Comprehensive Notes on Interdisciplinary Degree Planning, Academic Essay Standards, and the Code of Hammurabi

Course Credit Evaluation for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies:
- Courses taken at other institutions or non-listed departments relating to women's, gender, and sexuality studies can be evaluated for program credit via email review with the program director.
- The official program plan of study requires approximately two years to update, creating a delay in automatically incorporating newly offered or cross-listed classes into published requirements.
- Direct email communication with program leadership provides the standard mechanism for reviewing unlisted courses and applying them toward degree progress.
- A provided QR code allows students to connect directly with specialized representatives in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
- Program advising and procedural questions can also be directed to Stacy.
Departmental Call-Outs and Coffee Hours:
- Formal program call-outs and informal coffee hour gatherings are hosted to connect prospective majors, existing majors, and minors.
- These meetings assist students in navigating degree planning and identifying customizable course pathways.
Cross-Disciplinary Course Approvals:
- Interdisciplinary options exist across departments, such as counting business courses like "Women in Business" (offered within the management/business school) toward Women's Studies requirements.

Core Course Requirements:
- The Global Studies curriculum features a concise core requirement consisting of only two mandatory courses:
- Global Studies 101
- Global Studies 301
Custom Concentrations:
- Students design their own specialized concentration within the Global Studies major (e.g., structuring a concentration in Women's Studies within Global Studies).
- This structure allows students to simultaneously fulfill requirements for both Global Studies and Women's Studies alongside other primary degree programs.
- Course counting and flexibility for the concentration are directly evaluated and approved by the Global Studies program head.
Capstone Senior Thesis Project:
- Global Studies requires a mandatory Capstone project functioning as a senior thesis prior to graduation.
- This requirement matches the academic standard of East Coast Ivy League institutions and small liberal arts colleges, where a senior thesis is a prerequisite for degree completion.
- Completing a senior thesis yields key professional and academic advantages:
- Strengthens graduate school applications.
- Enhances eligibility for competitive academic scholarships.
- Provides job applicants with a dedicated, substantial research topic to discuss in employment interviews beyond their primary major.
- Early academic planning during freshman and sophomore years provides the necessary schedule flexibility to structure and complete the capstone.

Administrative Heading Exclusions:
- Essays must omit top-level administrative heading details, including student names, submission dates, course designations (such as "weeks two eighty"), or temporary assignment titles like "Essay 1".
- The essay is structured as a standalone piece designed to serve as the opening chapter of a published book or an introductory essay for a museum exhibition. Standard administrative assignment labels disrupt this publication format.
Third-Person Academic Perspective:
- Essays must be written strictly in the third-person point of view.
- First-person phrasing (such as "I", "I think", "I believe", "as we talked about in class", or "from the chapter that I was assigned") is prohibited.
- Subjective analysis or arguments must be reframed through objective, third-person analytical phrasing (e.g., "it is believed that this representation indicates…" or "the popular opinion suggests…").
Logical Sequencing and Narrative Order:
- Arguments analyzing human thought and artistic expression must follow a clear chronological and logical sequence.
- Disjointed transitions between distinct eras or mediums (e.g., moving erratically from paintings to modern sculpture, reverting to historical items like the "goose woman", and jumping to other periods) obscure the underlying analytical thesis.
- Artifacts and subjects—such as "the bone" or "the doll"—must be positioned in a logical order that systematically advances the central thesis.

Assignment Logistics and Formatting:
- Graded essays receive official marks posted on Wednesday night, accompanied by dedicated in-class review on Wednesday.
- A short writing assignment assigned on Monday is due by Friday and carries a value of 3 points.
- The assignment mandates exactly three short paragraphs structured according to a specific format.
- This structured format trains students to systematically organize analytical thoughts for both short responses and long-form essays.

Document Management in Historical Governance:
- Designated individual responsibility for preserving physical legal codes is critical to maintaining administrative order and preventing societal chaos.
Analytical Dimensions of Hammurabi's Code:
- Small-group analysis of the Code of Hammurabi focuses on identifying and unpacking key legal clauses and phrases.
- The legal code is analyzed as a primary historical representation of the profound societal transition brought about by the introduction of written language.
- Core societal institutions and themes reflected within the Code of Hammurabi include:
- The transformative impact of writing on historical record-keeping and governance.
- The structural organization of legal status across diverse social groups, including provisions pertaining to women.
- The representation and governance of families and domestic households.
- Regulations surrounding economic work and labor.
- The institutionalization of education and social hierarchies within early civilization.