Texts:
La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian-American Experience
   by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale (1992)
Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato (1939)
Mount Allegro by Jerre Mangione (1943)
Like Lesser Gods by Mari Tomasi (1949)
The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo (1964)
Paper Fish by Tina DeRosa (1980)
The Dream Book by Helen Barolini (2001)

Attendance: The college catalog and the Cat’s Tale (student handbook) require that you be in attendance for each class meeting; therefore, I will take attendance each class day.   You are allowed two absences, excused or not.  After that, any absences, excused or not, will be charged off against your final grade in the course at the rate of one half-letter grade per absence. During the first two weeks of classes student athletes should give me in writing a schedule of their out-of-town obligations.   Students who would like to meet special religious obligations should also make those requirements clear to me in writing during the first two weeks of classes.

Paper:  One paper (no fewer than 2,000 words—use the word counter on your word processor) is required.  Due date is April 3.  I will explain how you should go about writing the paper fairly early in the semester, but let’s say for now that it should be a thesis-driven research paper done according to latest Modern Language Association (MLA) recommendations for documentation.

Grades: quizzes will be given on the dates announced.  Please have all the reading assigned, including that day’s reading unless otherwise noted, done by the date of each quiz.  The average grade of the quizzes will count for roughly 1/3, your paper will count for roughly 1/3, and your final for roughly 1/3 of your course grade.   I do not look at grades as a mere mathematical calculation and, therefore, reserve some percentage of your grade for classroom participation, interest in the material, and curiosity.

Office visits: I try to make myself available to students from 1:30-3:30 on Wednesdays.  I leave it to you to avail yourself of the opportunity to get help on your reading and the writing of  your paper--or, to come in and chat about the course material we are studying.  Please let me know ahead of time if you are planning on stopping by my office so I can plan accordingly.

Special Note:  We will be tasting various Italian food products in class.  Many of them contain nuts.  If you are allergic to nuts or cannot eat them for any reason, please do not take any samples that contain them.  If you are in doubt, simply do not eat any of the samples.

Web Page:  Please regularly check this web page (address given at the upper right) for updates of this syllabus.

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Last revised: January 2003