Fred Gibbs (fwgibbs@unm.edu)
Mesa Vista Hall, 1077
Office Hours: M 2:30-4; W 9:30-11; almost anytime by appointment
This course introduces some of the most prominent and influential approaches that historians have taken in crafting their interpretations of the past. It addresses various philosophies of history (the underlying assumptions of how we can access and understand the past), as well as various historical interpretive frameworks that have shaped the professional practice of history (ways of considering place, culture, labor, communities, identity, etc). The course focuses on developments after the mid nineteenth-century professionalization of history.
Understand how and why historians have argued about philosophical methodological approaches to their craft over time, and what cultural changes precepitated new views.
Demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast different processes, modes of thought, and modes of expression from different historical time periods and in different geographic areas.
Recognize and articulate the diversity of human experience, including ethnicity, race, language, sex, gender, as well as political, economic, social, and cultural structures over time and space.
Formulate a clear argument, support the argument with appropriate and thorough evidence, and reach a convincing conclusion.
Provide accurate references to historical sources used in research projects
By enrolling in the course, you make a committment to be in class for every scheduled meeting (a few misses during the term is fine). However, simply showing up to class counts for very little; I expect that you’ll actively participate in all discussions, presentations, and activities. If you want a course where you can passively attend lectures and occasionally regurgitate information, this course is not for you. If you are shy about speaking in class, you will become much more comfortable and fluent by the end of the semester.
You cannot make up missed classes and I will not summarize them for you via email. Please DO NOT email me asking what you missed or how to make it up (feel free to ask your class colleagues for notes). Medical emergencies beyond your control are the one exception to the attendance policy, and you should let me know about these ASAP.
I consider it extremely rude and disruptive to walk into class late, and it greatly aggravates me. Flat tires, missed busses, failed alarms, or other appointments are not excuses, they are simply failures on your part to get here on time. There are no excuses, only priorities. Accidents happen, and I undertstand you might be (barely) late once or twice. Repeatedly being late will negatively impact your grade by a half to full letter grade.
If you run into personal problems during the semester that make school difficult for you, please talk to me about what adjustments we can make to help you succeed in the course.
Each student will belong to one of these groups for each class and will continually rotate through the groups during the semester, changing groups each class.
Commenters: The commenters will post a 500-word critical comment on the readings 24 hours before class. These should be high quality but informal writing, like you were writing for a top-shelf literary magazine. You must resist the urge to summarize the readings (we have summarizers to do that!). You do not need to have completed the entire reading in great detail write good comments, but you need to have read (carefully) enough to have something interesting to say. You are not allowed to duplicate others’ ideas, but you can build off of them.
Enforcers: The enforcers hold colleagues accountable for their work. You do not need to produce anything ahead of time, but I expect (and will be evaluating) your ability to ask critical questions of sloppy blog posts, inaccurate summaries, or silly discussion questions. Rudeness, of course, is not tolerated, but I expect you can ask pointed questions in a polite and constructive way.
Summarizers: The summarizers will prepare a 1-page summary of the assigned readings (not what the commenters write). You will work on these independently (though you can work together if you want), but you must present them collectively at the beginning of class as a way of reminding everyone what they’ve read.
Examiners: The examiners will prepare questions that will help guide discussion for that class. Examiners should draw from the Commenters and incorporate on-the-fly as much as possible from the Summarizers. Of course I will help guide discussions each day, but I expect the examiners to do the bulk of the work.
For each of these groups, I do not expect you will be good at any of these at the beginning, but I expect you’ll improve over the semester. Your grade is based on as much on improvement as on the quality of assignments themselves. There are no other written assignments during the semester. (40%)
General participation in discussions (beyond the group responsibilities) (40%)
As a final project each student will produce a ~5 minute video on the historiography of a certain topic of thier choice (ideally something you’ve written on before, but you can pick anything you’re interested in). (20%)
Note that there is a LOT of reading for this course. Like a LOT a LOT. This is by design, as a capstone course for the history department. Be honest with yourself about whether you have time to fit this course into your busy schedules. One of the goals of the course is that you will learn to read and absorb information more quickly than you can already. That skill is hard-earned, and only comes with practice.
Bloch, Marc. The Historian’s Craft (1964).
Burdick, et al. Digital Humanities (2012).
Carr, Edward Hallett. What Is History? (revised ed. 2001).
Clark, Elizabeth A. History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn (2004).
Guldi, Jo, and David Armitage. The History Manifesto (2014).
Iggers, Georg G. Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge (2005).
Levi-Strauss, Claude. Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture (reprint 1995).
For all other articles and book chapters on the syllabus, you will need to subscribe to the course Zotero library. Please see the instructions for doing this at fredgibbs.net/courses/etc/zotero.html.
View the Schedule of Readings