Professor Elizabeth Hopwood | ehopwood@luc.edu

HIS 300-01W Digital History: Foodways and the Forking of History

MW 6-7:15pm | Life Science Building Room 412 | Office Hours M 3-5pm and by appointment | Office: 513 Crown

Please refer to website for most updated version of course schedule

  Course Description: From the histories of sugar plantation slavery in the Caribbean cane fields, to President Lincoln’s proclamation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, to Quaker Oats’ introduction of the Aunt Jemima character to sell pancake mix, to Upton Sinclair’s unsettling novelistic portrayal of Chicago’s meatpacking industry, to the more recent controversy surrounding the publication of the Thug Kitchen Cookbook in 2014, food has played a consistent yet complicated role in the shaping of national histories, social relations, and personal experiences and cultures. In this course, students will examine the relationship between food and the textual histories of race, gender, and class in North America and the Caribbean from the nineteenth century era to the present. This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to leading theories and methods from the fields of food studies, history, textual studies, new media, and the digital humanities. Students will consider both the history of food writing and food writing history across a range of genres and media, such as newspapers, visual advertisements, cookbooks, novels, film and TV. Students will also participate in the remixing and rewriting (“forking”) of these histories through in-class discussion, archival research, and collaborative project building while also learning digital tools and methods including digital curation and exhibit building, and data analysis.   Course Objectives Students will:

● Learn to analyze and critically evaluate primary and secondary historical texts, ideas, arguments, and points of view

● Develop skills in expressing themselves orally and in writing ● Practice making arguments and incorporating secondary sources through

drafting, writing, and revising ● Employ historical evidence to support analytical arguments. ● Identify major events, actors, and themes in the history of food in the U.S.

from 1800 to today

● Gather, organize, and express information clearly and accurately, employing both traditional methods of writing as well as new digital media and methodologies

● Demonstrate through digital projects and writing an understanding of the cultural issues in play at the time, with special attention to how food and eating has written history and influenced culture

● Develop projects that showcase an awareness of the significance of archival materials, as well as the theoretical and technical issues related to their continued preservation 

 Reading List and Schedule Week 1 Mon. Aug. 29 | Introduction

Preface to Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America , 2004 Barbara Haber, “Culinary History vs. Food History” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America , 2004 (available online through LUC library)

Go over Rachel Laudan’s “Getting Started in Food History” http://www.rachellaudan.com/getting-started-in-food-history

Wed. Aug. 31 | Considering Food

M.F.K. Fisher, Consider the Oyster (in bookstore) David Foster Wallace “Consider the Lobster,” Gourmet Magazine August 2004: http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster.html

Week 2 Mon. Sept. 5 | no class Wed. Sept. 7 | National Trends & Tastemaking

Michael Pollan “Our National Eating Disorder” (intro to Omnivore’s Dilemma ): http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/our-national-eating-disorder/ Rachel Laudan, “A Plea for Culinary Modernism” https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/slow-food-artisanal-natural-preservatives

Tamar Adler, Betty Crocker’s Absurd, Gorgeous, Atomic-Age Creations http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/betty-crockers-absurd-gorgeous-atomic-age-creations.html “Graham, Sylvester” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America , 2004 (available online through LUC library) “Kellogg, John Harvey” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America , 2004 (available online through LUC library)

Week 3 Mon. Sept. 12 | Race, Gender, and Transatlantic Commodities

Judith Carney, “The African Antecedents of Uncle Ben in U.S. Rice History”

Wed. Sept. 14 | Lab

Intro to Finding Primary Sources in a Digital Environment Week 4 Mon. Sept. 19 | American Culinary Roots and Routes

James E. McWilliams, “‘How unripe we are’: The Intellectual Construction of American Foodways” Andrew P. Haley, “The Nation Before Taste: The Challenges of American Culinary History”

Wed. Sept. 21| Lab

Getting Started with Omeka Week 5 Mon Sept. 26 | An Empire Built on Sweetness

Sidney Mintz, “Sweet Polychrest (sugar)” Sugar-Cane, a Poem http://eada.lib.umd.edu/text-entries/sugar-cane-a-poem/ or https://archive.org/details/sugarcaneapoemi00graigoog Books 1&4 (skim the rest)

Wed. Sept. 28 | Lab Building Collections and Metadata

Week 6 Mon. Oct. 3 | Saltwater Stories

Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave Narrative, Related by Herself : http://ecdaproject.org/commons/history-of-mary-prince Cynthia Kennedy, “The Other White Gold: Salt, Slaves, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and British Colonialism” Bailey Doogan, “Logo Girls”

Wed. Oct. 5 | Lab

Headnotes

Week 7 Mon. Oct. 10 no class Wed. Oct. 12 | Lab

Project Documentation Week 8 Mon. Oct. 17 | Race, Gender, and Domesticity

M.M. Manring, “Aunt Jemima Explained: The Old-South, The Absent Mistress, and the Slave in a Box”

Doris Witt, “What (N)ever Happened to Aunt Jemima: Eating Disorders, Fetal Rights, and Black Female Appetite in Contemporary American Culture”

Wed. Oct. 19 | Lab

Project Peer Reviews Week 9 Mon. Oct. 24 | Standards and Reform

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle 100 Years Later, The Food Industry is Still “The Jungle” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/opinion/02tue4.html Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation Introduction

Wed. Oct. 26 | Lab

New York Public Library Menu Project http://menus.nypl.org/ Week 10 Mon. Oct. 31 | Candy Fever

Samira Kawash “Candy Prophylactic: Danger, Disease, and Children’s Candy Around 1916” Samira Kawah, “How Candy and Halloween Became Best Friends” http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/how-candy-and-halloween-became-best-friends/64895/

Wed. Nov. 1 | Lab

Omeka Project Showcase Projects Due

Week 11 Mon. Nov. 7 | The Secret Lives of Cookbooks

Kyla Tompkins, “Consider the Recipe" Kenzi Wilbur, Why Cookbooks Are More Than Their Recipes: https://food52.com/blog/12421-why-cookbooks-are-more-than-their-recipes Cloake, Felicity. "Pretty dishes, fit for supper: how our history is written through cookbooks." Prefaces, and skim recipes of:

- Amelia Simmons, “American Cookery” (1796) - Lydia Maria Child, “Frugal Housewife” (1829) - Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, “American Woman’s Home;

Or, Principles of Domestic Science” (1869) - Caroline Sullivan The Jamaica Cookery Book - What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking

Wed. Nov. 9 | Lab

Listen, “Original Recipe” Act One, This American Life http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/427/original-recipe

Week 12 Mon. Nov. 14 | Thanksgivings

Excerpts, Sarah Josepha Hale Thanksgiving editorials William Bradford, On Plimoth Plantation Absalom Jones, Thanksgiving sermon Andrew F. Smith, “The First Thanksgiving”

Wed. Nov. 16 | Lab

Intro to Neatline Cooking Projects Due

Week 13 Mon. Nov. 21 | Food History & Appropriation

“Thug Cookbook” Browse site thugkitchen.com Veganism You Can Swear By: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/fashion/thug-kitchen-you-eat-vegetables-with-that-mouth.html

The Problem with “thug” cuisine http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/living/thug-kitchen-controversy-eatocracy/

Thug Kitchen is the Latest Iteration of Digital Blackface http://www.vice.com/read/thug-kitchen-is-the-latest-iteration-of-people-profiting-off-digital-blackface-909

Wed. Nov 23 no class

Week 14 Mon. Nov. 28 | High and Low Cultures of Food

Anthony Bourdain’s Theory on the Foodie Revolution http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/anthony-bourdains-theory-foodie-revolution-180951848/?no-ist

How Food Television is Changing America http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/food_network_krishnendu_ray/

David Kamp, Preface from The United States of Arugula http://davidkamp.com/preface.php

Wed. Nov. 30 | Lab

Neatline

Week 15 Mon. Dec 5 | Eating in the Archives

Lauren Klein, “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings” Browse The James Hemings Foundation website: http://www.jameshemingsfoundation.org/ Explore “Feeding America: The Historic Cookbook Project” http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/ Bee Wilson, “The Archive of Eating” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/the-archive-of-eating.html?_r=0

Wed. Dec. 7 | Lab

Neatline Projects Final Exam Mon. Dec 12 | Neatline Project Presentations Description of Graded Assignments ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Response Posts Weight: 15% of final grade What: Blog responses to the reading When: weekly, Mondays by 3pm

About Each week, prior to Monday’s class, you will post to our class site a 200-300 word response to the week’s materials. There are a number of ways to approach these responses: to consider the week’s material in relation to its historical or theoretical context; to write about an aspect of the week’s material that you don’t agree with or don’t understand; to formulate an insightful question or two about the material and then attempt to answer your own question(s); or another line of inquiry of your own choice. It’s as compelling to have discussions around things we “get” as things we don’t, so consider the value in walking us carefully through that which you may not understand. These responses need not be formal in organization or construction, although they should follow guidelines of standard written English and sentence mechanics. To get started, you will post to [ course blog link or forum space ]. All writing—even academic writing—is being reshaped by online modes of publication. Many academics maintain personal research blogs in which they try out their ideas and get feedback before developing articles or even books. Outside of academia, public, online writing plays an increasing and essential role in many fields. Why blogs?

● Blogs give you the opportunity to experiment with your writing through hyperlinking secondary content and sources, embedding images, video, etc., and pushing on strict linear forms of composition. Blogging allows for a broader spectrum of participation in the class. Even more reserved students can contribute to a course blog.

● Blog posts give you the chance to learn from each other. You’ll read your peers’ writing and, hopefully, learn from it or be challenged by it.

● Public blogging allows us to connect to outside audiences and expanded bodies of knowledge outside the non-digital classroom. Who knows? Perhaps the author of an article you blog about will respond directly…

You can earn up to 3 points for each well-developed blog entry. A “3” is reserved for especially thorough and thoughtful work. It is an insightful, well-articulated response that moves us to consider questions and ideas beyond class discussion A “2” is a thoughtful and complete response

A “1” is underdeveloped or does not fully engage with the reading A “0” is no blog submitted Note that you do not have to write a response for the week that you are assigned to be class facilitation leader (see below). Therefore, in total, you should have 12 blog posts for the term. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discussion Facilitation Leader Weight: 5% What: You will be required to lead two discussions When: Twice this term (sign-ups during the first week) About You will need to sign up for days to complete both parts of this assignment (you may not complete both parts of the assignment on the same day). Part One Once a semester you will be responsible for facilitating our Monday discussion of the readings. As a discussion facilitation leader, you might kick off our discussion by:

- Offering a comprehensive summary of salient points of the readings - Highlighting key moments of the texts that were

interesting/confusing/problematic - Generating a short list of discussion questions for the group to consider - Offering some additional contextual or background information (another

primary or secondary source or related media context) You can accomplish this through a large class discussion, small group work, asking students to do a short in-class writing, showing/distributing additional media or texts, etc. That is to say, it is up to you as to how you want to structure your time. Note that this is not a formal presentation of the materials that has you at the front of the room and the rest of us sitting and listening; rather, it is a way for you to engage your fellow classmates in a discussion of what you found interesting, challenging, or informative about the readings.

Again, please note that you are NOT responsible for writing a weekly blog post on the week that you are assigned as discussion facilitation leader. Part Two At another point in the semester, you will also be responsible for bringing to class a contemporary text (newspaper article, website, magazine article) that speaks to the themes of that week’s readings. By “contemporary” I mean something you discovered in the news within the past month or so. For instance, on the week that we explore the history of sugarcane plantation slavery, you might locate a recent news story or study about the perils of too much sugar in American diets. The point of the show-and-tell is to allow you to search for and discuss the contemporary resonances of the historical moments that we are studying. In class, you will take about 5-10 minutes to discuss your finding and how it relates to our readings (please bring a handout or link for us to see). This will also serve as a complement to that week’s discussion facilitation leader discussion. Please note that you are responsible for writing a weekly blog post on the week that you are assigned to bring in your item. For both roles, you will be assessed on a scale of 1-3. A “3” is reserved for especially thorough and thoughtful work. It is an insightful, well-planned discussion that moves us to consider questions and ideas and generates conversation. A “3” will include the incorporation of background or outside material that helps us more deeply consider the day’s readings. A “2” is a thoughtful and complete engagement with the text. A “1” is underdeveloped or does not fully engage with the themes we are exploring the week you present ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Consider This: An Instagram Activity Weight: 15% of final grade What: 1 post to your Instagram account with a context comment of ~150 words When: weekly, Tuesdays 8pm

About “Consider This” is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your practices in critical thinking occurring outside the immediate work of the classroom. Each week, you will compose visually based (re)considerations of a key concept, question, text, theme, etc., from the week’s readings and discussions using the social media app, Instagram. This activity is intended to model the value in challenging familiar, given culturally situated knowledges, values, and practices. For instance, in his essay, David Foster Wallace combines historical and cultural narratives in an attempt to challenge us to think differently about our treatment and consumption of lobster. Your feed—a visually oriented collection of images and text—will be your way to “consider” and re -consider everyday occurrences through the lens of historical foodways, and to see how your fellow classmates are doing so as well. This weekly activity invites you to situate your intellectual engagement in this course in the context of the everyday, the common, the familiar, and, in so doing, demonstrate ways that your engagement with the critical work of the course affords you opportunities to see such things anew. Your goal here is to teach your peers and myself the way you conceive of the world around you as in immediate conversation with the histories you are considering through this course. The connections between may be not always be obvious, easy or clear. This activity requires you to think carefully and creatively. What do I need to do for this activity? We’ll get started together in class. First, you’ll need an Instagram account. This is easiest to do via smartphone, but can be done using a desktop computer and digital camera as well. This project is meant to be free and accessible for all; please see me if you have any concerns about accessing the materials needed for this assignment, and we will figure out a solution. Some of you may already have an Instagram account, but for this assignment you will need to create a new (perhaps temporary!) one. We will exchange usernames and follow one another. Please note that you are NOT required to make the account public or to provide your real name (as long as your classmates and I know that it’s you). You are under no obligation to share your name, Instagram presence, or photos with anyone outside this class. Please choose a username carefully, and with these considerations in mind.

Take a photo of something related to our course content: a meal, an object, an advertisement, a sign, a menu, even a meme..something that speaks to you, that calls on you to reconsider something, to look more closely at something. The photo can be in direct conversation with the week’s topic, but does not have to be, as long as it’s related to themes and ideas of our course. Post the picture and, in the caption, you’ll write a mini Instagram-essay (roughly 100-150 words) to situate us to the object/image you’re presenting. Identify what it is and why you took it and what it means to you, as well as the connections you see to course readings and discussions. Pose a question or two for the group, and engage your fellow classmates’ accounts as well by adding comments and answering their questions. By end of semester you’ll have a visual journal of your interests and the contemporary resonances of the histories that food has written. On Wednesdays we will use your Instagram accounts to start our class, so be prepared to share, explain, and use yours and others’ photos as a jumping-off point for discussion! {Warning! Food photography is not as easy as it looks! https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/someone-needs-to-tell-martha-stewart-her-food-tweets-are-dis?utm_term=.foKrdjqejv#.vcMgVZ7LZb } ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Practices in Digital Scholarship: Foodways Exhibit Weight: 25% of final grade What: A digital collection and analysis of primary source historical documents When: November 1 About A primary goal of this course is to think carefully about how histories are written. Our readings show the different frameworks, filters, and modes that history has been written through, and we’ve discussed how such mediums change (and sometimes challenge) our understanding of what history means and how it gets written. Another goal of this course is to consider how the digital affords us multimodal ways of composing that go beyond a static essay. For this project, you will create a collection of materials (including primary sources, visual representations, metadata, and narrative) related to a foodways-related theme that

you will choose. You may choose to focus on a single food or ingredient (cake, for instance, or candy, or salt) or you may choose a more thematic topic (such as domesticity, gender, and food; maritime and shipping; Civil War and food, etc.). You might think of your collection as a way to curate materials that are interesting to you, and to teach others something about them and how they connect together. That is to say, you will think about both the individual significance of the item as well as the larger story they tell when we view them together. In class we will discuss how to locate primary sources. Using Omeka, a platform for building digital collections, we will work together to build our collections and create exhibits. Your exhibit will include:

- 8-10 historical primary source documents related to your theme. These may be periodicals, excerpts of novels or narratives, maps, images, recipes, etc.

- Rich metadata for each item, including a description of what each source is and how you’d like viewers to read it as part of the larger exhibit

- An introductory headnote that not only situates viewers to your exhibit but explains its context and offers a scholarly argument about the meaning and meaningfulness of the collection

Note that we will work together on our Omeka collections in our Wednesday labs, although you will also be expected to work on it (including locating primary sources and writing the analysis) on your own. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historic Cooking Project Weight: 15% of final grade What: a hands-on take-home cooking lab When: Proof of cooking and written analysis is due in class on November 16 About This semester, we will have examined a range of texts in the context of foodways scholarship, both to understand the significance of food and eating in America, and to understand how history has been written through food and eating. We will also have examined a range of historical cookbooks and analyzed them in the context of contemporaneous events and cultural issues, and in the context of scholarship about how cookbooks and recipes make meaning. This assignment is to cook a

historical recipe, and then provide a written analysis that explains what you did and its meaning and meaningfulness. Your project should include the following:

1. Proof of having cooked a historical recipe. You will select, cook, and document the cooking process. This documentation is crucial, so be sure all photos and videos are backed up!

2. A 3-4 page (double-spaced, 1” margins, 12pt Times New Roman or equivalent font) analysis of the experience. The description of your process need not be longer than a page, which means that the analysis should constitute the majority of the paper. Your analysis should indicate an in-depth engagement with the themes and/or issues you choose to explore. Here are some topics and questions to consider:

a. Context. Why did you choose this recipe? Where did it come from, and what contextual background information were you able to find about the author? What seems to be the motivations for the recipe and cookbook at large (i.e., does the preface indicate a particular mission or intention?)

b. Sensation/Taste. What were the physical sensations of cooking/eating the recipe? How did this expand your sense of the significance of the recipe? How might you relate it to other readings from the course that dealt with ideas about sensation? What did the food taste like? How does it speak to/depart from our current understanding of “good taste”?

c. Experience. How did the experience of cooking (and eating!) the recipe differ from the experience of reading it? How might you relate your experience to other readings from the course that dealt with the difference between knowledge production and lived experiences?

d. Audience. Who does this recipe seem to be written for? What knowledges/skill sets might they have? Is the same audience meant to cook the meal as well as consume it? What is assumed that they know? Where do your knowledge and skills fit in and how do they affect the experience of cooking?

e. Culture/History. What aspects of the recipe were clearly culturally or historically marked? What did they tell you about cooking, eating, and/or culture more generally in that time? Are there other texts that we’ve read that help you unpack (or extend) that cultural/historical significance?

f. Form. What was the form / structure of the recipe? How might you interpret it in the context of the cookbook’s introduction/preface? Is

there meaning to be gained from such a formal analysis? Were the instructions precise or general, and how did that affect your ability to follow the instructions? Were there substitutions that needed to be made due to accessible items? How did that affect the experience cooking and the product that was produced?

g. Concepts and theories. How does your recipe confirm a concept or theory about food that we’ve discussed in the course? How does it challenge it? Extend it?

h. Comparative contexts. How did your experience cooking the recipe differ from what you imagine the experience might have been in the era in which the cookbook was written? Are there readings from the course that describe experiences of cooking and/or eating that you can use to bolster your claims?

These topics and themes are meant to get you started thinking (rather than answered one by one). Please be creative and thoughtful in your analysis, rather than, for instance, writing one sentence per prompt. Please come talk to me if this task seems daunting.

Note about assessment: An “A” paper is focused and clearly written, with a strong and cohesive argument that encompasses the sub-claims/responses to the questions posed above. Your discussion should integrate explicit references to the recipe with quotations from the cookbook and any relevant course texts. You should also, of course, provide analyses of any passages that you cite. When marshalling your own cooking experience as evidence, you should similarly provide detailed descriptions. As a general rule, be specific. This paper should reflect the culmination of your thinking about the issues addressed in this course, and will be evaluated accordingly. *This assignment is adapted from one by Lauren Klein ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Practices in Digital Scholarship: Neatline Exhibit Weight: 25% of final grade What: A close reading and geospatial analysis of a textual object When: December 12 (final exam) About

Like our Omeka project, this is one that we will work on together in our labs. This project will allow you to compose written, public analysis and a close reading using digital scholarship methods and methodologies. We will use an Omeka plugin called Neatline, which allows for the creation of rich, interactive editions of visual objects. In Neatline, you can display and annotate an image, such as a map, a trade card, an illustration, or even a piece of writing. The result (successfully done) is a geospatial analysis of an image, something that allows the viewer to contextualize the images in time and space. For your image, you might choose to build off of your previous Omeka collection by choosing an image or sub-topic that you want to explore more closely. Or, if you like, you may choose something entirely new that’s of interest to you. Examples (courtesy of Ryan Cordell’s undergraduate students): Project on the 1919 Molasses Flood http://omekasites.northeastern.edu/DeepMap/neatline/fullscreen/1919-molasses-flood Project on the Boston Harbor Islands http://omekasites.northeastern.edu/DeepMap/neatline/fullscreen/boston-harbor-islands ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Course Policies What does a Writing Intensive Course mean? As a Writing Intensive course, you will write the equivalent of fifteen pages of graded work, across multiple genres. We will spend class time discussing the writing and revising process, with particular attention toward critical analysis; development of ideas and use of evidence; contextualizing, and integrating and synthesizing sources. Our weekly blog posts are meant to be a “practice space” upon which you can draw as you move toward more difficult analysis, synthesis, and argument. Grading

Although certain assignments will have specific criteria for success (as noted above, and as we will discuss in class in greater detail), when calculating grades I employ the following numerical conversions: A 94-100 A- 90-93 B+ 87-89 B 84-86 B- 80-83 C+ 77-79 C 74-76 C- 70-73 D 60-69 F 60 and below My general rubric is as follows: A paper/project in the “A” range: Exceptional. The work is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The work demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. It indicates complete understanding and command of the material in the course as well as originality of thought and impeccable organization and polish of sentence mechanics. It not only fulfills all of the assignment requirements, but it also reflects an in-depth engagement with the topic. A paper/project in the “B” range: Good. This work is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and although new insights are offered, they are not always fully developed. It indicates a solid, if not complete, level of understanding and command of the course material and clear presentation in written work, with minimal mechanical errors. The work reflects moderate engagement with the topic. A paper/project in the “C” range: Satisfactory. The work is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives or attempts to offer analysis or insight. Few connections are made between ideas, and sentence mechanics and organization make the argument difficult to follow. It indicates a shallow or minimal understanding of course material. Written presentation

contains organizational and/or mechanical errors that impede reading. The work reflects passing engagement with the topic. A paper/project in the “D” range: Underdeveloped. The work is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments. It indicates poor understanding of course material. Organizational and/or structural issues make it difficult to understand. Display limited and surface evidence of student engagement with the topic. A paper/project in the “F” range. No Credit. The work is missing, incomplete, only partially fulfills assignment requirements, and/or consists of disconnected sentences/passages. Communication The best way to get in touch with me is to visit me during office hours. If you’re unsure about our readings, struggling with an assignment, or just want to talk, please visit. If the hours listed above do not work with your schedule, contact me in advance or in class, and I am happy to arrange another mutually convenient time to meet. The next best way to get in touch with me is by sending me an email. Please only email from your Loyola accounts. I will make every effort to respond to emails within 24 hours on weekdays and 48 hours on weekends. Some caveats: when you write to me, be sure to consider your tone and audience: an email to your professor shouldn’t read like an email to friends. Secondly, please be sure to check your own Loyola email accounts frequently for updates to the reading list or class schedule.  Participation and Attendance Participation is more than physical attendance. This course relies on active, engaged participation in class activities and discussions. The extent to which this class is productive, educational, and interesting to you and your classmates is dependent upon the insights, questions, and responses from all of us—thus, your presence and active participation is key. There will be few lectures and we will not be building toward an exam. Instead, we will work together to build our facilities for thinking critically about the writing of history through food, and in practicing writing strategies and techniques in both an analog and digital format. You should come to every class having read all of the required reading and prepared to discuss it with your peers. I will not explicitly grade participation in this course (i.e. “participation = 20% of final grade”), but I will assess your reading and course engagement through our weekly blog posts, your class facilitation and show-and-tell days, and other

in-class exercises. If it appears as if students are not reading the materials, or are not prepared to discuss them, I reserve the right to add additional graded in-class writing assignments. Maintaining an active class conversation requires that students be present, both physically and mentally. You may miss two classes without penalty. Beginning with the third absence, your final grade will be lowered by two points for each additional unexcused absence. Any “excused” absences (in cases of emergency or school-sanctioned events for instance) must be discussed with me. Any observed “distracted” behavior may result in you being marked absent for the day, even if you are physically present . This means you must:

1. Be awake and attentive to the conversation of the day; 2. Prepare assigned texts before class begins; 3. Bring your assigned texts to class. If we’re reading online articles, you should

either bring a device on which to read them or print them and bring that hard copy;

4. Bring your assigned texts to class! 5. and, finally, bring your assigned texts to class!!!!!! Seriously. If you come to

class without the day’s reading on hand, I reserve the right to count you absent.

When you must miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and to make up any pertinent assignments. I strongly recommend that you reach out to peers to inquire about class activities and notes. If you email me, do not ask, “Did I miss anything today in class?” Digital Etiquette I will ask students to bring laptops to class on Wednesdays for our “lab” days. Laptops are also permitted on Mondays, which will largely be our discussion days. However, you should not use your laptop during class for any non-class-related activities, including social media, games, other coursework, messaging, responding to email, etc. Such activities not only distract you (meaning you will be less able to participate meaningfully in the class discussions), but they also distract anyone around or behind you. If you seem distracted by what’s on your screen, I will ask that you put away your laptop for either the remainder of the class or the duration of the course. That is to say, if you choose to virtually exit the class, I will ask you to physically leave as well and this will count as an absence (see Attendance policy above).

Please silence your cell phones and keep them out of site for the duration of class. I can see you texting in your bag or under the table. Late Work In certain circumstances, extensions can be granted at my discretion. If you anticipate needing a deadline extension, please contact me as far in advance as possible (i.e., not the night before a project is due). Otherwise, late work will not receive full credit and will go down one grade step for every class period that it is late (B to B-, for instance). Technological mishaps or snafus (corrupt files, broken printers, lost thumb drives) are not acceptable excuses for late or missing work. Always backup your projects. Class Conduct One important aspect of a Jesuit education is learning to respect the rights and opinions of others. Please respect others by (1) allowing all classmates the right to voice their opinions without fear of ridicule, and (2) not using profanity or making offensive (gendered, racial or ethnic) comments, especially comments directed at a classmate. Academic Integrity Loyola University Chicago takes seriously the issues of plagiarism and academic integrity. Below is an excerpt, quoted directly, of the university’s statement on integrity.

“The faculty and administration of Loyola University Chicago wish to make it clear that the following acts are regarded as serious violations of personal honesty and the academic ideal that binds the university into a learning community: Submitting as one's own: 1. Material copied from a published source: print, internet, CD-ROM, audio, video, etc. 2. Another person's unpublished work or examination material. 3. Allowing another or paying another to write or research a paper for one's own benefit. 4. Purchasing, acquiring, and using for course credit a pre-written paper. The critical issue is to give proper recognition to other sources. To do so is both an act of personal, professional courtesy and of intellectual honesty.” (

http://www.luc.edu/academics/catalog/undergrad/reg_academ icintegrity.shtml) You may find the College of Arts & Sciences Academic Integrity Statement here: http://luc.edu/media/lucedu/cas/pdfs/academicintegrity.pdf All students are expected to read and abide by this statement. Special Circumstances—Receiving Assistance Students are urged to contact me should they have questions concerning course materials and procedures. If you have any special circumstance that may have some impact on your coursework, please let me know so we can establish a plan for assignment completion. If you require assignment or class time accommodations, please contact me early in the semester so that arrangements can be made with Services for Students with Disabilities (SSWD) (http://www.luc.edu/sswd/). Students who require accommodations via SSWD must present documentation from the office. Student Support Resources ITS HelpDesk: helpdesk@luc.edu 773-508-4487 Library: Subject Specialists: http://libraries.luc.edu/specialists Services for Students with Disabilities: http://www.luc.edu/sswd/ Writing Center: http://www.luc.edu/writing/ Ethics Hotline: http://luc.edu/sglc/aboutus/ 855.603.6988