I hаve reаd аnd understand the fоllоwing: In this cоurse, you may be expected to read, discuss, and critically engage with content with which you or authority figures in your community disagree; you may find that classmates disputeyour claims and interpretations, or that your instructor challenges you to think more broadly and deeply about an assertion you have made; you might even find yourself encountering perspectives you have never considered before and, as a result, start to reevaluate long-held assumptions you once took for granted. Instructor as well as students will be expected to hold each other and themselves to rigorous intellectual standards. In doing so, everyone who chooses to be part of this class will be expected to honor the academic freedom of students and faculty alike in all aspects of teaching, learning, and conducting research, and to treat all members of this community with dignity and respect All members of the class, myself included, are expected to foster a welcoming and supportive atmosphere at all times. In English courses, and especially in literature courses, we sometimes encounter disparaging language in the reading, language we would recognize as a demeaning slur, an instance of hate speech, or constitutive of a hostile work environment if used in other contexts. Authors include this for a variety of reasons; sometimes they themselves harbored these sentiments, and as readers, we need to deal with that historical reality; at other times, these are used to establish realism through devices like characterization and tone. Regardless of why such language is present in the text, we will work together to foster a classroom environment where harmful language is neither brushed aside nor spoken out loud.