History 494-05: Minnesota History Spring 2004
Monday evenings, 7-10 PM Old Main 010
Peter Rachleff 306 Old Main X 6371
rachleff@macalester.edu
This course is
designed for advanced students (though not necessarily only History majors) who
are interested in conducting a substantial research project into a topic or
issue in Minnesota history. Minnesota
has a rich and complex history ? around such topics as politics, economics,
environment, race, class, gender, labor, immigration and ethnicity, and
more. It can also serve as a microcosm
through which we examine these topics within our national experience. The Twin Cities are home to a rich set of
historical archives and research institutions, including the Minnesota
Historical Society, the Social Welfare History Archives, the Immigration
History Research Center, the Upper Midwest Jewish Historical Archives, the
Archie Givens Collection in African American Literature, and more. And the Twin Cities are home to a number of
creative, accessible historians, who are conducting important research. This course is intended to draw upon these
resources.
Although your
individual project will be at the heart of this course for you, there is much
that we will do together, and you will all be expected to contribute to the
overall dynamics of this course. There
are no preassigned readings or books to buy, so that we can tailor-make the
course to fit your interests. This does
not mean, I want to emphasize, that you will not have reading and even written
assignments that go beyond the boundaries of your research project.
Here's the
plan. In the first segment of the
course, we will read the work of locally-based Minnesota historians, and we
will talk with them about their projects.
Each of you will be responsible for prepping a guest, preparing a brief
biography/curriculum vitae about him/her to share with us, and introducing
him/her to the class. The readings we
will use will be accessible through reserve or our electronic course
folders. You are expected to be active
participants in class discussions with our guests. At the end of this segment of the course, you
will be expected to turn in a 3-5 page critique of any one of our guest
historians, other than the individual for whom you played host.
In the second
segment of the course, each of you will work with me to develop a reading
selection for a class that explores your area of research interest. Whether we will cover one or two topics in an
evening will depend on how many students take the course. The reading selection will have three parts:
(1) a secondary source which offers a national or theoretical context for your
research interest; (2) a secondary source which explores your research interest
within Minnesota; and (3) a primary source, a text, which can be probed in
class discussion. You are expected to be
active participants in class discussions of each of these units. At the end of this segment of the course, you
will be expected to turn in a 3-5 page reflection paper about a local
historical archive other than the
Minnesota Historical Society.
In the third
segment of the course, you will present your work orally to the class in an
organized, structured presentation, like a conference paper. Other students will ask questions and make
comments in response to your presentation.
The length of these presentations and scheduling them will depend on the
number of students who take this course.
You are expected to provide constructive feedback to your colleagues as
part of their presentations. At the end
of this segment of the course, you will be expected to turn in a final research
paper of twenty or more pages, complete with footnotes and a bibliography.
Since this
course meets only once a week, you are expected to attend all class
sessions. As should be obvious from the
above description, you will be expected to contribute to the class at all
times, not only when you are in the
2.
spotlight. Your
grade will reflect your attendance and your participation, as well as your
individual work. Your individual project
will necessitate your creation of significant blocks of time to conduct
research, often away from campus. It is
possible that the class will not meet on all the dates scheduled, and it is
possible that we will not always meet as a class for the full three hours scheduled. We will never meet just for the sake of
meeting. It is also possible that we
will shift around some of our guest historians, depending on their own
schedules and availability. So, on many
levels, you should consider this syllabus to be a work in progress. This course is designed to mesh structure and
flexibility in ways that will enhance your learning experience. For it to succeed, it is important that you
bring your own responsibility and discipline to our overall project.
Weekly syllabus
(subject to change)
1/26 Opening
discussion. Intro to the course. Getting to know each other.
What
issues, questions, themes, are we interested in? What is
distinctive about Minnesota history?
First segment: Guest
historians
2/2 Bill
Millikan. Readings in business and labor
history.
2/9 Mary
Wingerd. Readings in urban, religious,
and social history.
2/16 Peter
Rachleff. Readings in ethnic and labor history.
2/23 David
Riehle. Readings in African American and
labor history.
This
session will be held at the St. Paul Labor Center,
411
Mahoney (aka Main) Street. 7:30 PM
**Please note: By this date you
must hand in a research proposal
-- this should include a topic, a tentative hypothesis,
a bibliography of at least three
secondary sources and three primary sources.
3/1 Bill
Lanoue. Readings in legal and labor
history.
3/8 Open date.
Your paper on a local historian is
due. We will decide
whether to meet as a class.
3/15 Spring
break -- no class
Second segment: Focused readings in selected topics
3/22
Student-directed discussion of focused readings in selected topics
3/29
Student-directed discussion of focused readings in selected topics
3.
4/5 Student-directed
discussion of focused readings in selected topics
**Please note: By this date you must hand in a revised research
proposal. This should include a thesis statement, an outline,
and a bibliography of at least six secondary sources and six
primary sources.
4/12
Student-directed discussion of focused readings in selected topics
**Your paper on a local archive is due.
4/19
Student-directed discussion of focused readings in selected topics
4/26 Student
research presentations to the class
**A
rough draft of your paper is due.
5/3 Student
research presentations to the class
5/7 Final drafts of papers are due (noon)