Prof. Hemphill: Monday from 12:45-1:45, W from 2:00-2:45, and by appointment via Zoom. Please e-mail Prof. Hemphill at khemphill@arizona.edu for an appointment.
Kit Johnson (Grader): Thursday between 11:30 and 1:30 in 420 Chavez and by appointment either in person or via Zoom
All assignments for this course are graded on the university’s 10-point scale (i.e. 90-100%=A, 80-89%=B, etc.)
Your final grade in the course is calculated according to the following weighted formula:
Paper #1: 15%
Paper #2: 15%
Midterm Exam: 10%
Fugitive Slave Advertisement Analysis Assignment: 5%
Final Exam: 10%
Pre-Section Annotation Activities and Quizzes: 20% (2% each after 3 lowest grades are dropped)
Class Participation: 25%
The late work policy in this class varies depending on the assignment type.
Short Weekly Activities and Assignments
Each week in this class, you have a short weekly activity to complete. It is usually an annotation of the weekly reading or a quiz based on the reading. These activities need to be completed by the time of your Friday section, and I will not accept them late under any circumstances. My reasons for not accepting them late have nothing to do with wanting to punish you or make your life difficult. Instead, they are as follows:
The quizzes and annotations are a way to assess whether you have completed your readings before section and "digested" them somewhat in preparation for your conversation. This helps to ensure that sections go well. If you don't complete your quiz or annotation before section, I can't use them to assess what they are supposed to assess.
It's unfair to your classmates who took the quiz or completed the annotation before section if I let you complete the assignment after we've already discussed the text in question and potentially gone over the answers to our questions.
That being said, I understand that life is hectic and that there may be some weeks where illness, emergencies, or just being tired and overworked means you miss an activity. Because of this, I drop the three lowest quiz/activity grades. This means that getting a zero on one, two, or even three quizzes or activities--i.e. roughly 20% of your total activities in the class--will not affect your final quiz grade at all. This is how I compensate for not accepting late work.
Major Papers and Longer Assignments
When it comes to papers and longer assignments (i.e. the Fugitive Slave Advertisement Analysis Assignment), we will accept late work no questions asked and without any deductions if you fill out the extension request google forms that will be posted on our course website in advance of assignments being due. The form will ask you to specify a new due date within five days of the original. If you turn in the assignment by the new due date that you specified, you will not face deductions for lateness. If you do not turn in the assignment by the new date you specify or you do not get in touch with us, then we reserve the right to deduct 3.33 points per day, starting from the original due date. We will not accept any assignments turned in after we have returned grades on an assignment, even for a deduction, unless you have worked this out with us in advance.
Final Exams
Because it's very time consuming to write and administer alternative tests, exams need to be taken on the date or turned in by the date that they are scheduled unless you have a documented excuse or illness.
Attending class is important to your learning, so it is expected that you'll do so regularly and that you will participate actively in our course.
Lecture Attendance
Lecture attendance is required in this course. However, I do not take attendance at lecture (i.e. during our Monday and Wednesday classes). This means that whether or not you attend lecture will have no effect on your participation grade in the class. It will have an effect on how well you do on papers and exams. If you don't came to lecture, you're missing important announcements and course material that you will not be able to access elsewhere. Students who do not attend lecture regularly are at much higher risk of failing the class.
Lecture is conducted in-person. However, I also stream every lecture on Zoom to allow students who are sick or otherwise unable to attend to keep up with our materials. Please do not come to class if you are ill. If you feel well enough, you can attend via the Zoom link provided on our D2L course site.
Discussion Sections
It is very important that you attend your Friday discussion section regularly. Your TA will take attendance each Friday, monitor your performance in class discussions and activities, and grade you on participation. Participation can take many forms: showing up to class regularly and on time, demonstrating that you have completed the readings, answering and posing questions about course materials, listening actively to your classmates, participating in small group conversations, and otherwise making it clear that you are engaged with the discussion. You need to plan to speak at least once per discussion section, at a minimum. Participation and attendance in section accounts for 25% of your course grade.
If you are sick or otherwise unable to attend section in person on a particular week, you may e-mail your TA and request a Zoom link to attend section virtually. You need to do this at least by Thursday evening, as your TA might not check their e-mail in time otherwise. The reason that the Zoom link is not automatically provided to you on D2L the way that it is for lecture is that we want to discourage you from treating Zoom as a regular alternative to in-person attendance. Lecture works fine in a hybrid modality; running discussion section in a hybrid modality is challenging and often results in students who are joining virtually not being able to participate as actively as they would if they were present in person. For this reason, please reserve Zoom attendance for weeks when you really need it.
Each student is allowed to miss three discussion sections without penalty and without the need to give any sort of excuse, though it is best if you notify your TA by email if you have to miss a section. This way, they don't wonder where you are. If you miss more than three sections, then you will need to complete makeup work. The three no-excuse-needed absences to do not "stack" with other absences. That is, if you miss three discussion sections for reasons that count as documented excuses (i.e. illness, travel for sports, etc.), you do not also get to miss class three times for unexcused reasons.
If you need further accommodation, the university’s policies are as follows:
Students who need to miss a class, or series of classes, due to illness or the need to quarantine/isolate are responsible for emailing their course instructor, with copy to the Dean of Students, to let them know of the need, as soon as possible. There is no need for a medical excuse to be provided for absence of up to one week. (Please note that my policy is actually more generous than this, but these policies are not stackable. That is, you get three freebie absences in my class, but you don't also get an additional week under the university's policy. Three shall be the maximum number of absences you can have before we have to work out an alternative assignment or deduct points from your grade.)
Students are responsible for completing any work that they might miss due to illness or the need to quarantine/isolate, including assignments, quizzes, tests and exams.
Non-attendance for any reason does not guarantee an automatic extension of due date or rescheduling of examinations.
Students are responsible for communicating with their instructor(s) via the means of communication established by the instructor(s), e.g., via D2L, email, etc.
Students who need to miss more than one week of classes in any one semester will be required to provide a doctor’s note of explanation to the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students Office will communicate the receipt of the note (with expected end date) out to the relevant faculty. (Again, not in this class. Three remains the number of discussion sections you can miss without excuse.)
Students who adhere to these processes will not be penalized per the attendance policy for the course.
During this class, there are likely to be times that you need to contact you professor and TA with questions or concerns. We welcome communication from you! Because we get a lot of e-mails, we ask that you give us at least 24 hours to respond, especially if the issue about which you have contacted us is complex or requires a greater time commitment than the average e-mail (e.g. looking at a draft). This will require you to plan ahead a bit. If you e-mail us the night before an assignment is due, we may or may not be able to return your message by the next day.
When you e-mail us (or any of your instructors in college), please follow these guidelines:
Use your university e-mail address. We are not allowed to communicate with you through private e-mail addresses.
Put the name/number of the course and some information about what section you're in in the subject line of your message (e.g. History 160C1, 11am section with TA Bob). Professors teach multiple classes each semester, some of which are quite large. It's helpful if you give us a reminder of which class you're inquiring about so that we can answer your question correctly and promptly.
If you're writing to Prof. Hemphill, please address your message to Dr. or Prof. Hemphill. Your TA will tell you what they would like you to call them, and you should address them by whatever they request.
Side note: Not sure what to call one of your college instructors when you send them a message? In most U.S. educational institutions, the standard form of address for the instructor of a college class is Dr. or Professor Lastname. If you professors have asked you to call them something else--i.e. their first name or Mr. or Ms. Lastname--then, by all means, go ahead and do that! If you're not sure what someone prefers, though, always go with Dr., Prof., or Professor. You might get corrected if the person to whom you're referring does not yet have a PhD or wishes to be called something else, but you will still come across as respectful.
Include any relevant information that might help us to address your question or request in your message. If you have a longer question, consider asking for a meeting during office hours or at another time. It's easier, faster, and more effective for us to answer longer queries in person or on Zoom than in writing.
Sign your message with your full name. This is polite, and it also helps us identify you if you send a message through D2L because we otherwise see only your username.
At the University of Arizona, we strive to make learning experiences as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience barriers based on disability or pregnancy, please contact the Disability Resource Center (520-621-3268, https://drc.arizona.edu) to establish reasonable accommodations.
Students are encouraged to share intellectual views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However, graded work/exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as described in the UA General Catalog. See: http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/academic-integrity/students/academic-integrity.
Plagiarism and cheating, including the unauthorized use of AI to produce work, will not be tolerated. The history department mandates that academic dishonesty be punished by a failing grade for the course. Additional sanctions may include a permanent record on your academic transcript and suspension or expulsion from the university.
Selling class notes and/or other course materials to other students or to a third party for resale is not permitted without the instructor’s express written consent. Violations to this and other course rules are subject to the Code of Academic Integrity and may result in course sanctions. Additionally, students who use D2L or UA e-mail to sell or buy these copyrighted materials are subject to Code of Conduct Violations for misuse of student e-mail addresses. This conduct may also constitute copyright infringement.
Throughout this course, students will be asked to engage with controversial and potentially offensive subject matter. Students are expected to behave respectfully toward their classmates in the course of class discussions.
The UA Threatening Behavior by Students Policy prohibits threats of physical harm to any member of the University community, including to oneself. See http://policy.arizona.edu/education-and-student-affairs/threatening-behavior-students.
The University is committed to creating and maintaining an environment free of discrimination; see http://policy.arizona.edu/human-resources/nondiscrimination-and-anti-harassment-policy
Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Students who ask for help are more successful. If you have questions, concerns or challenges and are unsure about where to go for answers or support you can ask Student.Outreach.Success. (SOS). The SOS staff will answer questions, find you resources or connect you with the correct people. Whether you’re brand-new to campus or have been around for a while, just reach out to SOS for support. There's no one way to be a Wildcat and we want to see you be successful.
Chat: sos.arizona.edu
Email: sos@arizona.edu(link sends e-mail)
Visit the Bartlett Academic Success Center (BASC)
Text: SOS to 70542
Call: 520-621-2327