This video was researched, produced and edited by Iris Howorth, Class of 2012, as her Archives Concentration capstone project. She selected the images from the College Archives’ Buildings Files Collection, A-Z. Archival Tour of Smith [College]
|
This video was researched, produced and edited by Iris Howorth, Class of 2012, as her Archives Concentration capstone project. She selected the images from the College Archives’ Buildings Files Collection, A-Z. Archival Tour of Smith [College] Syllabus for “Oberlin History as American History, Spring, 2012
2/21/2012 History 268 Oberlin History as American History Spring 2012 Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-10:50 King 343 Professor Carol Lasser Office: Rice 317 Carol.lasser@oberlin.edu X56712 Office Hours: Thursdays 3-4:45 and by appointment
Main Street, Oberlin, Ohio, 1910-1927 From Our Common Center Database
Course Objectives: This course engages students in exploring the history of Oberlin, Ohio, both for its uniqueness and for its reflections of broader trends in American history. It challenges students to (dis)cover, understand and evaluate the past of this complex multicultural community in relation to the national narrative about struggles for civic identity, human rights, racial equality and social justice. The course combines analysis of primary sources with secondary readings in order to equip students to do original research into the history of the town. We look into a variety of representations, including art, photographs and maps; and we probe the possibilities for working with both community history and community memory. In this way, we develop knowledge with which to construct, question, refine, and contest our understandings of our community and our nation. This year, students enrolled in the course will focus their research projects on the history of community civic culture, especially celebrations and public ceremonies. These explorations should help us better understand the changing ways in which narratives of our community are constructed, the meanings of civic participation and public celebration, and the creation of the identity both of the town and of its inhabitants. College students will be undertaking “real” history research, but with a sensitivity to, and in collaboration with stakeholders in that history— the members of the community for whom these histories are meaningful sources of contemporary understanding. Students are especially urged to take this class for four hours of credit, which will place them in partnership with students from Oberlin High School. Our work will also generate a significant resource for future historians and citizens.
Organization of the Course: Students may choose to take the class for three hours credit or for four hours credit. For the first half of the semester, the assignments for all students will be the same. After Spring Break, students taking the course for different hours will have some different assignments. Students taking the course for four hours credit will be placed in a partnership with students from the tenth grade American history course taught at Oberlin High School by Mr. Kurt Russell. Teams of high school and college students will work together for the second half of the semester. Final projects for students taking the course for four hours will involve coordinating research with their high school partners (as delineated below) and helping them assemble materials for a paper and a presentation. Grades for students taking the course for four hours will be based in part on their documented efforts to work with high school students to create the assigned paper and presentation. Students taking the course for three hours credit will not be placed in a partnership with high school students. Nonetheless, they are expected to be aware of the meaning of their work to the broader Oberlin community. Their final project will be a paper on Oberlin history based on original research (as delineated below).
An Important Note on Readings Assigned for History 268 At this time, there are no required texts to be purchased for this course. All readings will be available either at the class Blackboard site, or on the special websites cited in the syllabus. Check your syllabus for the location of the assigned material. Please let me know as soon as possible if there are problems with the readings. You are encouraged to print out all readings, mark them up, and bring them to class. The assigned readings will be discussed in class, and you will use them in your papers. You are required to bring to class some readings, indicated on the syllabus by **; you may print these readings out, or you can bring them to class on a laptop. Some readings can be accessed online via urls supplied in the syllabus. Readings without urls are on the class Blackboard site under “Readings.” You are expected to do all readings and assignments, and come to class prepared to discuss them.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES Tuesday, February 7 Introduction to the Course and Its Objectives: What Does it Mean to “Do History”?Oberlin: College and Community
Thursday, February 9 History And Memory: Constituencies and Engagements Required Reading:
Questions: How does Becker define “History”? Do you find his definition distinctive? How does it compare to other definitions of “History” that you have used? How do Rosenzweig and Thelen see people engaging in “making history”? Are they doing what Becker’s “Everyman” [sic] is doing when “he” studies “History?” What is the relationship of “history” and “heritage”? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class. Tuesday, February 14 Getting to Oberlin: Required Reading:
Questions: Why was Oberlin founded? What was the original relationship between the “colony” and the “Oberlin Collegiate Institute”? What did you discern about the national context for the founding of Oberlin from your reading in Fletcher? How would you characterize the political, social and religious outlook of the founders? Why are the histories written by Sherman and by Fletcher so different? What are their various purposes? What are their sources? What strikes you as special or surprising in the Covenant or in the Prospectus? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.
Thursday, February 16 Oberlin’s Second Founding: The Commitment to Radical Racial Egalitarianism Required Reading
Questions: Why did the Oberlin Collegiate Institute accept students of color? How “radical” was the decision? What evidence do you have to support your point of view? Could you argue a different point of view? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.
Tuesday, February 21 Women and Gender at Early Oberlin Required Reading:
Questions: Were women and men “equal” at early Oberlin? Why did the college accept women? Why did women enroll? What did they hope to gain by attending Oberlin? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.
Thursday, February 23 The Evolution of Antislavery Activism in Oberlin Required Reading:
Questions: Was antislavery a religious, social or political movement in antebellum Oberlin? What moments seem particularly important in its evolution? Why was the Oberlin Community such a hotbed of antislavery activity? What are the implications of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue for our community today? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.
Paper Due FRIDAY, MARCH 2 Utopians or Fanatics or Plain-Living Pioneers? For more than a century, Oberlinians and others have debated whether early Oberlin was an idealist communal settlement or an enclave of rigid and doctrinaire extremism. What’s your take? Please write a paper 4-6 pages in length evaluating the early history of Oberlin (that is, from the founding through the beginning of the Civil War), and providing specific evidence for your answer. You may want to draw on some of the work you did for your earlier Blackboard postings. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, with 12-point type. They should have a clearly stated thesis, make use of supporting evidence, and appropriately cite that evidence. The paper should be written with clarity. You may submit your paper electronically; if you choose to do so, please be sure to submit it in Word, pdf or rtf format andemail it to me at carol.lasser@oberlin.edu. Don’t forget to write and sign the Honor Code.
Tuesday, February 28 “Race and Opportunity in Oberlin, 1850-1900” Guest Lecture by Professor Gary Kornblith Thursday, March 1 “Seeing” Oberlin History Meet at the Print Room at the Allen Art Museum Students with last names A-K: 9:00 to 9:50 Students with last names L-Z: 10:10 to 10:50 Enter the Museum via the walkway on E. Lorain Street that leads into the Art Courtyard; hang your things on hooks and proceed to the Print Room on the Second Floor Important Rules for the Print Room:
Optional Extra Credit Blackboard Posting Before Class on Tuesday, March 6, please post a reflection on how understanding visual and material culture might help us better understand Oberlin history. Describe a specific object you saw that helped you make connections. This posting can take the place of another posting over the course of the semester, or can be posted for additional credit.
Saturday, March 3: Special Session: Monuments and Memory: A Field Trip/Monuments Walk in Oberlin Reading: Kurt Savage, “The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument” in John Gillis, editor, Commemorations
Tuesday, March 6 Oberlin between Jubilee and Centennial: Temperance, Race, and Gender
Optional
Questions: What happened to Oberlin’s reform spirit after the Civil War? What are the similarities between temperance and abolition as social movements? What were the gender dynamics of temperance in Oberlin? What about the dynamics of race? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class. Thursday, March 8 Did Oberlin Retreat from Reconstruction? NIAGARA AND NEWSPAPERS Meet in Mudd Required Reading
Questions: Can you explain what the Niagara Movement was, and why it met in Oberlin in 1908? What issues were controversial during the meeting in Oberlin? How did Diepenbrock see race relations in Oberlin in this period? Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class Tuesday, March 13 Oberlin’s Race Relations, 1920-1945Required Reading:
Special Assignment: For this class, you will use the skills you learned about searching for articles in Oberlin newspapers to find an article that reflects race relations in Oberlin for a time that will be assigned to you during the period between 1920 and 1940. You may work in teams, so long as each individual brings at least one article. You may choose to start your search with the online index to Oberlin Newspapers at http://www.oberlin.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/library/ref/index.php?db=newsindex Bring newspaper article to class! Thursday, March 15 Oberlin Politics, 1960-1965: Housing Controversy in a Small TownRequired Reading:
Questions: What sense did Wildavsky make out of Oberlin local politics? What importance did he accord race? How much power did he find among people of color in the community? What happened to Oberlin’s Fair Housing initiative? Class will include an exploration of doing history with maps. Preliminary Research Prospectus: Assignment for 3 Hour Students: Please submit a preliminary prospectus for your final research paper. Your proposal should include: (1) the topic you want to research (2) at least three questions that you want to address in your research and (3) the kinds of primary sources you hope to use (i.e. newspapers, oral histories, church records, etc.) Your proposal is due by 4:30 today. This assignment will help you make the most of your upcoming library research session. See also the description of your research prospectus at the end of this syllabus. Required Blackboard Posting Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class Tuesday, March 20: Four Hour Students: Partnership Discussion at Oberlin High School. High School Students and College Students will indicate their preferences for celebrations to research. Be sure to use time together to introduce yourselves, and to trade contact information. Four Hour Reading Assignment: Look at the following and discuss with your partner BEFORE you meet your students. Remember that you are NOT teaching these articles to them—but they can inspire your discussions.
Three Hour Students: Meet in Mudd 113 for Research Session with Librarian Ms. Eboni Johnson Three Hour Students: Remember to bring a copy of your research proposal with you to this session. Thursday, March 22: Archives Visit All Students meet at 9am in Archives on Mudd 4th Floor Required Reading:
High School students will join us for the first hour of class.
Spring Break
Tuesday, April 3 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Be sure to bring with you a plan for your session that includes ways to: brainstorm your topic, think about sources, think about how to assign responsibilities, and think about your timetable for research. Three Hour Students You must submit a Revised Research Prospectus and a Research Timetable by Wednesday, April 4 at noon, and sign up for an appointment with the Professor Thursday April 5 or Friday April 6. All Students: 10 am: Discussion of Oral History: Method or Source? In Library Room Required Reading:
Thursday, April 5 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students If possible, share some sources with your team. Begin to assign responsibilities, and think further about your timetable for research. 10 am follow-up meeting in Mudd Group Room Research Timetable for Four Hour students due Sunday, April 8 at noon. Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing. Tuesday, April 10 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students All Students 10 am: Ms. Phyllis Yarber Hogan Oberlin’s Lincoln Street In Library Room Thursday, April 12 Four Hour Students 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students All Students: 10 am: Discussion of Oral History: Nuts and Bolts In Library Room Required Readings
Tuesday, April 17Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Three Hour Students: 10 am class in Library Progress Report Due: Please describe what you have accomplished Bring 3 copies of this report, and 3 copies of your Research Prospectus and Timeline to class All Students: 10 am in Library: Oberlin’s Cooperative Heritage Thursday, April 19 Four Hour Students: High School Oral History I Three Hour Students: Consultations to be scheduled Tuesday, April 24Four Hour Students: High School Oral History II Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing. Thursday, April 26: Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Progress report due Friday, April 27 at 5 pm Three Hour Students 10 am: review of presentation expectations and scheduling Tuesday, May 1 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing. Thursday, May 3 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations All students attend 10 am presentations Tuesday, May 8 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations All Students attend these presentations Thursday, May 10 Final Class Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations All Students attend these presentations Thursday, May 17 at 9 am: Examination Period Four Hour Students: Team Presentations At this time, project and self evaluation due. Three Hour Students: Attendance at these presentations is optional; ALL PAPERS AND FULL PROJECT DOCUMENTATION DUE AT 11 AM GRADING INFORMATION Grading is an art, not a science. To that end, I provide the following information on the weighting of each assignment. Please note that any written work, before the final project, may be rewritten to improve your standing in the class IF you check with me in advance. Any unexplained absence from class will lower your grade. Late work, including late postings, will be penalized, with penalties increasing for degree of lateness. Grading Proportions: Four Hour Students
Grading Proportions: Three Hour Students
Expectations for Blackboard Postings: The course Blackboard site has a section called “Student Posts on Readings.” It has a forum for each topic on a Blackboard posting is required or optional. You will add a posting at least eight times during the semester (this means you can miss one required posting). Your posting should engage one or more of the questions about the readings posed in the syllabus, and, if you wish, it can engage with the reflections posted by other students. Postings should be clearly written, using standard spelling and grammar. They should demonstrate your comprehension of the readings. A posting should be at least one paragraph in length. Postings are due by 7 am on the day they are assigned—that is before class.
What is a Research Prospectus? Describe your topic, and describe the kinds of sources you expect you will use. Reference the ways in which others have viewed your topic, and how that has shaped your thinking. Go from your topic to more specific questions you want to ask; and, if you can, be more specific about your sources.
What is a Research Timetable? Writing your research outline involves refining your conception of your project, assigning tasks and setting deadlines. At this point, you need to convince me that your project is focused and “do-able,” and that you have identified good sources. You should be able to summarize the focus of your inquiry in two or three sentences. In addition, you will want to consider all the components you are expected to include in your final project, think about what each will entail, develop a schedule for the tasks involved, and, if you are working on a group project, assign responsibilities. You may want to explore whether there are any related primary or secondary sources at the Oberlin Heritage Center or in Archives or Special Collections. To use materials at these locations, you will need to make special scheduling efforts. Your research outline should make clear how much time you think you will need to spend working with these sources, and may assign particular responsibilities to individuals.
Three Hour Students: Your Final Submission (due at 11 am on Thursday, May 17) must have these components:
Important Information for Fourth Hour Project You will meet with your high school students each Tuesday after Fall Break. YOU are responsible for working out in advance(with a college partner if you have one) the content, materials and goals for each work session with your high school students in order to achieve the goal for the session. Be well prepared, with readings, questions, alternatives if your plans fall flat. Leave your students with a clear understanding of what you expect them to do during their Thursday work session without you.
Mr. Russell expects each team’s projects to have the following components:
FOUR HOUR COLLEGE STUDENT FINAL SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE:
History 268: Oberlin History as American History Spring 2012 Schedule of Meetings for Four Hour Students Working with 10th Grade American History Class of Mr. Kurt Russell
CHECKLIST OF MATERIALS FOR FOUR HOUR PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS Submit this checklist with your final project
Your Name:
In addition to submitting the materials above College Students need to submit:
Here are the title page, table of contents, and introduction from Past or Portal? Past or portal table of contents Here’s further information about the book: http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/5310 Workshop participants are eligible for a 15% discount on the print edition and the Suzy Taraba
HISTORY 213 – First Wave American Feminism
Production date: September 12, 2010 Adelaide Johnson (left), Dora Lewis, and Jane Addams at the dedication of Johnson’s suffrage sculpture Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony in the U.S. Capitol. National Photo Co. February 15, 1921.
Professor Carol Lasser King 221 Office: Rice 315 X56712 Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-1050
This course explores the quest for gender equality from the end of the American Revolution through the enfranchisement of women in 1920 that is, during the period scholars have identified as the “First Wave” of American feminism. We investigate social and political thought about the status of women, embedding this intellectual history in cultural history that references race, class, sexuality, health and citizenship. We look in particular at analyses as they emerged from the heritage of the American Revolution, antebellum reform including utopianism, and antislavery, post-Civil War factionalism and reaction, the temperance movement, labor and socialist agitation, birth control and eugenic activism. Weekly readings usually focus on the writings of women and men about questions of gender equality in historical and cultural context.
The course requires course attendance and class participation, completion of weekly reading assignments (generally due before class on Tuesdays), regular postings to the class BlackBoard site, two in-class essays on previously distributed topics, and a final exam on previously distributed topics. For further descriptions of the assignments, including information on BlackBoard postings and grading, please see the end of this syllabus.
A Note on Assigned Readings: Most reading assignments are available online. You are encouraged to print these readings out, annotate them as you read, and bring them to class for discussion. One important exception: Please make arrangements to purchase:
Schedule of Classes and Readings Tuesday, September 7: Introduction: Thinking About the History of American Feminism
Thursday September 9: No Class: Jewish New Year
Tuesday, September 14: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Origins of Anglo American Feminism
Thursday, September 16: Revolutionary Backlash: Seductions, Romance and the Sexualization of Virtue: Moral Reform to the Rescue
Tuesday, September 21: The Feminisms of Frances Wright : Radical, Utilitarian, Utopian and/or Liberal?
Thursday, September 23: From Republican Motherhood to the Cult of Domesticity: The Constructing the Euro-American Middle-Class Family
Tuesday, September 28: Margaret Fuller: Constructing a Romantic Tradition
Thursday, September 30: American Slavery and the Emergence of American Antislavery
Tuesday, October 5: Antislavery, Racial Egalitarianism and Women’s Rights
Thursday, October 7: Getting to Seneca Falls: Sex, Property and Citizenship
Tuesday October 12: Convening Women: 1848-1852
Thursday, October 14: Early Black Feminisms
Unveiling of bust of Sojourner Truth in Emancipation Hall, U.S. Capitol, April 28,2009 Just before the Sojourner’s bust was revealed, First Lady Michelle Obama had some remarks on what this event means to her: “The power of this bust will not just be in the metal that delineates Sojourner Truth’s face; it will also be in the message that defines her legacy,” she said. “Forever more, in the halls of one of our country’s greatest monuments of liberty and equality, justice and freedom, Sojourner’s Truth story will be told again and again and again and again.”
Tuesday, October 19 In-class midterm essay.
Thursday, October 21 From Civil War to Schism
Photograph by Napoleon Sarony. National Woman’s Party Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, LC-MSS-34355-36
******* FALL BREAK *******
Tuesday, November 2 The Evolutionary Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Thursday, November 4 Labor, “Labor Feminism,” and the Working Woman
Tuesday November 9 Feminist Maternalism and the State: The Philosophy of Jane Addams
Thursday, November 11 Social Work and Social Justice in Black and White
Tuesday, November 16 Anti-Lynching and Anti-Racist Work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett Readings: A Red Record and controversy with Frances Willard
Thursday, November 18
The Great Trio of Oberlin’s Class of 1884: Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper and Ida Gibbs Hunt
Tuesday, November 23 IN CLASS ESSAY on Topic to be announced
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25: Thanksgiving: NO CLASS
Tuesday, November 30: Suffrage and Empire
Be sure to make arrangements in advance to have this book!
Thursday, December 2 “Reunification” of the Suffrage Movement: At What Cost?
Tuesday, December 7: The Twisted History of Reproductive Self Control
Readings: Sanger, Goldman,
Thursday, December 9: Film Showing in Class: Iron Jawed Angels
Tuesday, December 14: Critical Posting of Iron Jawed Angels
Final Examination for History 213: You will have the option of completing the exam as a timed take-home to be completed before 9 am on Monday, December 20, 2010, Or Completing your examination during the regularly assigned class period: Monday December 20, 2010 9-11 am
Need some dates? Try Woman Suffrage Timeline, online at http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/womens_suffrage_timeline.html
BlackBoard Postings BlackBoard postings are intended to help you consolidate your understanding of the reading and prepare yourself for class discussion. For that reason, postings should be completed no later than 8:30 am before the classes for which they are assigned. They should be posted to the appropriate BlackBoard forum for the class. Late postings are better than absent postings; postings that appear more than one class after the assigned date will not, however, help your grade much, although they may help your learning. The syllabus has (11) required postings listed for the class; you must complete ten (10), but you can complete the additional posting for extra credit. Your posting is an opportunity to think about the reading, and begin a conversation with your classmates. What central issues and problems in the readings do you want to discuss in class? What new perspectives do the readings suggest to you? What class themes seem to be developed in the readings? How does the author make her argument? What seems time-bound about her work? What seems to endure? You may use one of the “Questions to Consider” as a starting point if this helps you to engage. A posting should be about 125-250 words in length (for your reference: a double-spaced page of word-processing in a standard 12-point font contains about 250 words). When you make direct reference to the readings, be sure to include page numbers. Your writing does not need to be fully formal academic prose, but it should be in full and thoughtful sentences, and it should be free of errors of spelling and grammar. Your posting may respond to the posting of another student, or it may pose a question that you would like to discuss in class. I will make every effort to respond to each posting individually, but will not be able to do so before class. Please feel free to use my office hours to ask about your post, or other questions about the class.
Grading Grading is an art, not a science. I will give you regular feedback about your performance in class. I also tend to reward improvement over the course of the semester. Below is the general grading framework I will use:
Please check online for updates of this syllabus.
Any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a disability should speak with me no later than Thursday, September 16, 2010 .
CL 9/1/2010 “Global Valley” is an American Studies introductory course that teaches American Studies methodologies through a study of the local—the valley in question is the Connecticut River Valley—so the assignments are all quite different, material culture analysis of an object, a close reading of a Dickinson poem, digging into census data, contemporary oral history exercises etc…. aimed at first year students.
The Amherst College archives hold the papers of the Porter Phelps Huntington family who occupied the same house in Hadley Massachusetts from 1752 to 1958. The house is now a museum, which we visited, and while segments of the enormous family papers collection has been transcribed, much of it has been little used. This year we focused on the letters Elizabeth Phelps Huntington sent to her 11 adult children in the 1830s and 40s. Each of the thirty students in the class was randomly assigned one of these letters and given the following assignment (they loved it and did a great job and we, the PPH Museum, and the Frost Library hope overtime through this course to build up a bank of transcriptions for this rich collection):
Transcription exercise:
Type a full transcription of your letter. Do your best and if you feel quite unsure about a reading put the phrase in brackets [what is this?] and if you can’t make some words out at all use ellipses….doing your transcription while a classmate is working on theirs in generally a good plan as sometimes someone else’s eyes can make sense of what you just can’t read. Give this process time and be patient and you will find it gets easier.
Now go through your transcript and insert a footnote at all the things you don’t quite understand or think it would be interesting to know more about. Also mark all the proper names (all the specific places and people mentioned). See how far you can get in annotating this letter. To annotate your letter provide in these notes brief bits of background information to explain the words you have marked. If you have put in a footnote about something and cannot find any additional information then write your question in the note (“What was the process for making soap?” “Who is _____, and why was Elizabeth so anxious to please her” “Here Elizabeth describes herself in the third person is this a usual thing for letter writers to do at this time?” etc).
At the end of the transcription write a page about your experience transcribing and annotating this letter. What did you learn in this process? What insight into Hadley life in this period can you draw from this letter? What connections and differences do you see to other material we have studied this semester? What larger stories about the Connecticut River Valley could this document help you to tell? What feels valuable to you about the kind of evidence this sort of archival material provides, and what are its limitations, what kinds of things can’t it tell? |