HSTY 450 Course Schedule

Please note that the schedule of readings, topics, and even assignment due dates are subject to change based on university policies, the weather, and the pandemic. Please check the course Blackboard site for the most up-to-date schedule.

You should prepare any readings and activities by the date listed below. Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due via Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on the date listed. Please get in touch if anything is confusing!

Last updated: August 24, 2020

Format Topic To Prepare Assignment
Weds., Sept. 2 Zoom Course Introduction: What’s News? Watch intro video Fill out Google Survey
Mon., Sept. 7 No class scheduled Labor Day
Weds., Sept. 9 Zoom Reading an Academic Article
  • Keisha N. Blain, “‘We Want to Set the World on Fire’: Black Nationalist Women and Diasporic Politics in the New Negro World, 1940-1944,” Journal of Social History 49, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 194–212.
  • Heidi J.S. Tworek, “The Death of News? The Problem of Paper in the Weimar Republic,” Central European History 50, no. 3 (2017): 328–46.
 Discussion Board post
Mon., Sept. 14 Zoom Producing a Research Essay
  • Sample Seminar Paper
  • Rampolla, Pocket Guide, chs. 1-2
 VoiceThread update
Weds., Sept. 16 Online Designing a Project
  • Amelia Bonea, “The Medium and Its Message: Reporting the Austro-Prussian War in the Times of India,” Historical Social Research 35, no. 1 (March 2010): 167–87.
  • Will Slauter, “A Satirical News Aggregator in Eighteenth-Century London,” Media History 22, no. 3/4 (August 2016): 371–85.
 Topic with possible sources; Discussion board post
Mon., Sept. 21 Zoom Doing Research Online
  • Rampolla, Pocket Guide, ch. 5
  • Ben Franklin’s World, episode 92, “How to Research History Online” (Part of Doing History Season 1)
 VoiceThread update
Weds., Sept. 23 Online Conferences #1 See Starfish to sign up Annotated bibliography (due 24 hours before conference); Discussion board post
Mon., Sept. 28 Zoom Research Progress VoiceThread update
Weds., Sept. 30 Online Research/Writing Day Topic summary (750-1,000 words); Discussion board post
Mon., Oct. 5 Zoom Contributing to Historiography Anderson, Imagined Communities, chs. 1, 3, 4 VoiceThread update
Weds., Oct. 7 Online Organization and Topic Sentences Updated bibliography; Discussion board post
Mon., Oct. 12 No class scheduled Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day VoiceThread update
Weds., Oct. 14 Online Historiography Historiography review
Mon., Oct. 19 Zoom Proposals and Presentations VoiceThread update
Weds., Oct. 21 Online Conferences #2 Formal proposal; Discussion board post
Mon., Oct. 26 Zoom The Writing Process I Rampolla, Pocket Guide, ch. 7 VoiceThread update
Weds., Oct. 28 Online Research/Writing Day Outline
Mon., Nov. 2 Zoom The Writing Begins Rampolla, Pocket Guide, ch. 4 VoiceThread update
Weds., Nov. 4 Online Research/Writing Day 2,500 words; Discussion board post
Mon., Nov. 9 Zoom Writing In Your Own Words Rampolla, Pocket Guide, ch. 6 VoiceThread update
Weds., Nov. 11 No class scheduled – Veterans Day 5,000 words
Mon., Nov. 16 Zoom Full Drafts VoiceThread update
Weds., Nov. 18 Online Conferences #3 Full draft (date assigned by individual student)
Mon., Nov. 23 Zoom The Revision Process VoiceThread update
Weds., Nov. 25 Online Conferences #3 Discussion board post
Mon., Nov. 30 Zoom Peer Editing I VoiceThread update
Weds., Dec. 2 Online Peer Editing II Revision plan
Mon., Dec. 7 Zoom Final Revisions VoiceThread update
Weds., Dec. 9 Online Writing and Revision
Mon., Dec. 14 Zoom Final Thoughts Final essay
Thurs., Dec. 17

8:00 a.m.

 Zoom Final Presentations