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All assignments are due on time; I accept no late work. Please note that without an officially documented medical emergency, there will be no make-up exams or incompletes. To obtain this document in an alternative format and request accommodations, contact the Disability Resource Center.
Completion and submission of all assignments are your own responsibility. Your active participation and willingness to keep pace with all assignments are essential to your success in the course.
Attendance (5%): If you attend all classes, you will earn *extra credit* on your attendance grade. If necessary, one absence will not adversely affect your grade (an A), but each absence thereafter will lower your attendance grade by a full letter grade (an A to a B, etc.). Thus, you should use these absences well: save them for illness, religious worship, travel, etc. If you arrive at class after I have taken roll, you will be marked “late”; two “late” marks equal one absence. Absence from more than 20% of class meetings is grounds for course failure (an F) and/or administrative withdrawal. Excuses for absences are irrelevant. If you find that you must miss a class, you are still responsible for the material covered and films screened during your absence.
Participation (15%): Full participation is mandatory. You are expected to attend all classes, lectures, and field trips, to be punctual and attentive, and to be prepared to participate in daily class discussion of our assignments. Note that your presence or absence in the classroom determines only your attendance grade (5%); your participation grade (15%) depends upon your demonstrated involvement with our assigned material during class discussions. To do so, you should:
1) Complete assignments before the class meeting for which they are assigned
2) Bring the assigned readings and your notes about them to class
3) Demonstrate evidence of your having read the texts and artworks with care
4) Raise interesting questions and comments in discussion
5) Offer informed, interesting answers to others’ questions and comments
Since everyone will contribute to the teaching/learning experience this semester, this means that you must contribute to the class discussion daily. For all class meetings, you should prepare yourself for discussion by engaging actively with the readings, taking copious notes on all texts, and formulating your questions on each.
Many of our texts will be quite challenging in their format and ideas. To help you most productively interpret and respond to these texts, always practice the following habits during and after each of your readings and screenings:
1) Write down a brief summary the author's main points
2) Praise at least two points and critique at least two points from the reading
3) Compare this text to previously assigned readings, artworks, and/or class discussions
4) Pose provocative questions for discussion based on the reading
If you find something in your readings about which you are confused or curious, don’t just wait until class to ask questions about it. Look up the topic on your own first; often you can find direct references to the subject in the article’s own endnotes or bibliography. And by all means, share your findings with the class so we can all learn more thoroughly about the topic. Also, if you see or hear something outside of class that you think is relevant to our course (exhibitions, artworks, news items, etc.), please bring that information to class to share with us.
You will write short "think-piece" responses to our weekly readings, artworks, and field trips. See the Response Paper Description for complete instructions on the assignment. See my Comments Guide for a key to understanding my comments on your papers and for suggestions on how to write your very best work.
Your knowledge of one week's material must reflect even more careful study of the assigned texts than usual. You will give a full presentation that summarizes the week's assigned readings and the key issues that they raise, and you'll lead the seminar's discussion of them. Sign up for your readings on the date posted on our schedule.
Bring a one-page handout for your seminar partners and professor. PowerPoint and/or other visual aids are required. Email your finished handout and PowerPoint presentation to Dr. Bonner by 3pm the day before your presentation.
Your grade will be based on the clarity, accuracy, and professionalism of your presentation, your written handout, your grasp of the material, the development of your critiques, the quality of your PowerPoint slides, and your ability to lead the class in discussion. If you are presenting with a partner, you are both responsible for all assigned readings; you may each choose to present on each reading during your joint presentation if you wish, though I discourage this. The reason: if one partner does not arrive prepared or does not arrive at all, the other partner is still responsible for all of the class readings that were assigned. Be sure to meet with your partner during the week before your presentation to coordinate it so that surprises don’t happen and your presentation runs smoothly.
Graduate papers require original thought and critical thinking—not a compilation of someone else’s ideas. So for our class, you will perform in a ten-page paper your own "close reading" analysis of a single artwork or of a local art museum display/exhibition that we did NOT visit on a field trip.
Local art museums might include the Carlos Museum, Oglethorpe Museum, the High Museum, The Contemporary, etc., but should exclude non-art museums, such as history or natural history museums like the Fernbank, Apex, Atlanta History Center, etc.
To inform your analysis, you must research and properly cite a minimum of six scholarly sources, which must be academic books and articles—no encyclopedias, simple/popular press biographies, or simple histories. Your sources will include scholarly articles from professional journals like Art in America, Art Journal, Artforum, etc. and books from university presses (e.g., Routledge, Oxford University Press, University of Georgia Press, etc.); scholarly sources may NOT include internet sites or popular press sources, such as magazines like Variety, Rolling Stone, Spin, etc. or books from popular presses like Doubleday, Houghton Mifflin, Random House, etc. If you choose to consult these popular sources, you must list their bibliographical information as well, of course, but you must have studied six credible, scholarly sources in addition to these pop sources. If you choose to analyze a local exhibition, you must include newspaper and/or journal reviews of the exhibition as well as the museum's own press material for the exhibition; note that these additional texts do not replace your six scholarly sources unless there are academic essays included.
To find your scholarly sources, search in GALILEO rather than Google or other web search engines. Try multiple searches available through the Humanities databases, via subject categories like "Art, Architecture and Art History" or "Film, Music, and the Performing Arts." These subjects will link you with database indexes like the Art Index, Music Index, Arts & Humanities Index, MLA Bibliography, Film Literature Index, etc. If you use general databases like ProQuest, make sure to select a search consisting of scholarly articles only.
See my Comments Guide for a key to understanding my comments on your papers and for suggestions on how to write your very best work.
After receiving instructor approval on your research topic, you will present your research to the class twice this term.
The first presentation will be a workshop for your work in progress, while you are still writing your term paper. On the day of this first presentation, you will distribute a one-page summary of your research with a briefly annotated bibliography in MLA format to the class, and you will briefly (5-10 minutes) illustrate your chosen topic with PowerPoint visuals (or other appropriate medium) to the seminar members, who will provide their written and/or verbal feedback as a group. Participation for all class members in this workshop is mandatory.
The second presentation will incorporate the workshop's comments and will present your final paper with visuals and a revised one-page handout with MLA formatted bibliography (double-sided is okay) This is a formal, timed, conference-style presentation: 15 minutes strictly enforced. You will read aloud approximately 8 pages edited down from your research--fewer pages if you are showing film clips or including asides directed at your onscreen visuals. Be prepared to answer questions on your presentation. Participation for all class members is mandatory and your paper is due the day of this presenation.
See the Grades page for a numerical breakdown of your grades.