You can apply for an extension to a deadline for an assessment - this is known at Macquarie University as Special Consideration - if you foresee an interruption to your studies at the time of submission of an assessment, you should make an application for an extension or Special Consideration. Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of‚ 0 (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue. 

This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessment (incl essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings etc). Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs etc) will only be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic. 

There are recorded lectures for this unit that you need to watch each week. You will find on iLearn details of weekly readings and questions for you to consider. Once you have watched the lectures, done the reading and considered the questions, please post your thoughts each week into the online discussion forum. You will then be able to see the posts of other students and you also get feedback from a member of staff.

There is a Leganto Reading list that is connected to the subject matter for each week. You are advised to read the relevant entry/entries from the Encyclopaedia of Ancient History to pick up on historical background. The reading list also allows you to pursue your own reading to develop your assessments.

Assessments are due in weeks 4, 8, and 13. We expect to mark your work and provide you with feedback within two weeks of the submission of your work. To pass this unit, you do need to complete all assessments, please bear this in mind when organising your time.

For the final assessment, you will be provided with training in the use of Adobe Portfolio (an Adobe License will be provided by the University) and support can be accessed via https://adobe.arts.mq.edu.au/ to create a public blog post.

There are three blocks of work that each lead to one of the assessments.

Block 1: Pandemics in Antiquity (weeks 1-4) Over four weeks, you will study how plagues or pandemics were described by authors, such as Thucydides – who survived the plague of Athens. Our focus here is on how ancient authors represent an event. We look at their style, their omissions and also consider what they don’t mention that we would really like to know as historians, or might see as essential for a description of a pandemic. To assess your understanding of how these ancient authors wrote, you will need to write an account of Covid-19 as though you were an ancient author. This block of work develops your understanding of the use and limits of ancient sources or “primary sources”.

Block 2: The History of Disability (weeks 5-8) Having looked at primary sources, we turn our attention to secondary sources or the writings of historians in the 21^st century. Our focus will be on the challenge of how to write a history of disability. You will focus each week on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a number of chapters of books and articles – what is done well and what could be done better? We will look at both physical and mental impairment with reference to work on the Roman emperors Claudius and Caligula. For the assessment, you write a text of a blog setting out for a member of the public the strengths and weakness of the recent work in Ancient History on disability in antiquity. This block of work contributes to your critical thinking.

Block 3: The Relevance of Ancient History in the 21^st Century (weeks 9-13) Does Ancient History Matter? As you study the ancient world, you need to have an answer by the end of the session – so that through the rest of your degree, you can explain why it is important to study Ancient History. In this block, we will focus our reading and discussion in tutorials on a single author Appian, who wrote a History of Rome’s Civil Wars in the second century CE – centuries after the events he presents to us. He sought to explain why the Roman Republic failed and ended in civil war leading to a monarchy. By looking at the start of his work, you will encounter the major themes that contributed to the failure of a republic: warfare, slavery, political violence and so on. Like Appian, today, you look back on the Roman republic or another topic in Ancient History and seek to find its relevance. At the end of this block of work, you create a blog seeking to explain the importance of Ancient History, or why Ancient History matters today in the 21^st century.