Author: Don Seeman PhD

Don Seeman is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory. He is a social anthropologist (PhD Harvard 1997) specializing in medical and phenomenological anthropology, ethnography of religion and Jewish thought.

Welcome to class!

Dear Students,

Welcome to our blog site! Each week, some of you will post blogs here and the others will respond.

A good blog post is

  1. Well written– full sentences, good grammar, correct punctuation.
  2. Thoughtful– Makes a case for something based on evidence (i.e. from the readings) and asks interesting questions.
  3. Is constructive– it leaves open the possibility that one might be in error, it acknowledges the force of counter arguments where appropriate, and it opens up a problem or a text for full consideration.
  4. Includes some specific questions that we can discuss in class.
  5. Includes enough summary of the readings that we can understand what you are talking about but does not become a book report.
  6. Is long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep things interesting. This will depend on the topic and I will not give a specific length. But 1500 words might be a good place to start.

A good response post is:

  1. Well-written–full sentences, good grammar, correct punctuation
  2. Thoughtful– Makes a case for something based on evidence (i.e. from the readings) and asks interesting questions.
  3. Is constructive– it leaves open the possibility that one might be in error, it acknowledges the force of counter arguments where appropriate, and it opens up a problem or a text for full consideration. It is also polite. It is fine to point out a disagreement or a possible misreading, but it is never okay to mock or belittle a fellow classmate.
  4. Includes some specific questions that we can discuss in class.