Medieval Crime and Community HIST A305, Loyola University New Orleans Spring 2008 Wednesdays 6:20 to 9:00 Bobet 214B Instructor: Dr. Sara M. Butler Office: 422 Bobet Hall Telephone: (504) 304-1069 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Because I am on maternity leave this semester, I will not have official office hours. You may meet with me after class, or by appointment. Or, please feel free to telephone me if there are any problems at the above number. Course Description This course explores the interaction between the development of criminal law and social change in the late medieval period from a comparative perspective, examining primarily the English common law, but also the continental courts of law. Classes will be organized thematically and will focus on a broad range of subjects, such as: the passing of the trial by ordeal and its replacement by the jury; homicide and self-killing; the relationship between gender and crime; rape and sex crimes; criminal clergymen; domestic violence; sanctuary, abjuration, and exile; and treason. In examining these subjects, emphasis will be placed on the role played by litigants and jurors to use the law courts to their best advantage, highlighting the gap between the theory and practice of the law. Each class will begin with a 50-minute lecture, then followed by a short-break. After the break, classes will be seminar discussions based on the readings for the week. PARTICIPATION IS ESSENTIAL. Please note: this is a Blackboard course. All lecture outlines and discussion questions will be posted on Blackboard. Required Reading • Readings for this class are on BLACKBOARD. The readings can be quite heavy at times – do not get behind! You will not be able to participate in class discussions if you have not done the readings. Grading Scheme and Due Dates Participation: 15% Reading logs: 20% The Advocate Assignment (Jan. 30): 10% Book Review (Feb. 27): 15% Research Essay (Mar. 19, 26, Apr. 9): 20% Final Exam (TBA): 20% Assignment Descriptions a) Participation Please note: Attendance has nothing to do with participation – these are separate categories. As a rule of thumb: in a class of thirty people, I expect to see active participation in the small groups and everyone should attempt to contribute one or two productive comments / insights to the larger group discussion at every class. b) Reading Logs Students will be required to write a response to the article readings of at most one page per reading (double-spaced, normal margins, 12 pt. font). Do not summarize the readings. Instead, discuss something about the article that raised questions / was particularly interesting / relates to other issues we have discussed in the course. The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate that you have thought critically about the readings before class. Students are expected to hand in reading logs at the end of every class. If you have to miss class for any reason, please email your reading log to me as a Word attachment the same day as the class. If you do choose to email in any assignment for this course, it is your responsibility to make sure that I received your work. c) The Advocate Assignment We will watch the movie, The Advocate , in class. In response to your experience, you will be expected to analyze the film for its accuracy and its usefulness as a didactic tool in teaching about medieval law. Please note: in order to complete this assignment, you may well have to go and do a little research on animal trials or medieval continental law in order to make sure that your analysis is well-founded. The length of this assignment should be between 3 and 4 pages (double-spaced type, normal margins, 12 pt. font). The writing style may be casual in nature (meaning: something you might read in the newspaper as opposed to the more formalistic style employed in the articles we read in class). d) Book Review Everyone can choose their own book for review, with consultation of the professor. The book must have to do with some facet of medieval crime. Please see the attached list of suggested books. You may want to order something in through Amazon if you are at all concerned about competing with other students to get your hands on the perfect book. The length of this assignment should be between 4 or 5 pages (double-spaced type, normal margins, 12 pt. font). A book review is not intended to be a synopsis of the book. Expend no more than one-third of this assignment summarizing the main arguments of the book. The remaining two-thirds should pay close attention to the author’s perspective and approach, use of evidence, method, and historical value. Footnotes and a bibliography are not required unless you choose to quote from a text other than the one you are reviewing. Please see the hand-out in the “Course Information” section of Blackboard for a fuller discussion of “How to Write a Book Review.” d) Research Essay The research essay is intended to provide students with an opportunity to explore a subject of interest in greater depth and detail. Essay topics may address a wide variety of historical issues. Students are expected to choose a topic on their own; however, each student must have his or her thesis approved. If a student has difficulty finding a topic, please make an appointment to discuss this with me. The essay should be between 10 to 12 pages (double-spaced, normal margins, 12 pt. font) and it should include footnotes and a bibliography. At least six scholarly books or articles should appear in the essay’s bibliography, of which two must be journal articles (the articles we read in class do not fulfill this requirement – yes, I actually want you to use the databases to find articles...). With the exception of encyclopedias specific to the period (such as, The Dictionary of the Middle Ages , or The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium ), I do not want to see encyclopedias listed as references in your bibliography. The same applies to Internet sources. Most Internet sources are unreliable; at best, they are the equivalent of encyclopedia entries. Unless you have come across a really useful site, written by a qualified historian, do not include this as a source in your paper. Please see the hand-out in the “Course Information” section of Blackboard for suggestions on writing an historical essay. Deadlines: Mar. 19: Annotated Bibliography: please bring a proper bibliography of sources you have read (see Chicago Manual of Style to figure out how to a bibliography). Each source should be accompanied by a short paragraph summarizing the work and explaining how it will be useful for your research essay. Mar. 26: Rough Draft: please bring a rough draft to class – a good rough draft, almost a finished product. You will pair up with someone else in class and you will do formal peer evaluations of each other’s work. You will write down some of your thoughts about your partner's essay on a hand-out that you will be given in class – you must hand in these evaluations with your final paper. Apr. 9: Final paper due in class. Please note: I will not read the final draft of this paper unless you have completed all three stages of the writing process. Research Tools: Please note: for this class, you will need to spend some time at Loyola's Law Library. You can take out books from the library, however you will need to get a new bar code (see them at the circulation desk at the Broadway campus concerning this matter). Also, Tulane's Law Library is directly behind Loyola's main campus (on Freret St.) -- although you cannot take out library books there, you can certainly peruse their journals and books. There are a number of useful indexes and bibliographies to help you find articles or books for your field of research. Here are some that you may find particularly useful: 1) The International Medieval Bibliography . This is a paper index that is invaluable when finding journal articles on any aspect of life in the Middle Ages. You will need to consult it at some point (honestly). Each volume represents a publication year and is organized thematically (e.g., daily life, law, women studies, etc). Tulane’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Z6203 I58 2) Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance . This on-line index is the most comprehensive bibliography for medieval studies available right now. Available through Monroe Library at http://www.itergateway.org/ 3) The Royal Historical Societies Bibliography . This on-line index includes all works (articles and books) relating to the history of Britain and Ireland. It is searchable by author, title, subject and keyword. http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibwel.html 4) Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index . This on-line index is searchable by author, title and subject. It is particularly useful for any works that have been published since the early 1990s. http://www.haverford.edu/library/reference/mschaus/mfi/mfi.html e) Final Examination For the final exam, you will be given the questions in advance. Please note: knowing the questions in advance does not necessarily make this easy. It means that I will expect to see a more polished and well-thought out essay than if you had had the question sprung on you. Attendance Policy Attendance will be taken orally at the beginning of every class – if you are not present when attendance is taken, you will be considered absent. Each student is permitted to miss class three times without explanation.