Syllabus

Course goals and objectives 

In this course we will:

  • Explore cultural norms, societal institutions, ethical debates, and other scientific contributions and discussions on the topic of love, in order to gain a deeper and layered understanding of this construct/practice.
  • Examine and analyze a variety of “forbidden loves” from multiple social locations.
  • Learn to ask critical questions about the course’s materials, the authors’ intentions and impact.
  • Link class materials and discussion to current personal-social issues.
  • Craft thoughtful, well-organized and edited written assignments in a clear and comprehensible style.
  • Be active readers, speakers, listeners, and writers.
  • Perspective taking, being able to consider multiple standpoints. Recognize and engage various perspectives and points of view.

Course materials and how to find them 

The syllabus, calendar, and course materials are available both here in CUNY GC Commons and on the Brightspace site. This is a Zero to cost course.

We believe in following the students’ interests, curiosity, and preferences as we move through the semester. We may make adjustments to the original course schedule. The readings and assignments in the weekly folders will be the most accurate information. Note: any adjustment taken will not add financial responsibilities to students.

Grading

  • Weekly Reading Responses 30 pts
  • Love Song Analysis 5 pts
  • Midterm Case Study 10 pts
  • Final Project 25 pts
  • Attendance and Informed Participation 30 pts
  • Total 100 pts

CUNY Grading Criteria

  • A, A- 90-100 pts Excellent
  • B+ 86-89 pts Very Good
  • B, B- 80-85 pts Good
  • C+, C, C- 70-79 pts Satisfactory
  • D+, D, D- 60-69 pts Poor
  • F < 60 pts Fail

Course Requirements and Policies

College-Wide Policies 

Disability Accommodations

We operate under the assumption that we all learn in different ways. Ensuring equal access with these differences in mind is important to us in creating a classroom community that works for everyone. Even if you do not have a formally diagnosed disability, we welcome you to talk with us in class and outside of it about what makes you most engaged as a learner- and what sorts of approaches aren’t working as well as they could. If you do have a diagnosed disability and are registered with the Office of Accessibility Services to receive accommodations, you are welcome to set up a meeting with us at the beginning of the semester so that we can discuss what will work best for you in our class (the office will notify us of your accommodations, but not of your specific situation or needs), although this is optional. If you do not currently have ADA accommodations and think you might be eligible for them, please contact the Office of Accessibility Services. 

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the presentation of somebody else’s ideas as your own; this includes material downloaded from the internet without citation. Plagiarism and cheating are extremely serious violations of academic behavior. In all written work, you must clearly indicate (using quotation marks and citations) when you are quoting or paraphrasing. Plagiarism and cheating will result in a final course grade of D- and/or disciplinary action. Unless specifically authorized by the instructor, the use of artificial intelligence technology to generate coursework is a violation of the CUNY/College Policy on Academic Integrity, and constitutes both cheating and plagiarism. Submitting work generated by someone or something other than yourself as if it were your own is cheating. Presenting ideas, concepts, words etc. without providing appropriate credit to your sources is plagiarism. If you are unsure of what constitutes a violation of academic integrity, please see John Jay’s official policy on academic integrity here. 

Class Policies and Norms 

Class Participation

Class sessions will be run as discussions, not lectures, and they will include interactive, on-your-feet activities. Be a responsible contributor to the course by coming to class on time and prepared, having done the readings, ready to ask questions, discuss, debate, and participate in interactive activities with your fellow students and professors. The quality of your class participation will affect your final grade. A successful active learning experience requires the full presence and active participation of every member of the class (including the faculty!). 

Attendance and Lateness

As you can imagine, it’s quite hard to pass this class without solid attendance. Class participation and in-class assignments make up a substantial part of your grade, so please be present and on time for class. More than two absences will significantly impact your participation grade, as will repeated late arrivals to class. If you have an ongoing issue that affects your attendance or punctuality, please speak to us as soon as possible. 

COVID and Illness Policies

While there are no longer official college guidelines on COVID testing and masking, the virus (and other contagious illnesses) are still here. If you are sick (COVID or otherwise), please stay home. If you have been exposed to COVID (or another contagious illness) or have any symptoms (runny nose, sneezing, coughing, sore throat, etc.), please wear a mask to class. You are also welcome to wear a mask at any time for any reason. Masks will always be available in class. (Instructors will also abide by this policy). 

Devices

You may use your tablet, laptop, or phone to access materials in class, but we ask that you turn off any notifications, email, text, or other potential distractions. A successful active learning experience requires the full presence and active participation of every member of the class (including the faculty!). 

In today’s world we are almost all, to some extent, addicted to social media. We know from personal experience that the urge to check twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, etc. can be hard to resist. But being present in class (and in life more generally) is about a lot more than simply being physically present. Because we want to encourage all of us to be more intentional about where we are, if you are not ‘present’ in class because you are on your phone, we will not mark you present. (**If you have a disability that requires engagement with your phone that is different, just let us know at the beginning of the semester so we know to accommodate you.) If you need to urgently respond to a call or text someone back, feel free to leave the class for a minute and come back in when you’re done. We are all adults and we trust you to decide when you need to leave and reenter the class, you don’t need to ask. 

If you do not have some form of reliable equipment (laptop, desktop, etc) on which you can read, watch, look at, or otherwise engage with the course materials and assignments, please contact the DoIT Helpdesk at [email protected].

Artificial Intelligence

The use of ChatGPT or any other Al platform like Grammarly or tools to generate either ideas or written content, or to produce any other material is prohibited in this course. This policy is for a number of reasons: 

  • This class is designed to improve your writing skills; if you’re not writing, you’re not improving. 
  • If you do use a spelling and grammar tool like Grammarly, it should not be used to generate content for you. We encourage you to engage critically with the feedback given by the software.
  • We want to engage with your ideas, not ones that have been generated by an AI tool. If the ideas aren’t coming from you, we can’t have a dialogue with you about what you really think. That’s a key part of the learning experience. 
  • Using Al opens up academic honesty issues, both because it raises the question of whether the work is “your” work, and also because tools like ChatGPT rely on taking uncredited material from scholars and writers. 
  • Using Al does not produce reliably accurate results. Sometimes, it even produces fake sources from books, journals, and magazines that don’t exist(!). 
  • ChatGPT has serious negative environmental impacts, particularly in relation to water usage. For more info, see here, here, and here.
  • OpenAl has exploited workers from the global south, especially workers in prisons and refugee camps, and workers in Kenya, the Philippines, Colombia, and elsewhere. For more info, see here, here, here, and here. 

To put it more bluntly: there are many people in the world who would love to be in your position-getting to be a student at a major university, especially in a relatively small class like this one. Education like this is not available to everyone. If you choose to spend this opportunity to learn by trying to avoid doing the work and learning through the use of Al tools, you are only cheating yourself and contributing to environmental harms and labor exploitation in the process. For these reasons, the use of ChatGPT or any other Al tools is not a part of this classroom community, no exceptions. 

This class (and many of your classes at John Jay) is about fighting for justice. Schools and classrooms are reflections of the world, including the many injustices that permeate our everyday lives. This class aims to push back against those norms in the content we learn, but also in the way we learn and relate to each other. Let’s aim to make this classroom and community more like the world we want to see out there, too.

If we find AI usage, you will receive an F on the assignment. You may have the opportunity to rewrite the paper for partial credit along with an additional written reflection (details will be provided by the instructors). Multiple uses of AI may be reported to the college and may result in failing the class or other disciplinary consequences. 

Course Content

This course will engage with materials that cover and depict sensitive, challenging, and potentially uncomfortable, but real, concepts and experiences. Racism, sexual violence, gender violence, and more. We will work together as a classroom community to engage with these difficult topics sensitively and with respect to the diverse experiences of everyone in the room. Professors will aim to give specific content warnings about materials as necessary. Please come speak to us or email us if you have concerns about specific materials or issues we will cover. 

If you feel overwhelmed at any point during class discussion you are welcome to step out of the class momentarily (just let us know what happened so we don’t mark you absent), and if a particular day’s materials are difficult for you to engage with feel free to get in touch with us and we can discuss the possibility of assigning you an alternative text. You are also welcome to bring up difficult emotions you had in response to the texts during class discussion, as these are an inevitable part of learning about injustice and therefore relevant to the topic. 

If at any point the content of the course feels overwhelming to you, you are encouraged to talk to someone. You can reach out to us, and/or you can seek support through John Jay’s free student counseling center, by calling 212-237-8111, visiting this website or walking in to L.68.00 NB.