Intro to Greco-Roman Gender and Sexuality

CLAS 199 01

Spring 2020

College of the Holy Cross

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Distance Reconfigurations

There are nine (9) sections to this document. Please take the time to read it all! This page is also available as a Google Doc.

1. General Notes

Needless to say, these are unprecedented times which call for extraordinary measures. My goal is to set up a distance learning environment that allows you to set your own pace as you navigate what’s happening in our world and deal with everything else that you have to deal with, in practical and emotional terms. Please don’t ever hesitate to e-mail me, visit via Zoom at preordained times (see below) or non-preordained times via appointment, or leave a message in the GroupMe with any questions, issues, or concerns that you have. We’re all figuring it out as we go; the best we can do is to be here for each other with compassion and patience. And maybe an occasional fuzzy animal picture or meme. Here’s a recent favorite of mine: the woman yelling at cat meme with an ancient twist (by AlexanderPetela on redbubble.com):

2. Midterm Exam or Essay

I have reformatted the midterm exam as a Google Form assessment which can be found at this link. The password is available via the Google Doc version of this page. You can take it at any time and there is no time limit, but please take it on the honor system: do not consult any notes, and take the exam in one sitting (set aside about 50 minutes to an hour to complete it). If you would prefer to print it out, take the exam by hand (including writing out short answers in a notebook or on loose-leaf paper), and then scan it back to me, please e-mail me to let me know and I can send you a PDF of the exam.

I strongly suggest that you complete the midterm exam or submit your midterm essay via the upload portal by or on M 3/23. I’ve specifically set up the schedule so that our first day back is a freebie, without any lectures to watch or other class-related activities to worry about, so you can use that time to cross the midterm off your list.

The hard deadline for the completion of the midterm exam or submission of the midterm essay is F 3/27. I wanted to set a grace period as we all settle into this distance learning model, but I also wanted to set a hard deadline for the completion of the midterm to ensure that you won’t forget or get rusty on the Greek material of the course as we move into the Roman material.

3. Midterm Revisions

As originally stipulated in the grading contract, if you score lower on the midterm exam or essay than you would like, you have the opportunity to make up points or to notch your grade a stop or two higher if you complete revisions of your exam or essay. I will aim to have everything graded and communicated back to you by Su 3/29. If you’d like to complete a revision, e-mail me and I will set individual revision guidelines for you Then, you will have until W 4/8 at 11:59pm to complete those revisions.

4. “Attendance Policy”: Class Meetings and Student Hours

Obviously, when we’re at distance, “attendance” goes out the window. This is especially true since our normal class meeting times (MWF 1-1:50pm) will be designated as optional drop-in times via Zoom. As such, “attendance” will not factor into your semester grade, since no one had an unexcused absence up until this point.

The link for all class periods and student hours is here.

I am guaranteed to be in this Zoom meeting room during our class periods (MWF 1-1:50pm) and my student hours (W 2-4pm and Th 10:30am-12:30pm) for the rest of the semester. To be clear, each of these times is optional; you can drop in to clarify any questions that you have about the lectures or concepts or to talk about other requirements of the course, but you are not required to join the Zoom meeting at any of these times.

These drop-in times and student hours will be administered via Zoom. You should have received two invitations to add recurring events to your Google Calendar: one for our recurring class period, and one for student hours. Please accept the invitations, and then head to https://calendar.google.com to make sure that the class meetings and student hours are showing up in your calendar. In each event, you should see a prompt to “Join Zoom Meeting” — that will be the link to use to join the Zoom meeting for that class period or student hours session. You can also use the link posted above. I think I might have botched the Thursday student hour times in particular, so please let me know if you don’t see our class meeting times or the 2-4pm block on Wednesdays or the 10:30am-12:30pm block on Thursdays.

5. Course Schedule and Lectures

I’ve reconfigured the course schedule and rearranged some of the topics. Please head to the course schedule to check out the topic changes and rearrangements in detail.

Lectures will be recorded via Panopto and links to those lectures will be posted as usual under the weeks in question; each lecture will be appropriately labeled with dates.

Even though the lectures will be available all semester, I strongly recommend that you keep up with the course schedule in terms of lecture viewings and quiz and response submissions (see below). It will be impossible to catch up on everything if you let it go until the end of the semester, so it’s incumbent upon you to set an appropriate pace for ingesting the material and completing your assessments.

If you have any issues keeping up with the material due to new concerns that you didn’t have on campus (e.g., you had to get a job or start taking care of a family member now that you’re at home), please contact me privately so that we can figure out a fair way to guide your path through the course.

6. Quizzes

We have six (6) quizzes remaining for the semester. These will each be administered through Google Forms, and links will be posted as each quiz is generated on both the course schedule and the quizzes section of the grading contract. In both sections, each quiz will be labeled with the topic that it covers.

I suggest that you complete each quiz on the first day of the week following the week in question; suggested dates for each quiz are listed in the course schedule. Again, because we’re at distance and there will be new distractions and issues for you to deal with, those quiz dates are only suggestions.

However, there will be one hard and fast deadline: all quizzes must be completed by 11:59pm on W 5/6 (the last day of “study period”). Any quizzes that are not completed by that time and date will receive a grade of 0. Again, it is incumbent upon you to keep up with the course material and complete the quizzes in a way that won’t let them pile up at the end of the semester!

7. Responses

We have seven (7) responses left for the semester. Due dates for responses, like those for quizzes, will now be suggestions rather than definite deadlines: see the course schedule for details. The one hard and fast deadline is that all responses must be submitted by 11:59pm on W 5/6 (the last day of “study period” and the same due date for quizzes).

8. Creative Projects

All creative projects must be submitted by Tuesday, May 12, at 11:59pm (the date set by the registrar as our final exam day). The deadlines for individual creative projects, like those for individual quizzes and responses, are now waived, but I suggest you keep to a schedule like the following to ensure that the creative projects don’t pile up at the end of the semester:

The project options will remain the same except for prompt #4, the Selfie and Object Analysis. Obviously, since museums will be closed for the bulk of this semester, visiting one to take a selfie with and analyze an object is not feasible. If you’d like to complete this prompt, however, you may choose an ancient object (defined as a material artefact created between 750 BCE and 150 CE in either a Greek or Roman city) that you can research online to write a short essay about according to the questions in prompt #4. You must consult with me via e-mail first if you’d like to take this option so that I can ensure that your object is “ancient.”

9. Final Exam or Essay

The final will work along the same lines as the midterm. The final exam will cover mostly the Roman material of the course, although I reserve the right to offer short answer options that ask you to compare Greek literature, events, or concepts with Roman ones. The final exam will be administered through Google Forms. I will assume that you’re taking the final exam unless you explicitly notify me that you’d like to write a final essay instead. If you’d like to write an essay, you must e-mail me to let me know by F 4/24. Both the final exam and the final essay will be due by 11:59pm on Tu 5/12.