Course Requirements/Grading

Course Grading

Preparation and engaged class participation (including wiki) – 15%

Writing Assignment #1 – 20%

Writing Assignment #2 – 30%

Midterm – 15%

Final – 20%

Class Participation:

Class participation (15% of your final grade) will be assessed not simply on the volume of one’s participation in discussions but on the quality and thoughtfulness of a student’s contribution. This is invariably a subjective measure, but it is important for students to consider whether they have a particular question that they want to address and how that relates to the readings. What I particularly want to see is that students demonstrate close reading skills by drawing on the texts themselves and offering analysis of an author’s argument. This might be in the form of showing how the archaeological evidence does not support the substantive claims of an article, or to ask for clarification of technical terms or theoretical concepts. Included in the class participation grade are the various non-graded short assignments that will be part of the course which may include in-class debates, short presentations, or course wiki postings.

Attendance is absolutely mandatory. After the first two weeks of shopping period you will have two days of unexcused absences (use them wisely). Each additional unexcused absence will result in 1 point subtracted from your final total out of 100. Absences due to illness, personal/family emergency will be excused given sufficient verification. Excessive tardiness (10 minutes or more after the start of class) will result in ½ point subtracted from your final grade. You will learn very little from this class if you do not show up.

Writing Assignments – General Overview

This course will consist of two writing assignments. The first will be a short (1500-2000 word) take home essay topic that will ask students to draw on the readings from the course in order to address the question of the relationship of artifact to text and what is particular or not about the case of the pre-modern Muslim world.

The final paper (3000 words) will ask students to examine the data (both archaeological and textual) from a number of sites which will be provided as additional course readings. Your task will be to evaluate how these materials can be used to address any number of key themes that have been tackled throughout the course. These might include trade, warfare, conversion, colonialism, imperial expansion, religious or cultural syncretism, identity, tribal versus state-based political structures, etc.

Further details of each essay will be provided closer to the time of the actual assignment.

Writing assignments will be evaluated for both content and style. By style I mean that I expect papers to have been rigorously edited and be professional pieces of writing with proper citation formats, page numbers, title pages etc. In terms of content (and this will be the subject of separate handout) what I am looking for is a well structured argument that demonstrates a critical close engagement with the readings. I would much rather a paper that analyzed just two sentences of an article with close attention to language and their relationship to the author’s thesis than a personal commentary or literature review.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any incidents of dishonest work will be reported to your academic advisor and the appropriate dean. I take all these matters seriously. If you feel that you are headed in this direction, see me immediately and we can solve this together, before it leads down the road of disciplinary action.

Midterm and Final

This course will have a midterm and a final. The midterm will consist solely of identifications and short answer questions. With identifications you will be given a particular word or phrase and will be asked correctly identify what it refers to and explain its significance. The short answer questions are more varied and may ask you to explain the difference between x and y, or outline the argument in such and such article which we read. There will likely also be a map that you will need to fill in. The final exam will follow much the same format though covering the whole of the course. It will also involve two essay questions that will ask you to reflect on one or more themes from the course. One of the assignments for the course will be for students to submit possible essay questions which may be used at my discretion (there will be extra credit for any such chosen exam questions). Since one of the goals of this course is for you to learn key terms and issues in the archaeological study of the Muslim world we will be building a glossary of important terminology and topics that emerge from readings and discussion during the semester. This syllabus itself is an important reference for what some of these items are. These will be collected as a collaborative document on the wiki. This will serve as the basis from which identifications from the exam will be taken. It may not be absolutely comprehensive but the vast majority of what is on the exams will come from this glossary. Life has to have a few surprises.

Course Format

This course meets for three sessions each week. The general structure will be for me to give 40 minute lectures (more like informal presentations) with 10 minutes of Q&A. Throughout the course, and generally on Fridays there will be a number of discussion sections. These will serve as opportunities to discuss more specifically the accumulated readings and some of the larger themes and arguments that they present. During some of these sessions I may arrange for activities such as debates or presentations by the students.

Therefore, in terms of preparing the readings each week it would be helpful to have read them before the lectures though this is not essential. I will likely refer to them in my talks but will not assume that they are part of your working knowledge. However, it will be important to have read them in order to be prepared for the discussion sections. Before each discussion I will give you specific guidance about what is most important and which readings to have available in class.

Early in the semester there will also be a map assignment that will begin to orient you to the geography of the regions and periods that we will be studying.