Case study
Case Study
Word limit:1200 words
Background: This case study requires you to assess one form or expression of gender and sexuality in history. Each question pertains to one of the five chronological periods we examined in the first half of the course. You may choose to examine personal behaviors, popular attitudes or material culture in responding to your chosen topic. Your response may evaluate, among other things, documents, events, institutions, places, or people. You may limit your response to a specific time, place or interest (e.g. marriage in America in the 1950s; sodomy in Ancient Rome).
Task: Your task is to choose one case study from the questions below.
1. Analyse same-sex practices in the Ancient world
2. Assess attitudes to, and practices of, medieval prostitution
3. Examine cross-dressing in the early modern period
4. Explore masturbation in the nineteenth century
5. Investigate marriage in the twentieth century
You may like to consider the following questions in conducting your case study. What are the significant elements or features of the case study? What does it tell us about sex and sexuality in the period under examination? How is the case study inflected by class, gender or ethnicity? What primary evidence exists for the case study, and how do historians use it?
Requirements:
• The case study should be 1200 words in length (excluding bibliography and in-text referencing or footnotes).
• The case must comprise an introduction, main body and conclusion, and it must be written in clear prose and have a coherent structure. Do not use subheadings.
• You may use any readings provided in the course bibliography, but you must also consult additional scholarly sources. All sources must be cited using appropriate intext referencing conventions, or footnotes if you prefer. As a guide, you should use at least 6 sources.
• All sources used in your response must be fully cited in a bibliography (as outlined in the Guide to Referencing).
Unacceptable sources include lecture notes, encyclopaedias, and unverifiable internet sources (e.g. Wikipedia).
• Each essay must be written in at least 12-point font, double spaced with appropriate margins
Case study marking criteria:
1. SCOPE and DEPTH of treatment: Is the information accurate? Is it relevant to the case study? Is there evidence of breadth of reading and research?
2. ARGUMENT and SYNTHESIS: Is there a coherent response to the case study? Have the sources used been well understood? Is there evidence of judgement of the significance of material?
3. STRUCTURE and ORGANISATION: Is there a coherent structure? Is there a logical sequence of ideas?
4. EXPRESSION and REFERENCING: Is the case study well written? Does the writing display fluency, clarity and grammatical correctness? Have the sources been cited according to appropriate scholarly conventions? Is the bibliography correctly formatted?
5. OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Does the case study conform to the length and layout requirements set out on the task sheet?