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tags: sarah
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# GENED Course design : archaeological frauds and fakes

## required elements
To propose a course, please send the following materials to [e-mail]:

1. A course title and a student-oriented description (150 to 250 words) of the course.
2. A one-sentence encapsulation of the urgent problem or enduring question the course addresses.
3. A draft syllabus of approximately three pages that includes course/unit goals, course topics, main readings and major assignments. If you are proposing an existing course for Gen Ed, you have the option to instead send the current syllabus along with a statement of how you would adapt the course for Gen Ed.
4. A brief summary for the committee on how the course satisfies the general principles for what makes a Gen Ed course, included above.
5. A brief explanation of why you think your course is a good fit for one of the four Gen Ed categories. Ordinarily, courses are approved for a single category.
6. A brief statement about how the proposed course differs from existing Gen Ed courses on similar topics.

## Goals
Developed in collaboration with Prof. Meg Andrews, dept. of the Classics

1. teach a course related to material culture
2. develop a new gened for our department
3. engage with modern issues and the issue of making classics relevant
4. make a final capstone that is not a piece of academic writing, but teaches students many of the skills they need for research based investigation and reporting

## Class Summary guidelines
* Limit length to 150 to 250 words;
* Speak directly to students using the second person;
* Engage students with thought-provoking questions or concepts;
* Share the guiding questions, context(s) and/or perspectives engaged in the course;
* Provide students with goals or takeaways, telling them what they will learn;
* Offer sample readings and/or types of assignments students may expect;
* Serve the goals of Gen Ed by explicitly connecting the course material to the world

## Class summary
Archaeological sites and the great monuments of ancient civilizations often fascinate people. We wonder about how they were created, who built them, and what their larger significance is for humankind. With the rise of social media, and increasingly numerous avenues for the consumption and distribution of information, the truth about such sites and monuments—if one even exists—often gets obfuscated.

This class looks at how and why conspiracy theories develop so commonly and so vehemently around archaeological contexts. Looking at common and popular avenues of information distribution such as news channels, the use of archaeology in video games and comics, and alternative forms of reporting (e.g., podcasts and blogs), you will explore how narratives of archaeology are cross-culturally (mis)appropriated and deployed to craft certain narratives of nationalism, supremacy, and evolution.

By exploring this phenomenon, you will also consider how elements of narrative and authority are related to information distribution. Whose voice should we trust when consuming information? What is the role of academia in information distribution? Is the exploitation of archaeology fundamentally different from other types of fake news and propaganda?

By the end of the class, in addition to learning about case studies on topics like X, X, and X, you will have a deeper understanding of the role of ethics in academic research, the consequences of information distribution and withholding, and understand the complexities of archaeological mass marketing.

## the question
How is archaeology exploited or misappropriated to develop narratives of white supremacy, nationalism, and propaganda?

## requirements of a GENED
"*Focusing on urgent problems and enduring questions, Gen Ed courses are unusually explicit in connecting the subjects you study to the people you will become and the world beyond the classroom. Transcending disciplinary divisions, they demonstrate the value of embedding what you will learn in your concentrations within the broader context of the liberal arts. In Gen Ed courses, you engage in activities that have the potential to shape the world around you*."

Our GENED focuses on the world beyond the classroom by taking a critical look at how information is conveyed in everyday life and through what channels. Chances are, students have engaged with the exploitation of archaeology for a news narrative at some point in their life, either in America or Globally. We teach students the skills not only to identify this phenomenon, but how to critically engage with this and the long term, societal repercussions of information misappropriation and deployment.