(photo from here)
Required Text
(available for purchase at the bookstore or on reserve at the library):
Knauft, Bruce. 2005. The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2nd edition.
Gershon, Ilana. 2010. The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
All other readings will be available on this course website.
Grading
Section attendance and participation: 25% of final grade
Class attendance and participation: 15% of final grade
Short writing assignments: 20% of final grade
Exams: 30% of final grade (10% each)
Final proposal: 10% of final grade
Class Participation
I expect all students will come to class ready to apply what they've read to our class discussions. Please ask questions and share your ideas – and be aware that I will regularly ask this of you in class.
Academic Honesty
My policies conform to the University of Virginia’s policies. Let me know if you have any questions.
Office Hours and Consultations
I am always happy to talk with you, via email or in person. Please make an appointment to talk, and bring your ideas, musings, and / or rough drafts. I believe writing and learning are long-term processes and I will reward students who take this seriously. We will consider offering an option to rewrite an essay, if students first make an appointment to talk through planned revisions. Please notice that revisions cannot be cursory; they must show evidence that the student has substantially reconsidered the earlier draft. Any rewrite must be received (on dropbox) within two week after the original assignment was returned.
Late Policy
Assignments that are received after the deadlines will have grades reduced by three points for each day late. I am very firm about deadlines. Emails that come in ten minutes late are late. If you are likely to push deadlines or procrastinate, I highly suggest you convince yourself that the deadlines are earlier than they actually are.
Dropbox = Official Clock
All assignments must be uploaded to your dropbox folder on the Collab site. You will also get your graded assignments returned via dropbox. The dropbox clock -- the time with which your assignment is tagged when you upload it -- serves as the official clock and will be how I judge lateness. It is your responsibility to make sure you’ve uploaded the correct file.
Luddite policy
Despite being a firm believer (and user) of technology, I have a strict policy against laptops and cell phones during our class meetings. Students are not permitted to use laptops to take notes – for reasons such as this, I believe we all learn better with fewer distractions and, unfortunately, laptops are a huge distraction. If you have a special circumstance that makes your laptop necessary for learning, please come and talk with me about it.
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all class meetings, and be prepared to think, talk, and reflect in them. I will make all lecture presentations available on the course website, and will also record all the course lectures and discussions. If you miss class you have the responsibility to listen to what you missed.
Course recordings and slides
All class meetings are recorded (using an audio recorder). Those recordings are available through iTunesU, which you can access through Collab. To find them, log in to Collab, click on Anth 1010, and then the “iTunesU” tab. The recordings can be downloaded like a podcast. All lectures slides are also on Collab, under resources / presentation slides.
The Discomfort Caused by Anthropology
It is quite possible that things we read, watch, or discuss in this course might make you uncomfortable. Although I am certainly not trying to shock you, the course materials include people with very different beliefs and experiences. Throughout our time together, I ask two things of you: 1) Without overly censoring yourself, please be respectful of other people; 2) If and when you feel uncomfortable, please take time to reflect on your own reactions, rather than taking "discomfort" as an automatic negative. Feel free to talk with me at any point or articulate your discomfort in our discussions.