SENIOR INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR (ANT 582)
Class Meeting: Tuesday, 3:30-6:00 pm, Lafferty Hall 108
Instructor: Dr. Chris Pool
Office: Lafferty Hall 206
Phone: 257-2793, E-mail capool0@uky.edu
Office Hours Tuesday 1:00-2:00, Thursday 11:00-12:00 or by appointment
The Senior Seminar is designed to provide a “capstone” or conclusion to the
Anthropology Major. Its object is to conduct a critical overview of issues in anthropology, with a
particular focus on issues that cut across the discipline’s different fields. The three interrelated
themes of the course – (1) history and environmental change, (2) conflict, and (3) public
engagement – are the focus of much current anthropological work, and address such questions
as: (1) how current anthropological debates about identity (ethnicity, race, and gender) influence
and/or are influenced by interactions with the public; (2) what are the ethical issues associated
with this relationship; (3) how do anthropologists study issues of concern to the larger public; (4)
where ar the “cutting edge” issues related to anthropology and the public in the 21st century? The
course will cover particular aspects of archaeology, ethnography, applied anthropology, and
biological anthropology. Some of the public issues (debates) to be covered include the role of the
anthropologist in conflict situations; ethnographic fieldwork; understanding cultural relativism
and diversity; and representing anthropology to the general public. The course will be conducted
as a seminar; thus a high premium will be placed on class participation and discussion and on
doing assigned readings.
This is a writing-intensive (W) course approved to fulfill the upper tier of the graduation
writing requirement (GWR). To receive W credit for this course, you must have successfully
completed the first-year writing requirement (ENG 104 or its equivalent) and have completed at
least 30 hours of coursework.
The College of Arts and Sciences requires that all undergraduate students complete a
course in which oral presentations are a formal part of the course requirement. The Department
of Anthropology has decided that the Senior Seminar is the best venue in which to develop oral
communication skills, and the oral participations that are required in this course are now part of
the design of the Anthropology major.
Required Textbooks:
Besteman, Catherine and Hugh Gusterson, eds. 2005. Why America’s Top Pundits are Wrong:
Anthropologists Talk Back. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Fagan, Brian, 2004. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. New York: Basic
Books.
Wolf, Eric, 1997. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Other Required Readings: In addition to the three required books listed above, journal articles
will be used. The full text of these are available on-line through the W.T. Young libraray and the
student can choose to read them on-line or print them before reading.
Course Requirements and Grading:
The course requirements will consist of assigned readings, attendance at guest lectures
and films (in class), partication in discussons, oral presentations, a short written assignment, and
a class paper. To adequately cover the different fields of anthropology, other faculty members of
the department and invited guests will provide guest lectures.
For class participation, each week a pair of students will lead class discussions on the
readings assigned for that meeting. Discussion leaders will prepare and submit a typed outline (2
pages) of the discussion specifying major points and questions raised by the readings.
All seminar participants will submit two questions on each week’s readings. Questions
are to be e-mailed to the instructor no later than 9:00 AM on the Monday prior to the class
meetings for with the readings are assigned. Please type “582 Questions” in the Subject line of
the e-mail. Students should write detailed questions. In their questions, students will be
expected to cite specific text from the assigned readings, and to present substantive topics that
merit further discussion. A set of these questions will be collated by the instructor and sent by email to the class prior to that week’s meeting.
Writing Assignments: In any course or series of courses approved as writing intensive,
students will be required to write a minimum of 15 pages of formal writing that is drafted,
reviewed, and revised. At least 10 of these pages must be single-authored assignments. No
assignments requiring fewer than 4 pages may be included in the 15-page minimum. In this
course there will be two writing assignments, both of which will be submitted as a draft,
reviewed, and revised for final submission:
The first writing requirement ( at least 4 double-spaced pages) will be a detailed synopsis
of the class paper that the student will write. The student must also attach a two-page
outline of the paper. The synopsis draft will be reviewed by peers during an in-class
workshop. The revised, final draft will be submitted to the instructor the following week.
The second writing assignment will be a medium-length essay (12 - 15 double-spaced
pages) on some aspect of history, conflict, environment, and/or “anthropology and public
engagement” that draws on at least two of the subdisciplines in anthropology and one or
two geographic regions. In other words, the paper will integrate different fields and
ethnographic regions of anthropology in examining an important theme(s) of the
discipline. Each student must clear her or his paper topic with the instructor by February
8th by turning in a tentative paper title and one-paragraph description of the topic he or
she wishes to examine. A first draft of the paper must be submitted by March 7th. The
instructor will review the draft and return it to the students for revision. The final, revised
draft will be due April 25th.
Please submit two copies of your final paper to the instructor. One copy will be
graded by the instructor; the second copy will be used for SACS assessment and should
be a clean copy, with only your social security number listed at the top of the page, with
all other identifying information (your name, instructor name, and course and section
number) removed.
During the final two weeks of the course, students will make in-class oral
presentations about their papers.
To pass the course and fulfill the upper tier of the GWR, you must submit all
formal writing assignments and earn a grade of C or better on each assignment. Any
major assignment that receives a D or below must be revised to reflect competency and
resubmitted. You may resubmit such assignments 1 time. If you fail to achieve a C grade
on the final version of any major writing assignment, you will receive a failing grade for
the course. Note that assignments or requirements other than the formal writing become a
factor in the final determination of your course grade only if you have achieved a grade
of C or higher on all formal writing assignments.
As noted, students are expected to read weekly materials and come to class prepared to
discuss them. If it is decided students are not keeping up with readings, the instructor may
administer an occasional ‘pop quiz’ related to that week’s readings and/or add written
assignments. These quizzes and/or assignments would then be factored into the student’s final
grade.
Grading Summary:
Class Participation and Weekly Questions
Readings Discussion Leader
Detailed Class Paper Synopsis and Outline
Class Paper
Paper Presentation
20%
15%
15%
40%
10%
Academic Integrity
Part II of Student Rights and Responsibilities (available online at
http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Code/ part2.html) states that all academic work, written or
otherwise, submitted by students to their instructors or other academic supervisors, is expected to
be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression. In cases where students feel
unsure about a question of plagiarism involving their work, they are obliged to consult their
instructors on the matter before submission.
When students submit work purporting to be their own, but which in any way borrows
ideas, organization, wording or anything else from another source without appropriate
acknowledgment of the fact, the students are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism includes
reproducing someone else’s work, whether it be published article, chapter of a book, a paper
from a friend or some file, or whatever. Plagiarism also includes the practice of employing or
allowing another person to alter or revise the work which a student submits as his/her own,
whoever that other person may be. Students may discuss assignments among themselves or with
an instructor or tutor, but when the actual work is done, it must be done by the student, and the
student alone. When a student’s assignment involves research in outside sources or information,
the student must carefully acknowledge exactly what, where and how he/she has employed them.
If the words of someone else are used, the student must put quotation marks around the passage
in question and add an appropriate indication of its origin. Making simple changes while leaving
the organization, content and phraseology intact is plagiaristic. However, nothing in these Rules
shall apply to those ideas which are so generally and freely circulated as to be a part of the public
domain. (Section 6.3.1). The minimum penalty for an academic offense, such as cheating or
plagiarism, is an E in the course (Section 6.4.1).
Learning Outcomes
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Recognize that anthropology is a holistic discipline, which bridges the sciences and the
humanities.
Demonstrate your ability to compare cultures from two regions or different time
periods.
Develop competence in oral communication skills
Demonstrate your ability to integrate at least two of the four subdisciplines of
Anthropology (cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and
linguistics).
Write a paper that is essentially free of mechanical errors (grammar, punctuation,
spelling, and syntax) and awkwardness, using a style that is appropriate to the purpose
and audience.
Demonstrate an ability to discover, evaluate, and clearly present evidence in support of
an argument in the subject area and utilize documentation that conforms to the formats
and the citation conventions of the subject area.
Be aware that composing a successful text frequently takes multiple drafts, with
varying degrees of focus on generating, revising, editing, and proofreading.
Write a capable, interesting essay about a complex issue (discipline-specific) for a
general university audience.
Information:
Questions about the W option should be referred to the Director of the UK Writing
Initiative, Professor Janet Carey Eldred, eldred@uky.edu