Class Requirements and Grading

• Consistent Presence and Active Class Participation (20% of final grade). This means showing up in class on time and actively participating in class discussions and raising questions in a consistent manner, completing all readings and assignments on time. You are expected to have read the assigned texts, watched assigned films and reviewed artworks before each class session. Unless you have a COVID-related situation or other emergencies, in which case you should notify the instructor immediately, more than one unexcused absence will negatively affect your grade (you will receive 0 points of your for the days of unexcused absences.) Excused absences include: health related situations; athletic situations; other unavoidable and emergency situations.

• Writing Workshop (20%). For the Writing Workshop, you need to review your classmates’ writings in small-group settings and provide them with written feedback. The Writing Workshop will build your critical skills as writers and readers for academic papers. The instructor will provide you will a separate sheet of feedback so you can write out your feedback and share it with your partner. If you have an excused situation for the in which

• Two Cross-Week Critical Question Papers (10% each; 20% of final grade; you need to choose one of these two papers to do a thorough revision on after the peer review sessions in class). These short papers are not conventional reading summaries or reflection papers; rather, they encourage you to ask a critical question and integrate readings from different weeks to address that question. For each paper, you should identify one critical problem/issue/topic and examine how 3 different readings or course materials from at least two different weeks respond to that question. For example, you could write about how beauty is experienced and expressed differently based on communities with differing gender and sexuality identities; you could also write about how feminine beauty is articulated differently in diverse cultural communities. The goal of this assignment is to cultivate your critical abilities to engage with and articulate ideas from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. Each paper should be about 4 double-spaced pages, 12 font Times New Roman in Word documents.

• One Team-Presentation on Course Readings/Contents (10%) You will sign up to do a team oral presentation with one or two other people from the class on a given day’s readings/contents. The presentation itself should last between 30 to 45 minutes, and you should also lead a Q & A session at the end of the presentation. You and your teammates should take up the entire class period on your presentation day.

• Final Research Project (30%)

This final project helps you summarize your learning for the whole quarter and requires a outside/library/internet research to find 3-5 sources related to beauty. This is a multiple-step project and requires your consistent participation spreading out through different weeks.

• A. Around Week 5 Week 6, you will post a short project proposal (2-3 paragraphs) on Moodle, detailing the topic you want to cover and the materials you imagine would be helpful for your project. You will also provide comments to at least one other person’s proposal posted on Moodle. We will go over potential topics in class together. (5% of final grade)

• B. Around Week 7 and Week 8, you will post a preliminary Annotated Bibliography on Moodle, listing and explaining 5-8 sources you plan to use for your project. We will work with the librarian to familiarize you with library research. At least 3 of your sources should be from outside of our class readings. These sources can be either Primary Sources (images, cinema, literature, interviews, documentary films, scientific data, etc. and other creative expressions and or scientific data about beauty) or Secondary Sources (conceptual/theoretical/historical/academic writing). You will also comment on one other person’s post. (5% of final grade).

• C. Orally present the major findings and discoveries and surprises of your project, including how it grew from your peers’ comments, library research, and your own research (6-8 minutes). These presentations are semi-formal, meaning you don’t need to present the full scope of your project, but just need to focus on 1-2 aspects that are particularly memorable to you. Be sure to showcase your findings, be them a new theory you discovered, a set of artistic works that are illuminating, or a surprising convergence of experience of two seemingly unrelated minority groups, or other discoveries (5% of final grade).

• D. Submission of a final paper (7-10 pages) toward the end of the quarter that includes a full argument and discussion of the materials you used. More guidelines will be provided later this quarter (15%)

For every assignment and your final grade, I will adopt the following grading scale:

Letter Grade	Percentage
A	94% and above
A-	90% – 92.99%
B+	87%-89.99%
B	83%-86.99%
B-	80%-82.99%
C	76%-79.99%
C-	70%-75.99%
D	64%-69.99%
D-	60%-63.99%
F	< 60%

Note: Any late submissions (submitted the day after due date) will receive a grade deduction of 5% per day, unless there is a documented emergency or you receive prior approval from the instructor. If you need help reaching the deadlines or think you might need more time to finish your drafts for any legitimate reason, please notify me ASAP.

Any incomplete submission that does not meet the length or content requirement of the assignment will receive a grade no greater than C-.

Required Texts

Most of the readings for this class are available on Moodle. Apart from them, there are a few books that you need to purchase from the Book Store. If you can find e-books for these, they are acceptable.

Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies by Catherine McCormack

A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design by Frank Wilczek

Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Tech Policies and Sensitive Topics

In the spirit of making the class a safe and welcoming community that maximizes the learning experience for all, I would like to invite everyone to observe the following policies on the use of technology and the discussion of sensitive topics to ensure that we learn effectively and respectfully together:

• Please silence or turn off your cellphones and put them away during class time.
• If you like to take notes and do in-class writing exercises on your laptop, please strictly restrict your use of your laptop to in-class activities. No web-browsing, email-checking, and Facebook is allowed in class unless instructed by me. When we do all-class analysis and discussions, I may ask you to close your laptops to focus on class discussions.
• Some texts and topics in our class touch upon deeply personal issues, such as gender identities, cultural practices, and sexual orientations. When discussing such issues in class and in writing, please be aware of the personal effect of such topics and make comments respectfully. We strive to create a community that respects diverse identities and values. Making comments mindfully and learning from the diverse backgrounds of your classmates are important components of your education. If you feel vulnerable around certain topics, please communicate with me privately. Let us all take responsibility in creating a safe and welcoming community of learners where we exchange ideas respectfully and ethically.

Class Schedule