Week 7 (Oct. 11 – Oct. 17)

Table of contents

To do and Schedule of the Week

Reminder

  • The 5-15 report is due on Sunday every week from now on, did you send it in? Just a Google Doc shared with me will do!
  • All that info about Project and Time management is available in the tab “Course Resources“

Good to know

As I am writing, I am still waiting to hear from two students if they want to add their vote to the election about the future direction of the course; I’ll let you know as soon as reasonable which way we go! (They have a due date, don’t worry, this is not going to drag on like some other elections we know about.) For this week at least, we continue with a mix of project-based work in class, and some material to look at together.

By Tuesday, 3.30PM

  • Seating plan: to be arranged by me for peer feedback (I don’t know if I will be able to share this in advance, it depends on who’s ill etc. as well! Please don’t get ill, it’s nicer to be healthy.)

Sharing “work in progress”! Share with your peers in small groups how far you’ve come and get feedback and suggestions on where to go next, and to field some questions.

WHAT?

  • Bring your project in its current form: drafts, outlines, plans, layouts, folders with materials you plan to work on,
    • Put all of this into a format that is easy to share: a Google Doc? A hard copy folder? A blog post in draft you can share on your laptop?
    • This can include partly written sections alternating with bullet point parts etc. Warts and all welcome!
  • Include: a bibliography of the sources you have used so far, and/or the sources you plan to use.
    • TIP: annotating your bibliography with notes is really useful. Adding your sources to the Zotero Group Library, and adding notes and tags there is also very useful for others!
  • Have handy: a timeline of what you still intend to do,
  • and a list of questions, issues, and roadblocks you currently face and if you have any idea how to tackle them.
  • In short: show how your project is feasible for completion.
  • If you are doing multiple shorter projects, or have a big project with “sub-projects”, show what’s next!

WHY? Peer feedback is at least as useful as feedback from me! How do others, who are not specialists in Chinese history, see your project? What kind of information do they need to understand the significance of your project and follow along with your brilliant ideas?

HOW? In class I’ll mix you up in groups of 2-3 students to give feedback on a few projects, outside of your own project’s sphere of expertise or time period. This exposes you to other parts of Chinese history and gives you a chance to learn something very different (and maybe be inspired!) You can also bring your own knowledge to the project, and the outsider’s perspective can be refreshing. I’ll prepare a sheet with questions/guidance to walk you through the process of giving useful feedback that leaves all parties feeling like it was useful!

“Peer review” or “peer feedback” sound scary, but it’s one of the most common ways you can (and will) help your colleagues throughout your college career and beyond: helping a colleague to see how they can make their work better is an amazing thing to be able to do.

By Thursday, 3:30PM

Seating plan: be prepared for mixing into smaller groups!

Two portraits of women, one from the early years of the Han dynasty (206BCE – 220 CE), one from the middle of the Han dynasty. Both women move in powerful circles, but deal with it very differently.

I strongly suggest you dive into some textbooks to get historical background on how we get to the Han dynasty:

Then use Tim Brook’s “How to Read a Text” to help you think through these primary source documents. You probably have to do light additional research, drawing i.a. on the historical background in the above textbooks (and of course you can collaborate and share your results):

  • Primary source: “Chapter 9: The Basic Annals of Empress Lü”. In Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty, Translated by Burton Watson. Revised edition. Columbia Univ. Press, 1993. (PDF)
    • Empress Lü was the wife of the first emperor of the Han dynasty, and she succeeded in controlling politics after the death of her husband.
    • Tip: create a diagram of the relationships between the different people mentioned.
    • We focus on the section between brackets, but you may read and reflect on the entire chapter.
  • Primary source: Ban Zhao. “Instructions for Women”. In The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, edited by Victor Mair, 534-41. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1994. (PDF)
    • This is one of the earliest texts in world history on the education of women, and it is written by a woman. In addition, Ban Zhao was the woman who continued the historiographical efforts of her father and older brother, and completed the History of the Han (Hanshu), a history which followed in the format of The Records of the Grand Historian.
    • She writes in a very self-deprecating way, and it was common for women to position themselves like that.
  • Questions when reading both texts: What can we learn about the role of women in Han society? What remains beyond our knowledge about gender issues? How do these two women navigate the corridors of power, and who is the more successful?

By Sunday, 11:59PM

Fill out and send in/share your “5-15 progress report“

All the details are in the form. This will be a weekly returning assignment that helps us both to ensure you keep working on the course project(s). I often can identify a potential problem area before you’ve even hit it, and steer you on a more successful course, using these weekly reports.

Until further notice (or a full scale rebellion), consider these a weekly returning task. Please be careful when using pitchforks while staging a rebellion.

Where to get help