Description & Goals
Course Schedule
Books to Purchase
Assignments 
Grading Policies
Absence Karma
Late Work
Academic Dishonesty
Disabilities Policy

The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you were going to say at the end, do you think you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for love relationships, is also true for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we do not know what will be the end.                                          -Michel Foucault

The over-all goal of this course is for you to learn how to read theory -- which is to say, how to take what can at first seem like abstract reflections on religion and use them as concrete tools for thinking and living.  This will engage you with departmental learning goal #2: to learn some different theoretical approaches. Hence our focus on close reading, on interpretive papers, and on secondary scholarship. 

But this course also meets distribution requirements! You will meet college goal #1. We will focus particularly on accurately summarizing facts, presumptions, viewpoints and values' critically analyzing your own thinking by identifying your own facts, presumptions, viewpoints and values as well as problems and paradoxes; as well as conceiving alternative hypotheses and viewpoints. We will also meet college goal #3 concerning proficiency in written communication, with focus on: using various sentence forms to modulate style and tone; compose a paragraph that develops a point; summarizing, quoting and responding to a text.
 

• Foucault, Abnormal
• Foucault, Discipline and Punish

• You will earn 45% of your grade from 3 tests.
• You will earn 10% of your grade from a short essay to be written on Foucault's interviews. Due-date determined by class consensus. 
• You will earn 25% of your grade from two short interpretive essays. Your task will be to select a key concept in Foucault that is of interest to you. Then you will pick two or three passages in which this term appears. Doing a close reading of those passages, you task will be to wonder: What does he really mean by ___? The first essay will be due toward the end of March; the second will be due mid April.
• Your will earn 20% of your grade by your daily class participation through
  • One designated response. For one day of class, you will be responsible for getting the discussion rolling: you can do this by an oral presentation, by writing something that we then project and read; by bringing in a video clip, and so on.
  • In-class writings (graded on a scale of 4-3-2-1).
  • Attendance (and its karma): You have two days to be absent without consequences. On your third day of absence, you lose all benefit of the doubt when it comes to your final grade. For every absence thereafter, you lose 1/3 of a letter grade from your final grade. 

Course Schedule

• how well you articulate why you (or someone) thinks a particular (and precisely articulated) way
• how closely you read the assigned materials
• how much you are able to make connections between readings
• how much your ability to reflect critically on the position you take grows over time.

Late Work Policy: In order to return your writing promptly with detailed and constructive feedback, I do not accept late work. You will earn an F and forfeit your right to feedback. If there is an emergency or a tragedy in your life and you need an exception, you must communicate with me BEFORE the due-date. This includes tests: if you are too sick to attend class on a day when we are scheduled to take a test, you must call and let me know BEFORE class begins that you will not be able to take the test and arrange time for a make-up.

Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism is a serious ethical and professional infraction.  Hofstra’s policy on academic honesty reads: “The academic community assumes that work of any kind [...] is done, entirely, and without assistance, by and only for the individual(s) whose name(s) it bears.”  Please refer to the “Procedure for Handling Violations of Academic Honesty by Undergraduate Students at Hofstra University” for details about what constitutes plagiarism, and Hofstra's procedures for handling violations. 

This course is dedicated to helping you develop your own thinking. Thus I regard plagiarism as a serious violation of the academic compact, because it involves passing off someone else's thought as your own. This can happen by copying someone else's words or re-phrasing someone else's ideas in your words. Neither is your own thought.

0 -- You handed in work that was not your own.
F -- There are two ways to earn an F. Your writing was fantastic -- but late. OR your writing fails to answer the questions, expresses little accurate information, and/ or is not coherent.
D -- shows effort, but the information and explanation are weak. You need to make more references to the readings.
C -- articulates what you think clearly. You need to engage in a more detailed and systematic way with the readings.
B -- explores why you think the way you do. You need to critique yourself (see the next grade level).
A -- reserved for excellence, when you use the material as a springboard for higher level thinking. You engage with other perspectives and counter-arguments. You elaborate a creative and original take on the readings and issues being discussed in class, and you articulate your thoughts in your own voice. You go beyond stating your point of view to evaluate the pros and cons of thinking the way you do. Back to top

Disabilities Policy

If you have any concerns regarding a physical, psychological and/or learning disability that may have an impact upon your performance in this course, appropriate accommodations can be made on an individualized, as-needed basis after the needs, circumstances and documentation have been evaluated by the appropriate office on campus. The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities is located in 212 Memorial Hall. Telephone: 516-463-7074. Please see the Hofstra Guide to Pride, or visit their site. All disability-related information will be kept confidential.