Your grade for this class consists of 4 components: 

Attendance/Participation (+ comments) 20%

Blogposts 25%

Midterm Paper 20%

Final Project  35% (10% presentation + 25% finished draft)
 

Blogposts and Comments

The course is organized around three larger themes: “Ideas and Rights,” Bodies and Representations,” and “Power and Protest.” For every larger theme, you will be writing a blogpost (500- 600 words) synthesizing ideas from the reading and discussion and developing them further. There is a total of 3 blogposts each worth 30 points. To get maximum points your blogpost has to:

1. Reference BOTH the readings for the block and the discussion

2. Develop the points coming from the reading and discussion further (summary is not enough)

3. Use at least one example (passage, image or video) and offer its close analysis in the form of an annotation

4. Be submitted by 5 pm on specified weeks' Fridays

In addition to a blogpost you are expected to write two comments on the blogposts of your peers each round (for 10 more points total). These comments may engage with the ideas you thought were interesting in the post, provide more examples, ask questions. 
 

The Final Project  

You have an option of writing a traditional final paper (7-8 pages) or present your final project in the form of a Scalar book (appr. 2,000 words). In you final paper, you can build on the ideas from a blogpost that you made over the course of the semester (but it cannot be just a combination of your blogposts). You can choose your topic on your own, in consultation with me, or respond to a prompt. You should be ready to present on your topic by the final week of class. Late work will be graded down by 1/2 of a letter grade every 24 hours.