HUMANITIES 2211
STUDIES IN CULTURE: ANCIENT THROUGH MEDIEVAL PERIODS
JAMES D'EMILIO
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HUMANITIES
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
CPR 382/974-9404/demilio@shell.cas.usf.edu
2211-001: CIS 1048, Monday/Wednesday, 11:00-12:15 PM
2211-002: CPR 115, Tuesday, 6:00-8:50 PM
Office hours (August 28-December 6, 2006): Monday 1-2, Tuesday 4-5, Wednesday 9-10 (or by appointment)
 
DESCRIPTION AND GOALS
     This course will introduce you to the cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and medieval Europe through close study of representative works of art, architecture, literature and philosophy in their historical context. If this material is new to you, this course will be a good introduction to these cultures and to different forms of art and literature. If you have already studied some of these works separately, you will benefit by considering them together.
     First, I hope you will enjoy and appreciate the works we discuss, and grow curious to learn more about these and other cultures. Secondly, I will help you to become more thoughtful readers of texts and more perceptive viewers of images. Thirdly, I have chosen works which pose questions about personal freedom, social responsibility, human knowledge, and moral values; the echoes of these debates still shape our lives. Finally, you will see how ancient and medieval cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean made use of their own past and left their mark on today’s world; I invite you to make that heritage a part of your own lives.
     This course counts towards the Liberal Arts Requirements as a Historical Perspectives course. 

ASSIGNED TEXTS
1. The Iliad of Homer.  Translated by R. Lattimore. University of Chicago Press.
2. Sophocles.  The Three Theban Plays.  Translated by R. Fagles. Penguin Books.
3. Great Dialogues of Plato.  Translated by W.H.D. Rouse. Mentor Books.
4. The Aeneid of Virgil.  Translated by Allen Mandelbaum. Bantam Books.
5. St. Augustine.  The Confessions.  Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford University Press.
6. The Anglo-Saxon World: an Anthology. Edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Oxford University Press.
7. Dante Alighieri.  The Divine Comedy: the Inferno. Translated by A. Mandelbaum.  Bantam.
8. Procopy packet (a selection of short readings from Herodotus, Thucydides, and Ovid)
The seven books are available in the USF bookstore; the Procopy packet must be purchased at Procopy, 5209 East Fowler Avenue, Publix Shopping Center.
I urge you to use these translations, particularly of the plays and poetry.  Using other translations may make it hard to follow lectures and may confuse you on the tests.

PREPARATION FOR CLASS
     Come prepared! Do the assigned readings and read the notes on the website before the class for which they are listed. Follow the instructions for printing out notes from the website. Bring the notes and the assigned book to class. Use the notes for a quick review before class. The notes and assigned book will help you follow lectures and participate in discussion, and I will refer to them often. In class, listen actively, take notes, ask questions, and participate intelligently. You may tape lectures (audio only) for your own personal use only, not for distribution beyond the students registered for this class. Please turn off cell phones and beepers; cell phones should not be used during class for any purposes, including text messaging or sending/receiving photographs; ipods and headphones of any kind should be removed during class.
     Attendance, attention, and respect for the class are preconditions for satisfactory performance. Your grade for the course will be lowered by patterns of absences, late arrivals, early departures, inattention, or evident disregard for the assignments.

ASSESSMENT
  • You will earn five letter grades, and each will be a percentage of your final grade (Test 1: 20%; Test 2: 25%; Test 3: 25%; On-line discussion: 20%; ICWA: 10%).  I will shift 5% from your lowest to your highest grade.
  • To determine your final grade from these five letter grades, I will follow the scale used to calculate Grade Point Average: A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0, FF = -1.  "+" increases the value of a grade by .33, and "-" decreases it by .33: B- is 2.67, C+ is 2.33. An A+ for any assignment will be counted as extra credit and given a value of 4.33. 
  • Here is an example:
    Assignment                 Grade   Numerical value  x  percent        =    Weighted value
     Test 1                                   C-       1.67    x    15%                         =            .25  (lowest grade: weight lowered by 5% from 20% to 15%)
     Test 2                                   B-       2.67    x    25%                         =            .67
     Test 3                                   B+      3.33    x    30%                          =         1.00 (highest grade: weight raised by 5% from 25% to 30%)
    ICWA                                  C         2.00    x    10%                          =           .20
    On-line discussion            B         3.00    x    20%                          =           .60
                                                                                                  TOTAL:   2.72 = B-
       
    • If you receive 3 F’s, you will fail the course regardless of your grades on the remaining assignments. As indicated above, persistent absence and/or patterns of inattention or distracting behavior in class will result in a lowering of your overall grade, for these are evidence - beyond the tests, in-class writing assignments, and on-line discussion - of missed material. Final grades will include pluses and minuses, e.g., B-, C+ etc.
         In the sections of this course which I have taught in recent years, this has been the distribution of grades:    
    A: 12%    B: 27%     C: 23%     D: 6%     F: 9%     W: 23%

    ON-LINE DISCUSSION/CLASS PARTICIPATION
         The discussion board on MyUSF/Blackboard  is an on-line forum for class discussion. You can post comments, questions, and ideas about any aspect of the course. You can reply to other students' postings or start your own discussion thread. Your participation is a graded part of the course. For complete guidelines and an explanation of how I assess your participation: ON-LINE DISCUSSION GUIDELINES .
    BE SURE TO READ THE GUIDELINES BEFORE POSTING MESSAGES. I RECOMMEND THAT YOU PRINT AND KEEP THEM.

    TESTS
         There will be three unit tests on the dates given in the Schedule of Readings (Monday/Wednesday class/Tuesday night class). The third unit test will be given on the scheduled date during final exam week and it will be two hours long. Tests will be closely related to the material assigned in the readings, presented in class, and included on the website. Additional guidelines, as well as sample questions and answers, will be posted on the website. On each test, I will derive a letter grade from your raw score by using a scale based, in part, on the overall performance of the class. Typical questions include:
    1. A variety of short answer questions like those described for the in-class writing assignments
    2. Identifications: Identify or define the term as precisely as possible, and explain its importance. Strong answers would typically include three or four concise and informative sentences.
    3. Essays: My favorite is to ask you to identify the context of a quotation from an assigned work, and explain its importance for an understanding of that work and/or of major themes from the course.
         If you have questions about the material, don’t wait: ask them early - in class, by e-mail, or in my office!  Serious weaknesses in writing may hurt your performance on these tests.

    MAKE-UP TESTS
         Make-up tests will not be given or even discussed under any circumstances, and tests will not be rescheduled in advance for any reasons other than documented requests for accommodations from Student Disability Services or conflicts with days of recognized religious observance as listed in the USF Calendar of Religious Holy Days (see below: SPECIAL NEEDS ). Missed tests count as failures. I have no fair criteria for weighing the merits of different excuses for missed tests - or comparing them with the adverse circumstances under which some students take tests. It is best to “make up” a missed test by working hard to ensure that your performance is strong in the rest of the class. That is something I can assess: if you have missed a test, I will do my best, in calculating your final grade, to give reasonable consideration to your overall performance in the course, and, specifically, to your work in the unit for which you missed the test (attendance, on-line participation, in-class writing assignments).

    ICWA (In-class writing assignments)
         Some classes may include a five- to twenty-minute in-class writing assignment. These will be based primarily on the assigned readings, the web notes and the lecture/discussion for that day. You may be asked, for example, to answer questions (mulitple choice, short answer or true/false) about the readings or about quotations from the readings; to identify or define several names or terms or to match them with definitions or statements; or to arrange a series of episodes from an assigned work in the correct order. By encouraging you to come prepared for class and to be attentive in class, these assignments will make the class a more worthwhile experience and improve your performance. They will also help me identify areas that need more attention, before they become serious stumbling blocks to your understanding of readings and lectures.
         Each assignment will be worth ten points. To determine your final letter grade for these assignments, I will total your scores and use a curve based, in part, on the distribution of scores in the class. Absences count as zero, and missed assignments will not be made up.  If I give too few of these assignments to offer a fair sample for a grade, that 10% of your final grade will be supplied by your grade on these assignments or your weighted average on the tests and on-line participation, whichever is higher.

    SPECIAL NEEDS
         If you anticipate missing any classes because of a religious observance, you must notify me in writing (or by e-mail) by SEPT. 13.  Students with disabilities, who are registered with the Student Disability Services, should consult with me as soon as possible and provide the required Memorandum of Accommodation from the ASASD office by SEPT. 13. I will make appropriate accommodations for testing, provided that I am given timely, written notification of your needs, consistent with the guidelines on the ASASD website

    PLAGIARISM
         USF has an account with an automated plagiarism detection service which allows instructors to submit student assignments to be checked for plagiarism. I reserve the right to submit assignments (including statements posted to the listserv) to this detection service. Assignments are automatically compared with a huge database of journal articles, web sites, and previously submitted papers. The instructor receives a report showing exactly how a student’s paper was plagiarized. Also see:
    www.turnitin.com
    http://www.ugs.usf.edu/catalogs/0607/adadap.htm#plagiarism
    Plagiarism is grounds for failure in this course.

    ATTENDANCE
         Attendance is important. Poor attendance is likely to weaken your performance on tests and lower your grade for quizzes. A persistent pattern of missed classes will result in a lowering of your overall grade, regardless of the reasons for absences. If a roll sheet is passed around, you must NEVER sign for anyone else but yourself.

    OTHER WEBSITES
    The Perseus Digital Library is an excellent resource on ancient Greece and Rome with many photographs of ancient art and architecture. For the Middle Ages, good sites with links to numerous sources include: ORB (The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies) , the Internet Medieval Sourcebook at Fordham University , and the Labyrinth at Georgetown University .  For an excellent guide to websites in the Humanities: The Voice of the Shuttle, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For a general index of resources and images for art history: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
    Revised August 26, 2006
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    SCHEDULE OF READINGS (Tuesday night)
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