will be called on to make a short oral report during that class period (10% of your grade). After
spring break you will be asked to turn in a review essay on your reading in which you synthesize course
readings, discussion, and the additional reading you have done (20% of your grade).
At the end of the semester, you will be asked to write a take-home final in which you synthesize the
themes in the last unit of the course. (20% of your grade).
All of the writing assignments are explained in greater detail below and you will also be given additional
information about each one.
It is essential that you attend class sessions and that you prepare for class sessions beforehand by
doing the reading. You should complete the readings assigned for "lecture" days in advance as those
sessions will include some discussion as well.
There is no separate attendance grade but not attending class will have a direct negative impact on your
class participation grade and an indirect negative impact on your work as a student in the class because
each discussion will build on the previous discussion.
"Direct" negative impacts:
1) If you are not in class during the symposium for your group, you will be given a zero on the oral report
grade and your participation grade will be lowered by 2 points out of 20 (i.e. 2% of the final grade). Unless
you are on death’s door, you must appear in class for your group’s symposium. (This is your highlight
performance of the semester and the “show must go on.”)
2) You may have two unexcused absences. For each additional unexcused absence after these two, your
participation grade will be lowered by 1 additional point out of the 20 points for class participation.
Readings:
There are two kinds of reading in this class (as in every history class). Primary sources are texts (or
images or other material remains) from the period(s) we are studying. They are the raw material of the
historian and the archive or library rare book room is the historians’ field site. In this class, you will not be
asked to go to the library or archives to retrieve the primary sources. Instead, you will read them (in English
translation) in published form, either in books or on the internet (either directly or via the e-reserve system of
Hillman.) Secondary sources are works of historiography (“history writing”) by contemporary scholars in
the field. This material comes in book-form (monographs or textbooks) or as chapters in books or as journal
articles.
You should purchase the following books. They are available at the Pitt Book Center and are on reserve
in Hillman Library. ISBN information is provided in case you wish to purchase the book from another
source.
▪Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (U. Calif. Press, 1996). ISBN 0520205065.
▪Jeremy Cohen, ed. Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict. (NYU Press, 1991). ISBN
0814714439
▪Leonard Glick, Abraham’s Heirs: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe. (Syracuse University Press,
1999). ISBN 0815627793
▪Johannes Reuchlin, Recommendation Whether to Confiscate, Destroy, and Burn all Jewish Books. (Paulist
Press, 2000). ISBN 0809139723
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Israel Yuval, Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages.(University of California Press, 2006).
David Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism.
(Random House, 2001), ISBN 0375706054
You should also have available to you a copy of the Bible that includes the New Testament (any translation
will do; a copy of the Oxford Study Bible [Oxford UP, 1992; ISBN 0195290003] is available at the Pitt Book
Center).
Some readings are found on the Internet (if directly, the URL is given here), sometimes through the
University Library Electronic Reserve system: http://pittcat.pitt.edu/. You will be given a password in class.
Since some of the Internet and e-reserve material is only available to Pitt students and faculty, you will need
to use an on-campus computer (so that the subscription databases recognize the IP address) or the “SSL
VPN” which allows you access from off-campus: http://www.library.pitt.edu/services/remote.html.
Remember that in addition to the readings on the outline below, you will be asked to read, summarize, and
discuss one additional book listed below for the unit (I or II) that you choose. All of these books have
been placed on reserve in Hillman so that all members of the group and the rest of the class have access to
them. But you will need to spend a bit more time with “your” book. You might want to purchase the
monograph you choose for the symposium (group discussion assignment). ISBN information is provided
below for these books as well. If you wish to purchase one of these books on-line, do so early in the
semester. Keep in mind that most of these books have been around for some years, so used copies
should be available. Try used-book services on-line in addition to the new book specialists. If you want to
borrow the book from a library, check for copies in local public libraries or use the EZ Borrow system to
borrow one for up to two months (1 renewal) from another academic library in Pennsylvania and
surrounding states. After you order the book, it usually takes about a week to come to Hillman:
http://palci.library.pitt.edu/%7Eursa/PITT_login.html. (If you do not know about EZBorrow, you are missing
out on one of the great features of our library system.)
Readings marked with an asterisk [*] should be brought to class on the indicated date for discussion.
REMEMBER: READINGS SHOULD BE DONE
BEFORE THE CLASS SESSION INDICATED.
Course Outline:
Monday January 7: Introduction to course
UNIT I: Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity
Wednesday January 9: Judaism and Christianity in the 1st century
Glick, Abraham’s Heirs, 1-25.
(Monday January 14: no class, MLK Day)
Wednesday January 16: New Testament Views of Jews
*W. Meeks, “Breaking Away,” Essential Papers, 89-113.
*New Testament texts: Romans 9-11; Galatians, especially ch. 3; 1 Corinthians 10; Hebrews; Mark 13: 913; 14: 22-25; Matthew 12: 46-50; 21; Luke 22:14-20; 24:44-53; John 8:31-59; 12; 16:1-4; I Thessalonians
2:14-16; Acts 13
Response Paper #1: Compare the discussion of Jews in two of the books of the New Testament. (Cite
Meeks' interpretation where appropriate). How would a historian explain the divergent views? How would a
Christian theologian explain divergent views?
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Skill you are working on: Identifying the difference between a historical reading and a theological reading of
a scriptural or canonical text.
Monday January 21: Church Fathers and the Jews
Ruether, “The Adversos Judaeos Tradition in the Church Fathers,” Essential Papers , 174-189.
*Augustine, City of God, Book 18, ch. 46: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120118.htm;
*Augustine, Sermons 200 and 201 in The Works of Saint Augustine, III/6, on the Liturgical Seasons, trans.
Hill (New Rochelle, NY, 1993), pp. 83-89. (e-reserve) (book is also on reserve)
For response paper #2, you may choose between writing a paper for Monday January 21 or Wednesday
January 23.
Response Paper #2: Summarize Ruether. Identify the argument the author wishes to make (her thesis) and
the evidence she presents to support the argument. Do not analyze--summarize.
Skill you are working on: Understanding and summarizing the way a historian makes an argument.
Wednesday January 23: Rabbinic Constructions of the Other
L. Schiffman, "At the Crossroads" Essential Papers,
*Israel Yuval, Two Nations in Your Womb, 1-91.
Response Paper #2: Summarize Schiffman or Yuval. Identify the argument the author wishes to make (his
thesis) and the evidence he presents to support the argument. Do not analyze--summarize.
Skill you are working on: Understanding and summarizing the way a historian makes an argument.
Friday January 25:
FOR GROUP I: Book summaries are due via e-mail as a Microsoft Word document or via Courseweb
Digital Dropbox on one of the following books:
John Gager. The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity
(Oxford UP, 1985), ISBN 978-0195036077
Peter Schäfer, Judeophopbia: Attitudes toward Judaism in the Ancient World (Harvard UP, 1998), ISBN
978-0674487789
Peter Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton University Press, 2007), ISBN 978-0691129266
Daniel Boyarin, Borderlines: the Partition of Judeo-Christianity (UPenn Press, 2006), ISBN 978-0812219869
Andrew Jacobs, Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity (Stanford UP,
2004), 978-0804747059
Marcel Simon, Verus Israel. (Littmann Library, 1996). ISBN 978-1874774273.
Monday January 28-Wednesday January 30: Symposium on UNIT I
Reading for everyone:
Marcel Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism" Essential Papers, 131-173.
and Summaries from Group I
In class: Oral Reports from Group I and discussion of Unit I issues.
UNIT II: Judaism and Christianity in the Medieval Latin West
Monday February 4: Jews in the Latin West
Glick, Abraham’s Heirs, 26-110.
Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade, 1-37.
*Blumenkranz, “The Roman Church and the Jews,” Essential Papers, 193-230
*Grayzel, “The Papal Bull Sicut Judeis,” Essential Papers, 231-259.
Wednesday February 6:J ewish Legal and Political Status in Medieval Europe
* http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/novel146.html
* http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1084landjews.html
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*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1244-jews-austria.html
*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jews-sietepart.html
*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lat4-c68.html l
*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g10-jews.html
Response Paper #3: Choose one of the primary sources and explain what we can learn about the status of
Jews in medieval Europe from this source. Explain what in the source leads you to your conclusion.
Explain what other sources might be used to corroborate your view or what might challenge your view. If
other sources (primary or secondary) suggest a different conclusion, how do you explain the divergence?
Skill you are working on: Interpreting legal sources.
Monday February 11: The Crusades
Liebeschütz, “The Crusading Movement…,” Essential Papers, 260-275.
Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade, 38-136.
Wednesday February 13: Jewish responses to the First Crusade
*”Mainz Anonymous” Chronicle [S] and Solomon Bar Simson [L], in Chazan, European Jewry and the First
Crusade, 223-297.
*Marcus, “From Politics to Martyrdom,” Essential Papers, 469-483.
Response Paper #4: How do Chazan and Marcus interpret the Hebrew First Crusade chronicles
differently? On what do they agree and disagree?
Skill you are working on: Understanding how historians differ in interpretation of primary sources.
Monday February 18: Post-Crusade Developments
Glick, Abraham’s Heirs, 155-183.
*Ruderman, “Champion of Jewish Economic Interests,” Essential Papers, 514-536.
*Katz, “Social and Religious Segregation,” Essential Papers, 458-468.
Recommended: Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade, 137-222.
Wednesday February 20 : Texts and Images of the Other
*Yuval, Two Nations in Your Womb, 92-295
Marc Saperstein, “Christians and Jews--Some Positive Images,” Harvard Theological Review 79 (1986):
236-246. (e-reserve)
Ivan Marcus, “Jews and Christians Imagining Each Other in Christian Europe” Prooftexts 15 (1995): 209226. (e-reserve)
*http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/JewishJesus/toledoth.html
*http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/06.html (start here and explore)
*www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rinn.html (start here and explore)
*www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/simonoftrent.jpg
*http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode4/presentations/4.3.6-6.html
*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.html
*http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode4/documents/documents_4.html
*http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode4/presentations/4.3.6-5.html
*http://www.yale.edu/yup/images/0300076126.jpg
*http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode4/presentations/4.3.6-4.html
Response Paper #5: Choose one of the images or a passage from one of the primary texts for today and
describe the image in detail or summarize the text. What is the audience for this image or text? Explain
what image of the "other" emerges from this image/text? What aspects of this image/text correspond to
themes from other texts we have read? What methods does the historian use to decide what the meaning
of an image or text was for a particular audience?
Skill you are working on: Close reading and working with images as historical evidence.
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Monday February 25: Disputation and Polemic
Glick, Abraham’s Heirs, 184-203.
Cohen, “Scholarship and Intolerance in the Medieval Academy,” Essential Papers, 310-334.
Berger, “The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages,” Essential Papers, 484-513.
Wednesday February 27 The Barcelona Disputation
*Hyam Maccoby, ed. and trans. Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages
(Littman Library, 1993), 97-150 (e-reserve) (book is also on reserve).
Response Paper #6: What are the "terms" of the debate? That is, what issues are they arguing about?
Which texts have authority for the two sides? How do they interpret texts? Do they offer different criteria for
the interpretation of these texts?
Skill you are working on: Identifying arguments in religious polemic in terms of different methods of
reading/interpretation of sacred texts.
Friday March 1:
Book summaries due FOR GROUP II via e-mail or digital drop-box on one of the following books:
R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society. (Blackwell, reprint, 1990.) ISBN 978-0631171454
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. (Princeton, reprint,
1998), ISBN 978-0691058894.
Jeremy Cohen. The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism. (Cornell UP, reprint,
1984). 978-0801492662.
Gavin Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Antisemitism. (University of California Press, reprint, 1996), ISBN
978-0520061439.
Marc Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross. (Princeton University Press, reprint, 1995). ISBN 978-0691010823
Miri Rubin, Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews. (UPenn Press, 2004). ISBN 9780812218800.
Monday March 3-Wednesday March 5: Symposium on UNIT II
Reading for everyone: Summaries from Group II and:
*L. Little, “The Jews in Christian Europe,” Essential Papers, 276-297.
(C. Roth, “The Medieval Conception of the Jew,” Essential Papers, 298-309.
in class: Oral Reports from Group II and Discussion of Unit II issues
(Monday March 10- Wednesday March 12 no class spring break)
UNIT III: From Medieval to Modern
Monday March 17: DRAFTS OF REVIEW ESSAYS DUE
bring 3 hard copies to class--1 for the instructor and 2 for students who will serve as your peer reviewers.
Monday March 17 Overview of the Early Modern Period
Glick, Abraham’s Heirs, 204-276.
Edwards, “Against the Jews,” Essential Papers, 345-379.
Baron, “John Calvin and the Jews,” Essential Papers, 380-400.
Stow, “The Burning of the Talmud in 1553,” 401-430.
Wednesday March 19: Workshop on Review Essay Drafts
Monday March 24 Luther's views
*Luther, “Letter to Spalatin”: www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1514luther.html
*Luther, “That Christ Was Born a Jew,” Works, vol. 45. (Philadelphia, 1962), 197-229. (e-reserve)
*Luther, “On the Jews and their Lies”: excerpts: www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther-jews.html (full text:
www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/1543-Luther-JewsandLies-full.html)
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Wednesday March 26: Reuchlin's views
*Reuchlin, Recommendation Whether...
Monday March 31: Christian Hebraism
review Cohen, “Scholarship and Intolerance.”
Jerome Friedman, “Sixteenth-Century Christian-Hebraica,” Sixteenth Century Journal 11, no.4 (Winter,
1980): 67-85. (e-reserve)
Steven Burnett, “Distorted Mirrors: Antonius Margaritha, Johann Buxtorf and Christian Ethnographies of the
Jews,” Sixteenth Century Journal 25, no. 2. (Summer, 1994), pp. 275-287. (e-reserve)
Wednesday April 2 Enlightenment and the Jews
Shmuel Ettinger, “The Beginnings of the Change in the Attitude of European Society Towards the Jews,” in
Studies in History =Scripta Hierosolymitana 7 (1961): 193-219. (e-reserve)
Adam Sutcliffe, “Can a Jew Be a Philosophe? Isaac de Pinto, Voltaire, and Jewish Participation in the
European Enlightenment,” Jewish Social Studies 6 (2000): 3-34. (e-reserve)
Adam Sutcliffe, "Judaism, reason, and the critique of religion," in idem, Judaism and the Enlightenment,
165-190 (e-reserve),
Friday April 4: REVISED REVIEW ESSAY DUE
Monday April 7: Modernity, Jews, and Antisemitism
Salo Baron, "The Dynamics of Emancipation," in Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People, ed. Leo
Schwartz (New York, 1956), 315-337. (e-reserve)
Todd Endelman, "Comparative Perspectives on Modern Anti-Semitism in the West," in History and Hate:
The Dimensions of Anti-Semitism, ed. David Berger (Philadelphia, 1986), 95-114. (e-reserve)
Wednesday April 9: The Catholic Church and the Jews in the Modern Period
David Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism.
+ find two book reviews of Kertzer's book, at least one of which is from a scholarly journal.
Monday April 14: Post-Holocaust and Contemporary Developments
*Vatican II, “Guidelines on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions--Nostra Aetate” (1965):
www.rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/nostra.aet;
*Vatican II, “Guidelines on Religious Relations with the Jews” (1974):
www.rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/jewish.asc
*“Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity”: www.icjs.org/what/njsp/dabruemet.html
(also browse the contents of Christianity in Jewish Terms, ed. Tikva Frymer-Kensky et al.:
www.icjs.org/what/njsp/cijt_toc.html)
explore other recent statements on Jewish-Christian relations at http://www.jcrelations.net/en/
Wednesday April 16 Conclusions
TAKE-HOME FINAL due April 25
Additional Information
Plagiarism: It is important that the written and oral work that you present in this course reflect your own
reading, critical analysis, and writing. If you engage in plagiarism, you will fail the course. Plagiarism
includes:
a) submitting someone else’s work in your name whether that someone else is someone you know or
someone who posted their work on the Internet; and whether you paid for the material or not.
b) submitting your own work from another course without disclosure to the instructor
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c) copying passages verbatim or in close paraphrase from published or unpublished material written by
someone else without properly using quotation marks and/or without citing your source.
Students with disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an
accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources
and Services (216 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890; TDD: 412-383-7355; fax: 412-624-3346) as early as
possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this
course.
Short response papers: Response papers should respond to the questions posed on the syllabus. They are
informal writing assignments but they must be written in standard written English; they should be typed and
double-spaced; and sources must be cited using the proper format. RESPONSE PAPERS WILL NOT BE
ACCEPTED LATE unless you are absent from that class. If you are absent, you may submit the paper late
and receive partial credit for the paper.
Written Summary: In your written summary of your book you should summarize the major argument of the
book. You do not need to engage in critical analysis in the summary. You should try to accurately represent
the author's argument and the evidence used to support the argument. Keep in mind your audience: your
classmates need to be able to read your book summaries in order to prepare for discussion on your issue.
Book summaries will not be accepted late without a medical excuse.
Oral Reports: In a short oral presentation, you will also be asked to do three things and to not do one thing.
1) Do NOT summarize the book: your classmates should have read your summary of it.
2) Discuss and evaluate the argument of the book in terms of evidence used and in terms of what else you
have learned in the class.
3) Explain the relevance of the book to the overall themes of the course and to the issue of the symposium.
4) Explain how the book answers one or more of the questions posed on the syllabus.
You will be assessed on a) how well you do #s 2,3,4; b) your avoidance of #1; and c) your presentation
skills which include: i) keeping to the indicated time; ii) using formal speech rather than colloquialisms and
“ums’”; iii) sufficient volume and articulation so that you can be understood.
Review essay: You will write a 6-8 page review of the monograph you have chosen.. This should not be a
book report or summary-- nor a thumbs-up; thumbs-down assessment of whether this makes good beach
reading. Rather, it should be a critical analysis of the author’s arguments, assumptions, and use of
evidence. You should rely on the knowledge of the subject gained in this class to offer your thoughtful
perspective on this book and to relate the argument of this book to a) the other readings related to your
issue/unit and b) to other relevant themes from the semester.
Note: Students writing on the same book may choose to do a joint oral presentation, but the written
summaries and the review essays should be individually authored.
Take-home final: This will be a short essay asking you to take a position on one of the questions related to
unit III (see above.) This is due at the very end of the semester and cannot be accepted late. If you have
completed all the other work of the semester and have a medical excuse, you will be given a G grade.
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