Requirements and Grading

Readings

There are no required textbooks for this class: all the readings are posted on the course’s Canvas site in PDF format. Students are expected to do the required background readings for each class. I am always happy to guide you to further bibliography and other resources, whether in connection with your research project or simply out of personal interest.

Attendance and Class Participation (20% of grade)

Attendance to lecture and sections is mandatory. Unexcused absence will automatically reduce your participation grade. If you must miss class (due to illness, work, family responsibilities, etc.), please notify me or your TF. If you miss class, you are responsible for getting notes from other students and for tracking changes in the course syllabus.

Biweekly Assignments (15% of grade)

Biweekly assignments are designed to help you think critically about historical arguments. Every other week throughout the semester, starting in week 2, students will submit a short entry (roughly 250-300 words) disagreeing with something in one of the secondary sources assigned for the preceding two weeks. Even in the greatest works of historical scholarship, a careful reader can find factual inaccuracies, logical leaps, and unstated assumptions that render the overall argument invalid. Your task, as you read, is to find something that the author writes with which you disagree.

Midterm Essay (25% of grade)

There will be a multimedia essay (roughly 2,500 words) due in week 7. The essay will focus on the analysis of a primary source, such as an artefact or text (we will work with sources from the Harvard Museums, Library and Archives).

Final Project (40% of grade)

Students will choose a research topic in collaboration with the instructor and turn it into a project. The project should involve an analytical and critical discussion of a relevant historical problem or topic within the scope of the course (drawing comparisons with other regions and time periods is perfectly acceptable). The project should bring together multiple lines of evidence and make appropriate use of graphics, visualizations, and other aids in presenting its subject. The essay that will constitute the core of the project should be roughly 4,000 words.

You can find examples of previous work done for the class in the course's 2016, 2017, and 2018 websites.