CLA 331: Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity: Course Guide

The CLA 331 Gender and Sexuality Term Paper is an assignment that provides the student the opportunity to critically interpret primary and secondary source materials and literature relating to the study of Gender and Sexuality in the classical world, and to create an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources related to the topic. Through the term paper, the student will summarize several sources related to a topic in Gender and Sexuality in the classical world that the student chooses with instructor guidance. In the paper, the student will explain and support their own thesis statement that emanates from the student's personal research into the topic. 

The Annotated Bibliography
You will read five sources related to your thesis statement and topic for this part of your research. As you read each source, summarize it in your own words, and keep track of the bibliography information in MLA format (because you are writing this paper in MLA format). In your notes, copy any quotes you think you will want to use and their relative page numbers (if the source is found in a book or magazine.)

If you have read a source and discover that it does not pertain to this paper, do not be discouraged, and do not discard this information. You may find that it comes in handy later or in another paper, in another course, or in another conversation. Much graduate student regret comes from not starting your personal annotated bibliography as an undergraduate student. (Ask me how I know.)

What do scholars do with an annotated bibliography?
Notes on term papers: term papers are meant to be filled with your own analysis of the research you will have done. That means you will read what others in the field have had to say on your chosen topic, and cite what you learned from them. Then you will follow that citation with significant analysis of your own. What does it mean, what can you conclude, and how do you reach that conclusion? How do you back up your analysis? How does all of this analysis and the quote/paraphrase relate to your thesis statement? (And that last question, relating it to your thesis statement, is the most important of all.) Follow these guidelines for each quotation or paraphrase of each source in your paper. 

Therefore, when you read some research, write a brief summary of what the source has to say, cite the bibliographical details from the source, and write out a quote or the paraphrase, and the page from which you are quoting or paraphrasing something the author has said, onto a note card or into a document file on your computer. When you are writing your term paper, you will not have the original source open. Rather, you will refer to these notes. "Rewriting" a web site, book, or another person's phrases, sentences, paragraphs, paper, or ideas is plagiarism. Following the method I have outlined above where you do not have the book, website, or other person's information open, you will be less likely to plagiarize by accident. That being said, you must always cite the ideas, as well as the exact words, of any source you have looked at in the process of doing research about your topic.

Throughout this course, you are expected to engage with the literature addressing gender and sexuality in the classical world including primary and secondary sources. The high point of this course is your own original term paper. Step one of your term paper is the paper topic proposal. The ideal topic is: Just broad enough, that is, not too broad, and not too narrow.

Stuck for a topic? Here are some recommendations. You may use one of these, or use these as a guide for coming up with your own:

1. A topic as applied to a single primary source: e.g. The concept of feminism as it appears in Lysistrata.

2. A single topic as applied to a specific category: e.g. Homosexuality in the Iliad.

3. An investigation of how the portrayal of a single idea changes over time: e.g. Homosexuality depicted in black and red figure vases.

To complete your research paper, you will need both primary and secondary sources. For a primer on these different source types and how you use them for research, please see the following guide: Source Types.

Many translations (and primary language versions) of primary sources can be found free-of-charge on the internet. For this paper, use professional-quality translations, not ones you found on a personal blog, reddit, or similar website.

Primary Sources

• The Perseus Project - Large library of classical texts

Secondary Sources (journal articles, books, conference proceedings, etc.)

• JSTOR - Searchable full-text journal backfile collection. Individual titles are listed in the E-Journals A-Z.
• Academic Search Complete - Multi-disciplinary full-text database with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Indexes and abstracts more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, and conference proceedings.
• L'Annee Philologique - Published by the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique, L'Annee Philologique is a bibliographic database of scholarly works relating to all aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Includes all volumes of the annual index, beginning with Volume I published in 1928.

Images

• Oxford Art Online: Provides online full-text access to two major art reference works: the Grove Dictionary of Art and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Our Oxford Art Online subscription offers access to the Grove Dictionary of Art, the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia ("Grove Art"). It provides global coverage of visual culture from ancient to contemporary times, described in encyclopedia-style entries that are written and vetted by expert scholars. 
• The British Museum: Images: The British Museum's image licensing service offers unrivalled access to over two million years of human history and culture through its extensive collection of footage and images.

Other Resources

• The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
• The Oxford Classical Dictionary
• Diotíma - Resource for information on women, gender, sex, sexualities, race, ethnicity, class, status, masculinity, enslavement, disability, and the intersections among them in the ancient Mediterranean world. Includes translations, bibliographies, essays, and more.
• Electronic Resources for Classicists - Contains web portals, digital projects, electronic journals, images, and more.

When searching in databases, use keywords that best represent your topic and separate those terms with the word OR in the search box. Use different search boxes for distinct concepts. See below for an example of a properly formatted database search. 

Be sure to put quotation marks around any search term with more than one word (e.g. "United States"). You can also insert an asterisk in a search term to see all variations of the word in the results list (e.g. latin* = Latin Americans, latinos, latinx, latinity, etc.).

Use the limiters on the left-hand side of the search results screen to narrow your results. Usually, limiting by date and source type are good places to start. See image below. 

Cite your sources using the MLA Handbook. The MLA guide on the Purdue OWL site is also very helpful. Be aware that you can often copy citations when searching in databases (see image below) by clicking the quotations mark icon. While this is a quick and convenient trick, you will need to double-check the accuracy of the format because there will often be errors.  

Every time you quote or paraphrase a source, follow that quote or paraphrase with your own analysis. Strive to fulfill this rather arbitrary rule: a paper should include no more than 1/10 quoted or paraphrased material. The other 90 percent is your analysis of that material. (2 sentences of quote/paraphrase generates 20 sentences of analysis.) This may be difficult to achieve. It is a goal to strive for. If you are unsure of what analysis means, start here: https://www.bartleby.com/writing-guide/summary-vs-analysis-in-academic-writing

Explain to your reader why the quote is significant and how it explains your thesis. After you explain why the quote is significant, make sure you have answered the essential question, "So what?" Why would your reader care about this? Why does your reader need to know? Tell your reader why you used this quote or paraphrased this idea.

What does Paraphrase mean? If you unsure of what paraphrasing is, start here and here. Paraphrase is when you "rewrite" what someone else has said "in your own words". The following statement is of critical importance: you must cite someone else's ideas every time in every situation, in every academic purpose, just as you must cite a quotation. The only difference is when you cite paraphrased materials, do not use quotation marks. Failure to cite someone else's ideas is plagiarism. I would like you to go back and reread this paragraph.

What does Plagiarism mean?
If you are not sure, start here (opens a PDF document). In other words, it is not permitted for anyone to rewrite a Wikipedia article or any other source "in your own words" because we are not merely obligated to cite other people's words. We also must cite the ideas of others. So do not just rewrite Aristophanes' telling Lysistrata. Do not rewrite something you found online. Do not let AI sources write anything about your topic. Do not string together rewritten bits and pieces of many sources you have found online. You may need to refer to someone else’s ideas, and when you do, cite the source, and then follow it with your own analysis of how their idea relates to your thesis statement. 
 

I am here to help you. You can always email me (taylor.c.leigh@uky.edu) with questions. You can also request a individual or group consultation. That is a opportunity for us to discuss whatever issue you are having with your research process. Consultations can be done on Zoom, in-person, or even on the phone. You can email me or schedule a consultation by clicking the buttons under my profile picture at the top-right of this page. 

For definitions and information about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, please see the following guide: Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources