PROFESSOR CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dr. Jessica Folkart 313 Major Williams Hall Department of Foreign Lang & Lit Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061 (departmental campus code: 0225)

Email: jfolkart@vt.edu Tel: (540) 231-9076 Fax: (540) 231-4812 Homepage

OFFICE HOURS: M W TH 11:00 - 12:00 and by appointment. I will be available for conversations in person or via telephone or email during office hours unless I have to go out of town, in which case I will notify you. Of course, you may email me at any time and I will reply as soon as possible. I will check my email several times a day on every business day through June 13.

Important: Online courses can create an overload of redundant email queries for the professor. This must be avoided in order to allow me to give each of you the time and attention you deserve. Before you ask me a question, please ensure that your question has not been answered already on the website or in one of my emails. Read carefully all website material and correspondence from me so that you can stay on top of things and so can I! If I do not respond to your email in a timely manner, chances are I already answered your question on the website or in earlier correspondence.

SPECIAL COURSE FACETS:

This is a fully online course that studies Spanish Culture and Civilization in English, designed for non-Spanish majors. Online courses can be more challenging than traditional courses due to the lack of face to face contact and direct interpersonal interaction. Since virtually all communication is in written form, the students and the professor must take special care to read everything in detail and to express themselves clearly and articulately. Hence all participants must resist the urge to skim the written information, in order to avoid miscommunication and confusion.

IMPORTANT: Given that this intensive class condenses 15 weeks of work into 4 weeks, the university expects you to devote a lot of time to the class. In each week of class you must cover about four weeks of work! It is essential that you pay strict attention to deadlines, plan ahead, and do your work in a timely manner. It is the student's responsibility to read the guidelines and requirements for each Module at the start of its assigned time period in order to plan ahead for reading, viewing videos, posting chat responses, taking tests, and writing reaction papers by their respective deadlines. Students should leave time for technological difficulties (getting disconnected from the server unexpectedly, etc.) when submitting their assignments. This is one of the drawbacks of online courses, but also is the reason why everything is announced well in advance. Plan ahead! With extra effort invested on everyone's part to compensate for the challenges imposed by distance, we can make this virtual experience a highly productive one!

One of the great advantages of an online course is that it brings together disparate people who might otherwise not have the opportunity to come together to discuss a topic. This is a professional, academic environment, but I don't want you to feel constrained or tongue-tied. I would like you all to relax and enjoy talking about the subject matter. Feel free to disagree on things in a respectful way and offer constructive comments to your classmates and your professor. We are all interacting in a collegial arena and are here to learn from and enjoy one another's perspectives! More guidelines on this topic can be found in Chatroom Etiquette and Grading.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

How does a country come to define itself as such? What diverse elements merge together to form a national and cultural identity? This course will study the development and construction of Spanish culture and civilization from pre-Roman times to the present, focusing on history, geography, art, literature, and other cultural manifestations. Specifically, we will examine the cultural threads of distinct identities that have been woven together throughout history to visibly influence the design of contemporary Spanish society. Far from viewing peninsular culture as a seamless, cohesive entity, we will consider the conflicts between dominant and marginalized groups such as men/women, Castilians/non-Castilians, and Christians/Jews/Arabs as crucial forces in the shaping of Spanish identity. Our analyses in this course will question to what extent the concept of Spanishness has been shaped as a reaction against a foreign other, whether that "other" dwells outside or inside the borders of Spain itself.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completing this course, in addition to the historical perspective you will have gained about the development of Spain, you will have further honed the critical thinking skills that are needed to interpret many forms of culture and human interactions. These are the same skills that are prized by employers and that are needed to excel in other upper division courses at Virginia Tech. Your gains from this course will have both humanistic and practical applications. Specifically, the course objectives are:

• To identify highlights of Spanish history and geography that have shaped its national identity.
  
• To compare and contrast different historical periods of Peninsular Spanish culture.
  
• To analyze various genres such as painting, literature, and film as manifestations of cultural identity.
  
• To analyze and articulate ideas about Spanish cultural development in class discussions and written papers.

Ultimately, the goal of this course is for all of us to think critically about many of the elements that we often take for granted in concepts of cultural identity, be they in our own culture or those of others. 

COURSE MATERIALS and USERNAMES / PASSWORDS:

WEBSITES:

1) 2744 Main Website: http://www.fll.vt.edu/Folkart/2744/index.html

• This will be our main site of operations this semester. Username: culture, Password: culture

2) 2744 CourseInfo Website: Go to http://www.learn.vt.edu and log in, using your VT PID and Password. From there you should be able to click on the CourseInfo link for SPAN 2744.

• The CourseInfo site will be used by the students only for 1) taking Practice Tests, graded CourseInfo Tests, and the Final Exam and 2) checking their grades. To log onto the 2744 CourseInfo site, you must use your VT PID and Password!
  
• If you have difficulties with the CourseInfo site, consult http://www.edtech.vt.edu/blackboard/, or contact me at jfolkart@vt.edu or Online Course Support at ocs@vt.edu

3) Dr. Folkart's other class website: Also visit Dr. Folkart's website for all her classes, with many links to useful Spanish resources online at http://www.fll.vt.edu/Folkart/newdatabase/wholething.htm Username: spanish, Password: spanish

TEXTS:

• Vincent, Mary and R. A. Stradling. Cultural Atlas of Spain and Portugal. Facts on File Publications, 1994. (available at the VT Bookstore, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, etc.)
  
• Various online links (see individual Module Lessons for details).

VIDEOS:

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are two copies of each video available on Reserve at the Newman Library (http://www.lib.vt.edu/) Virginia Tech. If the primary copy is checked out, be sure to ask about my personal copy of that video, which is also on reserve. Videos designated by an * are also commonly found at many video stores nationwide. If you cannot view a video where you live, it is your responsibility to contact me, at least a week before the semester starts, to see if I have extra copies of the videos that I can mail you on a temporary loan basis. Otherwise, you must make plans come to Blacksburg and view each video in time to complete that Module's assignment. You may choose to come at the beginning of the semester and view all the necessary ones in one day, taking notes for later. Plan ahead!

RESERVE POLICY FOR THESE VIDEOS: Limit 2 hours or the length of the video. You must view them on site at Newman library. Please respect this policy, as there are many students enrolled in the course who also need to see each video the same week you do.

• To check Dr. Folkart's complete list of videos on reserve, their call numbers, and their availability, go to http://www.lib.vt.edu/services/new-reserve/ , type in "folkart" and hit "search."
  
  
1. Spain: Everything under the sun 50 min. (Module 1; may be in the travel section of some video store or local library)
2. Spain: The Moorish Influence 28 min., from Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Module 4)
3. The Inquisition, 100 min. (Module 5; may also be purchased as History's Mysteries: The Inquisition at http://store.aetv.com)
4. *Land and Freedom, director: Ken Loach. 109 min. (Module 9)
5. *The Disappearance of García Lorca, director: Marcos Zurinaga. 114 min. (Module 10)
6. *What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Spanish title: ¿Qué he hecho you para merecer esto?), director: Pedro Almodóvar. 100 min. (Module 14)

EMAIL:

• Throughout the Summer Session you must check your email everyday.
• Set up a folder or mailbox for this course inside your email program so that you can save all classroom correspondence there for future reference.
  
• If you have not already done so, please email me immediately letting me know 1) what email address you plan to use regularly/where you would like to receive your email pertaining to the class, and 2) where will live during this summer session.
  

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS and VIRGINIA TECH PID: To participate in this course you are required to have a Virginia Tech PID. To find out how to get one and to ensure that you have the necessary technology equipment for this course, go to http://www.fll.vt.edu/folkart/2744/techspecs.html

GRADE COMPONENTS:

Chats: There will be a total of 7 asynchronous (not simultaneous) chats that are equally weighted towards the grade. This will provide the key forum for class discussion, so timely participation is imperative. There will generally be two posts for each chat: your initial answer by one given deadline, and then by a later deadline you will read your classmates' responses and post your feedback on their comments. Both posts must be completed in order to receive a grade. It is important that you consult Chatroom Etiquette and Grading before participating in a chat. See the instructions link for each Module to see specific chat post deadlines.

Personal History: This will give me the chance to get to know each of you individually (see Module 2 for instructions).

CourseInfo Tests: There will be a total of 4 CourseInfo tests which may be taken only once. To prepare you for the CourseInfo Tests, there will be Practice Tests which you may take as many times as you wish. The Practice Test grades do not count toward your final grade. Both types of tests will be clearly labeled and posted on the CourseInfo site for our class which is linked to the main class website at the point in each Module when you would need to take the test. Use your Virginia Tech PID and password to login to the CourseInfo site.

Reaction Paper: Detailed instructions on the topic and length for the reaction paper are explained in the corresponding Module, Module 9. The paper should be well thought out, well organized, and properly structured (including an introduction, development paragraphs, and conclusion, with each paragraph containing at least three sentences). Reaction papers will be submitted as a "cut and paste" inside the body of an email message to the professor. No attachments will be accepted.

Final Exam: The Final Exam will be a timed exam taken online on the class CourseInfo site. The exam will be randomly generated from an overall pool of questions at the moment the student logs on to take it, so that no two students will have exactly the same exam.

CHECKING GRADES ONLINE: To check grades online, 1) go to the CourseInfo site 2) Click on the button called "Student Tools" on the left 3) Click on "Check Your Grade" 4) look for the assignment that interests you. Practice Test grades are not factored into the final course grade.

HONOR CODE: Your professor subscribes to the Virginia Tech Honor Constitution as detailed in the Undergraduate Honor System Website and the University Policies for Student Life Handbook. All VT students must abide by this code. Plagiarism is an extremely serious matter. ANY STUDENT SUSPECTED OF ANY FORM OF DISHONEST CONDUCT RELATED TO THIS CLASS WILL BE SENT TO THE VT HONOR COURT. This has happened before, resulting in very serious consequences. Do not give any cause for it to happen to you!

COURSE ORGANIZATION:

I have constructed a vast online database of material on Spanish culture, from which I have selected a number of Modules for this Summer course. Obviously there isn't time to cover every single Module on the database, so you will notice some jumps in the numbering; however, the Modules will always progress in ascending numerical order.

MODULE TOPICS:

Module 1: Syllabus, Course Organization, and Introduction to Spain

Module 2: Overview of Contemporary Spain
Graded Assignments: Personal History

Module 3: Early Foundations of Peninsular culture: Prehistory, the Romans, and the Visigoths
Graded Assignments: CourseInfo Test 1 (on Modules 1-3)

Module 4: Conquest and Reconquest: 711-1492
Graded Assignments: Chat 1

Module 5: The Catholic Monarchs and the Inquisition
Graded Assignments: CourseInfo Test 2 (on Modules 4-5), Chat 2

Module 7: The Golden Age of Spain
Graded Assignments: Chat 3

Module 8: The Avant Garde Artists
Graded Assignments: Chat 4

Module 9: Early 20th Century Spain: The Pre-Civil War and Civil War Years
Graded Assignments: Chat 5; CourseInfo Test 3; Reaction Paper

Module 10: Lorca and Bullfighting: Icons of Spanish Identity during the Franco Years
Graded Assignments: Chat 6

Module 11: The Franco Years (1939-1975)

Module 14: Post-Franco Spain
Graded Assignments: Chat 7 and CourseInfo Test 4 (on Modules 10, 11 and 14)

Module 15: Course Evaluations and Final Exam Information
Graded Assignments: Final Exam

COURSE CALENDAR: