Course Policies

Attendance and general wellbeing
Grading and late policy
Access needs
Incompletes
Technology policy
Social media and recording policy
AI writing assistance
Academic integrity and plagiarism
Mandatory reporting
Caregiving and basic needs

Attendance and general wellbeing

If you are ill, exhausted, grieving, or otherwise unwell, go home. Please do not come to class especially if you are ill. You do not need permission, nor provide any excuse or proof, for missing classes or requesting delays in work due to issues of illness or other personal needs. I appreciate advance notice just so that I can prepare accordingly for class; please be forthright with me so that we can work together to set you up for success. You do not need to share further with me, but I am here to listen if it would be helpful.

I will try to provide hybrid access for our class sessions, but I will not record them so that we can keep an open conversation and maintain student privacy. This class is fundamentally designed to be in-person; it will be difficult to succeed in the class if you attend primarily remotely. While I will do my best to ensure that everyone is visible and audible, I also ask that you recognize the difficulty of simultaneously managing physical and virtual environments. There are no make-up assignments for absences; please review the class materials posted on the website, confer with your classmates, and come to the next class prepared.

Grading and late policy

I take the work you and your colleagues produce very seriously, and I will read it and give thorough, constructive feedback to help sharpen your analysis and communication skills. To that end, I set aside significant blocks of time to make these comments; turning in late work means that you miss the window of opportunity to get feedback. There are no grading penalties for late work, but late work = no comments. Instead, you are free to come to my office hours and we can talk about the assignment in lieu of written comments. Since I ask for all written assignments to be submitted in an editable form (aka not a PDF), I will make in-line comments that you should feel free to respond to. However, if you do, please email me so I know to look! I have too many Google Doc notifications to keep track of, so this flag helps me keep track.

While I will do everything in my power to be flexible with deadlines (life happens), I do not have the power to bend Institute policies when it comes to grading. The hard deadline for grading for the 2024–2025 school year is December 17. I need time to grade the papers, so the latest that you can possibly turn in the final paper is December 13 (the same due date as the extra credit assignments). This is particularly important for other Institute guidelines, like deadlines re: graduation.

Access needs

You do not need any kind of medical documentation to seek accommodations in this class. Perhaps you work better with auditory rather than visual materials; we can discuss that. Please come talk to me — in person, via email, via Zoom appointment — and we will figure out what works best for you and for your colleagues. My job is to make the classroom a hospitable working and learning environment for all of my students; please be forthright and clear with me at the beginning of class so that we can maneuver nimbly. While I am happy to work with you on accommodations recognizing all the challenges that you might face inside and outside the classroom, please also respect my time and significant responsibilities (including to your fellow students). If you are unsure of what kinds of accommodation are available to you, the Job Accommodation Network and MIT’s Disability and Access Services has a great set of resources. If you need additional accommodations, or would prefer not to speak to me about it, you may consult Student Support Services (S3) or seek accommodation through Disability and Access Services.

I also have my own access needs: I have a fragrance sensitivity that results in migraines. Please do not use or wear heavily fragranced products like lotions, colognes, powders, etc in the classroom.

Incompletes

The flexible grading system is structured so that you should have ample opportunity to find alternative assignments should you be unable to complete one for any reason. I will grant time-delimited extensions for final assignments; incompletes should not be used as a salve for perfectionism.

Technology policy

I will use my laptop during our class sessions to refer to our readings and my own notes; I welcome you to do the same. Please be respectful of this class and help maintain a healthy learning environment. If you need to step out to deal with other obligations, do so.

As noted in the community guidelines, please do not record your colleagues, me, or this class. This class is intended as a forum for folks to learn without fear of being recorded — we’re all going to be working through first draft thoughts in this class — and the learning process requires you to be a bit vulnerable. You are free to post about the things you learned in class provided that you respect the privacy of your colleagues and receive explicit and enthusiastic consent. If you have doubts as to what is appropriate, do not hesitate to reach out and ask.

AI writing assistance

AI writing assistants like Chat-GPT can be enormously helpful, and you are welcome to use them in this class provided that you submit the prompts and dialogues from your sessions, as well as a 200-word reflection on your experience, as an appendix to your assignments. At the top right corner of the Chat-GPT interface, there is a “share” option that allows you to create a link to your dialogue; please include that link in your submitted assignment. Those dialogues will also be an important component in your overall evaluation. Assignments are not held to a different standard because the responses benefited from AI writing tools; prompt generation is a skill and reflects your comprehension of the subject matter, which means that it is a crucial part of assessment. Please be advised that assignments that are primarily quoting from generative AI output are less likely to be evaluated positively, especially if it is substantially similar to another’s student’s work (regardless of whether or not they used an AI writing assistant). I personally believe that there is tremendous value in engaging with the texts without the mediation of generative AI, but do what is right for you. Using grammar-checking programs that do not generate text (e.g., Grammarly) does not count as generative AI writing assistance.

If you would like to see a sample AI reflection piece that received an A, please see here.

Academic integrity and plagiarism

As Kishonna Gray and Sarah Ahmed write, citations determine whose work gets visibility and validation. Science is filled with examples of folks taking credit where none was warranted; in this class, we will not participate in this tradition. Here are MIT’s policies on academic misconduct. Occasionally, you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to accomplish and may be tempted to cut corners, risking violations of academic integrity that could compromise your academic career. Use these resources instead that can help you manage your workload and succeed.

Mandatory reporting

All instructors (including TAs) at MIT are mandatory reporters. This means that we are obligated to notify the Title IX office if we are given knowledge about sexual assault or violence by other employees and students. Here is a list of confidential resources at MIT; please be advised of the difference between confidential vs. private resources.

Caregiving and basic needs

If you have disruptions in childcare, you may bring your child to class as needed. If you need to feed your baby in the classroom, please do so; you may also find this map of campus lactation rooms helpful.

If you face difficulty accessing food or lack a safe and stable place to live, please contact MIT Doing Well or VPR Advocacy Services. I have personally found VPR in particular to be tremendously helpful as a resource to talk through different options re: emotional support, navigating campus procedures, housing relocation, etc., particularly when you have experienced harm. They can also help you figure out how to support someone you know when they are going through a difficult time.