COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will survey the historical and cultural context of New Orleans and relate it to the literary texts of the area.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
To provide students with a cultural and historical framework to help to understand the city they have chosen to live in and its literary and cultural milieu. To introduce students to the disciplines of history and cultural studies. To help students to develop the reading, research, writing, discussion, and critical skills that provide the framework for historical analysis.

REQUIREMENTS:
Students are required to attend and to participate in class and to complete all reading and writing assignments and exams. All students are required to activate their Loyola e-mail accounts by the second week of the semester unless they have their own account through an ISP.

REQUIRED READINGS:
Lewis, New Orleans Making of an Urban Landscape.
Hirsch and Logsdon, Creole New Orleans.
Barry, Rising Tide.
Gill, Lords of Misrule.
Piazza, Why New Orleans Matters
Additional internet or library readings may be assigned on a daily basis.  If you do not have a PC, you may use the facilities available on campus, especially the Humanities Lab BO 448.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Students are required to attend all classes.  I will allow two absences.  Upon the third absence ten points (one letter grade) will be deducted from the student’s final grade with an additional ten point deduction for each further absence.  Tardiness will not be tolerated. Students who are habitually late will be informed by me as such after which time their late arrivals will be counted as absences. If you have an extraordinary reason for missing class, you must notify me in advance of the absence (or after in cases of emergency) and have supporting material, e. g., doctor's notes, etc.

SPECIAL NEEDS:
If you have special needs related to physical or learning disabilities, please make arrangements through the Academic and Career Excellence Center.

ASSIGNMENTS:
Students will be required to read approximately fifty to one hundred pages of the text for each week. Homework assignments will be based on these readings. Each week, you will submit via e-mail a study guide consisting of a 1-3 page outline of the reading and a one-paragraph summary of the week’s reading by 11 p.m. on Thursday evening. Additional internet readings and e-mail assignments may be required. Students will also be required to write three short analytical papers based on their reading assignments and additional research (more to follow on this).

MAKE-UP TESTS AND EXTENSIONS:
Make-up tests and/or extensions will be allowed only in extraordinary circumstances.  To receive permission for a make-up test or paper extension, the student must contact me BEFORE the scheduled test or assignment deadline except in cases of emergency.

GRADING:
Grades will be assessed on a standard ten point scale (90-100=A, 87-89=B+, 80 86.9=B, etc.,  59 or below = F).  The short papers will be worth: paper 1(1-3pp.)= 10%, paper 2(1-3pp.)=10%, paper 3(4-7pp.)= 20% total=40% of your final grade; the homework assignments will be worth 10%, pop quizzes will be worth 10%, and class participation will be worth 20%, the final exam will be worth 20% of your final grade.  The daily e-mail assignments will receive a check "*" or an "x." The cumulative number of *’s and x’s will be used to determine your numerical grade for the daily.

INTEGRITY OF SCHOLARSHIP AND GRADES:
Please read the "Integrity of Scholarship and Grades" statement on pp. 45-46 of the Undergraduate Bulletin.  Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will receive an "F" for the entire course and the incident will be reported in writing to the Dean.

History Department Statement on Plagiarism

 “Plagiarism—the use of another person’s ideas or wording without giving proper credit—results from the failure to document fully and accurately.  Ideas and expressions of them are considered to belong to the individual who first puts them forward.  Therefore, when you incorporate ideas or phrasing from any other author in your paper, whether you quote them directly or indirectly, you need to be honest and complete about indicating the source to avoid plagiarism.  Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism can bring serious consequences, both academic, in the form of failure or expulsion, and legal, in the form of lawsuits.  Plagiarism is a violation of the ethics of the academic community.”

William G. Campbell, Stephen V. Ballou, and Carole Slade, Form and Style: Thesis, Reports, Term Papers, 6th Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982), p. 52.

For more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it, go to :
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
 

REVISION OF SYLLABUS:
 I reserve the right to revise this syllabus at any time during the semester.

ASSIGNMENTS AND DEADLINES:

Calendar