Seminar in Historical Analysis (405-0-24)
Topic
Mapping the Discipline
Instructors
Laura E Hein
847/491-3408
Harris Hall - Room 325
Meeting Info
Harris Hall room 101: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Mapping the Discipline:
A Graduate-Level Introduction to the Field of History
The purpose of this course is to offer history students a guide to "professional literacy" by introducing them to some of the main approaches and themes of the academic study of history. Historians have a broad variety of strategies of investigation, interpretation, and explanation to choose from. Understanding those strategies requires articulating methods and theoretical perspectives and recognizing the implications when others do so. The course will orient students in some of the big debates in humanities and social-science scholarship—and their implications--with a specific focus on the contributions that historians are best equipped to make. This will involve learning to read for deep comprehension and paying attention to the methodologies employed in the surveyed works. Topics to be considered in the course include: defining fields of history; such as spatiality, empire, and borderlands, the use of certain analytical categories such as social class, race, gender, and other forms of identity, and the implications and impact of organizing principles such as agency and networks. And, I should also say that, because we only have ten weeks, the course in no way claims to cover all major approaches to History.
Learning Objectives
think clearly write clearly
Evaluation Method
written papers, informed discussion