History/Classics 303: Crime and Punishment in the Ancient World (Spring 2023)

GRADING

Grading for the course will be based on the following breakdown:

• Attendance (10%): How often you come to class. If you come to all 30 class sessions on time and stay until the end, you will get a perfect attendance grade for HIST/CLAS 303. Absences are inevitable, so I will allow you to make up up to 3 classes' worth of missed time (plus participation). The only way to do this is doing extra course-related work. If you would like to make up an absence for a given class, please let me know.

• In-Class Participation (30%): The quality and quantity of your participation in class discussions. I expect you to actively engage in class discussions. If you do not, your grade will suffer. Your grade for in-class participation starts at zero and will increase over the course of the semester—based on how well you do—up to a maximum of 60 (which, over 30 class sessions, averages out to 2 points per session), which will be considered perfect participation (100%). Keep track of your in-class participation score on D2L regularly. To help you organize your thoughts, I will often post reading questions on D2L in advance of each class to give you a sense of what to watch out for in each reading. It is not required that you read and respond to these (or even look at them!), but you should feel free to write out responses to the questions and have them with you during class.

• Quizzes (30%): There is a brief—15 minute, 20 questions—D2L quiz to complete each week on the readings and lectures from that week (15 quizzes total). Each quiz will be available to be taken on D2L until 11:59 p.m. on the Friday of the week in question. If you do the readings and pay attention during class lectures you should have no trouble doing well on the quizzes. Your lowest four quiz grades will be dropped.

• Short Papers (30% [10% each]): Three papers of between 750 and 1000 words in length based on course readings will be assigned. These are meant to be exercises in analytical thinking and should not require any additional research or reading (though you are certainly welcome to do additional work, if you like!). The topics for each paper are posted on D2L (in the "Short Paper Topics" folder). The papers are to be submitted on D2L by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 14; Thursday, March 23; and Thursday, May 4. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day late (Saturdays and Sundays included). You have the option to hand in drafts of your papers in advance if you choose. Drafts are due on D2L no later than one week in advance of the due date for each paper. ***In addition, you will have the option to revise either your first or your second paper for a better grade if you choose. Revised papers are due on D2L no later than 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 4. Please note: you may not submit a revised version of a paper if you never submitted an original.***

OFFICE HOURS AND OTHER STUFF

Office Hours: I will hold weekly office hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesdays, office hours are both via Zoom and in-person in my office from 11 a.m.–noon; on Thursdays, office hours are from 3:30–4:30 p.m. via Zoom only (join link on D2L). You are also welcome and encouraged to make an appointment to meet with me. Call, email or holler (though hollering isn't recommended).

Course Content: Course readings will regularly contain brutally violent, sexually graphic and/or otherwise potentially offensive material. I assume that all students enrolled in HIST/CLAS 303 are mature enough to handle such material and suggest that anyone easily offended by such material not take the course.

D2L: As mentioned above, students in HIST/CLAS 303 will be expected to be familiar with D2L ("Desire2Learn"), the University's online course content management system. Our use of D2L in HIST/CLAS 303 will be extensive: we will use D2L not only as a repository for course documents (additional readings, course handouts, etc.) and as a place to post grades, but also for quizzes and updates about the course. If you are unfamiliar with D2L, see the D2L help homepage.

Plagiarism and Using Quoted/Cited Material: Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's work—or what is substantially another person's work—as one's own, and it is strictly forbidden in higher education. If you copy material from an outside source and paste it into a chat or paper for HIST/CLAS 303, you have plagiarized. If you copy material from an outside source and paste it into a paper for HIST/CLAS 303, and then tweak the pasted material a bit, you have still plagiarized. No credit is given for plagiarized material. Repeated instances of plagiarism may result in disciplinary acton at the university level. On a related note, it's worth mentioning my policy on using quotations from course materials. I'm fine with it! That said, quotations (which must be set off by quotation marks and have a page number citation) should only be used as supporting material for making your own points, and, maybe most importantly, material within quotation marks DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS WORD COUNT TOTALS for papers. Word count totals are totals for your own words, not the words of another author.

Grades: Quizzes are auto-graded and scores are reported immediately. Grades for class attendance and participation will generally appear within 24 hours of each class session. Grades for papers will be entered on D2L within two weeks of their due date. ***It is your responsibility to keep track of your grades over the course of the semester. You have one week from the date of a posted grade to appeal it. After that, the assumption is that you have seen the grade and are OK with it.*** Grades for assignments turned in after posted due dates—and without documented excuses for lateness—are only awarded at the discretion of the professor. At the very least, late assignments will lose one letter grade (= 10 points off of the overall grade for the assignment) for every day they are late. Assignments that are five or more days late will receive no grade.

Honors Contracts: Students wishing to earn Honors in HIST/CLAS 303 must select their own topics for their short papers and have these topics pre-approved by the instructor. If you would like to arrange a contract for the course, please let me know!

Final grades ending in .5 or higher will be rounded up; those ending in .49 or lower will be rounded down. ***There are NO exceptions to this policy.***

If you would like help with your writing, the University’s Writing Skills Improvement Program (http://wsip.arizona.edu) may be a valuable resource. The Program offers professional individual tutoring in writing for students, as well as biweekly writing workshops. These are free and open to UA students, but you do need to register with the program. This semester, the workshops will be held virtually on Mondays from noon–12:50 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10–10:50 a.m. starting on January 18 (more information available on the WSIP website).

VARIOUS UNIVERSITY POLICIES:

• Absence and Class Participation Policy: The UA’s policy concerning Class Attendance, Participation, and Administrative Drops is available at http://catalog.arizona.edu/2015-16/policies/classatten.htm. Absences for any sincerely held religious belief, observance or practice will be accommodated where reasonable: http://policy.arizona.edu/human-resources/religious-accommodation-policy. Absences preapproved by the UA Dean of Students (or dean’s designee) will be honored. See http://uhap.web.arizona.edu/policy/appointed-personnel/7.04.02.

• Accessibility and Accommodations: My goal in this classroom is that learning experiences be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. You are also welcome to contact the Disability Resource Center (520-621-3268) to establish reasonable accommodations. For additional information on the Disability Resource Center and reasonable accommodations, please visit http://drc.arizona.edu.

• Threatening Behavior Policy: The UA Threatening Behavior by Students Policy prohibits threats of physical harm to any member of the University community, including to oneself. See http://policy.arizona.edu/education-and-student-affairs/threatening-behavior-students.
  

• Code of Academic Integrity: Students are encouraged to share intellectual views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However, graded work/ exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as described in the UA General Catalog: http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/academic-integrity/students/academic-integrity.

• UA Nondiscrimination and Anti-harassment Policy: The University is committed to creating and maintaining an environment free of discrimination. See http://policy.arizona.edu/human-resources/nondiscrimination-and-anti-harassment-policy.

• Subject to Change Statement: Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policy, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

COURSE SCHEDULE

What follows is an outline of the spring semester. Reading assignments are due on the dates specified. For a typical class you'll do a reading and we'll discuss it, generally after I present on a subject connected to the material. I will sometimes (often?) supply you in advance with a list of reading questions to keep in mind while you're doing the reading. Read them and think about them! These questions will help direct our class discussions.

Check this page often. Readings and assignments are subject to change. I'll try to give a heads-up in class if a major shake-up is imminent. I'll also try to provide you with the readings at least one week in advance.