Announcements
Bookmark this page as your main entry point to the course website. That way, you’ll be sure to see any changes and other information I’ve posted here.
Current Announcements
Grading page updated
26 May 2023
The grading page has been updated with all papers I have received and a provisional grade for the course. If there is an assignment or revision you’re sure you submitted but that isn’t reflected on the grading page, please contact me immediately.
Official grades will be posted to CUNYfirst sometime tonight.
I was very impressed by a lot of the written work for this semester—there were some seriously thoughtful essays and papers this time around, and the effort at insight and scholarship really came through. Thanks for your hard work in your assignments as well as in our class discussions. I hope you have a safe and happy summer.
Archive
Final Exam grades posted
22 May 2023
The grades for the Final Exam are posted on the My Grades page on the course website.
Please upload any missing essays or resubmissions for reversible deductions to BlackBoard by end of day Thursday so that your grade reflects all it can reflect.
Final course grades will be posted to the My Grades page and CUNYfirst on Friday.
Position Paper grades and markups posted
18 May 2023
The grades and markups for the Position Paper are posted on the My Grades page on the course website.
If you have any questions about the grades, comments, or deductions, please don’t hesitate to seek me out by email.
Reversible deductions. Some of you may find that you received “reversible deductions” for issues relating to formatting and citations. The good news is, those are points that you can get back. Check the cover page of your markup to see if there are any check marks and points taken off next to the reversible deductions. If there are, I made notes on the cover sheet or in the essay about the issue, and included a handout with the requirements.
Please resubmit your essay to BlackBoard with those problems fixed, and I’ll be in a position to reverse those deductions. Only reversible deductions can be reversed, so don’t resubmit for anything other than reversible deductions.
Missing essays. If you have not gotten your paper in, please do so as soon as you can. In terms of your course grade you’re better off with any grade, even with a lateness penalty, than a zero for the assignment. Remember also that the lateness penalty is capped at a maximum of 30 points, so turning your paper in, even very late, is better than not doing so.
Good luck on the final exam!
14 May 2023
I’m looking forward to reading your reactions to and interpretations of the Roman story and everything we’ve discussed this semester.
Email me with any questions. See you Thursday!
Welcome to Week 14!
7 May 2023
This week we're discussing the last stage of the Roman empire in the west, while the eastern empire goes on without it. Given that the empire stabilizes itself in the fourth century, what do you think are the most telling factors in why the western half falls apart so rapidly in the fifth century? Could the Romans have done anything about it?
Now's a good time to think about the Roman idea. What perseveres about the idea of "Romanness" between Romulus and Romulus Augustus? There's something still palpably Roman that runs through this entire 1300-year story. What does Romanness, or Romanitas, consist of? What remains consistent and how does it evolve over the long centuries of Roman transformation?
Looking forward to discussing all of this with you. See you Thursday!
Quizzes #7 and 8 grades and markups posted
4 May 2023
The grades and markups for Quizzes #7 and 8 are posted on the My Grades page on the course website.
I also strongly recommend spending a moment to take a look at my commentary on the quiz, as I use the quiz notes to emphasize some of the key take-aways from last week’s topics. The Quiz Notes for this quiz are live on the Quiz Notes page (under Resources) and on the Print/PDF page, and are also included in the quiz markups.
Reviewing for the Final Exam
4 May 2023
I’ve updated the final exam page. On this page you’ll find information about the final and review materials. The exam will take place Thursday, May 18 from 6:15 to 8:15 p.m.
The review sheet is not designed to be a list of answers so much as questions you can use to guide you toward the areas you want to focus on in your review. As you read through the questions on the review sheet, those you have a sense of how you might answer are lower priority for review than those questions you’re not sure how you would answer; those you’d then want to go back and spend some time reviewing in your notes, the readings, the videos, quiz notes, and class discussions.
Also note that the terms are a useful way of finding concepts you need to go back and review, so I’d advise stepping through the terms at the end of each topic and making sure you have a sense of what they mean and why we’re studying them.
To prepare for the essays, I suggest that you focus on what you would consider to be four or five of the major themes of this course, and think about possible questions that relate to those topics across the periods and transitions we’ve explored. For each essay you’ll be asked to give three examples, so you can sketch out a question about a recurring topic in the course, your perspective on that question, and three similar or contrasting examples of that demonstrate that perspective.
Please take a look at the review sheet for details on the exam’s content and structure. Once you’ve read through the review sheet, if you have any questions about the exam or about any of the topics covered in it, please don’t hesitate to come to me or bring them up in class.
To get to the final exam page, click on “Exams” in the navigation index, or follow the link to the “Final Exam page” below.