Writing Jewish Kentucky
Did you know that Kentucky Bourbon, one of the Commonwealth’s signature industries has a long heritage of Jewish distillers, wholesalers, and whiskey men/women? Did you know that Louisville’s Jewish Hospital emerged during a time when it was difficult for Jewish doctors to find jobs and Jewish patients to be treated at regular hospitals? Did you know that Lexington has two synagogues with more than 100 years of history and that at one point, most of Lexington’s downtown merchants included Jewish-owned shops? Did you know that the University of Kentucky was home to a Jewish Fraternity (Zeta Beta Tau) and Jewish sorority (Phi Sigma Sigma) in the early part of the 20^th century and that its Jewish Student organization, Hillel, has been active on campus for more than 80 years? Students in this class will learn about these and other aspects of Kentucky’s Jewish heritage. They will explore the multi-ethnic fabric of Lexington’s, past, present, and future by working directly with oral histories in University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History and primary materials in UK’s Special Collections libraries. Students will index and curate materials in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History using OHMS (the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer), rhetorically analyze oral histories of Kentucky’s Jewish communities, conduct oral history interviews with local Jewish community members, present their research to their peers, and construct a “This American Life”-style podcast  or short video documentary to share these valuable cultural resources with the public.

Requirements this Course Fulfills: This special section of WRD 112 can be counted toward requirements for the World Religions minor and/or the Jewish Studies minor.

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and employ key terms and concepts in classical rhetoric.
• Identify and employ ethical practices for oral history interviewing/indexing.
• Compare/contrast/critically analyze culturally-situated oral history narratives.
• Engage in a recursive, revision-based approach to writing and composition.
• Develop effective strategies for revision.
• Practice (and ideally improve!) research and writing skills.
• Practice (and ideally improve!) public presentation skills.
• Develop effective strategies for collaborative work.
• Present a deeper understanding of Kentucky’s multi-cultural past, present, and future in a multi-section radio segment podcast aimed at a public audience.

Required Texts and Materials
(textbooks available at the UK Bookstore; they also can be ordered online)

• Town Branch 4th Edition 2018-2019
• Engaged Citizen 2018-2019
• Internet Access
• Other readings will be provided through PDF in the course reserves on Canvas.
• A functional UK email account you check regularly.
• A dropbox account and a flashdrive to back up/save materials. Don’t worry, dropbox is free. Www.dropbox.com.
• A willingness and openness to learn!

Recommended
Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say: I Say: The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing (any edition)

Assignments:

• Transcript Authentication and Interview Indexing Using OHMS 20%(5% authentication, 10 % indexing, 5% 4-5 pg reflection)
• Rhetorical Analysis of an Interview 15% (4-5pg)
• Oral Presentations 10% [Peer Review 5%, Final Group Presentation 5%]
• Oral History Interview Collection 20% (10% Interview/questions, 5% collaboration, 5% reflection 3-4 pages)
• Collaborative Oral-History Based Final Project (either audiocast or short video documentary) 30%  [(Team Contract/Plan (5%), Annotated Bibliography/Research (5%), Draft Transcript 5%, Rough Cut 10%,  research Reflection (5%)]
• Class Participation/Individual Meetings/Minor Assignments 5%
• Total =100%
• Extra Credit Opportunities (up to 5%)
  You may earn up to 5% in extra credit by attending events and writing a short essay that connects them with the concepts we’re learning in class.

Opportunities for Extra Credit:
Feb. 4, 7pm Boone Center
“Diversity and Democracy: Teaching Life Writing to Jewish and Palestinian Israelis”
Presented by Ilana Blumberg

Feb. 11,  7 pm Boone Center
“Jean Carroll: The Beginning of Jewish Female Standup Comedians”
presented by Grace Overbeke, phd student at Northwestern University, Luckens Prize Winner

March 27, 6pm Worsham Cinema in Gatton Student Center(in the new UK student center)
Film screening of The Ancient Law  with live music accompaniment from Alicia Svigals (of the Klezmatics) and Donald Sosin, part of the Gatton Student Center Cinema Program

April 8, 1:30-3:15pm UK Student Center
International Symposium Comparative Perspectives on #MeToo: Panel 2 “Visibility, Public, Feminist Mobilization B”
Dr. Ruth Preser (Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel), How To Be Feminist in Public

April 9, 9:30-11:15 am UK Student Center
International Symposium Comparative Perspectives on #MeToo: “Panel 4 Ethics, Law, Institutional and Community Responses A”
Dr. Keren McGinity (Hebrew College, USA), #GamAni: How #MeToo Inspired the American Jewish Community to Look Inward

April 10, 7pm Boone Center
“Jewish Continuity and the #meToo Movement”
Dr. Keren McGinty

Grading
You must complete all assignments to receive a passing grade in the course.
Grades in the class are determined by your performance in two related but different tasks:

1) Your daily performance, participation, and engagement (weekly reading and short papers, conferences with me, attendance) and

2) Your performance on time-bound tasks that constitute the major assignments in this course (abstracts/proposal, mid-term, papers, peer review, final portfolio of short responses). For major assignments, you will receive a letter grade.  At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated on the following scale:
 
A         90-100%
B         80-89%
C         70-79%
D         60-69%
E         59% and below.

Attendance and Participation.
It probably goes without saying that part of the joy and delight of writing courses is that you get out of them what you put into them. To help ensure that we have a productive semester together, I require the following:

1) Each student will come to every class on time, prepared to actively discuss and engage the assigned reading material. In my experience, students who follow these guidelines tend to do better in college generally and my courses specifically.

You are allowed to miss two classes no questions asked (though if work is due that day, it needs to be turned in to Canvas, even if you aren’t there). If you contract an illness that requires you to miss more than the allotted two classes, please contact me and provide appropriate medical documentation. Notice, your ethos will be substantially stronger if you contact me by email before you miss class. After six excused absences, you will be eligible according to SR 5.2.4.2 to receive a ‘W’, or the Instructor of Record may award an ‘I’ for the course if the student declines to receive a ‘W.’”

[[Senate Rules SR 5.2.4.2 states that “[i]f a student has excused absences in excess of one-fifth of the class contact hours for that course (participation activities for an online course, as defined in 5.2.4.1 A), the student shall have the right to receive a ‘W’, or the Instructor of Record may award an ‘I’ for the course if the student declines to receive a ‘W.’”]]
If you find that an unavoidable problem prevents you from attending class, please discuss the problem with me. After your fourth unexcused absence, your final grade for the course will be reduced by 5 points or ½ a letter grade because you will lose your participation points. Absences on the day of peer review  are strongly discouraged and will count as two absences.

2) Each student will treat our class as a safe intellectual space and community, one that values challenging questions but which does not tolerate hateful language or behavior. I ask that you engage one another in ways that are respectful and productive and that you treat each other and me with collegiality and humanity. In our reciprocal community, sometimes the best way to demonstrate your respect for a person, text, or idea is to ask a difficult question, disagree with someone or something, or challenge the assumptions that gird a belief, idea, or response. I ask that we each find ways to challenge each other so that our responses further rather than shut down the conversation.

3) Part of building our reciprocal community requires that each person not only participate, but also be aware of his or her participation. Challenge yourself to both notice and moderate how much “verbal space” you take up in class. If you are the kind of person who participates freely and easily, challenge yourself to make space for others to participate. If you are the kind of person who often doesn’t speak much in class, challenge yourself to become an active participant.

Late Policy
Late arrivals are distracting for class activities, so please arrive on time and be alert. I will count two tardies as one absence.  If you are more than 10 minutes late for class, you will be marked absent for the day. In order for you to fully contribute to both the workshops and class discussions, it is important that you are not only physically but also mentally present in class. Although it is my general policy to let you know about exams or quizzes ahead of time (they are clearly marked on the daily schedule), I reserve the right to add quizzes to the class agenda if too many class members appear to be unprepared.

A note on preparation: Being prepared means being able to respond thoughtfully to the reading, not just doing it. Help yourself by taking notes so that you are prepared to discuss issues in depth.When doing your reading, talk back to the text—ask questions, write in the margins, connect ideas to things you already know or are learning in other classes.

Late Assignments
Your assignments for this course are due at the beginning of class on the dates indicated in the class schedule below. You may request (in advance) one two-day extension of the due date of a major assignment (not the first submission of a project ).  Late assignments are not accepted unless a two-day extension has been requested and approved in advance of the deadline. If you cannot attend class on the day an assignment is due, you must post the assignment to Canvas by the beginning of class.  

Plagiarism
Part II of Student Rights and Responsibilities (6.3.1; online at http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Code/part2.html) describes what constitutes academic dishonesty and what the penalties are.  It 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.

We will be learning proper MLA citation methods in this course, and I will expect you to follow them. You are responsible for making sure you follow proper citation methods, however, for all materials whether or not we explicitly discuss them in class.  If you ever have a citation question, please come talk to me. Plagiarism is serious stuff, and I’m always happy to talk with you about citation so that everyone’s ideas are properly credited.

Any material you use from someone else’s work must be appropriately recognized as such or you will be committing an act of plagiarism (regardless of whether you intended to or not). [Note if you are reading this syllabus in its entirety, send Dr. Jan a cute lizard picture for 1/2 point of extra credit.]Any time you use someone else’s exact words you must put them in quotation marks. Any time you use someone else’s ideas but express them in your own words, you must provide the name of the author and the page number where you read about them as well as a full  listing for the source in your works cited. If you do not follow proper citation methods, you will put yourself in danger of failing the course.

Some Ways Students Commit Plagiarism
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 also includes reproducing someone else’s work‚ whether it is a published article‚ chapter of a book‚ a paper from a friend or some file‚ or another source, including the Internet. 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. Plagiarism also includes using someone else’s work during an oral presentation without properly citing that work in the form of an oral footnote.

Whenever you use outside sources or information‚ you must carefully acknowledge exactly what‚ where, and how you have employed them. If the words of someone else are used‚ you must put quotation marks around the passage in question and add an appropriate indication of its origin. Plagiarism also includes making simple changes while leaving the organization‚ content and phraseology intact. 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.

You may discuss assignments among yourselves or with me or a tutor‚ but when the actual work is done‚ it must be done by you‚ and you alone. All work submitted must be new, original work; you may not submit work you have produced for another purpose or class.

Collaboration is something we will be doing a lot of in this class. Collaboration differs from collusion, which is an unsanctioned kind of working together that becomes an act of academic dishonesty. I have explicitly asked you to collaborate in specific ways for your oral presentations, sharing resources for final projects, doing peer review, and that’s all fine. Collusion would involve a case where two of you turned in the exact same assignment without acknowledging one another (i.e. it has the same structure, form, and uses the same examples even if the wording is not verbatim).  If you have a question about the nature of the collaboration you are engaging in, please come talk to me, BEFORE you turn in your assignment.
A Note about Cellphones: I understand they are helpful and useful, but please turn them to silent/vibrate during class.  If you have an emergency (someone is in the hospital or something of that nature of dire consequences), please let me know and then feel free to put your phone on vibrate and step out of class to answer your call.

Class Online Syllabus
I am responsive to student requests for changes in the schedule if you make a persuasive case for them, which means that the daily schedule may change during the semester. You are responsible for checking the online syllabus and schedule before beginning your homework for each of our class meetings for any changes or updates. I will post all assignments here on the class site (http://wrd112.fernheimer.org).If you lose an assignment page or handout, you are expected to get a copy from our website rather than me.

Gender and Pronoun Reference
It is no longer customary to use the masculine pronoun for cases of indefinite pronoun reference, e.g., “When a professor grades papers, he is often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.” Instead, style books recommend changing pronouns to the plural form, e.g., “When professors grade papers, they are often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.” It is standard procedure in professional settings and this class to use “gender-fair language.” Not sure how to write a sentence in a gender-fair way? Bring it to class, we’ll work together to figure it out.

Canvas
All of your work in this class must be posted in the appropriate place in Canvas, shared in Googledocs,  and/or available in hard copy as specified for each assignment. All assignments will require a title, your name, my name, the name of our course, and the date. They should be formatted in accordance with MLA standards for academic essays.

Backing Up Your Work
Technological failures are bound to occur and you’ll need a back-up. When you follow my advice and back up to two places, you’ll be amazingly unbothered when your hard drive crashes or your roommate spills coffee on your laptop. Trust me.

You are required to save all work in at least two places: a flashdrive and your dropbox account. You may also opt to back up your materials to other locations such as your public folder, your email, or a CD-R/RW. If your assignment is lost in cyberspace, you will be expected to repost it within the same day.
“My computer crashed” is today’s equivalent of “the dog ate my homework” and neither will be accepted as excuses for late or missing work!

E-mail Policies
Regardless of how you address your friends, family, or peers, remember that in this class e-mail is an officially recognized communication medium for class business. It’s an electronic letter and should be treated as such. When you e-mail me, please include a subject, i.e. “WRD 112, Rhetoric Class, Your student,” so I know it’s one of my  students trying to reach me. In the text of the e-mail itself, be sure to use an opening and closing salutation, i.e. “Dear Dr. Jan:,” or “Hi Professor Fernheimer,” and “Sincerely,” “Best wishes,” or “See you in class.” Most importantly, make sure that you sign your name, so I know to whom I am responding. This part is especially important if your handle is something like “sugarspice or cooldaddy@hotmail.com.” Of course, if you’ve got a handle like the aforementioned, you probably want to consider using an appropriately named, official UK account for class-related correspondence.

In general, I will try to respond to your email within 48 hours, though there will be times in the semester when it may take me longer. If you don’t hear from me—gently ask in class to make sure it came through and did not go to my spam! Please do not hesitate to email me again. I also do not check email after 4:00 pm and on the weekends, so plan accordingly if you have an urgent question. I encourage and invite you to make use of office hours or email me for an appointment if your schedule conflicts.

Alternate Class Meeting Spaces
If it’s nice and you can stay focused, we may meet outside (consider that an incentive). On temperate days, you may want to dress accordingly (short skirts and kilts may make sitting outside less comfortable).

Writing Center
The Writing Center is located in W. T. Young Library, Room B108B in the HUB (phone: 257-1368). The staff can help you with all aspects of your writing at any stage of the process, including brainstorming, organization of ideas, revising. I will not require you to go to The Writing Center, but I strongly recommend that you go at least once and try it out. Remember the folks who work there are trained writing professionals, so do not expect them to simply “correct” or  “edit” your paper. Rather, know they will challenge you to think about your work and how to advance it! To have the best possible session, be sure to bring your assignment instructions along with whatever drafts, peer comments, or instructor feedback, or rubrics you’ve received.

Students with Disabilities. If you have a documented disability that requires academic accommodations, please see me as soon as possible. In order to receive accommodations in this course, you must provide me with a Letter of Accommodation from the Disability Resource Center (859-257-2754, jkarnes@uky.edu), for coordination of campus disability services available to students with disabilities. We can then collaborate on the best solution.They are located at 725 Rose Street, Suite 407 Multidisciplinary Science Building, Lexington, KY  40536-0082 (Building 82 on the Campus Map). Their office hours are 8AM to 4:30PM.

If you have a physical or other condition which is not quite a disability but might impair your ability to participate in class (an instructor who regularly keeps you late, a bad back which prevents you from sitting for long periods, the need to keep your blood sugar up, the feeling that you’ve lost all energy and motivation), please let me know.  I’m not a medical doctor, but I do know about a wide variety of student services that you have access to but might not be aware of, and I’m happy to point you in the right direction. If you’re not physically or otherwise comfortable, you cannot be fully intellectually engaged. There are ways to make arrangements so that everyone gets the support they need to be happy, comfortable, and thus productive. After all, you’re human, not student automatons.

Campus Climate and Bias Reporting
The University of Kentucky is committed to cultivating and nurturing an environment in which every student, staff, and faculty member feels and knows they belong.  In the event a student, staff, or faculty member experiences an instance of bias, hatred, or identity-based violence, there are services and resources to provide support and advocate for the person or group targeted.  Services can be accessed by contacting the Bias Incident Response Coordinator, Carol Taylor-Shim at 257-3189 or birt@uky.edu.  The Bias Incident Support Services (BISS) Office is located on the ground floor of Frazee Hall in Suite 4.  Services are available M-F8:30am-5:00pm.

The Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT) is the official university reporting system to address instances of bias, hate, and identity-based violence. Reports can be made anonymously. Reports can also be made with the expectation that the reporter will be contacted by the Bias Incident Response Coordinator via an outreach email to the impacted person’s university email.

The report form can be accessed at http://www.uky.edu/vipcenter/content/bias-incident-support

Intellectual Property
The University of Kentucky recognizes that a faculty member’s class and all parts of it: lectures, assignments, etc., are the intellectual property of the faculty member.  Class lectures and materials are the intellectual property of the faculty.  Consequently, students may record ONLY for their personal use. For any other use, including sharing with other students in the class, specific permission of the faculty member/employee is required to record.  Recording for any business/commercial purpose is a violation of federal IP (copyright) law as well as a violation of the faculty employee’s class policy (syllabus) and, thus, is strictly prohibited.