Medieval 240:
Magic and Witchcraft
In this interdisciplinary course, students will explore the history and culture of witchcraft and magic from ca. 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious and intellectual contexts. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of the practice, persecution, and social construction of magic and witchcraft in the medieval and early modern periods, and be able to trace its far-reaching impact on society.
Required Text:
Brian P. Levack (ed.) The Witchcraft Sourcebook (Routledge, 2004). This text is also available on Kindle. If you use this, be sure your version of Kindle allows page numbering, we do NOT use locations.
Grading:
60% Quizzes. Three quizzes, of equal value, distributed througout the term. Multiple-choice fact-based quizzes will test what we have seen in the readings and in class discussion. You also have the opportunity to upgrade one of these quiz marks by contributing to discussions in Carmen.
10% Class participation. Your participation mark depends on your presence and performance in class. Half of your participation mark is for attendance. The other half is for actively being a part of our class. In addition to your verbal contributions in class, you may wish to contribute during class through an online or mobile application. This will be explained on the first day of class.
30% Final exam. The final exam will be much like the quizzes, but will cover the entire term.
Class absences are not excused without official documentation. Documentation will not be accepted after the last class day.
The make-up quiz will be administered at the same time as the final exam. See the course outline for the date of the final exam. N.B. You will not be able to make up a quiz without official documentation.
Discussions in Carmen: Carmen supports a "discussion" chat-room feature, and those who contribute regularly to online discussions will automatically receive a grade which they can count instead of one of the quizzes. Those who contribute to the discussion page and write all three quizzes will have their lowest grade dropped.
Grading of discussions: To receive a discussion grade you must post at least five postings, at least three of which must be responses to postings by other members of the class. Your postings should be reasoably spaced throughout the quarter (those who leave all their postings to the last two weeks of lcass will not be counted). All postings should make a substantial contribution to group discussions. Posings like "Hi! Just me checking in! I really like what you guys have to say about witches!" or "Can anyone tell me what we did in class yesterday?" will not be counted.
Significant contributions may, however, include the raising of interesting questions, or the posting of new material from some other source of interest to the whole group. Spelling and grammar will not be graded, but contributions must be coherent and intelligible in order to count. Those who fulfill these minimum requirements can expect 16/20 on this assignment; those who significantly exceed them can expect 18/20, and those who make exceptionally valuable contributions can expect up to 20/20.
Academic Misconduct Policy
"Plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own: it includes the unacknowledged word-for-word use and/or praphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. All cases of suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct." If you are uncertain about any part of this, please get in touch with me.
A 93-100
|
B+ 87-89 |
C+77-79 |
D+ 65-69 |
E below 60 |
A- 90-92 |
B 83-86 |
C 73-76 |
D 60-65 |
|
B- 80-82 |
C- 70-72 |
People with disabilities are welcome in my class. The university provides resources to help you make the most of your education, and I can help you make use of these services. Please talk to me and/or contact the Office for Disability Services (150 Pomerone Hall, 292-3307; 292-0901)