Attendance policy:

You are expected to be in class. At the end of the quarter, I will ask you to self-report on your attendance (relying on the Honor Code). Each person can have one unexcused absence (Monday or Wednesday) without a penalty.

If you miss a Monday class session, you need to communicate with me about your absence and complete any missed submitted work. You will also need to read/work through the Powerpoint for that day (found in Resources).

During the first week of class, you designed an attendance policy for Wednesday class sessions. It is: you can miss one Wednesday without having to make-up the Weekly Task. In this case, you need to communicate with your group about your absence. They have the right to ask you to complete any unfinished work from that day. If you miss a second Wednesday, you need to do the Weekly Task on your own. For any missed Wednesday sessions, you are responsible for communicating with me about your absence (if you are seeking an excused absence) and you are responsible for completely the Warmup. Warmups are always due at midnight, but they can be completed within a reasonable amount of time in the event of illness or other extended interruption.

EE Syllabus Insert

Engagements Experience (EE)

As a student at the University of Virginia, you are part of an exciting and robust intellectual community. Our hope, and the goal of the Engagement Experience, is to make you feel welcomed into this community, where you’ll discover new ideas and meet fascinating people. The Engagement Experience is part of the Engagements program, existing alongside the Engagement course in which you have already enrolled. This quarter, and for the remainder of the year, you will remain with the same academic peer group you had in your first Engagement class, even as you scatter to other, exciting courses. Your same undergraduate TA will remain your guide throughout the semester. Although you are not required to complete any of the EE assignments with the students in your group, we hope that you might consider them co-explorers in your first year at UVA. You might choose to attend all manner of events together (or virtually together), study, learn, unlearn--in short, practice being scholars together.

The Engagements Experience is 10% of your Sounds of Resistance grade. It requires that you complete 3 experiences per EGMT quarter from a bucket list of intellectual opportunities from across the University and beyond. Complete one bucket list item from each category:

a. Scholar Speak: this includes forums, talks, and interactive discussions with scholars from the University and elsewhere. You may choose your Scholar Speak bucket list item from a calendar of options.

b. TA Talks: This quarter, in recognition of the continuing stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, in lieu of a TA talk, we are asking all students to engage in (at least) one hour of self-care during the quarter. Examples include:

Going for a walk

Catching up with friends or family

Engaging in one of your favorite relaxation activities

Meditating before bed or when you wake up in the morning

Exercising

Reading something for pleasure

Making a nourishing meal

You must also attend one in-person TA-check in per quarter. Your TA will reach out with the schedule for those sessions.

c. Engaging Grounds: Each quarter, you will visit an on-campus resource that will inform your intellectual exploration in your Engagements course. These events are designed to give you a sense of the broader UVA intellectual community at large.

 Choose one different resource out of each of the following options each quarter. Your Engagements professor might add to or amend this list, or require a particular event:

-Enslaved African Americans at UVA Self-Guided Tour. After downloading the “Walking Tours of Grounds” app, you will complete this tour (either in-person or virtually) before the end of the quarter.

-A visit to the Fralin Museum where you view at least one of their special, rotating exhibits, and at least one of the exhibits that are part of the permanent collection.

-A visit to the piece of the Berlin Wall by Alderman Library after reading this UVA Today article. Reflect on what it means to transport this piece to another national context and a public university, in particular.

-A visit to the former site of the George Rogers Clark monument. Read this UVA Today about the statue’s history and this call for its removal. What is this space like now?

-A visit to special collections where tour one of the exhibits (pending their reinstatement following COVID procedures) and view one item from their collection in the reading room.

-A visit to the UVA gardens after exploring these visualizations about UVA at the time of its founding.

-A visit to the Rotunda and one of the Rotunda tours.

Submitting Evidence of Participation

Demonstrate your participation in the EE by inserting the following items onto the document called “EE_Evidence of participation” (found in Resources) via the appropriate Assignment in Collab:

1. Ticket Stubs: Ticket Stubs are photo evidence (a selfie or a screenshot) that you capture while completing/participating in your three Experiences. Therefore, you should submit three separate Ticket Stubs. Please also type the name and date of the experience into each Submission box in Assignments.

b. Domain Reflection: By week 6 of each EGMT quarter, submit a 250-word “Domain Reflection” in response to the following prompt:

What material or ways of thinking in your current Engagement course intersect with the history, analysis, and experience distilled and sparked by the Scholar Speak and/or Engaging Grounds experience you attended? How has your understanding of UVA (its spaces, its histories, its aspirations, its legacies) been enriched or transformed by the discussions you have had in your Engagement course this quarter? In your response to one or both of these questions, please be sure to dig into one or two specific aspects of the Scholar Speak/Engaging Grounds experience.

All items must be correctly inserted into the document called “EE_Evidence of participation” (found in Resources) and uploaded to Assignments in Collab by Dec. 6^th (the last day of class).