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Attendance at weekly lectures and discussion sections.
Active participation in discussion.
Timely completion of all readings and written work.
Courteous and professional manner toward fellow students and instructor.
Participation (20%)
You will attend weekly discussion sections led by the teaching assistant. Discussion sections will typically be an opportunity
to analyze and discuss (mostly) primary documents related to the themes and
topics under consideration in this course. Usually a lecture related to the discussion
topic that will be given sometime before discussion, usually the Thursday
preceding the discussion.
Your discussion section participation will be evaluated based on three components. First, attendance and active participation in discussion sections. Attendance will be taken at each session and you will be docked 2 percentage points off your final participation grade for each unexcused absence. Let us be clear, however, that just showing up will not earn you a good grade—you must come ready to discuss and do so. Second, each class will begin with a brief writing assignment in response to one of the study questions, which appear at the end of the syllabus and/or will be posted on the course web page under “texts and study questions.” These assignments are intended to insure that you come to class prepared and have thought about the readings. They will be graded on a scale of 0-2: zero if you do not turn it in or it is clear you did not do the reading; one if your response is adequate; two if it is superior. Third, you will turn in a thesis statement and bibliography in preparation for the research paper. These are due during the discussion section for week 13 (November 11-13).
Scheduled for October 13th, the midterm is designed to test both your knowledge of specific, factual information, and your ability to synthesize this information into a coherent argument. The midterm will cover the first two units of the semester and will consist of a short answer portion and an essay. The essay will be a take-home, open book assignment based on a single question that requires you to link the issues and events of the first two units. You will have to offer a thesis and support it with evidence from the lectures and assigned readings, including the textbook and the readings for discussion section. The short answer portion of the midterm, worth 50% of the exam, will be done in class and will be drawn exclusively from a finite list of terms that you will be given approximately one week in advance. Sixty minutes at the start of class will be allotted for the midterm. The remainder of the class session will be devoted to lecture.
Due December 1st, the 5-7 page research paper is an opportunity for you to examine a topic of interest to you in greater depth. Topic inspiration should come from the textbook or lectures. By this I mean that you will no doubt encounter information in those two sources that you will find intriguing: an interpretation you disagree with, or an event you previously knew nothing about. The research paper is your opportunity to take issue with these sources and make a serious, well-documented counter argument, or merely to investigate more deeply a topic that grabbed your interest and about which you wanted to know more. The requirements for selecting a topic are that it:
· fit within the chronological and thematic parameters of this course
· not duplicate a topic that we are already examining in greater depth (our so-called special topics)
· be situated in global, historical terms
·
be something mentioned at least in passing in
the textbook or lectures
What does the phrase “global, historical terms” mean? This is a world history class, so the topic for your paper must either look at
· a national issue or conflict from an international perspective, such as the Hungarian uprising of 1956, not solely as a national conflict, but from the perspective of the Cold War struggle between the US and USSR; or
· examine an international or transnational issue or process, such as the formation of the European Union; or
· explore an issue of global concern, such as AIDS or the environmental movement
Because this approach goes against the traditional nation-state orientation of most history classes, topics must be approved in advance by the teaching assistant. This must be done in writing no later than Week 11. One-sentence will suffice. At discussion section that week, the TA will pass around a sheet on which you can state concisely what your topic is. If you miss discussion that week, you must email your topic to the TA. It is your responsibility to make sure this gets done. The TA is not responsible for following up on this with each student.
In addition to meeting certain requirements about the topic, you must also rely significantly on primary documents. That is, you must locate sources relevant to your topic that are eyewitness accounts, contemporary press accounts, journals, memoirs, government decrees, international treaties, etc. You are encouraged to supplement these sources with secondary literature as appropriate. If you are able to do relevant research in a language other than English, you are encouraged to do so. You may NOT rely exclusively on internet sources or on sources assigned for this course.
Your paper will be evaluated on the clarity of the thesis, organization, writing, and argumentation, as well as your skills in identifying and interpreting sources. The paper must also clearly satisfy the requirements laid out above regarding possible topics for consideration. It must be 5-7 pages, typed, double spaced, with 1-1.25” margins, and in a 12 point font. The paper must be properly footnoted and include a bibliography. For information on proper formatting of footnotes and bibliographies, please see UI History Writing Center [http://www.uiowa.edu/~histwrit/].
Keep in mind that this assignment is designed specifically to give you an opportunity to offer your own interpretation of events and their significance. Your paper will be judged not on the basis of the opinions themselves, but on how effectively those opinions are argued and supported by evidence.
Further details about this assignment will be offered in lecture and discussion as the semester progresses.
Scheduled for December 13, the final exam will be of a format similar to that of the midterm, but will be cumulative in content. The short answers will be drawn from a finite list of terms available at least a week before the exam. These terms will come primarily, though not exclusively from material covered since the midterm. The essay will require that you discuss the entire post-1945 period. Like the midterm, the essay will be done as a typed, take-home, open book exam, while the short answer portion of the test will be done during the scheduled exam period. Each portion is worth 50% and it should take no more than 60 minutes to complete the short answer section. The take home essay should be 4-5 pages (no more!), double spaced, 12 point font, 1-1.25” margins. The essay should be understood as an opportunity to demonstrate your familiarity with the assigned readings, and to synthesize the information presented there, in lectures, and in discussion sections.
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