Overview ( Please use the template as well)
History is much more than a list of dates, names, and places. Examining our histories helps us understand how the past connects to our present and what it means to be human. It allows us to make better decisions about our futures. History also provides us with very practical skills that are useful in any profession, such as determining the credibility of information, conducting research, and asking critical questions.
In each module, you will complete assignments that will prepare you for an aspect of your final project. In this assignment, you will choose your project topic. Before completing this activity, review the Project Guidelines and Rubric to know exactly what you will be working on. Make certain to review the historical topic in the library guide, which provides an overview of the topic as well as primary and secondary sources to support your research.
While it is a good idea to choose your topic early, you may change it until the next module.
Prompt
Use the provided Module One Activity Template: Project Topic Exploration and the Research Topic Lists in the HIS 100 Library Guide to complete this assignment. In the Library Guide, you will see the following pages:
* Research Topic List: Human Rights and Inequality
* Tulsa Massacre
* Wounded Knee Occupation
* Stonewall Rebellion
* Research Topic List: Political Revolutions
* Haitian Independence
* Philippine Revolution
* Iranian Revolution
* Research Topic List: Climate Change and Environmental Issues
* Great London Smog
* Creation of Earth Day
* Chernobyl
* Research Topic List: Globalization
* Creation of the UN
* Act Prohibition the Importation of Slaves
* Founding of NATO
Make certain to review the lists of more specific topics within each theme to choose your research topic.
Then, describe your prior knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and values related to your chosen topic. Finally, you will explain why you think this historical topic is relevant to contemporary society.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
* Explain what you already know about the chosen topic based on your personal history or experiences.
* If you do not have prior knowledge about your topic, explain what you would like to learn more about.
* Describe the beliefs, assumptions, and values you have related to the topic you chose.
* What opinions or perspectives do you have about your topic? What conclusions have you already drawn about it?
* Explain why this topic is relevant to current events or to modern society.
* Why might this topic matter to us now?
Course Outcomes
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
* Develop questions about foundational historical events that inform personal assumptions, beliefs, and values using evidence from primary and secondary sources
* Determine fundamental approaches to studying history in addressing questions about how events are shaped by their larger historical context
* Investigate major developments in the progression of historical inquiry for informing critical questions related to historical narrative
* Articulate the value of examining historical events for their impact on contemporary issues.
Overview
Study the past if you would define the future.
—Confucius
Many people argue that we are products of our past. However, as the Chinese philosopher Confucius suggested, because the contemporary events taking place around us have histories, we can examine them to understand how and why the events came to be. By developing the skills needed to investigate those histories, we can uncover the historical roots of current events and learn from them. Researching, examining narratives, uncovering personal biases, and finding credible resources are some of those skills. We might not want to be historians in the future, but we should all understand how to look at things from a historical standpoint to better understand contemporary issues.
For this project, you will choose a historical event to explore from the Library Research Guide. These events fit into the topic areas of:
* Inequality and human rights
* Political revolutions
* Climate change
* Globalization
Directions
Read these directions and the rubric criteria and reach out to your instructor if you have any questions before you begin working on this project. Many of the steps below will require you to reference and utilize the work you have done in previous modules of this course. You may use the provided template to complete this project or choose not to use the template and submit a Word document instead.
Part 1: Creating a Research Question: The quality of research often depends on the quality of the question driving it. It is important to understand how personal opinions, perspectives, and historical sources all play a part in developing and examining a research question. Complete the following steps to discuss how you developed a strong research question about your chosen historical event.
1. Describe how your assumptions, beliefs, and values influenced your choice of topic.
* How might your own perspectives and opinions impact the topic you chose and how you may approach studying it?
2. Discuss the significance of your historical research question in relation to your current event.
* State your historical research question and explain the connection between your current event and your question.
3. Explain how you used sources to finalize your research question.
* Identify the specific primary and secondary sources you used.
* Discuss how evidence in these primary and secondary sources strengthened or challenged the focus of your question.
Part 2: Building Context to Address Questions: In this part of the project, you will examine the historical context related to your historical event. The context will be like snapshots that capture what was happening in history that affected the development of your current event.
1. Describe the context of your historical event that influenced your current event.
* How does the context of your historical event help tell the story of what was happening at the time? How might this historical event connect or lead to your current event?
2. Describe a historical figure or group’s participation in your historical event.
* This person or people must have directly participated in the event you identified as it was happening, not after it.
* Use specific details from your primary and secondary sources to demonstrate how the person or people participated in the event.
3. Explain the historical figure or group’s motivation to participate in your historical event.
* Consider why the person or people were motivated to get involved in the event.
Part 3: Examining How Bias Impacts Narrative: Narrative is how people tell stories based on their own assumptions, beliefs, and values. From a historical perspective, narratives influence who we focus on, what we focus on, and how we discuss events and issues in the past and present. Complete the following steps to explore how the stories about your current event and the historical events leading to it have been told.
1. Describe a narrative you identified while researching the history of your historical event.
* There can be multiple narratives depending on your sources. Pick one or two that you feel have been the most influential.
2. Articulate how biased perspectives presented in primary and secondary sources influence what is known or unknown about history.
* How do potentially biased sources influence knowledge of your historical event and current event?
* Support your stance with examples from your primary and secondary sources.
3. Identify the perspectives that you think are missing from your historical event’s narrative.
* Whose stories were not recorded? Whose voices were ignored or silenced?
Part 4: Connecting the Past With the Present: Consider how the work you have done to develop your research question and investigate it can be used to explain connections between the past and present. Complete the following steps to discuss the value of developing historical inquiry skills.
1. Explain how researching its historical roots helped improve your understanding of your current event.
* How did examining your current event from a historical perspective help you better comprehend its origins?
2. Articulate how questioning your assumptions, beliefs, and values may benefit you as an individual.
* Why is it valuable to be aware of your assumptions, beliefs, and values when encountering information in your personal, academic, and professional life?
3. Discuss how being a more historically informed citizen may help you understand contemporary issues.
* Consider how having knowledge of history could influence how you approach current challenges or questions in the world.
What to Submit
To complete this project, submit the completed template or submit a Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves
( This is my chosen topic)
Slavery was a controversial issue at the time of the Constitutional Convention. The convention delegates needed to handle the issue of slavery carefully to avoid ruining the convention. Northern states were against the continued importation of slaves, and the Southern states were for continued importation. The agreed-upon compromise, reflected in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, of the Constitution, prevented Congress from outlawing the importation of slaves until 1808. The issue was addressed again when President Thomas Jefferson, in his December 1806 Annual Message, suggested it was time for action. Legislation was passed through Congress to prohibit slave importation in March 1807. The prohibition took effect on January 1, 1808.
This research starter, Antislavery laws of 1777 and 1807
This link opens in a new window
, provides background on An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves and its context. Research starters are tertiary sources and not something that would be cited in a paper. They are a good way to quickly gain a basic understanding of a topic. (Please note, encyclopedias/tertiary sources should NOT be cited in your assignment. Scroll down for primary and secondary sources)
