This semester we’ll build a collaborative public website about hidden histories. The class is about what kinds things get preserved to understand the past, who creates stories about them, and how those stories get used. Needless to say, there is always a lot left out.
This assignment encourages us to think about historical silences and what it would look like to give them a voice.
Rather than writing isolated essays that disappear after the semester ends, we will build a collaborative website together. Each student will contribute a research-based case study examining one historical technological rupture.
Individually, each project will be small, researched and written with a lot of AI help, but guided by sound research practices.
Collectively, the website will become a resource that shows how societies repeatedly struggle to understand new technologies. By examining earlier moments of technological disruption, we can better understand these debates.
History, either hidden or visible, does not provide simple answers, but it can help us ask better questions.
This assignment is designed to help you learn three things simultaneously:
You will begin with (probably) very little knowledge about your assigned technology. Using both AI tools and traditional research methods, you will learn how to quickly orient yourself to a new historical period, culture, society, and technology.
AI tools are very good at helping people brainstorm ideas, summarize topics, refine writing. But they are also unreliable when it comes to historical evidence and sources. For this project, AI should be treated as a research assistant, not an authority. You will use AI to help explore your topic, but you must verify its claims using real sources.
Each student will investigate one technological disruption. When assembled together, the projects will reveal patterns across centuries of technological change.
By the end of the semester, the website should help readers see how debates about technology often repeat similar themes.
A rupture is a moment when a new technology changes how information is produced, communicated, or trusted.
Possible examples include:
Your task is not simply to describe the technology, but to examine how people reacted to it when it first appeared.
Although AI tools can help you explore your topic, your final project must be grounded in real research that you have verified. You will gather trusted sources and produce a bibliography of those sources.
Your goal is not to produce original historical scholarship, but to demonstrate sound research methodology for a public history resource.
AI tools can be extremely helpful for:
However, AI tools often invent sources or misrepresent historical evidence.
Because of this, you should always:
Triangulate what might be lost!
At the end of your essay, you will include a short section explaining how you used AI during your research and writing process.
The last day of finals
Coursework is frustrating and virtually impossible to do well when you’re not sure what to do or how to do it. Please reach out if something’s not clear!