Fall quarter History Seminar Requirements:

The history seminar is worth 6 credits.  Students must do all reading, all the written work, participate regularly in seminar discussions, and attend seminars to get all 6 credits.  Any student who misses more than 1 seminar (there are only 9 total) during the quarter will automatically lose at least one credit.  Students who do not seem to be doing the reading will also lose credit.

Written assignments:

    1.  History seminar-specific question for the final exam:  In addition to the two all-program essay questions, there will be one additional essay question in the final exam specifically for the history seminar.  This question will ask you to synthesize ideas from seminar readings and what you've learned about medieval French history in one 2-4 page essay.  This essay will be a key way for you to demonstrate subtle, complex thinking about the seminar texts and ideas as a whole.  This essay will be due Monday, Nov 26 at 9a.m. along with the other two final exam essays.

    2.  Book review:  Early this fall (by week 5), you will chose one book on medieval French social, cultural, artistic, intellectual, religious or political history, either from a list made available to you week 3, or in consultation with the faculty.  The book must be a serious work of scholarship (some topics, like the religious heresies, the Knights Templar, witches and pagan beliefs in medieval life, etc, attract a lot of crackpot authors, so you should make sure your author is a reputed scholar in the field - we will work together on how to figure this out!).  Since winter quarter you will begin an in-depth independent project (which might culminate in your own "pilgrimage" in France spring quarter), the book you choose now for the book review might help you begin to gather some ideas for your later independent work in the program.
    You will write a serious, thoughtful book review of 5-7 typed pages, due Nov 15.  The book review will move beyond a simple summary of the book's content to examine the author's thesis, argument, sources and persuasiveness in light of other scholarship on the same topic.  You will get more detailed instructions about this review later in the quarter.
    
3.  Finally, at the last seminar, history seminar students will share their conclusions about the book they reviewed on Dec 6, in a round-table oral presentation.  These oral presentations will be short, interactive, and informal (but mandatory.  You will get more information about them later in the quarter.