Email: [email protected]

My office is in the New Vertical Building, 7th Floor, English Department, office 257. 

If the class needs to switch to a remote format on Zoom, I will make an announcement on Blackboard. The zoom link and password are available on Blackboard in the “Syllabus” section. 

Class Culture: Reflection, Revision, and Collaboration 

The classroom is a space and concept shaped by each of us through our active engagement. Our individual banks of knowledge and skill sets are distinct and can develop through reflection, revision, and collaboration. Many assignments in this class allow students to practice key skills or build toward larger assessments; assignments also involve peer feedback, class votes, and discussion. Many assignments are effort based (e.g. did you do it on time and submit) and self-graded (e.g. reflection on the work and self-grade based on provided rubric).

Working with and Beyond the Syllabus

What do you want to talk about? What have you read or seen or listened to before this class that informs your thinking?  How do you relate to the material and ideas we explore? We will cover a range of material selected to meet the learning goals of the course. At the same time, this class also expands our thinking on topics.  So if you find related material outside of course reading, whether it is academic or pop cultural or personal, you can incorporate it into your online comments, bring it up in class discussion, or even reach out to the instructor to see if you might relate to the outside material back to a class assignment or larger assessment.

Disability Services

If you have a physical, psychological, learning disability, or chronic medical condition, Baruch College provides services through Student Disability Services, which is part of the Division of Student Affairs. A student with a disability must self-identify, apply for services, and provide documentation of their disability.

For more information:

• Call 646-312-4590 to schedule an in-person appointment.
• Email [email protected] to schedule an appointment, register, or to simply say hello.

Services provided include:

• Extended time for exams
• Priority registration
• Academic adjustments
• Class notes provided
• Classes in accessible settings
• Print materials available in alternate formats
• Provision of auxiliary aids
• Counseling
• Advocacy
• May qualify for ADA TAP (Student must meet all other criteria for TAP)
• Outside referrals
• Assistive technology services

For more information, check out this short video:

Electronics (Laptops, Smartphones, tablets, etc)

Electronic devices are welcome (encouraged) in class, to support learning. Please be mindful that they do not serve as a distraction to you or those around you.

Course Schedule

The schedule for this course and details for assignments are available on the “Course Schedule” page. Please note that this schedule is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.  The announcement of any such changes will occur in class and on Blackboard.

Learning Goals

Read closely and critically texts from multiple genres, with careful attention to literary devices such as imagery, tone, irony, metaphor, symbolism, and narrative voice. Students will be able to pick out literary devices and interpret or explain their effect in purpose, particularly to direct the attention of readers or audience toward social, political, and cultural issues requiring individual and/or societal intervention and change.

Analyze texts within a historical, cultural, social, and political context. Students will be able to connect texts, authors, and historical agents to key events prompting or defining a call for social change. Students will be able to recognize key thematic issues in texts as they relate to social change and social movements and periods such as the Progressive Era or Gilded Age, the Nadir of race relations, post world war II America, the Civil Rights Movement, LGBTQ+ or Gay Rights and Trans Rights movements, and the environmental or Climate change movement. Students will be able to combine their close reading of literary devices and aspects of a text with their understanding of cultural and historical context.

Exercise effective research skills, identifying and appropriately engaging with and citing credible sources to analyze primary sources both as literature—with a distinctive voice and formal characteristics—and as cultural and historical documents that need to be placed in their specific contexts.

Pose critical social and political inquiries to locate and detail patterns of oppression AND political, social, and cultural formations of freedom and social affirmation critical to improving life for different marginalized groups.

Share their respective understanding of literature, social change, and contemporary or ongoing social issues to an intelligent audience using academic and informal communication skills by writing essays, blogs, and podcasts.

Assignment Breakdown (further details on “Course Schedule” page)

• Three larger assignments (55% of grade):
  • two critical analysis essays (the first is worth 20% and the second is worth 25% of the grade) and
  • a “Welcome to the Week” Blog post/video with a corresponding 5 min recap in class discussion (10% of grade)

• Weekly smaller assessments (25% of grade)
  • weekly readings,
  • blog posts,
  • and annotations in hypothesis.is

• Participation: Attendance, Comments on Blogs, Engagement, and Class trips for experiential learning (20%)

Late Work and Extensions

Life happens. We don’t always get all the work done on time, but it is best to communicate to the instructor where you are in your work when you need help or are starting to fall behind. Students should notify the instructor BEFORE the due date for any submission if it will be late. Extensions are granted on a case-by-case basis depending on the communication between the student and instructor. After 2 weeks, missing work may not receive credit.

Absences

Your presence is necessary for everyone’s success in this course. You are allowed to miss three class meetings. Any absence after the third may impact your engagement with content and ideas shared in class, so I encourage you to remember this. Please be proactive in situations where you will be absent, if you experience an emergency, or anticipate a prolonged absence for any reason.

Grade Expectations:

If at any time you have a question about your grade in the class, please bring it to my attention immediately. Essays and larger assessments are graded based on the degree to which separate skills are performed AND the overall quality of the submitted assessment. Feedback will provide further details, but in general, especially for essays, “A” range essays fulfill all assigned objectives with excellence, “B” range essays fulfill all assigned objectives with demonstrable skill and insight with aspects that can be improved,”C” range essays attempt all assigned objectives but need further developments in a couple of key areas. “D” papers make an attempt at the assignment but require large-scale development. Essays or assignments  that do not attempt the majority of the objectives receive an “F.”

Cheating and Plagiarism