HIST3023: Hands-On History: Methods Seminar

HIST 3023 introduces history majors to the methods and practices of historical knowledge production and to a critical engagement with the philosophy/theory of history. Students will explore a range of the methods by which historians go about the work of producing historical knowledge: how they identify and analyze primary sources, engage with existing scholarship (secondary sources) on a particular line of inquiry, convey their findings, and argue for an original contribution to the historiography (the scholarly conversation about a topic). Students will learn about critical and philosophical assessments of history as a discipline and its epistemologies (or ways of knowing). What does it mean to study and teach history in particular social and political contexts? What are the possibilities and limits of the study of history? What is the historian’s task? How do historians know what they know? What methods and skills do historians use? This course introduces history majors (and non-majors) to the methods and practices of historical knowledge production and to the philosophy/theory of history. Put slightly differently, the course will introduce students to the work/craft of history as thought and methodology. It will also encourage students to think about history (as discipline, method) critically, to address questions such as: What is history for and what does the student of history/the historian do in research (as the detective and the archivist), in writing (as the storyteller and the analyst), and in (critical) thought (as the teacher and the philosopher)? What does it mean to teach/study history in a time of struggle? What are the possibilities and limits of history? In short, the course explores what historians do, and what history is for.

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