Choosing a good comps topic is of utmost importance...
You should choose a topic that will not only sustain your interest but also build on the knowledge and skills you have already gleaned from 宗教研究 courses. You will be best able to achieve the sophistication required by the RELS faculty when you start from an already-firm foundation. 出于这个原因, we ask that you review the courses you have taken up to this point, 注意关键思想, 问题, 主题, 所提出的主题, and considering how what you learned there could set up and/or strengthen your comps topic and/or analysis. 当你完成这个练习, we urge you to be open-minded: willing to discover topics, 主题, or 问题 you had not already identified as possible comps topics.
1. 评估你学到了什么—For each 宗教研究 course you have taken at Oxy (as well as for non-major courses that most interested you and might inform your comps project), 请填写下面的表格.
| 课程 | |
|---|---|
| 主题 | |
| 最有趣的问题 | |
| 最有趣的读物 | |
| 可能的比较主题 |
2. Identifying possible comps topics—Once you have completed the above chart for each of your RELS (and relevant) courses, 寻找共同话题, 主题, 问题, or questions that interest you most and that provide you with a firm foundation on which to build your comps research. 下面列出它们.
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3. Now that you have a list of possible comps topics, you should attempt to select and focus your topic through a preliminary bibliographic search. By searching for primary sources and secondary scholarship, you will be able to see what specific questions, 问题, and subtopics are currently being addressed by scholars interested in your topic. These are the possible scholarly conversations you can enter into with your comps research. A preliminary bibliographic search will enable you to identify a more focused topic and to ensure that there are ample sources for you to consult. We urge you to focus your comps topic as early as possible principally because this will make your research phase simpler: more purposeful and efficient (so that you’re not spinning your wheels and reading more sources than necessary). For each of the possible topics listed above, complete the following steps:
a) 搜索 databases to see what 问题 & subtopics are currently being discussed by scholars in the field. (For instructions on using databases, go to the 资源页面 of the RELS department website.例如:, if one’s general topic was religion and violence against women, s/he would find the following subtopics/问题 from sources listed on ATLA—biblical support/opposition, 宗教咨询 & 说教, overlap with ideologies of gender and sexuality, global religio-cultural norms (in US, 斯堪的那维亚, 拉丁美洲的, 非洲环境), feminist theologians’ response, 等.…
b) Diagram and/or list the 问题 and/or subtopics you can distill from the article and book titles in order to identify those that a) capture your interest; and b) have enough sources for you to work with.
c) Now it’s time to identify your focused comps topic and formulate a research question. At this point you should have a notion of the debates and 问题 pertaining to your chosen topic and now you should pose some potential research questions that you hope your comps will answer. Here are a few examples of how to move from a broad topic to a focused topic to a research question:
Topic: Constantine; Focused topic: the conversion of Constantine; Research question: To what degree and in what ways did Constantine convert to Christianity and/or maintain pagan practices and ideas? How did stories of his conversion function to bolster the stability/prestige of early Christianity?
Topic: Euthanasia; Focused topic: legalized euthanasia in Oregon; Research question: How was the legalization of euthanasia debate in Oregon influenced by theological understandings of life/death, 人类的统治, 上帝的旨意?
d) Collect sources; create a bibliography. After you have focused your topic and crafted a research question, you should compile a preliminary bibliography. I suggest using the Chicago Manual of Style (15th) since it is the style guide commonly used by scholars in the Humanities, but feel free to use any style guide with which you are already familiar. We are most concerned that your citations be complete and consistent throughout. For more on formatting your bibliography, see Diana Hacker’s 作家的推荐信 (which you used in your first year seminar) and/or the Oxy's webpage on 引用来源.
4. 感兴趣-当你在一个话题上缩小范围, make sure that it's a topic that matters to you and that can sustain your interest over several months of work. That said, be sure that you will be able to engage the topic analytically and critically. Be careful selecting a topic to which you are so personally attached that you will be unable to think about it critically and anlytically.