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This website features work from the completion of Phase 1 of the SCALES Project.

We are currently seeking partnerships for Phase 2.

History

  • Assignment 3: Exploration and Environment

    In planning your paper, you will have to make a number of decisions, some of which you’ve already done. You’ve already chosen the subject upon which you will base your essay (if you’re not happy with this choice, you may still change your mind, but it will mean repeating many of the steps you’ve already taken): now it’s time to focus in on some aspect of your topic and how it relates to the environment. How did nonhuman environments shape or impact the expedition or explorer you focus on? How did a particular moment in exploration change the way people understand the natural world, or the way we live in it?

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  • Assignment 2: Bibliographic Essay and Annotated Bibliography

    For this assignment, you will choose a subject within the broad heading of exploration and environment, and write a bibliographic essay about it. What you write about for this assignment will also be the subject of your third assignment—a ten-page research paper—so you will want to chose your topic carefully. It should be broad enough to allow you to analyze political, cultural, economic and ecological factors, but narrow enough to allow you to construct a convincing and well-reasoned argument.

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  • Assignment 1

    Select one of the readings from Mancall and explain the environmental assumptions implicit in its author’s response to the New World and his understanding of the possibilities it presents. These possibilities should include agriculture and natural resources, but may also extend to mercantile, military, and cultural issues. In addition, you should compare these early responses to the New World to a modern interpretation, either the one offered by William Cronon, or that of Judith Carney or J. R. McNeill (or a combination of the three, if you are feeling ambitious). In either case, don’t just offer abstract generalizations—be sure to refer specifically to the texts.

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  • Historiographical Essay

    For the historiographical essay, you may select your own topic (and within that a framing question) from among those considered in the course. Students should also develop a useful bibliography on the topic. The expectation is that you will encompass a major literature while demonstrating the ability to think critically about the theories and methods engaged by other historians to answer the question you have posed. You should organize the paper around this question, giving careful consideration to why different historians sometimes answer important questions in such different ways.

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  • Book Review Assignments

    The first two writing assignments for this course are to select two of the books we are reading in class and complete a 3–4 page review of them. If there is another book you wish to review, this is fine as long as you seek permission in advance. Such a review should accomplish three things:

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  • Weekly Responses

    Each week students will write a very brief (at most 2 paragraphs but could be just bullet points) response to the readings. These might offer comparisons between readings, a summary of the main arguments as you understand them, a series of questions the reading left you with, or if warranted the occasional rant about a particular reading.

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Feedback and any actions taken with regards to the feedback, will be shared as they are addressed.