ENGL 103 B28: Case Studies in Research: Scheherazade's Daughters: Storytelling and Eco-culture

M. Kashani

"In this class, we will learn about what it means to do research in English studies as we study A Thousand and One Nights in which storytelling serves as the vehicle to interrogate social problems, historical atrocities, femicide, and the structures of power to generate an eco-cultural system based on the interconnectedness of all things.How do we shape a research project in which there is something important at stake, and how do we locate the arguments of others to pursue it? How do we build on the arguments of others, and how do we present and narrate our results? What does a well-researched and well-argued research paper entail in terms of the pursuit of knowledge, supported propositions, and effective writing? Apart from sections of the Nights, participants in the course can expect to encounter works set in both past and contemporary contexts, and which variably allow for conversations about relationships, desire, ideology, gender, sexuality, identity, and ethnicity to take place. In the first half of the course, while building writing skills, students will engage questions about the purpose and ethics of research and argumentation in relation to the historical perceptions, or misperceptions, of the Nights. Students will then proceed to develop research projects on the contemporary affects of the Nights while instruction in effective writing continues. Students will prepare "annotated bibliographies" that track their research, and the course will culminate in the writing, revising, and final submission of a research paper with attached works cited. (There is no final exam.)"