University of Iowa
Department of History
History 16:091: Honors Seminar Spring 2009
Wednesday 2:30-5:00 177 SH
Professor Jeffrey Cox
109 Schaeffer Hall, Phone: 335-2298
E-Mail: jeffrey-cox@uiowa.edu
Office Hours:
First week of classes: Thursday 2-4 (i.e. tomorrow).
Second week of classes Monday 12:30-1:20; Friday 2:30-4
Rest of semester: Monday 2:30-4:30; Tuesday 2:30-3:20
Department of History. 280 Schaeffer Hall 8-12; 1-5 daily
Chair: Colin Gordon. Phone: 335-2299
The Honors Seminar.
The honors seminar is designed to offer history majors working on honors theses a forum in which to discuss their research and writing. In the first few weeks of the semester we will focus on issues relevant to finding a thesis topic: the availability of primary sources, problems of argument, narrative and style in historical writing, and the historical imagination. Later in the semester students will submit and discuss an abstract and bibliography, chapter outlines, and a writing draft. This will keep everyone on schedule for the completion of a thesis, and provide opportunities for creative and critical discussions of preliminary writing.
The Honors Thesis.
The honors thesis is a thirty-five to seventy-five page research paper that employs primary sources and offers an original argument about its subject. Thesis writers set their own research agenda, undertake a more sophisticated project than is possible in a regular course, and complete their undergraduate careers with a substantial accomplishment. Ideally, it should be a publishable work. By the end of the semester, a student should expect to have defined the project, examined the sources, prepared an outline, and drafted a chapter or extended introduction. During the summer, the student will continue work on the thesis, and in fall semester enroll in History 16:92: Senior Thesis. The finished thesis will be evaluated by a committee of three, including the student's Advisor and two other faculty members. Honors theses kept permanently in the library of the Honors Center, and by the History Department.
The Thesis Advisor.
Each honors student chooses a history faculty member who specializes in the field of the student's research interests to be his/her honors thesis advisor. The advisor aids the student in the development of the project, suggests sources, reads chapters and is responsible for the student's final grade. It is critical that students meet regularly with their advisors; both student and advisor will be asked to sign a contract specifying the thesis topic, and a commitment to meet at regular intervals during the fall semester. The honors seminar is not a substitute for direct guidance from the thesis advisor. However, the director of the honors seminar is available to assist students in finding an advisor, and to offer critical assistance on the structure, organization, and process of the thesis project.
Credit and Grading
In order to graduate with Honors in History, a student must enroll in History 16:91 for three hours of Credit, and History 16:92 for an additional three hours, for a total of six. History 16:91 is initially graded on and S/U basis for students who complete all the requirements for the course. The advisor awards the grade for the Senior Thesis, which is recorded as the grade for History 16:92. The “S” grade for History 16:91 is then retroactively changed to the grade awarded for History 16:92. Student will eventually receive six hours of graded credit for the Senior Thesis.
Course Requirements
Attendance is mandatory.
Readings are mandatory. Not doing the readings and being unprepared to participate in class discussions is tantamount to being absent. The assigned books will be available for purchase at Prairie Lights Bookstore.
Wayne Booth, Joseph M. Williams, and Gregory C. Colomb, The Craft of Research 3d Ed.) (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003).
Peter Novick, That Noble Dream :The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) (Iowa Book and Supply)
Julie Des Jardins, Women and the Historical Enterprise in America. Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880–1945, Gender & American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History. (New York: AMS Press, 1978).
Edward Hallett Carr, What is History? (London New York: Macmillan St. Martin’s Press, 1961).
C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750 a Social Portrait. (New York: Knopf, 1971).
3. Assignments.
The Abstract and Bibliography is a one or two page description of your project along with a list of sources, both primary and secondary. You need not have read or evaluated all these sources, but you should have some idea about how you will use them to develop an argument, and you should try to formulate some kind of question or problem that the thesis addresses, and explain how you intend to solve the problem or tell the story.
The Thesis Outline is a preliminary guess about how you will organize the thesis. It should be built around your sources, and what you think you will say about the subject at this point, mostly to get you thinking comprehensively and organizationally and to serve as a departure for a brief class discussion of your project. (It is unlikely that your actual thesis will follow this outline.)
The Writing Draft is any kind of short writing exercise that makes sense for you at this stage. It may be a chapter draft or part of one. It may be an extended bibliographical essay on some of your sources, or a thought piece on some aspect of the project that may or may not ever find its way into the final thesis. You may want to try an introduction, but I would discourage that unless you have made extraordinary progress during the semester.
The Contract signed by the student, the advisor, and the honors advisor is due on the last day of class, and is required in order to receive credit for the course.
Schedule of Class Meetings
January
21 Introductions
28 Research at the University of Iowa Library, Dr. Sydney Huttner. Report to 3052 Library at 3 pm. You may gather in the hallway just outside Special Collections – the room is just a few steps down the corridor.
February
4 Honors Resources at the University of Iowa (Dr. Robert Kirby). Read Novick, Introduction and Part I.
11 Oral reports on Times of London and The Illustrated London News. Volumes of the Times for 1867-1893 are shelved in "Storage Annex.". Request it at SOUTH Circulation Desk The Illustrated London News (Vols. 1-115 and vol. 147) is shelved in MAIN Special Collections, w-coll. Ask for a volume at the Special Collections desk. Choose a year, 1867-1893, and look at both for the same year. You should be prepared to give a 5-10 minute report on “what I learned about history” from looking at these two sources. Hint: it’s not the facts.
18. Read Novick, Part II; Booth, Part II and Part IV-12-13.
25. Read Novick, Part III; reports on advanced theses.
March
4 Julie Des Jardins, Women and the Historical Enterprise in America; Booth IV: 14 &16.
11 Reports on Abstracts and Bibliographies:
Spring break
25 The Big Story: Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History.
Turn in Abstracts and Bibliographies.
April
1 Solving a Problem: C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow; Novick, IV.
8 The Big Story: E. H. Carr, What is History?; Booth, II: 7-8, IV: 17.
Turn in Outlines and Revised Bibliographies
15 A Sense of Place: Richard Hofstadter, America in 1750; Booth, III: 9,10,11.
Departmental Fellowship Applications Due.
22 Individual conferences.
29 Individual conferences
May
6 Individual conferences.
Writing Sample Due
Contract Due.