A General Description of the Course.
Contents vary each term.
David Ludden, Office Hours: Wed 12-2.
Pandemics have travelled long distances to infect people in territories connected by routes of mobility since ancient times. Pandemic mortality and morbidity have provoked political, social, and cultural change; they have stimulated all kinds of intellectual activity, from medicine to philosophy, poetry, polemics, and folklore. This J-Term seminar surveys the world history of pandemics and provides students opportunities for specialized research and creativity, including participation in the development of a course website. We focus primarily on the spatial, social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of pandemics, on their Asian connections, and on their entanglements with empire, capitalism, and globalization.
Reading: All required reading is online. Readings average less than 100 pages per week and need to be done before each class meeting.
Links to the Slideshows: Ancient Pandemic Space; From Ancient Plagues to the Black Death; Globalization and Pandemics in the Age of Sail; Empire, Nation, WW1 and the 1918 Flu Pandemic; Our Pandemic Age.
Writing Assignments: Put into individual student Google Drive folders.
- Five 1-page analytical response papers. Students write six one-page (double spaced) response papers based on readings, presentations, and a prompt presented in class by the instructor. These essays are due at the start of class on Wednesday and Thursday, each week, and serve as the basis for class discussion. They should reflect an understanding of main points in readings and presentations and provide ideas – including questions and doubts — for discussion. They provide the basis for five-page papers, due each Friday. Each one-page essay is worth five points (see Grading, below).
- Three 5-page synthetic papers. Students write three five-page (double spaced) essays, based on all cumulative course material and approved outside sources, responding to prompts from the instructor, discussed in class. These papers should represent a student’s synthesis of course material in response to the problem posed by the prompt. They are each worth 20 points.
Grading: There are no exams. Grading is on a point system. One-page writing assignments are worth 5 points each (6 x 5 = 30) and five-page papers are 20 points each (3 x 20 = 60). Attendance and participation are worth 10 points. (Total: 30+60+10 = 100).
Final grade point equivalents: A = 94-100; A- = 90-93; B+ = 85-89; B = 80-84; B- = 75-79; C+ = 70-74; C = 65-69; C- = 60-64; D=50-59; F=<50.
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to
- describe orally and in writing worlds of pandemic mobility at various times;
- effectively use concepts and methodologies for relevant studies of globalization;
- critically interpret maps and other visual representations of historical information;
- think critically about territorial boundaries as features of pandemic histories;
- understand how different world regions participate in pandemic histories.
TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGIES
This course combines lecture presentations and course discussions. Each class include a lecture presentation with Q&A and class discussion of readings and presentations. Presentations will not focus only on the reading but will add significant information, including online materials. Student groups will be organized to take responsibility for leading class discussion. Each group will have a GoogleDrive folder for compiling 1-page paper contributions from their members.
We will spend substantial time interpreting maps and using other visual representations of historical information, including videos.
Writing assignments enable students to develop their understanding of the reading and class material. Oral presentations enable students to formulate ideas for group discussion and to seek assistance from classmates in resolving challenges they face in their own research and writing.
ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES
- All papers are double spaced, 12-point font, with one-inch margins, with student name and assignment number in chronological order, as listed in the syllabus, in the header.
- 3 five-page synthetic papers: Due by 5pm, each Friday, they are on topics discusses in class. Papers will be judged on all aspects of quality: organized prose in a coherent sequence of paragraphs should focus clearly on the assignment and display a strong understanding of ideas and information from relevant course material.
- 5 one-page analytical response papers: due at the start of class on Wednesday and Thursday, these essays go into student GoogleDrive folders and serve as the basis for class discussion. They can be revised later to improve their quality for grading. They should present an understanding of the reading. Asking questions and indicating doubts or confusion are appropriate in these response papers: they generate questions for discussion in class.
- Classroom participation. This grade is based on levels of personal participation in the course as a whole. Minimally, students should always show they are paying attention and never get distracted by computers, phones, doodling, daydreams, or chit chat. They should ask all questions in class, rather than privately. They should participate in discussions. They should respond intelligently when the instructor asks, “What do you think about this?” Students will be also lead discussions; an evaluation of presentations counts for one-third of participation grade.
- Concerns about class participation. Students who are concerned for any reason about their ability to participate in the classroom discussion should contact the professor as early as possible to work out a solution.
NYU MOSES CENTER FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
New York University is committed to providing equal educational opportunity and participation for students with disabilities. CSD works with NYU students to determine appropriate and reasonable accommodations that support equal access to a world-class education. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance. Disability-related information is never disclosed without student permission. https://www.nyu.edu/students/communities-and-groups/students-with-disabilities.html. Contact: mosescsd@nyu.edu
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS
Students need to make sure they are familiar with the provisions and obligations of The University Calendar Policy on Religious Holidays, which states, in part: “Students who anticipate being absent because of any religious observance should, whenever possible, notify faculty in advance of such anticipated absence.”
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY (adapted from the website of the College of Arts & Science, https://cas.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/cas/academic-integrity.html)
Academic integrity means that the work you submit is original. Obviously, bringing answers into an examination or copying all or part of a paper straight from a book, the Internet, or a fellow student is a violation of this principle. But there are other forms of cheating or plagiarizing which are just as serious — for example, presenting an oral report drawn without attribution from other sources (oral or written); writing a sentence or paragraph which, despite being in different words, expresses someone else’s idea(s) without a reference to the source of the idea(s); or submitting essentially the same paper in two different courses (unless both instructors have given their permission in advance). Receiving or giving help on a take-home paper, examination, or quiz is also cheating, unless expressly permitted by the instructor (as in collaborative projects).