Fall 2009
Dr. Chad Black
Dunford 2633
chad.black-at-utk.edu
974-9871
History 510
Foundations of Graduate Study in History
This course is designed for first-year history graduate students or Ph.D. students who have not taken a like course at the M.A. level. It has been designed to familiarize graduate students with many of the fundamental paradigms and analytical models that shape the field of history today. You will be introduced to major theories of causation and forms of analysis currently used in the historical profession so that you can identify and apply them. Core readings will be drawn primarily from Western European and North American traditions dating from the Enlightenment to the present. This course should help you to identify the kind of historian you are or hope to become and provide analytical tools to achieve your goals.
Requirements:
I. Participation – come to class well prepared. (30%) of your grade is based on oral participation, class attendance, and blog writing. As part of your participation grade, each student is required to write a short blog post reacting to the weeks reading, to be posted no later than 7pm the day before class. Everyone should read, and if compelled, comment on these blog posts. In order to facilitate this process, each student must sign up for a free blog account (through blogger, wordpress, etc.), or use a blog you may already have. Remember that a blog is a public self-publishing platform, and as such you should consider what you are presenting to the world. It is increasingly important to maintain a professional web presence in the historical profession, and you should consider your blog for this class as part of that presence. I will be utilizing RSS to feed your blog onto the course page. Your posts, and any comments you make on your fellow student’s posts, will for the basis of our class discussions. Each student will also particiate in leading at least one class discussion.
Participation also involves courtesy. I expect and anticipate healthy debate. I am inclined towards informality, but I do expect respectful behavior towards your fellow classmates as well as your professor.
II. Written Assignments:
- Two Self-Reflective Essays. (3-5 pages each) At the beginning and the end of the semester, studnets will write essays reflecting on who they are as historians, and the kind of work that they are doing, or would like to do. Due the second and final meetings of class. 5% each.
- Book Review. (5-7 pages) A critical book review based on a monograph assigned for this class. The review will be due on the date that the book will be discussed. Guidelines are here. 10%.
- An annotated bibliography. Students will choose a historiographic trend in one of their fields of specialization and research the relevant secondary literature. You must meet (online or in person) with the professor to develop a workable topic within the first four weeks of class. Although the length of the bibliography will vary by field, it should be comprehensive, and will likely include at leas a couple dozen articles and books. Topic proposal due: 9/15; bibliography due: 10/13. 20%.
- Historiographic Essay. (15 pages) After completing the annotated bibliography, students will write an essay analyzing the state of research in their field. The essay and the annotated bibliography will be shared with other class members online, so that everyone will have access to the body of knowledge created by the class. First draft: 11/10; final draft: 12/1. 30%.
Deadlines. Life happens. If illness, extenuating circumstances or special learning needs prevent submission of written work on time, please speak to me in advance of the due date. Unexcused lateness will result in 5 percentage points penalty per day of lateness.
Academic honesty. There is a UTK Academic Code of Conduct that defines and recommends sanctions against plagiarism. Familiarize yourself with it. The complete policy may be found here and here. Just follow the links on those pages. Any level of academic dishonest (such as cheating or plagiarizing) will result at minimum in the student failing the assignment, but can also include expulsion from the course and actions filed with Student Judicial Affairs.
Required texts available at UT bookstore and on reserve in the library. All other readings, unless otherwise noted, will be available here.
Brian Axel, ed. From the Margins: Historical Anthropology and Its Futures (Duke University Press, 2002).
Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge, 1977).
Antoinette Burton, Archive Stories (Duke Univ. Press, 2005).
Francois Cusset, French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2008).
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Vintage, 1995).
Ellen Meiskins Wood, The Origins of Capitalism (Verso, 2002).
Peter Novick, That Noble Dream (Cambridge, 1998).
Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford Univ. Press, 1988).
Moishe Postone, Time, Labor, and Social Domination (Cambridge, 1996).
Denise Riley, Am I That Name: Feminism and the Category of Women in History (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2003).
William Sewell, Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformaitions (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2005)
Carloyn Steedman, Dust (Rutgers University Press, 2002).
Robert C. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader (WW Norton, 1978).
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Penguin, 2002).
Suggested supplemental resources:
Joseph M. Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students
Students with special needs should identify themselves to me as soon as possible to make necessary alternative arrangements. Syllabi and other materials can be made available in alternative formats upon request.
The Calendar of Topics and Readings is available here.
