Course Description
History happens in place as well as time. Experiential, collaborative research projects will allow students to map history, deploying concepts and techniques for thinking spatially about the nature of political, social, economic, and cultural change over time.
Athena Title
Spatial History I
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn to: 1. Read, discuss, and interrogate scholarship in theories and methods of spatial history 2. Develop original qualitative and quantitative research questions through collaborative interactions with peers and the instructor 3. Find, analyze, and interpret primary historical documents, including both qualitative and quantitative evidence 4. Properly cite documentary evidence and develop an understanding of why citation is central to the development of knowledge 5. Think critically about the use of digital tools for data visualization and humanistic inquiry 6. Compose well-organized, insightful, original narrative essays in formats appropriate for digital publication 7. Develop critical perspectives on the ethics and intellectual consequences of pursuing and publishing humanities research in a digital environment 8. Create and publish a high-quality digital history product, such as an interactive map, video, or blog
Topical Outline
Collaborative, experiential historical research is the foundation of this course. Indeed, this course will involve dynamic, real-time collaboration with the instructor at the highest possible level: the participants will themselves determine the specific content and research topic of the course. After a series of introductory readings and lectures on theories and methods of spatial history, the participants in the course (including the instructor) will democratically and deliberatively select a historical place and time to research intensively. The chronological and geographical foci of the research project are not predetermined; our research could theoretically focus just as easily on 1890s Georgia textile mills as it could on 1950s Yugoslavian political culture. The possibilities for the research project would not, of course, be infinite; only topics that are reasonably researchable given available documents, resources, and language skills. This open- ended approach to the topics of the course will accomplish two crucial goals. First, students who select their own research project will be able to directly invest in the educational outcomes of their experiential learning. Second, the primary learning objectives of the course are aimed not so much at specific historical content but instead at developing critical thinking skills, understanding techniques for project management, and exploring tools for digital humanities research and publication. The course will be split into three components. First, the instructor will introduce students to the theories and methods of spatial history. Second, with guidance from the instructor, students will, as a team, develop a research prospectus. In this section of the course, students will develop interdisciplinary skills in project planning, doing qualitative and quantitative research, digitally transforming and visualizing historical data, and composing narratives. The third section of the course will be devoted to digitally publishing the results of the research. In keeping with the course theme of on-the-fly, collaborative deliberation, the form of the final research output will also be determined democratically by the members of the course. All digital publication options are worthy of consideration, from printable maps to online interactive maps to podcasts, videos, blogs, or as-of-yet uninvented electronic media formats. The specific technical skills required to produce the publishable research will be determined by the participants in the course. Thus, the topical outline must of necessity be indeterminate. In each course iteration, however, the instructor will address the following topics: A. Theories and Methods of Spatial History a. What is spatial history? b. Digital tools for humanistic inquiry c. The construction of spatial relations, or the social history of place d. Evidence, argument, and history in a digital age e. Ethics and rights in an age of “free information” B. Framing a Spatial History Research Project a. Finding quantitative data I: NHGIS and Census data b. Finding qualitative data I: manuscripts and archives [Special Collections Library module] c. Finding qualitative data II: libraries, both analog and digital d. Finding quantitative data II: “hidden” historical Big Data e. Composing a prospectus f. Developing a research strategy map and delegating research tasks C. Let’s Make History! a. Research Project Workshop I b. Research Project Workshop II c. Research Project Workshop III d. Research Project Workshop IV e. Revision, revision, revision f. Launch g. Reflections