UNIVERSITY
OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
Department
of History
Fall
1996
|
Prof. Dunlavy |
Office Hours
|
|
4103 Humanities |
T10:30a-12:00p
+ R3:50p-5:20p |
|
(608) 263-1854 |
Achat@ times on First Class: M4-5p + T9-10p |
|
dunlavy@lss.wisc.edu |
or by appointment (call or email) |
History 680/690
SENIOR THESIS COLLOQUIUM
Beginning in Fall 1997, this
two-semester colloquium will be required of all senior thesis writers who are
pursuing honors or distinction in the history major. In Fall 1996 and Spring 1997, it is offered as an option for
thesis writers C an opportunity not to be missed.
Each of you must register
concurrently for senior thesis credit (History 681/682 or 691/692) with a
faculty member who serves as your field thesis advisor. As instructor in this course, I will as your
general thesis advisor.
Together, your field thesis advisor and I will compose your senior
thesis committee, which has final responsibility for approving your thesis and
assigning a grade.
This colloquium is designed to enhance
and support your senior thesis work in two ways. First, it offers a forum in which you and your fellow thesis
writers can address questions common to all fields of historical research: What does it mean to "do
history"? How does one define a
workable research topic? How does one
decide what kinds of sources to use?
How does the choice of sources shape one's approach to a topic--perhaps
even alter the topic itself? Secondly,
it offers guidance in the techniques of research and writing upon which all
historians rely. As you begin to
develop your topic and explore possible sources, we'll tour campus libraries
and learn how to acquire information electronically. As you dig into your research and draft your thesis, the seminar
will function like workshop in which the students take their own projects
through the successive stages of research C prospectus and bibliography, detailed outline, first pages
of draft during fall semester; full draft and subsequent revisions during
spring semester. At each stage, you
will present your work to the colloquium.
Meanwhile, throughout the semester, you will also consult closely and
regularly with your field thesis advisor.
All books are available for
purchase at the University Bookstore and have also been placed on reserve at
Helen C. White Library along with a lot of others that may interest you (see
handout). Although I encourage you to
purchase as many as you can manage, please make every effort possible to buy
your own copies of the following essential tools of the historian: Browne and
Kelley, Marius, Strunk and White, and Turabian.
COLLOQUIUM SCHEDULE
Sept. 5 Introductions, mechanics of the course, etc.
Sept. 12 Reflecting on the writing of history. Assigned reading: Edward T. Linenthal and
Tom Engelhardt, eds., The History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other
Battles for the American Past /New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and
Co., 1996).
Week 3 Discussion topic:
Why do historians change their minds? - Part 2.
Required Reading ... finish reading ...
Novick, That Noble Dream.
Week 4 Discussion topic: Why do historians change their minds? - Part
3. Also, guided tour of Memorial Library.
Required Reading
Fritz Stern, ed., The Varieties
of History: From Voltaire to the
Present (New York:
Vintage).
Week 5 Discussion topic:
Why do historians change their minds? - Part 4. Also, guided tour
of the Historical Society library.
Required Reading:
One of the following ...
Eric Foner, ed., The New American
History (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press,
1990).
... OR ...
Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural
History (Berkeley: University of
California
Press, 1989).
... OR ...
John and Jean Comaroff, Ethnography
and the Historical Imagination (Boulder:
Westview Press, 1992).
Week 6 Seminar meeting in the New Media
Center (2nd floor in H. C. White Library); hands-on introduction to using the Internet for research.
Week 7 Individual meetings with Professor Dunlavy (no seminar
meeting this week).
Week 8 Discussion topic:
How can historians know anything?
Evidence, Interpretation,
Explanation
- Part 1.
Required Reading
M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley,
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide
to
Critical Thinking, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994).
... and ...
David Hackett Fischer, Historians'
Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical
Thought
(New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
... and ..
Raymond
Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of
Culture and Society, rev. ed.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
Browse through this.
Week 9 Discussion topic:
How can historians know anything?
Evidence, Interpretation,
Explanation
- Part 2.
Required Reading
James
Chandler, Arnold I. Davidson, and Harry Harootunian, eds., Questions of Evidence:
Proof, Practice, and Persuasion across the Disciplines
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1994).
Week 10 Discussion topic:
How can historians know anything?
Evidence, Interpretation,
Explanation
- Part 3.
Required Reading
Simon Schama, Dead Certainties
(Unwarranted Speculations) (New York:
Alfred A.
Knopf, 1991).
... and ...
Who Built America?
[multimedia history on reserve at the Memorial Library Info Lab]
Week 11 Workshop on prospectus-writing
Richard Marius, A Short Guide to
Writing about History (Glenview, Ill.:
Scott,
Foresman and Company, 1989).
... and ...
William Strunk, Jr., and E. B.
White, The Elements of Style (Macmillan).
... and ...
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, latest edition).
Week 12 Individual meetings with Prof. Dunlavy; no seminar meeting
this week.
* * * hand in prospectuses 48 hours
before next seminar meeting * * *
Week 13 Discussion of prospectuses:
Please come prepared to make a few introductory
remarks about your research
experience and your prospectus. We'll
spend about 15
minutes on each prospectus.
Required Reading
Prospectuses on reserve at the
Historical Society Library
Week 14 Discussion of prospectuses, continued.
Week 15 Wrap-up discussion and preliminary plans for next
semester. Plan to set aside time
over break for your research.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Spring
Semester>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Week 1 Discussion topics:
The remaining steps -- outline, draft, revisions, the thesis.
Required Reading
Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The
Modern Researcher, 5th ed. (New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992),
selections.