Policies & Expectations


Required Texts

Course packets have become unnecessarily expensive and do not always permit reproduction of every article we need to read, so I have opted to make a password-secure digital collection of our readings and to store it in our Canvas Course Library (CL). This is a lot of readings to manage in digital format. Please find a failsafe way to access them, even if that means printing some of them. (Trust me – you won’t regret it.) Because this is a graduate seminar that involves active reading and exploration, I expect you to bring readings to class in some material form on dates they are assigned. Readings marked CL and web link should be brought to class in either digital (laptop, e-Reader, iPad) or print format. Readings brought to class on your smart phone won’t do me, you, or your classmates very much good, given our needs with the text. I have placed most of the reference texts on reserve at Strozier Library to make them accessible to everyone.

Distribution of Assignments
  • 54% Weeklies (Intertextual Conversations and Exploratories)
  • 16% Mid-term Project (Critical Book Analysis Presentation)
  • 20% Final Project (Theory Re/Building Project + Presentation)
  • 10% Final Exam (Written, Take-Home)

Read Actively and Participate Actively
Active intellectual participation is required and expected; in fact, it will underlie my evaluation of most other work that you do. Please be prepared to read with rigor (~75 pages most weeks), allowing plenty of time to grapple with varied and complicated perspectives, making reading the active process that it is. Find a note-taking strategy that works for you, in and out of class. Form a reading group if you don’t want to traverse the materials alone. While you are in class, please do what you must and whatever is in your power to make our discussion accessible, productive and useful to everyone. I do understand this takes a great deal of energy. Some of the texts we read will seem very difficult at first, but please do not despair in those moments of (perceived) non-comprehension. Observe them, speak out about them, look up definitions, and lean into them. Grappling is encouraged in this course, as I am not promoting a single ideology or approach. Where possible, I will gloss our readings, provide supplemental schema to help ground us, or ask us to explore case studies to improve our understanding. However, I will also expect you to spend time with the material and work through it, using the resources I provide and the materials you create in order to situate yourself and the reading, and to keep track of your questions wherever and whenever they occur. This truly is a safe space for rigorous discussion, but please help it to remain so by upholding FSU’s Student Conduct.

Arrive to Class On Time and Submit Work On Time
Much of your work will consist of building intellectual community through discussion, presentations, and collective knowledge-making, and this will absolutely factor into my evaluation of your work. Thus, although you don’t need me to tell you that regular attendance is absolutely necessary, it bears repeating so that you know this is my expectation. You should not miss class, excepting the rare occasion of a conference presentation, illness, childcare emergency, military or jury duty, religious holy day, or family emergency. On that occasion—should it arise—I expect you to contact me ahead of time with appropriate written documentation of the reason you may be away so that I can determine what action to take, and help out where needed. Relatedly, all assignments must be submitted by their due date, and this is especially important given the collaborative and performative nature of several of our assignments. I will do what I can to accommodate a warranted absence and grant an extension or help you make up missed work where possible, but please keep in mind that, due to our tight meeting schedule, a presentation or group assignment cannot always be made up. The broader university policy on attendance can be found in the Registrar’s “Academic Regulations and Procedures." Above all, remember that one missed class is equivalent to an entire week of missed information and engagement.

Exercise Academic Integrity in Everything You Do
It may seem redundant for me to articulate a statement on academic integrity for savvy scholars of information and text, but you should know that I expect you to maintain this, without fail. For this course, you are responsible for reading and abiding by the FSU Academic Honor Policy, and for living up to your pledge to “… be honest and truthful and … [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity” in all things. All of your work for this class should be authentic and specific to the tasks I have assigned, rather than recycled from another class. Cheating and all forms of misrepresentation (including plagiarism, which I understand to be more a violation of trust than a particular set of textual behaviors) can result in automatic failure of the course. Basically, you want to not do anything that will violate trust. If ever you have a question about whether you are using source material fairly, or whether your work or project ideas are authentic, please speak out and ask—either in class or in my office hours. It is always a topic worth discussing.

Seek Accommodations If You Need Them
I willingly provide individualized, reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities, and/or can make the syllabus and other course materials available in alternative formats. As well, the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) can arrange for assistance, auxiliary aids, or related services if you think a temporary or permanent disability will prevent you from fully participating in class. Contact them at (850) 644-9566 (voice), (850) 644-8504 (TDD), or http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/ with your individual concerns. You must be registered with the SDRC before any classroom accommodations can be provided, and you should bring a letter to me requesting accommodations in the first week of class.

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