I. Purpose of the assignment

To anlayze the the intersections of class, modernity, and gender in late nineteenth-early twentieth century Lebanon, as portrayed in the book Inventing Home; to assess, respond and comment on the book as a source of history on women in the Middle East.

II. The Assignment

Write a 5-7 page paper in response to the book. Below are the four questions to consider (directly from the author himself!) You may focus more attention on one or two than the others but please address all of them.
 

1. Until recently, most scholarship dealt with "tradition" and "modernity" as two discreet and separate phases in human development. Even nuanced consideration of these two categories, which articulate a slower transition between the two phases, maintain a linear direction of historical change with positive values attributed to modernity and negative ones to tradition. Does the author of this book break with this tradition? If so how does he do that?

2. Middle Eastern women have been portrayed--when at all--as objects of history, almost passive victims. Does the author present an alternative view of women and their historical role. Specify some examples from the book to illustrate your point.

3. What is the relationship between gender and class that this author elucidates in the book?

4. Modern histories tend to be located in a particular physical space. How do emigrants problematize those rooted histories, and how do the histories of emigrants reshape our thinking and understanding of national histories?

5. Reponse: Evaluate the book as a source of history on women and gender. How does the author use his sources? Is his methodology and style of writing effective? Comment on any aspect of the work that is particularly intriguing, surprising, effective, or elucidating.

1. Audience and style: Write this paper for an educated, well informed reader (i.e., me) who knows a great deal about the Middle East. Do not write it for a general audience. You do not need to explain broad historical themes, for example. Focus on the book itself. Please avoid colloquialism and slang. This is a formal writing assignment but write in your own voice, and avoid trying to write in a style that is unnatural and complicated. Write clearly. Use specific examples and quotations from the book to prove your points.

2. Format

• FONT: All papers are to be double-spaced, typed 12 font.
• PAGING: Pages are to be NUMBERED, and STAPLED. Warning: these are pet peeves of mine. Page number one is NOT the title page.
• TITLE PAGE: Do not use fancy covers. Provide a simple cover page with your name, the title of the paper, the name and number of the course, and the date.
• CITATION: proper citation is required for a quote or a paraphrase. For this paper, which only uses one book, this means simply putting the author's name and the page number in parentheses: (author's name, page number). Example: As revealed in their fatwas on marriage, the muftis' "strongly promarital position" tells us something very interesting about Ottoman Syrian society (Tucker, 41).
• SPELLING, GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION: All students in this course should have completed English 101 and 102 or the equivalent before taking this 300-level class. For this reason, there will be zero tolerance for spelling errors, zero tolerance for grammatical errors, and zero tolerance for punctuation errors. Mistakes will cost you in a lower grade. There are many sources of assistance available on campus to help you avoid errors. Use spell check. Have a friend read your paper. Bring your draft to me before handing in the final version. Go to the Write Place.

Your grade will be evaluated on:

• the quality of your insights/material presented
• clear demonstration of effort
• the quality of the writing
• the organization of the essay
• use of specific examples/quotations to back up your points
• following instructions

To get an idea of what I consider a good essay, click here. To find out about my grading criteria for essays, click here.
 

**NOTE: THERE WILL BE 0 TOLERANCE OF PLAGIARISM. ANYONE PASSING
OFF OTHERS' WORDS AS THEIR OWN WILL FAIL NOT MERELY THE
ASSIGNMENT BUT THE COURSE. PERIOD.

If you do not understand what constitutes plagiarism, go to the student handbook and look it up in the section on "Academic Information" and under that, in the sub-section,"Academic dishonesty." If you still do not understand, ask me. When in doubt, follow this rule of thumb: if you didn't think of it, cite it.

Ask for help from me ahead of time (not the day before the assignment is due!) if you need it.

                                     The end!