Policies
Names
To help us learn your name, please consider using this link to record yourself saying your name the way you’d like us to pronounce it.
Use of Generative AI
Some use of generative AI is permitted in this class, with several important constraints.
In this course, presenting as your own any work that was generated with the help of AI (including text, ideas, and diagrams) constitutes a violation of academic integrity. Any use of AI must be acknowledged and cited as shown here and/or through an AI use statement like the one that I’ll ask for as part of your final project.
See here for my own acknowledgment of how I used ChatGPT as I developed this website and the course. I have not found generative AI useful for scholarly work in general, and I absolutely never use it for writing or summarizing articles (in part because I am much better at these things than AI, though I believe there are integrity and ethical reasons to avoid using AI for this as well). But I do find it helpful for technical tasks (like setting up this website) and for identifying teaching resources.
Here are some additional rules for this class:
- You may NOT use generative AI to write. It is ok to make limited use of classic copy-editing/spell-checking tools like the ones provided by Google Docs and Microsoft Word, but you may not use AI to re-phrase your writing or to generate completely new text.
- You may NOT use generative AI on exams. Exams will be pen and paper anyway.
- I strongly discourage you from using AI to summarize the readings. The whole point of asking you to read scientific articles is so that you learn to understand and evaluate evidence for yourself, instead of taking someone else’s word for it. (Also, in my experience, genAI summaries of academic articles are often wildly inaccurate.)
- For your group project, your group will decide on your own AI use policy (see here). Any use of AI must be consistent with your group’s written policy. If any group members use AI in a way that is not consistent with your policy, that will be considered a violation of academic integrity.
Course schedule
Yes, we have class the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and yes, we expect you to attend as usual.
Communication
To promote the highest degree of education possible, we ask each student to respect the opinions, thoughts, and identity of other students and be courteous in the way that you choose to express yourself. We should all be respectful and considerate of all opinions.
Religious holidays
Georgetown University promotes respect for all religions. Any student who is unable to attend classes or to participate in any examination, presentation, or assignment on a given day because of the observance of a major religious holiday or related travel shall be excused and provided with the opportunity to make up, without unreasonable burden, any work that has been missed for this reason and shall not in any other way be penalized for the absence or rescheduled work. Students will remain responsible for all assigned work. Students should notify professors in writing at the beginning of the semester of religious observances that conflict with their classes. The Office of the Provost, in consultation with Campus Ministry and the Registrar, will publish, before classes begin for a given term, a list of major religious holidays likely to affect Georgetown students. This list can be found on the Campus Ministry website, http://campusministry.georgetown.edu. The Provost and the Main Campus Executive Faculty encourage faculty to accommodate students whose bona fide religious observances in other ways impede normal participation in a course. Students who cannot be accommodated should discuss the matter with an advising dean.