11:15-1:10P     W     BH018

Topic:  Pathways to history
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Above section COAS intensive writing section and also
requires registration in COAS W333

Do you think of yourself as an historian? Probably not! We members of
the history faculty you have studied with mostly didn't think of
ourselves as historians when we were students either! Yet even though
you have encountered us primarily as teachers, we are all working
historians. So how did we become historians? What kinds of issues
interest us? What
approaches do we take to history? Where are you in your own process of
becoming an historian? What kinds of issues and problems interest you
and why? In the course of this semester the class will explore
different approaches and "paths" (both personal and methodological) to
history through the work of the historians on the faculty in the
History
Department.

Our first week's readings will consist of interviews with historians
about their lives and work and biographical materials. We'll talk
about the kinds of questions you might ask when you are interviewing
faculty members about their work (see below).  In the following weeks,
we will explore readings chosen by individual faculty members, which
reflect their
concerns as historians. These readings will generally include work by
the faculty member.

Class work: Each week one of you will take responsibility for leading
the class discussion of that week's readings and you will also
interview the historian who assigned the readings. You'll write up the
interview, which we will post on the web on a private site. At the end
of the semester, therefore, we'll have a collection of personal "paths
in history." Each of
you will also choose one topic to follow up (perhaps not the one you
led the discussion on). You'll develop a reading list on that topic
(in consultation with the faculty member who assigned the readings on
that topic) and write a bibliographic term paper on the topic, which
you will present in class. In addition, there will be two take-home
essays.  Evaluation: You'll be evaluated on your written work, your
oral presentation, and your participation in discussion.