Course Syllabus

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The current Covid-19 pandemic provides a dramatic example of the numerous, and mostly negative, health and social outcomes of epidemics. Research on past epidemics provides a temporal depth to our understanding of our current experience, and gives context and illuminates the variety of consequences of epidemics in general. This temporal depth is crucial for predicting how epidemics might shape health and society in the future. The archaeological record gives us access to the human experiences of large pre-industrial epidemics from the Neolithic onwards. Most previous archaeological work on epidemics has focussed on the human skeletal and microbiological evidence. This class aims to take a different approach, and instead surveys the material traces of past human experiences of epidemics, including the Athenian and Justinian Plagues, the Black Death and its many waves throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, and epidemics in Indigenous communities resulting from colonial contacts. We will investigate how evidence from landscapes, built environments, technologies, and artefacts show that apparently similar epidemics could have deeply different consequences. This class will show how archaeological research on past epidemics helps us to think about our current pandemic experience, and prepare for the future.

All materials will be delivered in the class meetings and on the course canvas page. This is an upper-division class that has high expectations about your ability to read for understanding, write authoritatively about claims supported by evidence, and effectively collaborate with your peers to produce mutually satisfying outcomes. There are no prerequisites, but a lower-division ARCHY class will be advantage. This is a five credit course (you should plan to do 10 hours of homework per week) that will satisfy the I&S (Individual and Society) requirement. It is part of the UW Archaeological Science Option and the UW Medical Anthropology & Global Health Option.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Identify the basic details of major epidemics of the human past
• Describe material culture relevant to understanding the human experience of past epidemics
• Understand how archaeological evidence is used to support claims about human behaviour and human relationships
• Recognise the effects of epidemics on individuals and societies, and how these have varied over time
• Apply the results of archaeological research to find meaning individually, and for our society. 

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

COURSE FORMAT/STRUCTURE

Our scheduled class meeting times are TTh 1:30-3:20 pm PT. To succeed in this class you should plan to attend both class meetings each week.  

• Our Tuesday class will be divided into 2-3 mini-lectures that will be delivered at the scheduled time, with breaks in between. Each class session will begin with a brief, open book lecture quiz.
• Our Thursday class will be a seminar session. You will discuss readings in small groups, and make brief, informal presentations to the class. You will submit your seminar notes for grading each week. Group composition is randomly determined in advance, and will be different each week. 

Sharing class materials outside of class that include personally identifiable student information without the written consent of those students is a violation of FERPA. For more information about privacy concerns, review the UW Privacy Office policies, or contact Helen Garrett, the UW's FERPA Officer.

STUDENT AND INSTRUCTOR EXPECTATIONS

Expectations for myself: I will show my respect to you by arriving to class each day with extensive notes and teaching plans to help you consider how the readings connect to our class discussions and your interests as they emerge. I will be flexible and responsive to your needs as a learner so please always let me know if I can make changes to our assignments or classroom activities that better support your learning. I will also be timely with grading so you receive grades for submitted work within a week. I will continue to support your learning and future opportunities long after this class is over. I will make space for you to guide the class in ways that are important to you so you can take ownership for your education, and develop your leadership and research skills.

Expectations for you: We all have responsibility for our own learning, but also the learning of one another. I have four expectations for you that will guarantee that you will do well in the class, and also that you will contribute to the learning of others:

1. Come to every class, and be on-time both to class and in submitting your work;
2. Complete all the readings/watching before class and have access to them (or your notes on the readings) during class, and;
3. Stay respectfully engaged with your classmates for the full duration of the class.
4. Behave according to our code of conduct, which applies to all our in person and online spaces for this class. 

In terms of your own experience, if you meet those criteria you will get the full benefit of the education that you have worked so hard to receive, and you will prepare yourself for graduate school and/or fulfilling employment in a satisfying career.

ASSIGNMENTS

There are four types of assignment, three are weekly and one is a capstone:

Quizzes: Weekly, via Canvas. I will deliver the questions in the lecture, and you will submit your answers via Canvas (which will not include the questions, you'll need to make a note of them in the lecture). The quiz questions will be drawn from lecture content. The purpose of this is to reward effort that you put into sharing your learning experience, and your building of community as an important component of education. 

Seminar notes: Weekly, submitted in class. You will read the weekly assigned readings, take notes according to the assigned structure, and share details of them in our seminar class, where you will add additional notes based on the contributions from your peers. The purpose of this is to bring you into the conversation, and enable collaborative mastery and exchange ideas with your peers.  

Seminar papers: Two One time in the quarter you will replace your weekly seminar note with a short, scholarly essay that investigates the topic of the week in greater depth, submitted to Canvas. You choose which topic get this treatment. 

Final project: Capstone, submit to Canvas. This is a public demonstration of of what you have learned in class. It has two parts: the evidence of your demonstration, and your written reflection on demonstration.  

Missing a small number of participation, annotations and lab reports will not affect your grade. Take a look at the grading table below to see how many assignments you can miss with no penalty. 

There are no grade penalties for late submissions. You can consider the due dates you see on Canvas as 'best submitted before' dates. The exception here is that I wont accept your lecture quiz answers after we have discussed the correct answers in class together (usually the following week), so please don't submit them after that time.

If you submit any work after the due date, you are agreeing to wait until the end of the quarter for me to grade your work and give you feedback. In my grading and feedback I will prioritise work that is submitted on time. Of course I am flexible and can accommodate exceptions, but my general rule is to delay grading late submissions to incentivise on-time submissions and manage my workload. This closely resembles how deadlines work in the real world, in my experience. 

We are using an additive grading method, based on ideas in specifications grading, labor-based grading, and anti-racist writing pedagogies. (For example, see the work of Linda Nilson and Asao Inoue). The main idea is that all assignments are scored out of some fraction of 4.0, and then all assignment scores are summed to determine a your final grade out of 4.0. The goal is to make grading highly transparent so you can understand how your work directly contributes to their your grade.

We have four types of assignment. The table below shows how each assignment type, and each individual assignment, contributes to your final grade out of 4.0. Each assignment will be graded with a simple rubric that is visible on Canvas.

A few important things to know about our grading method: 

• You don't need to do every single assignment to get a 4.0. For example, you only need to participate in half of the classes, and do 7/10 of the lab reports, and you can still get a good passing grade. This gives you a lot of flexibility in when you do assignments. You have a lot of agency and self-direction, choosing assignments you are most interested in.
• If you don't want to do the final project at all, you can still finish the course with a passing grade (assuming you've done well in everything else). 
• If you get partial credit for most of your work on one assignment type, you can do additional assignments of that type, beyond the minimum number, to increase your score up to the maximum for that assignment type. You cannot redo the same assignment. 
• There is no extra credit. If you do more assignments than the minimum required, it is because you want to explore your interests and achieve mastery of the skills. They will not hurt your grade, so you need not feel stress or jeopardy doing any assignment. You can take risks and experiment with the topics and skills. 

The table below comes from our Google Sheet and shows how each assignment type contributes to your final grade:

The table below shows a week-by-week breakdown of assignments and grades so you can see how much each activity is worth to your final grade. You can use this information to plan how you use your time for this course. To track the progress of your grade over the quarter, look on Canvas gradebook for 'Additive grade (40 ≡ 4.0)'. The number next to that label is your grade times 10. So if you divide that number by 10, you'll get your grade as it will appear on your transcript. We calculate this value outside of Canvas, and aim to update this every week. 

If you would like to request a regrade, please submit a written request within 48 hours of receiving the grade. Your request should include a detailed, well-thought-out argument that explains how your work meets the requirements of the assignment/rubric.

To be fair to all students in the course, extra credit is not offered on an individual basis and assignments cannot be re-done for re-grading. If you would like to ask a question about grades anonymously, you can submit it here. 

RESOURCES

Housing & Food Insecurity

The Doorway Project offers resources specific to the U District, links to Emergency Food Resources Map and connections to Mutual Aid Solidarity Networks The ROOTS Young Adult Shelter provides overnight shelter to people age 18-25. Any Hungry Husky offers a UW food pantry, providing students, staff, and faculty non-perishable goods at no cost. If you know other resources, please share them with me and I’ll post them for everyone.

Emergency Aid

Emergency Aid at UW-Seattle is also there to support students for emergency needs. In addition to connecting students to resources, they offer short term loan funds and counseling

Physical and Mental Health

Your physical and mental health are of the utmost importance. A variety of available services are described on this Student Life web-page.  Physical and mental health services are available via Husky Health & Well-Being, as well as through the Counseling Center. There are a variety of programs to help promote your health, including alcohol and drug use  education, suicide intervention, and many others. Health Advocates offer confidential advocacy and support for students impacted by sexual assault and other related experiences. If you are experiencing physical or mental health issues that prevent your from completing your coursework, please reach out to your instructor to make the appropriate accommodations.

Washington Warm Line Offers emotional support and comfort by trained peer volunteers. Hours: M-F 5:00pm - 9:00pm; Sat & Sun 12:30pm – 9:00pm, 1-877-500-WARM or 1-877-500-9276

King County Crisis Line Available 24/7, immediate help for individuals, families, and friends of people in emotional crisis. Can connect to emergency mental health consultation/evaluation if needed. 1-866-4CRISIS or 1-866-427-4747 

Crisis Text Line Text support for those in emotional distress and/or struggling with a range of concerns including depression, anxiety, suicide, abuse, bullying, self-harm, loneliness, etc. Text HOME to 741741 

Legal support

Student legal services  is available for confidential legal advice and representation to  students. The University has outlined a strong anti-discrimination policy for the campus, which governs the behavior of students, staff, and faculty members. For reporting instances of discrimination or harassment, you may contact the University Complaint Investigation and Resolution Office. Students have also noted that Ethnic Cultural Center (ECC) is a strong community resource for undocumented students.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT

This short  statement by the Committee on Academic Conduct in the College of Arts and Sciences will help you avoid unintentional misconduct and clarify the consequences of cheating. The university’s policy on plagiarism and academic misconduct is a part of the Student Conduct Code, which cites the definition of academic misconduct in the  WAC 478-121  (WAC is an abbreviation for the Washington Administrative Code, the set of state regulations for the university. The entire chapter of the WAC on the student conduct code is here) According to this section of the WAC, academic misconduct includes:

“Cheating”—such as “unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes”, “Falsification” “which is the intentional use or submission of falsified data, records, or other information including, but not limited to, records of internship or practicum experiences or attendance at any required event(s), or scholarly research”; and “Plagiarism” which includes “[t]he use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment.”

The UW Libraries have a useful guide for students at  http://www.lib.washington.edu/teaching/plagiarism

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at  Religious Accommodations Policy.  Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form .

INCLUSIVITY

Among the core values of the university are inclusivity and diversity, regardless of race, gender, income, ability, beliefs, and other ways that people distinguish themselves and others. If any assignments and activities are not accessible to you, please contact me so we can make arrangements to include you by making an alternative assignment available.

Learning often involves the exchange of ideas. To include everyone in the learning process, we expect you will demonstrate respect, politeness, reasonableness, and willingness to listen to others at all times – even when passions run high. Behaviors must support learning, understanding, and scholarship.

If you read, see or hear something in any class meeting or among any class materials that you found offensive or exclusionary, please make an anonymous report here so we can immediately remove it or otherwise manage it. You can also use that anonymous feedback to confidentially ask questions or share observations about the class. Other options for reporting your concerns include the Chair of the Anthropology Department, the University of Washington ombud office and the UW SafeCampus Office.