Most of the assigned reading for this course is provided on the World Wide Web Home Page for this course. To access these readings, you will need to click on the following word: READINGS. You will be asked for "username" and you type in "student"; Then you will be asked for a password. I will give this out in class. Since all of these materials are copyright protected, you are not permitted to copy them for purposes of distribution, nor for posting them on the WWW in another form or forum. They are for use ONLY in this course and by students enrolled in this course.
Some of the readings will be relatively short essays, articles, or book chapters;some are complete books. Obviously you will read these using different reading strategies. I will provide for each of the assigned readings a study guide which you should consult prior to reading the item. Those readings which I make available on the WEB should be read IN ONE SITTING -- they are about one particular issue, or are providing a well-presented point of view on one issue. They cannot be understood if read in small "chunks". At the end of each reading, I provide a FORM which asks you to respond to the reading -- often in the form of a question or questions. You should make your response after finishing the reading, and submit it to me by clicking on the SUBMIT button. I will, in turn, distribute your comments to everyone else in the class.
I have added a list of additional books and articles on the various topics that we will be discussing this semester on the following link: ADDITIONAL READINGS on the off-chance that any of the topics are particularly interesting to you--you might want to consult some of these for your essays and/or class reports. They are organized by week.
Each week, journal entries are due on the FORMS provided in each reading by Saturday evenings concerning the assigned readings for the immediately following week. You should submit them to me and I will then distribute them to all other members of the class. You should pick one of the questions I provide at the beginning of each form. For example, by Saturday evening September 3, you should send FORM entries concerning the reading assignments for Week 1. We will devote a portion of each Thursday to discuss in class the views you have expressed in the entries. You will, of course, be expected to read the responses sent in by your colleagues; for many of the weeks, each student will not be expected to read all of the readings available. Should no one pick a particular reading, I will include my own answer to the question raised on the form for that reading. Thus, we should be able, in class, to discuss the readings together. Obviously this will not work unless each of you do the expected reading for each week, on time, and submit your responses, also on time.
I will divide the class into groups of 5-6 members. Each group will be responsible for making an oral report to the class four times during the semester. The reports will last about 10 minutes, so that we can give every group equal chance in the 90 minutes available to us. Each group will submit on floppy disk an outline of their report, so that it can be posted on the class web syllabus. I expect all members of the group to contribute equally in report preparation and will ask for individual reports at the end of the semester on the workings of your group. Group Reports . After the oral presentations of the reports, I will post here Group Report Outlines as I receive them. These will password protected, so only members of the class will have access to these. Use the same ID and password you use for the assigned readings.
Due November 21. Written responses to a set of questions prepared concerning art objects in MSU's collection, from the Middle East during this time period.