Course Syllabus ~ Humanities 3/Western Civilization 3

Last updated 6/15/2009 - Check main index for updated schedule and assignments.

Semester/Instructor: Summer, 2009, with Dr. Kaliopi Pappas.

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-10pm. Final exam: Thursday, July 23 @6pm.

Where: Tracy Center, Room 121.

Course Registration Numbers: 83244 (Civilization) and 62355 (Humanities)

Instructor Email: kpappas@deltacollege.edu.

Texts:

Both textbook and website readings are REQUIRED.

1) R. Matthews and F. DeWitt Platt. The Western Humanities, 6th edition complete. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Available at the Delta College Bookstore, on main campus (SBN: 9780073136196). Also available through http://bookstore.deltacollege.edu. This is the full edition, preantiquity-the present.

2) Course reader, compiled by the instructor and available online at http://www.civ.strangegirl.com/.

About The Course:

From the Valley of the Kings to the Acropolis to the Sistine Chapel to the Alexander Palace to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair...

Weπre going to experience a whirlwind interdisciplinary journey through the cultural history of the western world! Weπll be examining bits of literature, art, music, film, and even a bit of popular culture(!) in order to better understand the cultural traditions which undergird present-day life in the West today. Thereπs a lot to cover, but from so many ideas, there should be plenty to interest you.

Student Obligations:

• There will be a LOT of reading, and in-class discussion is expected! :D You must have regular, weekly access to the course website.
• You must check your Delta College student email every day, in case I need to get in touch with you.
• Read this syllabus carefully, as it is the administrative backbone of the course. You are responsible for knowing and understanding the information presented here. That being said, you should also understand that anything presented here, especially our schedule and particular assignments, may be adjusted as we go along. I know this all sounds very uptight, but once we dispense with the formalities, we can begin to have fun with the material. :)

Important Enrollment Dates

• Refund date: 6/17/2009.
• Last drop date without a W: 6/25/2009.
• Last drop date with a W: 7/14/2009.

Enrollment Information

• If you are currently on the waitlist, Iπll add you as space is available.
• If you are NOT registered for the class and NOT officially on the waitlist, you may add yourself to the waitlist via the Delta online registration site. I will add you as/if space becomes available.
• If you have some sort of hold on your registration, I cannot add you to the class until that hold is resolved.
• There will be absolutely no adds after the second class meeting.

Remember to CHECK YOUR ENROLLMENT now and periodically over the course of the semester to make sure you are actually signed up for the class; itπs youπre responsibility to make sure you are appropriately enrolled. Itπs also your responsibility to drop yourself if you need to, for ANY reason. If you are in ANY doubt over the status of your enrollment, CHECK! If thereπs a problem, contact me and Iπll try to help.

The summer version of the course is EXTREMELY condensed.

If your schedule or personal life is too hectic for you to be able to do course assignments (including readings), attend class regularly, and turn in assignments/take exams on time, then you should seriously consider taking the class another semester.

Attendance

• You must attend class regularly, take notes, and participate in discussions and activities. Participation, and by extension attendance, will affect your grade (See excused absence policy below).
• Please be on time, and plan to stay the whole class period. Yes, that means youπre expected to come back after the break. :)
• To verify your attendance, be sure to sign your enrollment name clearly on the attendance sheet at each class meeting. This is important!

If you miss any of the first three class meetings for any reason, you may be dropped. This is pursuant to college Policy 5150, Section A:

"Any student who fails to attend any class session during the first three sessions of the class at the beginning of a term may be dropped from that class unless the student has advised and obtained an absence approval from the faculty member."

Additionally:

"A faculty member shall mandatorily drop a student from class when the student's absences prior to the end of the fourth week of the semester exceed two weeks of class time (i.e. 2 X the number of times the class meets per week throughout the semester)." (Policy 5150, Section B)

However, if you need to drop the course at any time during the semester, please use the appropriate official channels to do so. DO NOT simply stop coming to class; I will not automatically assume you arenπt coming back.

Excused Absences

• Jury duty and official Delta field trips are the only board-sanctioned excused absence types. In both cases, you must provide me with written documentation well in advance so Iπll know why youπre not in class.
• Other absences may be excused at my discretion on a case-by-case basis. NO GUARANTEES.

No Late Work/No Make-ups Policy

• All students must turn in all assignments and take all exams ON TIME. I cannot give credit for assignments/exams which have not been completed.
• In general, I donπt accept late work, nor do I schedule makeup exams.
• Exceptions: I will reschedule exams in cases involving excused absences (see above) with written documentation provided well in advance. If your excused absence means youπll be away from class on a paper due date, arrange to turn in your paper early or send it to class on the due date with a classmate you trust.
• In cases involving extreme illness (you or an immediate family member), death of an immediate family member, or something similarly sudden and severe, I reserve the right to schedule make-ups or accept late work at my discretion and with no guarantees.
• Whether your situation involves an ≥officially-excused≤ absence or not, get in touch with me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to discuss your options. Donπt wait. Also, follow my instructions PRECISELY. If I ask you for written verification, bring it to me ASAP.

Assignments/Tests

• READINGS: Textbook chapters and primary source texts on the course website are required. Since we have so much to cover, you cannot rely on lectures alone to familiarize yourself with all of the material. You MUST do the readings. The primary source readings on the website are particularly crucial.
• PAPERS: Weπll have two papers covering various readings youπve done at home and/or viewings weπve done in class. Prompts will be distributed the week before the papers are due. Use ONLY the sources assigned to you within the context of this class.
• EXAMS: Weπll have one in-class midterm and a cumulative in-class final covering various readings youπve done at home and/or viewings weπve done in class. The exams are open-note/open-book. Use ONLY the sources assigned to you within the context of this class.
• All coursework should be well-organized, well-written, error free (in the case of the in-class exams, this is relative), and completely original to you.
• Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you copy another personπs work, whether itπs a student essay, a unique turn of phrase borrowed from a source without appropriate citation, or whole sentences/paragraphs/pages taken from the textbook without quotation or full citations, you are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism and cheating will result in a ≥zero≤ for the assignment or exam at issue, and possibly more. If you have questions as to what constitutes plagiarism, ask me. You can also learn more at the Writing Center in Holt.
• Hand in hard copies of your essays in class. Do not email me your papers unless specifically instructed by me to do so. Do not hand in diskettes, flash drives, or CDs. Do not leave assignments/exams at the Tracy Center or Division offices. Do not leave assignments/exams in my box. No rewrites. No re-scores.
• Once I have graded an assignment or exam, I will return it to you in class. Normal grading turnaround time is about 2 weeks, though it may take less/more time depending on our calendar and other circumstances. If you do not come to class on the day(s) I pass an assignment back, you must make arrangements to pick it up from me. Originals will be destroyed if you do not pick them up from me within two weeks of grading. I will not keep copies, nor will I store the originals for you. Final exams will not be returned.

Special Accommodations

• If you have a disability that is accommodated by college policy and procedure, you may be eligible for extra time during exams.
• In order to qualify, you must get approval to obtain services from the Disability Support Programs and Services office in 120 Cunningham on main campus. For information on how to document your disability and obtain clearance for services, call the DSPS office or visit their web site at http://www.deltacollege.edu/dept/dsps/howdoiqualify.html.
• Please understand that if you expect to utilize extra time allowances for an exam, you must plan to take the exam at the DSPS office on main campus. You must also provide me with official DSPS documentation AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and well in advance of the exam in question, so that I can plan to have your test prompts delivered to the DSPS office on time. You will be required to take the exam on the regular exam date, or as close to it as possible. Once you have arranged with me to take the exam at DSPS, you must then call DSPS to arrange your exam appointment.

Other Obligations

• Please be courteous, pleasant, and generally group-adaptable when dealing with classmates and the instructor. :) In other words, play nice.
• Disruptions, inappropriate behavior, eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, whispering, chatting, talking, manipulation games, playing on your cell phone or other device, and flash photography are strictly prohibited. If you have cell phones, pagers, or anything else electronic that could be construed as noisy or annoying, please turn it off or set it to silent mode before class. Donπt plan on text messaging or putting on makeup during class either. Repeated disruptions will result in your removal from the class (perhaps permanently).
• Also, realize that according to Delta College policy, unenrolled persons are absolutely prohibited from attending classes or otherwise being present in the classroom. This means no children and no guests. Thank you.
• Stay tuned for more details. I reserve the right to clarify or change sections of this syllabus - including my course policies - to better serve the needs of the class as a whole.

Grades:

If you want to figure out how youπre doing in the class, or find out what you have to score on remaining assignments to get a particular grade, hereπs the basic point breakdown:

- Midterm: 75 points

- Final Exam: 100 points

- 2 Papers: 100 points (50 points each)

- Participation: 25 points

- Total: 300 points

Overall letter grades are determined by the usual 0-100% scheme. 90-100%=A, 80-90%=B, 70-80%=C, 60-70%=D, and below 60%=F.

Tentative Schedule:

This is a list of topics, by class meeting, and the tentative assignments to be discussed during each period. This is only a general guide. We may extend/ contract discussions, or add/subtract reading materials as we go along. Pay attention in class and ALWAYS go to the course website for updates and specific assignments.

The assignments in parentheses, bolded, will be discussed on that day:

Week 1 - June 16 - Class Intro.

Week 1 - June 18

- The Near East (Ch. 1 in text; Gilgamesh excerpts on website)

Week 2 - June 23 - FILM/PAPER ONE ASSIGNED

- Aegean Civilizations & Archaic Greece (Ch. 2 in text; Odyssey excerpts on website)

- Classical Greece 1: The Hellenic Age. FILM: Greek Theatre/Oedipus Rex (Ch. 3 in text; Sophocles & Plato excerpts on website)

Week 2 - June 25

- Classical Greece 2: The Hellenistic Age (Ch. 4 in text; Epicurus on website)

- Pre-Christian Rome (Ch. 5 in text; Vergil and Ovid excerpts on website)

Week 3 - June 30 - PAPER ONE DUE

- Christian Rome and Judaism (Ch. 6 in text; Tertullian)

- Late Rome and Romeπs "Heir Civilizations:" The Byzantine Empire, Early Medieval West, and the Old Islamic Empire (Chs. 7 & 8 in text; Augustine "Confessions" and Beowulf excerpts on website)

Week 3 - July 2

- High Middle Ages (Ch. 9 in text; Lancelot excerpt on website)

- Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance (Chs. 10 & 11 in text; Chaucer and Alberti excerpts on website)

Week 4 - July 7 - MIDTERM EXAM

- High Renaissance/Northern Renaissance (Ch. 12 & 13 in text; Machiavelli & Castiglione excerpts on website)

Week 4 - July 9

- Baroque Age (Chs. 14 & 15 in text; De la Cruz, Hobbes, and Locke excerpts on website)

- The Age of Reason/Revolution (Chs. 16 & 17 in text; Wollstonecraft, Austen, Jefferson, Madison, excerpts on website)

Week 5 - July 14 - FILM/PAPER TWO ASSIGNED

- Age of Reason, continued (see above)

- The Triumph of the Bourgeoisie/Early Modernism. FILM: Metropolis (Chs. 18 & 19 in text; Marx & Engels excerpts on website)

Week 5 - July 16

- Modernism and Beyond (Chs. 20 & 21 in text; Lawrence, Orwell, Imperial Letters, and Worldπs Fair excerpts on website)

Week 6 - July 21 - FILM/PAPER TWO DUE

- Catch up

- FILM: Disneyland Goes to the Worldπs Fair

Week 6 - July 23 - FINAL EXAM

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