self assessment 2003-2004

The second year of Biblical Studies, has, for me been interesting. Whilst I have really enjoyed looking at the texts we have studied over the course of the past year in more depth, and also in relation to external factors, (for example in ‘The Bible and Archaeology’ I really enjoyed looking at how artefacts and sites discovered can help our understanding not only of Biblical texts, but also Biblical culture, and these things in relation to other cultures and traditions of that time) it has also been a struggle to engage fully due to illness. There have been several lectures I was very disappointed to have missed, and I honestly feel that my performance over the last year academically has suffered because of it. However I do not want or intend to use it as an excuse for absence or underachievement. One positive thing that has come out of this situation however, is my appreciation of good lecture notes. In particular Tamlin Lizius’ notes for ‘The Bible and the Liberation of the Oppressed (Exodus)’ and ‘The Bible and Archaeology’ were nothing less than spectacular and have been a great help in both catching up on work that I have missed and in gaining background information pertaining to the topics covered.
The first semester of this year was overall my least favourite. I enjoyed the module on ‘The Bible and the Fourfold Gospel’ especially the tutorials, as personally I found that the tutorials, particularly the ones taken by Rafael, were a good opportunity to discuss in depth our own interpretations of the evidence given forwards, as well as the module being a fresh approach to the study of the Gospels both as a whole and individually that I would not have necessarily considered otherwise.
‘The Bible and the Historical Imagination’ was the module which I found most demanding to engage with as I felt that the style of teaching was not especially conducive to learning. I did however particularly enjoy the lecture on ‘Maps and Atlases’ and really connected with the idea of bias within something that is solidly assumed to be completely objective.
‘The Bible and the Arts’ was taught in a well structured manner, and while several of the class felt that this module was a lot more demanding in terms of the work completed for the marks achieved, it was still a worthwhile module to undertake and I would heartily recommend this to anyone wondering about it.
I was not very confident leading into the exams of the first semester’s work. I felt under-prepared and health-wise was feeling quite run down, and as a result was expecting to gain around a mid 2.2 for the semester’s grade. When I received my results however, I was very pleased to discover that I had done better than I expected, which then boosted my confidence going into the second semester, which I was looking forwards to more than I had the first as I felt I had more interest in the topics to be covered.
‘The Bible and the Literary Imagination’ module has given me a valuable insight into Literary studies and their application within Biblical Studies as well as again, challenging my own, admittedly sometimes narrow-minded, approaches to the text, and bringing the ideas of different approaches I would not have otherwise considered into being. At the end of this module however, I am glad that ‘The Bible and the Post-modern’ is not a feature my syllabus for next year as I found the lectures on Post-modernism and Deconstructuralist Theory mind-boggling!
‘The Bible and the Liberation of the Oppressed’ module was somewhat different to what we had been expecting. The news that we would be looking at Liberation Theology was not met with great approval, as there had been no mention of this before beginning it (although with it’s inclusion in the syllabus as a core module it would have made little difference if it had, other than we would have been expecting it). Unfortunately due to illness and various medical appointments I missed more lectures of this module as I would have liked to, but as previously mentioned, the notes for this module have been nothing short of fantastic.
The final module I have studied this year is ‘The Bible and Archaeology’. This module was the most eagerly anticipated module of the entire course for me, as I have wanted to study it since I heard it was possible on the open day for the course at Sheffield. The only criticism that I would make of this module is that there was too much covered in too short a space of time. I would have rather studied less finds and sites, and spent more time on each, however this is only a minor point, and the examination being ‘seen’ means that this makes revision less of a problem than it might have been otherwise. I also liked the idea of splitting up several important finds into the group projects for this module, as it resulted in learning briefly of several things, but having in depth knowledge of one.
As I look towards this semester’s rapidly approaching exams, I am again unconfident. I feel slightly better about the exams themselves after last semester, but I do not want to take for granted the fact that I am possibly too critical of my own ability within the examinations. My worry lies in the essays that I have yet to write. One of the major effects of being ill has been that compared with before I have very little energy and no concentration so writing the essays has been proving very difficult. I do however hope to have them all finished by the end of the semester, even though this means that they will be late.
The highlight of this year was the last lecture of ‘The Bible and Archaeology’ which was a very interesting lecture to start with, all about tombs and burial rituals of Biblical Cultures, but at the end we were shown some artefacts which were found in Jerusalem and date to the time of Jesus, which I found fascinating, and I was then able to hold them myself and really examine them. This was an amazing experience for me.
As I look towards my final year I feel quite bittersweet. I am looking forwards with anticipation to the modules I have chosen to take next year, and writing my dissertation, for which the proposal is currently well underway. I am, however, upset that despite my efforts, my work has not been of the standard I know I can be capable of, although I fully intend to make every effort to do my best with the time I have left, and that this will potentially undermine my satisfaction when I finish next year. I will however give it my most sincere attempt of making the best of what has in some ways been a nightmarish year.