Sexuality and Gender in the Ancient World

CLCS 237 · Fall 2003 · Course Policies

What does it mean to be male, female, masculine, feminine, man, woman, boy, girl? What can we discover about you from the way(s) you have sex, and with whom? How are all these things related to life, love, power? These are just some of the questions that CLCS 237 will consider -- first with reference to the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome, but also (eventually) with reference to ourselves. We will look at a number of ancient texts in modern English translation, and perhaps some films too, for relevant cultural materials. Classes will consist of a combination of lecture and discussion; nightly assignments will focus principally on readings. All readings will be in English. No prerequisite; 3.0 credit hours.

URGENT WARNING! READ THIS NOW!

By its very nature, this course is going to be consistently concerned with topics that are frankly and explicitly sexual. IF SUCH TOPICS MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE TO YOU OR MIGHT MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE, YOU SHOULD NOT ENROLL IN THIS COURSE. Moreover, because of the particular characteristics of ancient Mediterranean cultures, we will be discussing ideas, practices, and activities that might strike some people as odd, outlandish, bizarre, unnatural, depraved, or sinful. If you are such a person, I strongly advise you NOT TO ENROLL IN THIS COURSE. If the frank use of sexual and/or anatomical vocabulary -- vernacular as well as medical or formal -- offends you, DO NOT ENROLL IN THIS COURSE. If you have any objection to viewing graphic images that frankly depict a very broad spectrum of human sexual behaviors, DO NOT ENROLL IN THIS COURSE. I trust I have made my point sufficiently clear; if you have even the slightest doubt about whether this course might be appropriate for you, CONSULT WITH ME IN PERSON IMMEDIATELY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER. (See Section 9 below, 'Course Content Advisory.')

By enrolling in this course, you contract to abide by the following policies. Please read them carefully and completely.

[1] Grading: There will be a full-period midterm test, as well as a final examination and intermittent unannounced quizzes. 40% of the final grade will depend on your midterm test; 40% on the final examination; and 20% on classroom participation, homework, and quizzes, the three latter items in proportion as I deem appropriate.

  • When the final averages have been computed, a student who has not subscribed to the listserv list in a timely fashion (see below) may at my discretion have 2% docked from his/her final semester average -- which could well bring his/her semester grade down by a full letter.
  • The grade scale is as follows: 90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; 70-79% = C; 60-69% - D; 0-59% = F. (Fractional averages above 0.5% will be rounded up to the student's advantage.)
  • In addition to your subscription to the listserv list, your contributions to listserv discussions (see below) and your attendance (see below) may also have an impact on your final grade.
  • Under no circumstances are Incompletes or extensions given for the course, so do not plan on receiving one.

    [2] Attendance: The University Regulations stipulate that students are required to attend every single class meeting without exception. There are numerous good reasons for such a stipulation. While I will not make specific numeric deductions from your semester grade based on absences, you should be aware of the following:

  • Attendance will be taken daily at the beginning of each class. If you are not in your assigned seat by the time attendance has been taken, you will be marked absent for that day. Additionally, you are expected to remain in class for the entire scheduled period; students leaving early may, at my discretion, be marked absent for that entire class.
  • My tests tend to be drawn specifically from my lectures, so it behooves you to be there to hear them.
  • Although, as I have already indicated, I will not adjust your grade downward based on your attendance, I may, at my discretion, adjust a final average upward in borderline cases where a student has also had perfect attendance for the entire semester. Here again, you can see that it may be numerically to your advantage to be present at every class meeting.
  • I now find, incredibly, that I must also address the issue of another instructor's scheduling a required event for you during my regularly-scheduled class period for this course. The very notion is shocking. Such a practice is extremely inappropriate and, simply put, SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN. No University employee should ever attempt to prevent you from attending ANY class during its regularly-scheduled hours, for any reason whatsoever; thus they must never attempt to require you to attend an event during someone else's regularly-scheduled class time. In any case, should another instructor commit the impropriety of putting you in this awkward position, please do not ask me to excuse you from my class so that you can attend such an event. Instead, you should take this information immediately to the Office of the Dean of Students, inform them of the inappropriate request this other instructor has made (and the attendant problems for you), and ask them to help you resolve the problem with that other instructor (again, NOT with me; having said here everything I have to say on the matter, I will not enter into that dialogue at all).

    [3] Makeup Tests: The midterm test may be made up only [a] with an excuse signed by an MD (not a prescription bottle, a generic note from PUSH, etc.) explaining your absence and [b] within four calendar days of the original test. (Please do not ask me to contact your physician; it is your responsibility to furnish this written documentation for me to keep in my files. PLEASE NOTE: your MD-signed excuse must pertain to a GENUINE MEDICAL EMERGENCY -- not events like the common cold, and certainly not events like a doctor's appointment that you schedule ahead of time. Test dates are published in the course syllabus at the beginning of the term; please note these carefully and do NOT schedule appointments -- for job-interviews, for family events, with with physicians, or with anyone else -- at those times, or for that matter during any class-period when our course is scheduled to meet. Genuine and unavoidable medical emergencies aside, if you elect to be elsewhere on a day when a period test is held, this will indicate that you thereby accept a grade of 0 for that test.) The student taking a makeup test is on his/her honor not to discuss the original test with those who have taken it. PLEASE NOTE: Quizzes, whether announced or unannounced, may not be made up, and a quiz missed because of absence will receive an automatic score of 0.

    [4] Written Assignments: Written homework assignments, if any, must be complete and submitted by the beginning of the class at which they are due. Homework to be turned in must be typed neatly on 8.5" x 11" white paper, double-spaced, with margins of 1" or 1.5" all around. If you use a computer, which I strongly recommend, please use 12-point type. If there is more than one page, staple them together once in the upper left-hand corner. Papers not conforming to these specifications may be refused. Make a copy to keep for yourself; never turn in your only copy of a written assignment.

    [5] Books: Textbooks are available at Von's Books. If your budget allows, I strongly suggest that you buy all the books assigned, and the specific translations listed in the syllabus (for reasons enumerated there). If, however, your budget is in severe straits, certain assignments may be read online for free (online versions are accessible from clickable links in the online syllabus).

  • For all your textbooks -- not just these -- it might also be worth your while to check such online second-hand book dealers as abebooks.com, alibris.com, bookfinder.com, and powells.com -- the savings at such sites can often be dramatic.

    [6] Special Needs: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires the University to make reasonable allowances for special difficulties associated with certain documented disabilities. If you have special disability-related needs that may affect your performance in this course, please speak to me privately, or email me, by no later than the first class-day of the second week of the semester.

    [7] Academic Integrity: The University Regulations describe the maintenance of academic honesty as ‘our foremost responsibility’ (§5.II). Please remember that cheating, plagiarism, and all other forms of academic dishonesty are very serious offences; none of them will be tolerated. Any student who is shown to be guilty of any of these offences will receive an automatic F for the course, and may also be subject to additional retribution. It is your responsibility to become familiar with the University's regulations on this topic, and to abide by them. A good place to begin learning about academic integrity is on the Dean of Students' website at http://www.purdue.edu/odos/administration/integrity.htm (or, if you have the slightest concern, confusion, or question about any aspect of this topic, contact the Office of the Dean of Students in 207 Schleman Hall, or by telephone at 494-1747).

    [8] Classroom Behavior: It goes without saying that we are all here to learn. For this to happen, we must all work together to create an environment where intellectual discourse can occur freely, without fear of ridicule or rudeness of any kind. COURTESY is key in this regard. Be respectful of one another's ideas, however strange they may initially seem to you. Refrain from making any racial, ethnic, religious, sexual and/or sexist slurs. Once again, and rightly so, the University maintains strict sanctions against such intolerance.

  • It should also go without saying -- but I will say it anyway -- that I expect you to be attentive and engaged during lectures. I will do my best to make this palatable for you. I do not mind such things as eating and drinking, provided they are done discreetly and quietly, but I do mind having anyone other than myself speaking during class. If you speak to your neighbor, not only are you missing what I am saying: s/he is too. And in the process you may also distract still other people around you. Activities such as reading the newspaper during class are unspeakably rude, and you will be ejected from the classroom if you engage in them. So please note that I will take decisive action if I determine that someone is inattentive and/or is distracting others in the class.
  • As new technologies impact our daily lives, we also find it necessary to adapt course policies accordingly. Cellular telephones and pagers should never be audible in class; they are seriously distracting and disruptive. Because of this, I have adopted the following policy: anyone whose cellular telephone or pager rings during class-time will be obligated to provide a large slice of free pizza for all other members of the class at the next class meeting. Please note that by bringing a cellular telephone or pager into the classroom at any time, you are agreeing to this stipulation!

    [9] Course Content Advisory: Ancient Mediterranean civilizations had a markedly different attitude toward such topics as sexuality. As part of our academic inquiry into the culture of the ancient world, we may be focusing on texts, graphic images, sound recordings, and films of a frankly sexual nature. This is particularly inevitable in CLCS 237. If this sort of topic offends you, please drop the course now. Your not dropping the course will serve as official acknowledgment that you are not offended by such course content.

  • In connection with this, please do not assume, because I make reference in class discussions to ancient ideas that are sexist or otherwise offensive, that these represent my own opinions or positions.

    [10] Electronic Mail: As technology advances, the price of paper increases, and natural resources dwindle worldwide, it becomes both expedient and necessary for me to use the internet to communicate with you. I will do that both via the website we have created for the course and via email. Class announcements (from me) will be distributed by listserv list (see below), as will online discussions (by YOU) of lectures and reading assignments, so you will be responsible for checking your email for listserv messages at least every other day.

  • Each of you has been assigned a 'career account' by the University; you must use this career account both to subscribe to the list and to post messages to it. You may well also have another personal email account with Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or the like; you are free to give your career account a forwarding command so that listserv messages may be read from another account, but, as already indicated, you must subscribe and post to the list from your career account. The reason for this is that there must be no anonymous postings. Until recently we had no problems with class listserv lists, and students were free to subscribe using any account they liked, but recent objectionable (and, of course, anonymous) postings have made it necessary for us to be able to track the source of each message posted to the list.

    [11] LISTSERV: I have created an internet mailing list for this class, and I will be posting handouts and other information to this list periodically throughout the course. It is your responsibility to subscribe to this list, by no later than 7:00 pm on Tuesday of the second week of the semester; as I have already indicated, you should check for mail from me at least every other day. You are strongly encouraged to use the list, also, as a way of continuing amongst yourselves the discussions we have in class. This sort of list is an ideal online forum for exploring various topics, exchanging information, etc., and enables a large class such as ours to be much more interactive than we could otherwise be.

  • Subscribing to the list is done by following these easy steps:
    [a] address an email message to majordomo@purdue.edu
    [b] in the body of the message -- not on the subject-line -- put subscribe kirby237
    [c] omit your signature file, if you usually have one (that information will confuse the subscription software)
    [d] send!
    [e] You're not done just yet. When you have done all this, Majordomo will respond by sending, to the email account you have written from, a confirmation request asking whether you really intend to subscribe to the list. This message from Majordomo will include an authorization code for you;
    [f] send that authorization code back to Majordomo, just as stipulated in their message to you, and you will then be subscribed. (Majordomo will send yet another email back to you with the message 'succeeded,' just so you'll know.) Once you have subscribed, all messages that I (or any subscribed member) send to the list will automatically come to you.

  • If you should encounter any complications in the course of this subscription process, please DO NOT ask me to assist you with this; it is your responsibility to deal with PUCC on all matters of email management. They maintain an information desk for your assistance in Room 231 of the Math Building; take this information with you when you go, and ask them to help you subscribe. If no one is available there, you can also seek assistance by contacting the Instructional Computing Coordinator for the Department of FLL, Dr Françoise Bachelder, at fll-mgr@icd.cc.purdue.edu (or visit her in her office in 270 Stanley Coulter Hall, or phone her at 496-6214).
  • In addition to handouts and announcements, I may periodically post discussion-questions to the list. Subscription to this list is mandatory, and students who do not subscribe to the list may at my discretion incur a grade penalty (see above). Contributions to these discussions is not mandatory, but I do expect everyone to read them all. Moreover, I may at my discretion decide to award extra credit to certain students whose contribution to those discussions is outstanding. Please note that this will be determined by the quality of your contributions, not merely by the quantity.
  • Something else that ought to go without saying, but that I will say anyway, is that you should be extremely careful when posting to the list -- as in class -- that you conduct yourself in a polite, courteous, and scholarly manner. This is not the place for clowning, and is even less the place for obscenity, rudeness, or unseemly interaction of any kind. 'Flaming' is strictly prohibited, and may result in severe disciplinary action (and/or serious grade penalty). In short: please do not post any message to the list that you would not yourself welcome reading if you were its target. Under no circumstances should any 'spam,' commercial messages, or the like, be posted to the list.

    [12] Individual Appointments with Me: My office is in 123 Stanley Coulter Hall; my office hours for the Fall term of 2003 are: Tuesdays at 3 pm, Wednesdays at 2 pm, and at other times by appointment. The best way to communicate with me, outside of class, is by email. I monitor my email continually each day, and will do my best to return your mail promptly. If you wish to communicate with me privately by email, please do not send your message to the list; email me directly at corax@purdue.edu.

    [13] Syllabus: The COURSE SYLLABUS constitutes an extension of this document. Please note that you are responsible for all the information included in both documents. You are strongly advised to read the syllabus immediately, carefully, and completely.

    [14] Policy Revisions: Although such changes are unlikely, it is the prerogative of the instructor to revise (or augment) these policies as necessary during the course. Any such revisions will be announced in class or by email, and will be effective immediately upon announcement. This version revised 030821.