Course Procedure
This course unfolds simply. Begin by reading the first chapter in Bridenthal et al., Becoming Visible, "Women of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia," by Lesko. Next, access Quiz 1 (all quizzes and discussions are in Modules), focusing on that chapter. Due dates for quizzes and discussions are indicated in their respective Module sections. After taking quiz 1, read chapter 2, "Daughters of Demeter: Women in Classical Greece," by Katz in Becoming Visible. No quiz on this chapter. Quizzes 2-9, due dates in Modules, correlate to chapters 3 through 8 in Becoming Visible; note that quizzes 2 and 3 are based on chapter 3 on Roman women by McNamara, followed by quiz 4 on Bitel's chapter, then quizzes 5 and 6 on Stuard's superb chapter 5 in Becoming Visible. Quiz 7 is on Levin's chapter about women in the European Renaissance; quiz 8 focuses on Karant-Nunn's chapter about women in the Reformation era. The last chapter to be read in Becoming Visible is by Wiesner-Hanks, her chapter 8, "Spinning Out Capital," corresponds to quiz 9. The instructions for quizzes 2 and 3 and quizzes 5 and 6, indicate the page divisions to be read for the respective quizzes.
Having finished our study of information provided in Becoming Visible, we move on to the early modern witch-hunts in Europe. For this horrendous period, we will glean information from Levack's, The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe. His first chapter, "Introduction," full of interesting information, supplies the statements for quiz 10. Chapter 2, "The Intellectual Foundations," relates to quiz 11 and chapter 3, "The Legal Foundations," to quiz 12. The last quiz, 13, is based on information in Levack's chapter 5, "The Social Context."
To this point, I have indicated chapters in our textbooks and corresponding quizzes based on secondary sources. My favorite focus of study, my passion (forgive the dramatics), is the investigation of primary sources. All discussions focus on primary sources to be read in conjunction with the relevant secondary sources. These sources are in Blamires, ed., Woman Defamed and Woman Defended, or in the digitized handouts located in Modules. The dates for these discussions are indicated in Modules; their due dates come after the chapter quiz on the primary source's time period. For example, the discussion on Luther's text comes after the chapter quiz on Karant-Nunn's essay on women and the Reformations in the first half of the sixteenth century.