Course Description
Examines changing and interdisciplinary historiographic traditions in the United States and provides training in the methods of historical research.
Athena Title
Hist Inquiry Research Methodol
Prerequisite
QUAL 8400 or QUAL 8400E
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
• Learn and reflect upon the nature of historiography and historical research. • Develop an understanding of key historiographic trends in academia. • Understand competing uses of history, theories of historical awareness, primary and secondary sources, archival research, problems with objectivity, historical writing, interpretation, and the limits of historical knowledge. • Develop an understanding of multiple diversity histories, including, but not limited to, mainstream history, Marxist and critical history, feminist history, subaltern history, positivism, the history of science, local history, power, and postmodern critiques. • Explore the principles for conducting historical research and how these principles can be enacted in research practice. • Put into practice concrete ways in which these research procedures can help gain a deeper understanding of historical experiences in various human science fields, including, but not limited to, education and the arts and sciences.
Topical Outline
I. Methods, Historiography, and the Critique of History II. History and the Legacy of Herodotus III. What is History Today? IV. Exploring Historiography and Changing Interpretations V. History, Limitations of Objectivity, and the Search for Truth VI. Marxist History VII. History and the Construction of Science and Scientific Revolutions VIII. Cultural History, the Linguistic Turn, and Inter- disciplinarity IX. Cultural History and Gender X. Local and Micro-Histories XI. Postmodern Histories: Power and the Past XII. Subaltern Histories