An Overview of the Methods and Tools of Traditional Classical Studies Scholarship, The Digitization of Classical Studies Research Methods, Formulating a Scholarly Research Question, and Conducting an Effective Literature Review

Introduction:

All research starts with a question. Lecture 1.1 of Module 1 opens with a historical overview of traditional Classical Studies research down to the present and the advent of digitization. Since the nineteenth-century, Classical Studies scholars have developed a robust and quite standardized way of organizing knowledge critical to the study of the ancient world in all its dimensions. The traditional ways in which Classical Studies data (textual, lexicographic, material etc.) easily lends itself to digitization, and Classical Studies scholars have been applying computing technology to Classical Studies research since the early 1980’s.^[1] The digitization of the field Classical Studies has gone far beyond merely preserving ancient texts and artefacts in digital repositories and making them more widely available online. Rather, the traditional research materials, the raw data of Classical Studies scholarship, has been tagged and coded in ever more innovative ways, so as to allow students and researchers to access and manipulate data (i.e. primary source evidence) more effectively than was heretofore the case before digitization. After viewing the lecture, go to ‘Supplementary Material 1, Module 1 – Dr. Rebecca Benefial, Associate Professor of Classics, Washington University, Roman Graffiti and Digital Humanities (2016)’ under Module 1 Supplementary Materials below and watch the video there . Dr. Benefial provides a full and clear example of how digitization is now being leveraged to advance Classical Studies research.

The second lecture for Module 1 provides useful advice on how to get started on a Classical Studies research project using the traditional methods of Classical Studies research, but within a digital environment. In Lecture 1.2 we discuss topics that are important for starting any research topic in any discipline, focussing special attention on how to formulate a proper scholarly research question. We then turn our attention to the various traditional resources Classical Studies scholars use when attempting to ask a new research question. Such resources include a variety of scholarly Classical Studies-specific dictionaries, encyclopedias, and bibliographic databases. Many of these traditional resources are now digitized, and some, though not all, are open access.

Under Module 1 Supplementary Materials below  you will find links to videos explaining how to use some of the digitized versions of these resources in order to retrieve a comprehensive bibliography of peer-reviewed scholarship relevant to your research question, as well as links to some of the resources themselves.

Lecture 1.2 ends with a brief discussion of several important ways of accessing the peer-reviewed material retrieved from bibliographic databases, and offers some advice on how to conduct a proper review of the scholarly literature relevant to your research question. Under Module 1 Supplementary Materials you will also find links to videos explaining how to access the relevant published materials

Module 1 Lecture Videos:

Module Lecture 1.1: General Historical Overview of Classical Studies Scholarship.

Module Lecture 1.2: Getting Started On A Classical Studies Research Project Online: Scholarly Compendia and Bibliographic Collections.

Module 1 Supplementary Materials:

Supplementary Material 1, Module 1 – Dr. Rebecca Benefiel, Associate Professor of Classics, Washington University, Roman Graffiti and Digital Humanities (2016): Roman Graffiti and Digital Humanities – Bing video

Supplementary Material 2, Module 1 – How to Use the Oxford Classical Dictionary: Oxford Classical Dictionary: How to use the Oxford Classical Dictionary – Bing video

Supplementary Material 3, Module 1 – Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopädie (Internet Archive): Paulys Real-encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft : Pauly, August Friedrich von,1796-1845 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Supplementary Material 4, Module 1 – How to Use Brill’s New Pauly Online (Emory University): Using the Philological Year – Bing video

Supplementary Material 5, Module 1 – How to Use Gnomon Bibliographische Datenbank: Gnomon Online Database Tutorial – YouTube

Supplementary Material 6, Module 1 – Gnomon Bibliographische Datenbank: Gnomon Bibliographische Datenbank (gbd.digital)

Supplementary Material 7, Module 1 – How to Use JSTOR (for students): Video tutorials – How to Use JSTOR (for students) – LibGuides at JSTOR

Supplementary Material 8, Module 1 – How to Use Academia.Edu:

Module 1 Additional Resources:

Google Translate: Google Translate

DeepL Translator: DeepL Translate: The world’s most accurate translator

Key Terms:

Edward Gibbon; Theodor Mommsen; Johann Winckelmann; Peer Review; Oxford Classical Dictionary; Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopädie; Brill’s New Pauly; L’année philologique; Gnomon Bibliographische Datenbank, JSTOR; Academia.edu.; Scholarly Literature Review.