Requirements
How your final grade is calculated
| Attendance and class participation |
15% |
| Four essays (total) |
60% |
| Final paper |
25% |
Special note
Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved by the Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter. |
Attendance and class participation
Attendance in class is mandatory. Missing more than two classes will affect your final grade. Class participation includes having read the required readings by the date they are scheduled and coming to class prepared to discuss them, as well as taking part in the exercises conducted in class and assigned on Moodle. |
| A note about using technology in this course: I'm happy to let you use laptops and iPads to do the electronic readings and to take notes in class. Please be conscientious when using these devices. If you find your reading comprehension suffers because you don't have a hard copy to write notes in, then print the electronic readings out. And please limit your use of laptops and iPads in the classroom to note-taking and internet browing of course materials only. If your use of these technologies distracts yourself, other students or me, you'll be asked to turn off your wi-fi or your device. |
Essays
You're required to write four of the following five essays. Each essay should be 3-5 pages in length (not including attachments noted in the instructions. If you write all five, I'll count the four best grades toward your final grade in the course. In each essay, you should strive to incorporate and cite the relevant readings and lectures as much as possible.
| Essay 1: Using Google, find a social indicators index or study of your choice. What values are enshrined in its rankings? How does it illustrate particular understandings of QOL: its domains, its conceptual tensions, etc.? On the basis of this example, what does it suggest about the concerns and opportunities for QOL? Minimum 3 pages + separate print-out or extensive quotations from your source. Due September 14. |
| Essay 2: How is QOL implicated in the history and contemporary perspectives on human development? Discuss how the idea frame the objectives of what used to be called modernization in various ways. Due October 5. |
| Essay 3: How does QOL illuminate the discourses on food security, food justice and social justice? Your example should reference fieldwork visits that you make on your own time to (1) one of the stops of the Poughkeepsie Mobile Farmers Market, and (2) the Arlington Farmers Market or another farmers market located outside Poughkeepsie. Due October 21. |
Essay 4: Evaluate subjective well-being as a framework for assessing QOL. Referring to two specific contexts where subjective well-being is a key concern (e.g., the field of positive psychology, the domain of work), discuss how this framework sheds light on the ways QOL is understood and pursued today. Due November 23. |
| Essay 5: Discuss the movements to enhance community QOL that we've read about in this course. Do initiatives to create more vibrant public spaces and to establish "community currencies" mend social faultlines, and/or do they enforce such faultlines? Due December 7. |
Final paper
You have free choice of topic and format for this paper. Minimum 8 pages. For instructions, click here. Due Sunday, December 13 — last day of study period.
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