The  University  of  Texas  at  Dallas

Graduate Program in the Humanities

 

HUHI 7314                                                                      Fall  2015                                                                       M  7:00 - 9:45

   Sec. 501    Course # 85333                                                                                                                                        JO  4.112

 

 

Professor Gerald Soliday                                                                                                                     Office:  Jonsson  5.608 F

       Office Hours:  M  5:00 – 6:00 , and by appointment                                                                                     972-883-2994

       E-mail:  soliday@utdallas.edu                                                                    Internet:  http://www.utdallas.edu/~soliday

               Please note that I much prefer e-mail contact to telephone messages at my university office.

 

 

 

HUHI 7368:                  Reading  Shakespeare  Historically

 

       This course on the “age of Shakespeare” examines the society and culture of late Tudor and early Stuart England―as part of the general attempt today to situate the playwright and his works concretely in time and place.  While the seminar will involve group reading and interpretation of only a few of the plays themselves, its larger goals are to enable us as playgoers and readers to locate Shakespeare’s works culturally, to appreciate their purposes and agency in his society, and to address the thorny issues of their popular appeal and scholarly interpretation later.  Thus readings and discussions will concern the poet’s biography, English social and cultural life, the status and working conditions of actors and playwrights, patronage and politics, popular and elite cultures of the period, Shakespeare’s audiences and the later reception of his works, as well as various scholarly or critical approaches to studying and teaching Shakespeare historically.

 

 

Course requirements include active participation in seminar discussions (25%), an oral and short written report (15%) on an important book or scholarly debate, as well as a final paper (60%) of roughly twenty pages.  Students may choose writing projects that match their own interests or places in the graduate program:  a research paper  or a critical review helpful for preparing doctoral exam fields.

 

All written work and class discussions for this course are in gender-neutral, nonsexist language and rhetorical constructions.  Such practice is part of a classroom situation according full respect and opportunity to all participants by all others.

 

Written work is submitted in paper copy, without cover pages or special folders.  Papers are always paginated, double-spaced, and presented in clear 10- to 12-point type.

 

Parenthetical annotation is now strongly recommended, though any form of annotation (foot- or endnotes) and bibliography is acceptable for this course, if used correctly and consistently.  Probably most appropriate for work in the arts and humanities are standard guides like Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.; NY, 2009) or Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (7th rev. ed.; Chicago, 2007).

 

At the same time, The Bedford Handbook by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers (9th rev. ed.; Boston and NY, 2014) summarizes MLA and Chicago stylistic conventions, outlines current grammatical practices and mechanical presentation, and offers helpful guidelines for researching and writing papers.  The Web site (www.hackerhandbooks.com/bedhandbook) is also quite useful.

 

Any student who has not already read William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (4th ed.; Boston, 2000), should do so immediately.

 

I should also mention that the eleventh edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA, 2003) is still the standard for everyday university work.

 

Required readings:

 

       Most required readings for this course are on the reserve shelf for use in the McDermott Library, and many are also in paperback editions for sale in the UTD and Off Campus bookstores.  If you wish to purchase them elsewhere, please notice that I have provided the ISBNs in the course description at my Web site: http://www.utdallas.edu/~soliday

 

Most articles or shorter readings below are available online through links from this syllabus (rather than on the McDermott reserve shelf).  Please note that these materials are under copyright, you must always cite them properly, and you must have a password to gain access to them.  I will give you the password when we organize our meetings at the beginning of the semester.

 

Changes in the Syllabus

 

Please also note that, although I do not anticipate them, there may be some changes in the following schedule.  If they occur, I will announce them in class and post them on the syllabus at my Web site on the Internet.

 

E-mail Contact

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  all course correspondence by e-mail must now occur through the student’s UTD e-mail address.  UT-Dallas provides each student with a free e-mail account that is to be used in all communication with university personnel. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individuals corresponding and the security of the transmitted information.  The Department of Information Resources at UTD provides a method for students to forward email from other accounts to their UTD addresses and have their UTD mail sent on to other accounts. Students may go to the following URL to establish or maintain an official UTD computer account: http://netid.utdallas.edu/.

 

       Please also note that I much prefer e-mail contact to telephone messages at my university office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCHEDULE   OF   CLASS   MEETINGS   &   ASSIGNMENTS

 

 

 

24 Aug     Introduction to the Course

 

31 Aug     Shakspere’s Career:  Player & Poet

 

                      Discussion of Peter Thomson, Shakespeare’s Professional Career, 1  2  3  4  5  6  7

 

 

14 Sep     The Bard from Stratford:  Biography  &  Mythology

 

Discussion of Jonathan Bate, The Genius of Shakespeare, and his Soul of the Age: A Biography

of the Mind of William Shakespeare

 

                      Recommended:  Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life

 

 

21 Sep      His Working Conditions in London

 

                 Discussion of Andrew Gurr, Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London (3rd ed.), chs. 1-4

 

                 The Issue of Authenticity

 

                      Discussion of Stephen Greenblatt, "The Dream of the Master Text," The Norton Shakespeare,

ed. S. Greenblatt et al. (NY & London, 1997), 65-76

 

                      Recommended:  Stephen Orgel, "The Authentic Shakespeare," Representations 21 (1988): 1-25

                        Recording:  Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation.  Perf. Ben Crystal et al. The British Library, 2012.

 

 

28 Sep      Shakspere and his Audiences

 

                      Discussion of Gurr, Playgoing, ch. 5 and the two appendices   as well as

Richard Levin, “The Relation of External Evidence to the Allegorical and Thematic Interpretation

of Shakespeare,” Shakespeare Studies 13 (1980):1-29

 

                      Report on The Theatrical City:  Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1576-1649, ed. David L.

Smith, R. Strier, and D. Bevington    (Scott Swartsfager)

 

 

05 Oct      Interpretive Strategies

 

                      Discussion of  J. Leeds Barroll, “Thinking About Shakespeare’s Thoughts,” William Shakespeare:

His World, His Work, His Influence, ed. John F. Andrews (NY, 1985), 291-308

 

                 The New Historicism

 

Discussion of Jean Howard, “The New Historicism in Renaissance Studies,” Renaissance

Historicism, ed. Arthur F. Kinney and Dan S. Collins (Amherst, 1987): 3-33, and Louis Montrose,

The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre, xi-105

 

 

12 Oct      The Cultural Politics of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 

                      Discussion of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1594-95)  and  of Montrose, 109-211

 

                 Shakespeare on Film

 

Report on The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film, ed. Russell Jackson   (Shabnum Iftikhar)

                      Report on two film performances (by Olivier and Loncraine) of Richard III   (Claire Soares)

 

 

19 Oct      Patronage  &  Politics

 

Discussion of Alvin Kernan, Shakespeare, the King’s Playwright:  Theater in the Stuart Court,

1603-1613

 

Report on Jonas Barish, The Antitheatrical Prejudice   (Janet Jacobs)

 

                 Outline of Lawrence Stone, "The Causes of the English Revolution," The Causes of the

  English Revolution 1529-1642 (New York, 1972), 47-164

 

 

26 Oct      Order & Disorder in English Society                            Discussion Leader:   Dr. Pia Jakobsson

 

Discussion of Keith Wrightson, English Society 1580-1680

 

Highly recommended:  J. H. Hexter, “The Myth of the Middle Class in Tudor England,”

Reappraisals in History (2nd ed.; Chicago, 1979), 71-116, and Theodore B. Leinwand,

“Shakespeare and the Middling Sort,” Shakespeare Quarterly 44 (1993): 284-303

 

                      Report on Keith Wrightson, Earthly Necessities:  Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain   (Jeff Hirshberg)

 

 

  2 Nov     Shakspere & the “Woman Question”                          Discussion Leader:   Dr. Pia Jakobsson

 

                      Discussion of The Taming of the Shrew (1592), ed. Frances E. Dolan, 1-159

 

                      Viewing of scenes from The Taming of the Shrew

 

                      Report on Tina Packer, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays   (Anna Fritzel)

 

 

  9 Nov          Discussion of the Dolan edition of Shr., 160-326, as well as David Underdown, “The Taming

of the Scold: The Enforcement of Patriarchal Authority in Early Modern England,” Order and

Disorder in Early Modern England, ed. A. Fletcher and J. Stevenson (Cambridge, 1985), 116-136,

and Martin Ingram, “’Scolding Women Cucked or Washed’: A Crisis in Gender Relations in Early

Modern England?” Women, Crime and the Courts in Early Modern England, ed. J. Kermode

and G. Walker (Chapel Hill and London, 1994), 48-80

 

                 Report on Shakespeare and Race, ed. Catherine M.S. Alexander and Stanley Wells   (Sharron Conrad)

 

                 Report on Jonathan Hart, Columbus, Shakespeare, and the Interpretation of the New World   (Pedro Gonzalez)

 

                 First Discussion of Research Topics

All members of the course should have decided on the type of paper and topic.

 

 

16 Nov     Religious Cultures & Beliefs

 

Discussion of Patrick Collinson, “The Church: Religion and Its Manifestations,“ William

Shakespeare, ed. John F. Andrews (NY, 1985), 21-40, and Keith Thomas, Religion and the

Decline of Magic, 3-21, 25-112, 151-166, 253-279, 283-292, 332-357

 

                      Report on Christopher Haigh, The Plain Man’s Pathways to Heaven:  Kinds of Christianity in

Post-Reformation England 1570-1640   (Briana Bacon)

 

                      Report on J. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People   (Brinton Smith)

 

                 Witch Belief & Prosecution

 

Reports on Thomas, 435-468, 493-583, 631-668   (Jennifer Crumley)

 

                 Continued Discussion of Paper Topics

 

 

30 Nov     Merchants & Jews

 

Discussion of The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew

of Venice  (1596/1598?), ed. M. Lindsay Kaplan

 

Report on James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews   (Sarah Valente)

 

 

                 Reports on individual research projects

 

 

  7 Dec     Discussion of Research Topics or Problems

 

 

14 Dec     Final Paper Due.              Seminar Party at the Instructor's Home    Map

 

                      Please attach a stamped self-addressed envelope to the paper, so I may return it with comments

and your marks for the course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HUHI 7368:  Reading Shakespeare Historically                                       Some Recommended Books

 

 

General Works  &  Biographical Studies

 

Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life

William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence, ed. John F. Andrews

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, ed. Stanley Wells

Samuel Schoenbaum, Shakespeare’s Lives  (1970; new ed., 1991)

James Shapiro, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599

James Shapiro, Contested Will:  Who Wrote Shakespeare?

Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare

Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life

Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare: Upstart Crow to Sweet Swan 1592-1623

       A.D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker

 

Players, Playwrights, and the Theater

 

       G.E. Bentley, The Profession of Dramatist and Player in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590-1642

       Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642  4th ed.

       Andrew Gurr, The Shakespeare Company 1584-1642

       Andrew Gurr, Shakespeare’s Opposites:  The Admiral’s Company 1594-1625

       Phoebe Sheavyn, The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan Age  (2nd ed., revised by J.W. Saunders)

Wendy Wall, The Imprint of Gender:  Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance

       Shakespeare’s Globe Rebuilt, ed. Ronnie Mulryne and Margaret Shewring

David Bradley, From Text to Performance in the Elizabethan Theatre:  Preparing the Play for the Stage

       Shakespeare Performed, ed. Grace Ioppolo

       Patrick Tucker, Secrets of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach

 

       Robert Weimann, Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater:  Studies in the Social Dimension

   of Dramatic Form and Function

       Stephen Orgel, The Illusion of Power:  Political Theater in the English Renaissance

       Stephen Orgel, Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare’s England

       The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare’s England, ed. Anthony B. Dawson and   Paul Yachnin

       Roslyn Lander Knutson, Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare’s Time

       Martin Wiggins, Shakespeare and the Drama of his Time

       James Shapiro, Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare

 

The Social Order

 

       D. M. Palliser, The Age of Elizabeth: England under the later Tudors 1547-1603

         (2nd. ed.; 1992) (Social and Economic History of England, v. 5)

       Keith Wrightson, Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain

       Susan D. Amussen, An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England

       Order & Disorder in Early Modern England, ed. Anthony Fletcher and J. Stevenson

      

Ralph Houlbrooke, The English Family 1450-1700

       Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex & Subordination in England 1500-1800

       Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England

       Amy Erickson, Women & Property in Early Modern England

       Laura Gowing, Domestic Dangers: Women, Words, and Sex in Early Modern London

       Frances E. Dolan, Marriage and Violence: The Early Modern Legacy

 

       Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558-1641

       G.E. Mingay, The Gentry: Rise and Fall of a Ruling Class

       Rosemary O’Day, The Professions in Early Modern England, 1450-1800

       The Middling Sort of People, ed. Jonathan Barry and C. Brooks

       A.L. Beier, Masterless Men: The Vagrancy Problem in England, 1560-1640

       Paul Slack, Poverty & Policy in Tudor & Stuart England

       David Katz, Jews in the History of England 1485-1850

 

       Steve Rappaport, World within Worlds: Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London

       Ian Archer, The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan London

       Alan Dyer, Decline and Growth in English Towns 1400-1640

 

 

The Polity  &  Political Culture

 

       Alan G.R. Smith, The Emergence of a Nation State: The Commonwealth of England 1529-1660

       Penry Williams, The Tudor Regime

       Penry Williams, The Later Tudors: England 1547-1603

       John Guy, Tudor England

       Tudor Political Culture, ed. Dale Hoak

       Steve Hindle, The State and Social Change in Early Modern England 1550-1640

 

       Christopher Haigh, Elizabeth I  (Profiles in Power)  (2nd ed., 1998)

       Wallace MacCaffrey, Elizabeth I

       The Reign of Elizabeth I, ed. Christopher Haigh

       Susan Frye, Elizabeth I: The Competition for Representation

       Michael A. R. Graves, Burghley  (Profiles in Power)

       The Reign of Elizabeth I: Court and Culture in the Last Decade, ed. John Guy

       Anne N. McLaren, Political Culture in the Reign of Elizabeth I

       Roy Strong, The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry

       The Myth of Elizabeth, ed. Susan Doran and Thomas S. Freeman

 

       Derek Hirst, Authority and Conflict  England, 1603-1658

       Roger Lockyer, James VI and I  (Profiles in Power)

       S.J. Houston, James I  (2nd ed., 1995)

       W.B. Patterson, King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom

       The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, ed. Linda Levy Peck

 

 

Intellectual & Cultural Life

 

       T. W. Baldwin, Wiliam Shakspere's Small Latine and Lesse Greeke. 

       J. W. Binns, Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the Age

       Quentin Skinner, Forensic Shakespeare

       Frances Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age

       Linda Woodbridge, The Scythe of Saturn:  Shakespeare and Magical Thinking

       E. M. W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture

       Hiram Haydn, The Counter Renaissance

       William J. Bouwsma, The Waning of the Renaissance 1550-1640

 

       The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature, ed. David Loewenstein and Janel Mueller

       Lawrence Manly, Literature and Culture in Early Modern London

       The Theatrical City: Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1576-1649, ed. David L. Smith, R. Strier,

  and D. Bevington

 

       Graham Parry, The Golden Age Restor’d: The Culture of the Stuart Court, 1603-42

       Graham Parry, The Seventeenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature

  1603-1700

       Goldberg, Jonathan, James I and the Politics of Literature: Jonson, Shakespeare, Donne, and their

  Contemporaries

       Curtis Perry, The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary

  Practice

 

       Christopher Haigh, English Reformations

       J. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People

       Patrick Collinson, The Religion of Protestants: The Church in English Society 1559-1625.

       Patrick Collinson, English Puritanism

       Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement

       Christopher Haigh, The Plain Man’s Pathways to Heaven: Kinds of Christianity in Post-Reformation

  England 1570-1640.

       Kristen Poole, Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton

       James Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England

 

       David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and  Stuart England

       Keith Thomas, “The Meaning of Literacy in Early Modern England,” The Written Word, ed. Gerd

  Baumann (NY, 1986), 97-131

       Eugene R. Kintgen, Reading in Tudor England

       Rosemary O’Day, Education and Society, 1500-1800 The Social Foundations of Education in Early

  Modern Britain

       Barry Reay, Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750

 

 

Some Recent Criticism

 

       Alternative Shakespeares, ed. John Drakakis (1985)

       The New Historicism, ed. H. Aram Veeser

       New Historicism and Cultural Materialism: A Reader, ed. Kiernan Ryan

       Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism, ed. Jonathan Dollimore and

         Alan Seinfield   (2nd ed., 1994)

       Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare

       Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations

       Leeds Barroll, “A New History for Shakespeare and His Time,” Shakespeare Quarterly 39 (1988): 441-464

       Brook Thomas, The New Historicism and Other Old-Fashioned Topics

       Lisa Jardine, Reading Shakespeare Historically

 

       Brian Vickers, Appropriating Shakespeare  Contemporary Critical Quarrels  (1993)

       Edward Pechter, What Was Shakespeare?  (1995)

       William Shakespeare, Hamlet, ed. Susanne L. Wofford  (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

       Frank Kermode, Shakespeare's Language (2000)

       Michael Taylor, Shakespeare Criticism in the Twentieth Century (2001)

 

       The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare, ed. Carolyn R. Swift Lenz,

         Gayle Greene, and Carol Thomas Neely

       The Matter of Difference:  Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare, ed. Valerie Wayne

       Juliet Dusinberre, Shakespeare and the Nature of Women  2nd ed., 1996

       Linda Woodbridge, Women and the English Renaissance: Literature and the Nature of Womankind,

  1540-1620

       Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640,

  ed. Katherine Usher Henderson and Barbara F. McManus

       Constance Jordan, Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models

       Lisa Jardine, Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare

 

       Stephen Orgel, Impersonations: the Performance of Gender in Shakespeare’s England

       Laura Levine, Men in Women’s Clothes: Anti-Theatricality and Effeminization 1579-1652

       Bruce R. Smith, Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England: A Cultural Poetics

 

       Deborah Cartmell, Interpreting Shakespeare on Screen

Jack J. Jorgens, Shakespeare on Film

Shakespeare, the Movie:  Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV, and Video, ed.Richard Burt and Lynda Boose

       The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film, ed. Russell Jackson

 

 

Teaching Shakespeare

 

       P. Roberts, Shakespeare and the Moral Curriculum: Rethinking the Secondary School Shakespeare Syllabus

       Shakespeare and the Triple Play: From Study to State to Classroom, ed. Sidney Homan

 

       Susan Leach and Frank Harrison, Shakespeare in the Classroom: What’s the Matter?

       Mary A. Rygel, Shakespeare among School Children: Approaches for the Secondary Classroom

Teaching Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Ronald E. Salomone and James E. Davis

Teaching Shakespeare through Performance, ed. Milla Cozart Riggio

 

The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare:  An Introduction with Documents, ed. Russ McDonald

  (2nd ed., 2001)

The Bedford Shakespeare Series (Texts and Contexts Series) includes:

               William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, ed. Frances E. Dolan

               William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ed. Bruce R. Smith

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. Gail Kern Paster and Skiles Howard

               William Shakespeare, Othello, ed. Kim F. Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further  Information

The university now requires that every syllabus provide the following information.

 

Student Conduct & Discipline

 

The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have rules and regulations for the orderly and efficient conduct of their business.  It is the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student conduct and activities.  General information on student conduct and discipline is contained in the UTD publication, A to Z Guide, which is provided to all registered students each academic year.

 

The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the procedures of recognized and established due process.  Procedures are defined and described in the Rules and Regulations, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, Part 1, Chapter VI, Section 3, and in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures.  Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations (SU 1.602, 972/883-6391).

 

A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the responsibilities of citizenship.  He or she is expected to obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules, university regulations, and administrative rules.  Students are subject to discipline for violating the standards of conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or whether civil or criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct.

 

Academic Integrity

 

The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty.  Because the value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work.

 

Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts or omissions related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or the submission as one’s own work or material that is not one’s own.  As a general rule, scholastic dishonesty involves one of the following acts:  cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or falsifying academic records.  Students suspected of academic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary proceedings.

 

Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details).  This course will use the resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective.

 

Email Use

The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of communication between faculty/staff and students through electronic mail. At the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the identity of each individual in an email exchange.  The university encourages all official student email correspondence be sent only to a student’s U.T. Dallas email address and that faculty and staff consider email from students official only if it originates from a UTD student account. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individual corresponding and the security of the transmitted information.  UTD furnishes each student with a free email account that is to be used in all communication with university personnel. The Department of Information Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for students to have their U.T. Dallas mail forwarded to other accounts.

Withdrawal from Class

 

The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level courses. These dates and times are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration procedures must be followed. It is the student's responsibility to handle withdrawal requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student. You must do the proper paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if you choose not to attend the class once you are enrolled.

 

Student Grievance Procedures

 

Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities, of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures.

 

In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations, or other fulfillments of academic responsibility, it is the obligation of the student first to make a serious effort to resolve the matter with the instructor, supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom the grievance originates (hereafter called “the respondent”).  Individual faculty members retain primary responsibility for assigning grades and evaluations.  If the matter cannot be resolved at that level, the grievance must be submitted in writing to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean.  If the matter is not resolved by the written response provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the School Dean.  If the grievance is not resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written appeal to the Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic Appeals Panel.  The decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final.  The results of the academic appeals process will be distributed to all involved parties.

 

Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations.

 

Incomplete Grade Policy

 

As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course work has been completed.  An incomplete grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long semester.  If the required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade is not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a grade of F.

 

Disability Services

 

The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities equal to those of their non-disabled peers.  Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the Student Union.  Office hours are Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

 

The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is:

The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22

PO Box 830688

Richardson, Texas 75083-0688

(972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY)

 

Essentially, the law requires that colleges and universities make those reasonable adjustments necessary to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability.  For example, it may be necessary to remove classroom prohibitions against tape recorders or animals (in the case of dog guides) for students who are blind.  Occasionally an assignment requirement may be substituted (for example, a research paper versus an oral presentation for a student who is hearing impaired).  Classes enrolled students with mobility impairments may have to be rescheduled in accessible facilities.  The college or university may need to provide special services such as registration, note-taking, or mobility assistance.

 

It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for such an accommodation.  Disability Services provides students with letters to present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs accommodations.  Individuals requiring special accommodation should contact the professor after class or during office hours.

 

Religious Holy Days

The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other required activities for the travel to and observance of a religious holy day for a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property tax under Section 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated.

The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon as possible regarding the absence, preferably in advance of the assignment.  The student, so excused, will be allowed to take the exam or complete the assignment within a reasonable time after the absence: a period equal to the length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student who notifies the instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A student who fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period may receive a failing grade for that exam or assignment.

If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e., for the purpose of observing a religious holy day] or if there is similar disagreement about whether the student has been given a reasonable time to complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the student or the instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of the institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee must take into account the legislative intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive officer or designee.

Off-Campus Instruction and Course Activities

Off-campus, out-of-state, and foreign instruction and activities are subject to state law and University policies and procedures regarding travel and risk-related activities.  Information regarding these rules and regulations may be found at the website address given below.  Additional information is available from the office of the school dean.  (http://www.utdallas.edu/Business Affairs/Travel_Risk_Activities.htm)