Wednesdays 1:00-3:30 pm, Honors Room 8
Professor Troy Lovata (lovata@unm.edu)
http://www.unm.edu/~lovata/spring10/monuments/
Office Hours (Honors Room 2B): 1:00-1:45 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:30pm Wednesdays, and by appointment.
SYLLABUS
Description
This course
moves advanced students out of the confines of the classroom and lets them
apply their knowledge in the wider world. Students will take numerous field
trips across
Peoples around
the world and across time have attempted to mark the landscape with
large-scale, long-lasting public displays. Monuments range from the massive
rocks of Stonehenge to the modest marbles of twentieth century American
cemeteries to the City of
Course Schedule
The weekly schedule of classroom activities and required readings in available here:
http://www.unm.edu/~lovata/spring10/monuments/schedule.html
Grading
As with all University Honors courses, only three grades are possible in this class—"A", “Credit”, or “No Credit”. There are no fractional grades (A+, A-, B+, etc…). This departmental policy encourages students to take demanding coursework without detriment to one's grade point average. Grades are based on a 1000 point scale with 10 points equaling 1% of the final grade and grades based on a 10% scale (an "A" is earned at 90% or 900 points). There is no "curve" or grade adjustment--everyone has the opportunity to earn the highest grade. There is no extra-credit in this course.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class of the due date. Any work that may be done online is due at 10PM. Work that is turned in late (without an excuse) will be docked 10% per day. In-class presentations CANNOT be done later or for partial credit unless the absence is excused. If you know you must miss a class in which you are to present a project, please contact me before the absence. Several of the projects in this course are cooperative, group work in which a single, same grade is given to the group as a whole. However, if a student fails to participate in the group, that individual may be given no credit for the project.
Grades are based on the completion of a series of written and creative assignments, including the sketchbook/portfolio. There are no tests or final exams. Class participation, and therefore attendance, is also an essential part of this course. Therefore, you are expected to come to class and talk. Attendance may not be taken everyday, but attendance will be noted at a variety of points throughout the semester.
Students are required to keep a sketchbook/portfolio, in which they will document their observations from field trips, make notes about seminar discussions, and work out preliminary plans of assignments. The portfolio should include an unlined sketchbook of at least 6 by 9 inches in size (but still small enough to carry during tours). The sketchbooks/portfolios will be collected for review several times during the semester. A longer discussion of the sketchbook/portfolio and guidelines for using it will be given during the first day of class.
Grading breaks down as follows:
Sketchbook Portfolio…250 points
Artifact and Place; Cemetery; and Landscapes of Violence Assignments…300 points (100 points each)
Final Project (Atomic Memory Design Project)...250 points
Attendance and Participation...200 points
Students are required, no matter what format they are in, to have completed and be ready to discuss weekly readings by the first class period of each week.
Kenneth E. Foote’s Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy; Troy Lovata’s Inauthentic Archaeology: Public Uses and Abuses of the Past; Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities; and course reader available on UNM's eReserves.
The eReserve Reader is available at:
http://ereserves.unm.edu/eres/coursepass.aspx?cid=8151
Use the password “honors” to access the reader. You are expected to print out each relevant article or chapter and bring it to class during the appropriate seminar.
Absences
Unexcused absences will severely and negatively impact your final grade. If you miss class and have a valid excuse, you must provide evidence (doctor's notes, etc...) as soon as possible. If you know you will miss class before hand, notify the instructor prior to the absence. Students with more than 2 unexcused absences will be docked 50 points for each absence.
Accommodations for Disabilities
Students who have special needs that may affect their ability to participate in this course are asked to disclose those needs to me as early as possible so appropriate accommodations can be made. For more information consult www.unm.edu/~sss.
Academic Dishonesty
Students are expected to act according to the Student Code of Conduct as outlined by the University. Work done in this class is essentially creative and should be of your own making. Plagiarism will severely impact your grade in a negative way. Remember that if you improperly use material from the web, it is easily discerned as such. Your instructor will gladly provide you help in properly citing and crediting other's work and ideas in your assignments.
Writing
Written material will form a large component of your class work. Even Honors students and experienced writers can benefit from proofreading, editing, rewriting and practice. There are many, free services available on campus to improve your writing skills. Especially useful is the CAPS program located in the Zimmerman library. You are encouraged to take advantage of these services and, even in cases of individually written papers, consult with others in the class for proofreading and review of drafts. I will gladly review rough drafts of written work if they are given to me sufficiently ahead of time.
TRL 01/10