PHIL211: Perspectives on Gender, Race, and Marginality in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Science, and Medicine Fall 2020, Tu 3:00-5:30pm [Remote instruction via Zoom: ##] INSTRUCTOR Professor Mariska Leunissen Email: [email protected] Phone: 919-962-2280 Office hours: Mo & Tu 10:00-11:00am or by appointment Zoom link for office hours on Monday: ## Zoom link for office hours on Tuesday: ## Webpage: https://spark.adobe.com/page/qClOxwMBnIbSk/ GRADUATE RESEARCH CONSULTANT ## Our graduate research consultant will be available for quick questions concerning the research process throughout the semester by email, and she will also be holding the following scheduled consultations: Week 4-12: a 30-minute consultation for each presenter (or presenting team) to discuss the research question and research plan for the presentation (part d of the handout) for a total of three consultation per week. Please schedule your consultation at least one day before your presentation. (3 presenters x 30 minutes x 9 weeks = 13.5 hours) Week 13-14: a 30-minute consultation for each team working on an adobe spark project to discuss any issues with their research or spark project. Please schedule your consultation at least one day before our project presentations on 11/17. (9 teams x 30 minutes = 4.5 hours) Week 15: 2 hours of scheduled ‘drop in’ office hours (day and time TBA) for individual help with the research paper All consultations will be held through zoom; please email ## to schedule yours. 1 The GRC Program is sponsored by the Office for Undergraduate Research. COURSE DESCRIPTION Why is it that almost all ancient philosophical texts focus solely on the views of the elite male members of Greek society? What happened to the voices of the women, the foreigners (or ‘barbarians’ as the Greeks referred to them), and the less-than- privileged? In this course, we will study – through the examination of several infamous, ignored, or otherwise uncharted Greek texts of the classical period – the views about gender and race as presented in ancient Greek philosophy, medicine, and science. Our aims are to generate a new understanding of how the male elite used such views to further promote or justify (or perhaps challenge) the existing marginalization and silencing of women, foreigners, and less privileged men and to maintain their own social, political, and intellectual privilege. We will also consider how ancient perspectives about these issues remain current and influential today. Some of the questions we will address are: What explanations did the ancient Greeks in the classical period provide for the differences between humans and animals, men and women, slaves and free men, barbarians and Greeks? What role did notions such as racial formation/racial origin play in the development of Classical Greek theories of ethnic superiority (e.g. the myth of Athenian autochthony)? How did they see the relationship between biological descent versus cultural or national identity? How did the Greeks of the Classical Period understand sex and gender? In what ways did ‘scientific’ ideas about women and barbarians influence the ethical and political philosophies of the classical period? How were philosophical theories used to promote, challenge, or maintain the existing marginalization of women and barbarians? This course provides a Course Based Undergraduate Research Experience in Ancient Philosophy. In addition, note that you are able to use this research-exposure course to meet one of the requirements for the Carolina Research Scholar Program transcript designation. Please visit the OUR website to learn more about how you can engage in research while at Carolina. COURSE REQUIREMENTS There are 5 different kinds of assignments to this course; I will use a 100-point grading scale. Assignments Points (1) 3 Presentations (1 as lead presenter, 2 as part of your team); graded 20 (10+5+5) (2) Collaborative Adobe Spark Project/Poster Presentation; graded 20 2 (3) Reading Reflection Reports (10 x 0.5 pages = 5 pages); pass/fail 10 (4) Final Research paper (10-12 pages); graded 40 (5) Class participation and peer feedback; graded 10 (1) Three class presentations (20 points): - 1 presentation in which you take the lead as researcher and presenter (10 points) - 2 presentations in which you are part of the team helping the main presenter with the preparations for their presentation (2 x 5 points) Each student joins one of the nine teams of ‘specialists’, with each team consisting of three students. Each team will develop its own ‘specialization’ by focusing either on one specific genre or on one specific topic, or instead will develop a cross-studies specialization by focusing on different topics across different genres/subdisciplines. These three approaches represent different ways in which scholars work on ancient texts in the hopes of sparking novel and creative research. Students can indicate their preferences for which team they would like to join by filling out the intake questionnaire provided by the instructor to all enrolled students (you can do so at any time by following the link). The instructor will assign students to groups based on their preferences and based on their background knowledge and experience. (Please note: Enrollment for the course will be changed to ‘by instructor permission only’ one week before the start of classes to avoid last minute changes to the teams. We will use the first couple of weeks of the course to make sure everyone is in a team that fits their specific preferences and background knowledge and experiences, and we will make changes if necessary. Petitions to change teams can be made up until 9/1; after that teams can no longer be changed. The course will be capped at 27 students.) Specialists in genre: Group 1: philosophy topics: A1; A2; A3 presentation during week: 5, 8, 11 Group 2: science topics: B1; B2; B3 presentation during week: 6, 9, 12 Group 3: medicine topics: C1; C2; C3 presentation during week: 7, 10, 13 Specialists in topic: Group 4: masculinity topics: A1; B1; C1 presentation during week: 5, 6, 7 Group 5: femininity topics: A2; B2; C2 presentation during week: 8, 9, 10 Group 6: ‘the other’ topics: A3; B3; C3 presentation during week: 11, 12, 13 Cross-fertilizers: Group 7: topics: A1; B2; C3 presentation during week: 5, 9, 13 Group 8: topics: A2; B3; C1 presentation during week: 7, 8, 12 Group 9: topics: A3; B1; C2 presentation during week: 6, 10, 11 Genre//Topic 1. Masculinity 2. femininity 3. ‘the Other’ A. Philosophy A1 (week 5) A2 (week 8) A3 (week 11) B. Science B1 (week 6) B2 (week 9) B3 (week 12) C. Medicine C1 (week 7) C2 (week 10) C3 (week 13) 3 Each team works together in preparing the three presentations assigned to their group. However, for each of the presentations, a different student takes on the primary responsibility for taking the lead in guiding the research and for presenting the materials to class. The other two students help out as part of the research team. These presentations are given during weeks 5-13. Each of the presentations should roughly focus on a selection from the set of primary sources and secondary source as listed on the syllabus for each week, as these are the materials that will be read and prepared by all students. However, students are encouraged to take their presentations and research in their own preferred direction and to supplement the readings as needed/when possible. Students taking the lead for the class presentation are in charge of identifying – in consultation with the instructor and the GRC – their own research question, of guiding their team in searching for additional sources and for putting together relevant materials, and for giving a class presentation based on their joint findings. The lead presenter is also responsible for writing up a short research report outlining the contributions from each of the students to the presentation. Each presentation will take up about 30-40 minutes of class time but presenters should plan on using no more than 15-20 minutes of speaking time so as to allow for plenty of time for discussion and for peer-feedback. The individual presentations should: (a) provide an introduction to and brief overview of the relevant parts of the assigned readings (no need to provide a summary of all the readings and of all the main points made in the secondary literature: the point is to provide the relevant background to the primary text you are interested in); (b) include a close reading of a key passage or set of passages from the primary readings selected by the student and a reconstruction of the main theories/ideas/perspectives offered; (c) help focus the discussion on the most important or interesting issues and puzzles in the primary and secondary readings that are relevant to the student’s own research question by providing a list of 2-4 informed discussion questions; (d) introduce a first draft of the student’s own research question and offer the beginnings of a plan for further research so as to invite peer-feedback on those proposals by providing a short research statement (200 words max) and plan (in the form of 3-5 bullet points listing further steps). The presentation should include a handout that provides: (a) the key take-aways from the assigned readings relevant to your project; (b) the key passage or key passages to be discussed and interpreted in class; (c) a list of 2-4 questions for discussion; (d) and a formulation of the preliminary research question and plan. 4 The presentation will be graded based on the following rubric: Quality