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Structure

Seminar will meet once a week. Students are expected to prepare readings in advance of class meetings and to participate actively in class discussions. Students will occasionally be required to prepare a case study (assembled from outside research) to be presented in class. During weeks with heavy reading loads, the instructor may divide readings among students, who will then be responsible for integrating them their content into class discussions / presentations. 

The class is structured as a peer-review seminar. Each week half of the class will prepare a 1000-1200 word position paper based on the readings, and the other half will compose a series of questions for in-class discussion. It is expected that students will have at least skimmed each week’s position papers before class. At the outset of class, one student from the paper-writing group will be asked to read their paper aloud to the class, and a student from the questions-group will be asked to respond constructively to their paper. Everyone will participate at least once in both of these roles over the course of the semester.

(At least) one student per week from the “questions group” will be assigned to assist in leading discussion each week.

All position papers are to be submitted to the class wiki at least 2 hours in advance of the seminar (by 2pm on Thursdays).

In lieu of a lengthy term paper, the final product for the seminar will be a concise, well-informed, and beautifully-written position paper in evaluation of or reaction to any of the themes discussed during term (or another topic), to be chosen in consultation with the Instructor. The paper may take the form of a review, conference presentation, op-ed, critique, debate, manifesto for the future, etc. – but it must be suitable for either a public academic presentation or publication and may not exceed 4,000 words. In writing the paper, students must identify the audience for which the paper is intended (e.g. a particular journal, editorial column, conference) and should follow the conventions set forth by the accompanying editorial instructions of that particular organization in designing and formatting the paper.

Requirements

Participation (includes discussion leading) – 20%

Position papers (5 each) – 50%

Paper presentation and critique – 5%

In-class presentations – 5%

Final paper – 20%

Academic Integrity

Brown’s Academic Code is posted on the Dean of the College’s webpage: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/curriculum/academic_code.php . Please revisit the code’s guidelines, as “misunderstanding the code is not an excuse for dishonest work.”