Discussion Sections:

Attendance at these is absolutely required. Your active participation in section discussion will be a significant portion of your grade. Please see us immediately if you are not enrolled in a section, or have a scheduling problem. Sections will begin meeting in the second week of class (starting Jan. 22).

Current Schedule of Sections:

Grading and Requirements:

How to do well in this course: It’s a simple formula. Come to the lectures, take good notes, do the readings, think about what you’ve learned and be prepared to talk about it in section. If you miss a lecture, get the notes from a friend. You will not do well in this course if you skip class or don’t bother to do the reading.

First Paper: 4-5pp critical essay, on choice of several topics. Due Friday Feb. 16 at 4pm in 145 Eggers Hall. This paper, like the later ones, will require you to use and cite primary sources, which is what we call texts written by people who lived in the period we’re studying.

Midterm Exam: In class, March 7. This will include paragraph-length identifications and longer essays, and will cover material from lectures and assigned readings to date. Essay questions will be given out in advance, a week before the exam. For each essay question, you will be allowed to bring in and consult during the exam one 3"x5" notecard you have prepared in advance. ID’s will not be announced in advance.

Second Paper: 4-5pp critical essay. Due Thursday April 12 at 4pm in 145 Eggers Hall.

Final Paper: 6-8pp, due Thursday May 10 at 4pm in 145 Eggers Hall. This will be a "creative" exercise in which you will get a chance to show off what you’ve learned by imagining yourself as a medieval person and seeing the world as he or she saw it. There will be a wide variety of possible characters and situations available for you to "get into character." Have fun with it, but also draw seriously upon class materials, particularly the primary sources.

Section Participation: This means not just showing up, but taking an active role in class discussion. The sections are your opportunity to talk about what you’ve read and what you’ve heard in lecture. Each week, please bring your copies of the assigned readings with you and be prepared to talk about them. Frequent and conspicuous lack of preparation will hurt your grade. Your section leader may choose to set occasional quizzes or other small assignments; these will be counted toward the "participation" grade.

E-mail and Internet: I am running this class under the assumption that each of you has a basic familiarity with browsing the web, access to a computer, and an e-mail account that you check reasonably often. Please see me immediately if this is not the case. I will collect all your e-mails in class, and then use group mailings to make announcements, circulate discussion questions in advance of class, etc. Please familiarize yourself with the course website: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/HST212/index.htm which contains an online version of this syllabus as well as links to relevant websites and images shown during lectures. You should check it at least weekly for updates.

Lateness Policy: For the first two papers, the following rule applies. For each day late, the grade is reduced by one full letter (A becomes B, B becomes C, and so on) unless you have a bona-fide excuse (serious medical or family emergency). "I didn’t feel well yesterday" doesn’t count as a medical excuse: I will need a note from the Health Center or from your advisor.

For the final paper, I have already given you the latest possible due date, the last day of exam week. This leaves us very little time to read them before we have to report final grades to the Registrar. Accordingly, we are not able to accept any late papers for this assignment.

Academic Dishonesty: This course will enforce the policy set by the University and the College of Arts and Sciences, which is as follows:

"Syracuse University students shall exhibit honesty in all academic endeavors. Cheating in any form is not tolerated, nor is assisting another person to cheat. The submission of any work by a student is taken as a guarantee that the thoughts and expressions in it are the student’s own except when properly credited to another. Violations of this principle include: giving or receiving aid in an exam or where otherwise prohibited, fraud, plagiarism, the falsification or forgery of any record, or any other deceptive act in connection with academic work. Plagiarism is the representation of another’s words, ideas, programs, formulae, opinions or other products of work as one’s own, either overtly, or by failing to attribute them to their true source." (Section 1.0, University Rules and Regulations.)

What this means, in plain English, is that the writing in your papers must be yours – not copied from a book, or from another student, or from the internet – and anything borrowed from elsewhere (e.g. direct quotations from sources) must be properly marked as such and footnoted. More specific instructions on proper citation style, along with a handout detailing examples of plagiarism, will be distributed with the first paper assignment. Ignorance of the rules will not be accepted as an excuse.

Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will receive a "zero" (worse than an F!) for that assignment, with predictable consequences for his/her overall average. He/she will also be reported to the Dean’s Office, which may or may not choose to take more serious action. A second offense will result in an automatic F for the course. That said, I am not out to "get" anyone – I am happy to explain the rules to anyone who is unsure. Please talk to me or your TA if you have any questions!

Click here for a handout explaining plagiarism in more detail

Books to purchase at Follett’s Orange Bookstore (all are required):

Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan.

Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom.

John A.F. Thomson, The Western Church in the Middle Ages.

Jonathan Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe.

There will also be two xeroxed collections of primary sources (texts written by ancient/medieval people) available from the Copy Center in Marshall Square Mall.  The first reader covers assignments up through the end of March; the second reader for the remainder of the course will be available after Spring Break.

In addition, some assigned readings will be found on the Internet.  Follow the hyperlinks on the schedule below.

Note: each day, you should come to lecture already having read whatever is listed for that day on the schedule below. When you come to section, you should be prepared to talk about what’s been assigned up to that point in the week: sections meeting on Monday or Tuesday will cover readings listed for that Monday; those meeting Wednesday and later will cover readings through that Wednesday.