Course Description

History is often presented as a collection of dates, events, people and ideas. However, these facts only take on meaning and liveliness through historical inquiry, imagination, and interpretation: assembling primary sources, asking questions, providing a context, developing a point of view, and finding a voice. History is more than an assemblage of facts; thinking historically involves critical processes of reading, reflection, and communication. This course will introduce students to the historian’s craft, drawing on the abundant cultural resources available in the City of Boston (libraries, archives, historical societies, museums, monuments, and architecture). As interdisciplinary historians of American culture, students will draw on primary and secondary sources in a variety of forms, including rare books and manuscripts, artwork, literature, still photography, film, radio, and new media. In this course, we will not only consider the ways in which technological developments and documentary styles have impacted our historical understanding, we will acquire the skills and theoretical background to represent the real by documenting the past.

Required Texts

• Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams [1907] (Oxford University Press, 1999).
• Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 1887-2000 [1915] (Signet Book, 2000).
• Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment and Other Writings [1870] (Penguin Books, 1997).
• The History Project, Improper Bostonians: Gay and Lesbian History from the Puritans to Playland (Beacon Press, 1999).
• Henry James, The Bostonians [1886] (Penguin, 2001).
• George Marquand, The Late George Apley [1936] (Back Bay Books, 2004).
• Karen Robert, ed., New Year in Cuba: Mary Gardner Lowell's Travel Diary, 1831-1832 (Northeastern University Press, 2003).
• Robert C. Williams, The Historian's Toolbox (M. E. Sharpe, 2003).

Selections from Books and Articles on E-Reserve

• Edward Hallett Carr, "The Historian and His Facts," in What Is History? (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969).
• Robin G. Collingwood, "Who Killed John Doe? The Problem Testimony," in Robin W. Winks, ed., The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence (New York: Harper & Row, 1969).
• Margot Culley, ed., A Day at a Time: The Diary Literature of Women from 1764 to the Present (New York: City University Press, 1985), introduction.
• Organization of American Historians, Magazine of History. Sex, Courtship, and Dating. Vol. 18, No. 4, July 2004.
• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990), introduction and chapter 1.
• Hayden White, "The Fictions of Factual Representation," in Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978).
• Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (2001), chapter 1.

Supplemental Viewing (Film & Video)

• Ethnic Notions.  Marlin Riggs.
• The Midwife's Tale.  Richard P. Rogers.
• The Bostonians. Merchant/Ivory Productions.
• The Civil War.  Ken Burns [Selections].
• Glory.  Edward Zwick.

Required Writing

• Regular and substantive intellectual journal entries (3 per week minimum).
• 5-7 response papers, elaborations of journal entries  (1-2 pages, low stakes).
• 1 primary source essay (5-7 pages, high stakes).
• 1 documented essay (10 pages, high stakes).
• Written responses to questions on midterm and final exams (high stakes).
• 1 reflective introduction to final portfolio (3-4 pages, low stakes).
• Digital story script and reflection on process and product.

Please Note:  In this course I will assume that you always back up your work with hard copies or electronically on your Pages on the networked server.  Lost data or equipment failure will not excuse incomplete or late work.

Archival Sites (A few classes are scheduled to meet at alternate Boston locations)

• Boston Public Library
• Boston Athenaeum.
• Gibson House Museum.
• Massachusetts Historical Society.
• Old South Meeting House.
• Black Heritage Museum.
• New England Historic Genealogical Society.
• Museum of Fine Arts.

Educational Goals and Outcomes

• Learning to think and write critically from literary and historical perspectives
• Learning basic research skills in museums, archives, libraries, and online
• Learning to use primary and secondary sources with skill and integrity.
• Learning to document and acknowledge information and ideas
• Learning to combine various disciplines and textual genres coherently
• Learning to read and interpret a variety of cultural texts
• Learning to contextualize historical artifacts
• Learning to work independently and in groups
• Learning to gracefully complete complex tasks under deadline
• Learning to present ideas publicly using writing, speech, and digital media

Occasional and Informal Mini-Workshops

• Annotating a text
• Summarizing and paraphrasing
• Active, passive, and objective voice
• Argument vs. persuasion
• Effective use of quotation
• Thesis statements
• Effective revision
• Using evidence: textual, statistical, and factual
• Primary and secondary sources
• In-text citations vs. footnotes
• Manuscript preparation
• Internet research, documentation, and acknowledgement
• Periodization in history
• The essay in history
• Transcription and textual editing
• Digital Storytelling

Grading & Final Portfolios

Your written work for this seminar will be divided into high-stakes and low-stakes assignments (as noted).  Low-stakes assignments will receive a √-, √ or √+, depending on effort and overall quality, and narrative comments.  High-stakes assignments will receive a letter grade and narrative comments.  Although my approach to evaluating low-stakes assignments is different in emphasis, they are an important part of your semester's work.  I'm looking for sincere and consistent effort, care in the preparation or written work, and generous class participation.

At the end of the term, I will ask you to submit a final portfolio of revised and edited work with a title page, a reflective introduction, and a table of contents.  This portfolio represents "the center of gravity" of your overall performance.  My final evaluation of your work begins here. The relative weight of the individual parts of your portfolio, and of your participatory contribution to the seminar, will be contingent on individual students' core competencies but will break down, within the portfolio, in general proportions, like this:

20% on Intellectual Journals and Response Papers

20% on primary source essay

20% on documented essay

20% on attendance, quizzes, classroom citizenship and class and online participation

20% on digital storytelling project

You will also receive a grade on your final portfolio, beyond the sum of the individual parts. Careful preparation and presentation of your final portfolio, including a thoughtful reflective introduction, will be essential to achieving full impact.

Projected Final Grade Distribution (Approximate)

A (10-15%); B (20-25%); C (40-45%); D (10-15%); F (10-15%)

This is a challenging course.  The grade distribution above is not etched in stone or predetermined but more or less represents the expected outcome for first-year students in an intensive seminar at a selective institution.

Midterm and Final Exams

Midterm and final exams (high stakes) will test your ability to process, retain, and synthesize course materials, information, and ideas.  Expect objective questions and highly focused essay questions.

Quizzes

Please expect four unannounced reading quizzes during the semester.  Quizzes will consist of short-answer questions based on the required reading.

ECMAIL

A requirement of this course is that you activate your Emerson email account and remember your user name and password.  Because I will be communicating with you via ECMAIL, you need to check your inbox frequently (more than once a week), even if you use another address for personal email.

The IN127 History Portal

Although this course typically meets in a face-to-face classroom, I have created a course website to share resources, post assignments, and enhance collegial communication and dialogue. On the portal you will find a course weblog, an events calendar, online "intellectual journals," class notes, assignments, and an assignment "drop box."  Part or your grade for the course will depend on online participation.

Digital Story Telling

Digital storytelling is the use of digital media to tell meaningful stories about one's life, according to practitioners at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California [http://www.storycenter.org]. In this course we will be using digital media to gather the life stories of family members or people in the community.  Drawing on oral historical methods and digital storytelling techniques, we will create brief, low-tech biographical films that document and preserve living memory.

Attendance & Deadlines 

Because this seminar is highly interactive and collaborative, attendance, participation, timeliness, and attention to due dates are essential to the success and harmony of the class as a whole. If you are having issues or conflicts, please contact me in advance, if possible.   Please take note of the following policies:

• Missing two classes will result in a reduced final grade for the course.
• Missing three classes will result in failure.
• Absences due to non-emergency room illnesses are not excused absences. 
• Assignments must be delivered on time to receive full credit.
• All written assignments must be word-processed and carefully proofread.

Plagiarism 

Plagiarism, intentional or unintentional, is a recurring issue in the age of the online classroom.  Although we live in a cut-and-paste culture, accurate and transparent documentation is fundamental to good historical work. The MLA Handbook explains that, "Plagiarism is the act of using another person's ideas or expression in your writing without acknowledging the source.  The word comes from the Latin word plagiarius ('kidnapper'), and Alexander Lindey defines it as 'the false assumption of authorship:  the wrongful act of taking the product of a person's mind, and presenting it as one's own' (Plagiarism and Originality [New York:  Harper, 1952] 2).  In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from someone else" (21).   Careful acknowledgment and documentation is the best way to avoid plagiarism, a serious offense in the academy that can result in failure, suspension, or expulsion, depending on the situation and the degree of the act.  In a sense, it is even possible to plagiarize from yourself--turning in work or research written for a different class, or previous class, without asking both instructors' permission.1 It is my practice to carefully check the sources of each paper I receive. Failure to document or to acknowledge ideas appropriately is grounds for failing this course, without further warning. Please ask if you have questions about formal or informal documentation and acknowledgement.

Understanding plagiarism is especially important for historians.  Please read the excellent and entertaining section on plagiarism in The Historian's Toolbox. On a personal note, many professors (myself included) take plagiarism very personally.  Because we have committed our lives to the crafts of teaching and scholarship, we interpret the act of plagiarism as a sign of disrespect and a deep violation of trust.

Extracurricular Conflicts

I strongly believe that liberal arts courses are among the most important at the undergraduate level-and certainly more essential than sports or performances. My policy is simple:  "academics first."  If you are aware of a conflict in your schedule that will cause you to miss classes, please discuss this with me at least two weeks prior to the event.  If you think you will miss more than two classes due to extracurricular activities, you may want to choose another course.

Disability Statement

If you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class, I urge you to register with the Disabilities Services Coordinator, Dr. Anthony Bashir at 216 Tremont Street, 5th Floor (617/824-8415) so that, together, we can work to develop methods of addressing needed accommodations in this class.  To receive consideration, please address this issue in a timely manner.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Shun Liang for his design and technical support.