Assessment:

Attendance and Participation: 25%. This includes participation in the group presentations over the semester. It is expected that students will participate in group discussions, offer observations in response to questions from the instructor during lectures, and generally be willing to take on an active role in the classroom. Attendance is mandatory.

Weekly writing assignment: The Glossary. 25%. Class glossary.

Here's a few definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary to get you thinking about what it means to write a gloss on a term, and to collect those glosses into a glossary.
gloss, v.1
1. trans. To insert glosses or comments on; to comment upon, explain, interpret
b. intr. To introduce a gloss, comment, or explanation upon a word or passage in a text. Also in wider sense, to make comments or remarks (esp. unfavourable ones) upon a person's words or actions.
glossary1. A collection of glosses; a list with explanations of abstruse, antiquated, dialectal, or technical terms; a partial dictionary. 1696 Phil. Trans. XIX. 264 The Glossary, at the end, is not only an Account of Words and Phrases, but also an explication of ancient Customs, Laws, and Manners

Over the semester, students will make a glossary for themselves of terms and phrases central to each the texts we are reading on biotechnology and culture– such as cloning, totipotency, artifice, artificial parthenogenesis, mechanistic philosophy, and so on. The entries in the glossary should define what these things are, but also elaborate on and comment on the significance of these things - historically, economically, culturally, personally. There must be at least one entry for each reading that we do, and each entry should be approximately a page long. While the entry should draw on the reading, students are encouraged to look around for examples and illustrations from the world around them.

Illustrating terms is not limited to writing about them, you may use whatever mode you can think of. This is meant to be a creative exercise in exploring different orders and modes of definition so that you define terms in your own way, with your own words or pictures.

The glossary entry for each week must be handed in on Friday at the beginning of class, the exceptions being March 28 and April 25. Please hand in a copy and keep a copy for yourself. The glossary as a whole must be collated and bound and handed in on April 18.

There will be a choice of writing two short papers of 5 pages each, or one research paper of 10 or more pages. This will be graded in two parts, 25% for the first draft, 25% for the final paper. Seniors are expected to write research papers. The due dates for the two short papers, worth 25% each, are February 10 and April 25. The due date for the first draft of the research paper is March 28, the final draft April 25. More detail will be given in class.

schedule

syllabus

practicalities