| Professors: Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms Class Meets: T-Th 2:00-3:15 Office: ELA 232 Office Hours: Warms: 8:15-9:15 daily and as available. McGee: T-TH 3:30-5:00 Tel: 245-8272 (main office) E-mail: McGee: RM08@txstate.edu, Warms: r.warms@txstate.edu Welcome to Texas State University - San Marcos' graduate seminar in cultural anthropology. We're really pleased to have you all here and we're looking forward to an exciting and challenging semester. The seminar in cultural anthropology is designed to give you an overview of the history of anthropological theory from the Victorian era to the current day. To that end we will be reading and discussing both original material and analyses of that material by modern commentators. Dr. Warms has prepared a website associated with the course that includes a variety of supplementary materials at www.marxandspencer.net. Dr. McGee has a TRACS site where you can find copies of course documents and readings. Required Readings: McGee/Warms Anthropological Theory: an Introductory History. 4th edition. In addition, essays not in the text are on the class TRACS site and available through ERES. Class Requirements: Class requirements include three papers, a “close read” project and presentation, as well as extra-credit. Please note that all written work for this class must be submitted as email attachments in MS Word. We will be using Word's "track changes" feature so other word processors are not acceptable. MS Office is available at the bookstore at an extremely low price. Some work must additionally be submitted in class in paper form. However, unless I specify paper, only electronic copies need be submitted. Work is due by midnight on the dates listed. You will note that these are not necessarily days when the class meets. All papers involve a peer review process (described below). Please note that timing is extremely important. Abstracts or papers more than 24 hours late will not be accepted (and, as a result you will have to drop the course). Papers: Each student will prepare three papers on topics of their choosing relevant to the history under discussion in each period of the class. Papers should be no less than five pages long and may not be more than seven pages long (excluding title page, references, and endnotes). Students must hand in a paper title and an abstract of approximately 100 words before each paper is due. Your first paper is worth 20% of your class grade. Your second and third papers are worth 33% each. Abstract and paper due dates as well as grading weights are listed below. No outside reading is required for papers. However papers must be referenced and should show understanding of key concepts in anthropological theory and mastery of readings assigned for class. Papers will be graded for both content and style. Papers must conform to AAA style. Style sheets are available on the web. You can get them by following the link on the class introduction page or by clicking here This semester, all papers will use a peer review process. The basis of peer reviewing is that students are paired. They read and comment on each other's work before it is submitted to their professor. In this case you'll be paired a different student for each paper. For the first paper: You will submit your abstract to your professor by midnight, September 17. Your professor will return it to you by midnight on September 21. You will then have about five days to write your paper. You will submit your paper to your professor and your peer reviewer by midnight, September 26. Your reviewer will mark-up your paper using the track changes feature in MS Word. The reviewer is responsible for checking for grammatical mistakes, mistakes in logic, or flow. The reviewer should also provide comments indicating the strength and weakness of the paper as well as suggestions for improvement. Students will be graded on the quality of their review. Your reviewer will return your paper to you and to your professor by midnight on September 28. You will revise your paper considering your reviewers comments and submit it to your professor by midnight on October 3. For the second paper You will peer review the abstract only. You will write the actual paper without peer review. Submit the abstract to your reviewer and your professor by midnight on October 22. Your reviewer will comment on your abstract and make suggestions on how you might develop it (as well as correcting grammar, etc). Reviewers will return the abstract to you and to your professor by midnight on October 26th You will submit your final paper to your professor by midnight on October 31. For your third paper Submit your abstract to your professor by midnight on November 25. Your professor will return it to you by midnight on December 1. Submit your paper to your professor and your reviewer by NOON on December 5. Reviewers must return papers by midnight December 7. You will submit the final paper to your professor by NOON December 12. Close Read Project: In addition to the papers, you will be required to do a "close read" project and presentation. The project has two elements: the close read itself and the class presentation. The close read project and presentation is worth 14% of your class grade. A close read is an attempt to understand an essay in minute detail. Do it following these steps: Make a paper copy of the essay you've been assigned. Number the paragraphs. Read each paragraph, and then write a brief summary of the paragraph. Your summary should tell the reader what the main point of the paragraph is. It should be much shorter than the paragraph it summarizes. Keep in mind that you're not trying to comment on the paragraph or give your opinion of it. You are simply trying, in your own words, to reproduce exactly what the author meant. Your final product for this element of the project should be a numbered list of your paragraph summaries. I have prepared an example for you and you can find it by following the link on the class opening page. You must submit your close read to me on the day it is due. Your presentation should be based on your close read. It must have four parts. In the first part, briefly explain what the article is about. Essentially your job is to summarize your close read. Please DO NOT read your close read to the class. Your summary should take no more than five minutes. In the second part, explain the relationship between the article you've read and the theory under discussion. In the third part, offer your opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of the article. In the fourth part, relate the article to your particular interests in anthropology. Carefully observe the following notes about your presentation: 1) your presentation will be timed. It must take at least 10 minutes and may not exceed 20 minutes. Please rehearse your presentation at least once before giving it. If you were to write out your entire presentation, it should be about 7 double spaced pages. 2) Please dress for your presentation: shirt and tie for men, semi-formal for women. Attendance: This is grad school folks. We expect you to be here for every class meeting. Make every class and we will add 5 points to your third paper grade. Miss one class, we well do nothing (except be irritated). Miss two-three classes, we well subtract 5 points from your third paper grade. Miss 4-5 classes, we well subtract 15 points from your third paper grade. Miss more than that...don't bother coming back. Note on seminar style classes: Seminar style classes are based around discussion and debate. In order for them to work students must come prepared to discuss the material they have read. Please arrive to classes having read the assigned material and prepared to discuss it. Very important: Please understand that you should treat this and all other seminar classes as a sort of game. The ultimate goal of the game is deep knowledge of the subject matter, but the proximal goal is to maintain intense critical discussion. It’s kind of like trying to keep a balloon or ball in the air by bouncing it from person to person. It’s successful and fun when we can keep the ball in the air for a reasonably long time. It’s very important for you to talk in this class. However, it is also very important for you to understand that your professors will rarely applaud your contribution. Instead, they will challenge you to back up your point or consider other factors, or implications. It’s very important for you to challenge other students and respond to their points. The tone of discussion should be professional (click here for an example of what not to do). However, give and take is par for the course. On the one hand, no professor will ever consciously try to humiliate you. On the other, being a little bit tough is a requirement for success in anthropology. Extra credit: There are numerous opportunities for extra credit in this class. You will notice that seven essays below are marked as extra credit. More may be added during the semester. You will also notice that there is a paper topic marked as extra credit. Again, additional topics may be added during the semester (however this is not guaranteed). Students may do up to four extra credit projects during the semester. For each project acceptably completed, students will receive 10 points added to their first paper grade (note that in some cases this will result in paper grades of over 100. That’s fine, such grades will count). All students are always eligible for extra credit. All extra credit is due by December 2, but students may hand in extra credit at any time before that. Close read extra credit must include a 100-250 word introduction providing basic biographical and historical information about the author and article, the close read itself, and a 200-500 word summary of the article. Extra credit papers are from 3-5 pages and should be done in the same style (and to the same standards) as other papers for this class. Students with special needs: Students with special needs (as documented by the Office of Disability Services) should identify themselves at the beginning of the term. The Department of Anthropology is dedicated to providing these students with necessary academic adjustments and auxiliary aids to facilitate their participation and performance in the classroom. All syllabi are subject to change...and this one is more subject to change than most. Summary of Important Dates: First Day of Class: August 28 September: Abstract due to professor: 17 Professor returns abstract: 21 Paper to reviewer and professor: 26 Reviewers return paper: 28 October: First paper due: 3 Abstract for second paper due: 25 Abstract returned: 26 Second paper due: 31 November/December Abstract for third paper due: 25 Professor returns abstract: 1 (we’ll try for earlier) Last day of class: 4 Paper to reviewer and professor: 5 Reviewers return paper: 7 Final paper due: 12 Readings and Lecture Topics
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