Engineering-LEAP | Dale Larsen: Special: Historical Comparisons

Books, especially history books, can represent very large perspectives on events, eras, issues, and so forth.  One should intentionally read these as such and avoid coming to the conclusion that you have read it all in totality.  Even though they are heavily steeped in evidence (personal accounts, government documents, and other sources) it is impossible to present all the parts of a story, and should be read as a contribution to a larger conversation.

Library books are found at www.lib.utah.edu (usearch)

Assignment Element: Search for any book chapter about the history of your population/group published after 2007 and create 3 bits:
1. What is a question you could ask a member of your group based on what you found (below)?
2. A quote from the chapter agreeing with #1
3. An MLA citation of the article

Scholarly articles, especially in the field of history, are not the overly generic and self-confident histories you read in text books -but rather are filled with evidence and many questions- almost as if they were part on ongoing conversation with other scholars and students like yourself!  This way of scholarship does rely heavily on evidence, like all scholarship, but is slow to come to all-encompassing conclusions and black and white statements.  This style prevents the conversation from coming to an end.

Links:

• Research Databases > A > America: History & Life
• Research Databases > J > JSTOR (subj:history*)

*In JSTOR, you can search only history journals by going to their advanced search -scroll down to subjects and you can just search history (if that makes sense)

Assignment Element: Search for any article about the history of your population/group published after 2007 and create 3 bits:
1. What is a question you could ask a member of your group based on what you found (below)?
2. A quote from the article agreeing with #1
3. An MLA citation of the article

News journalists from the pre-internet era represented their constituency (the people they hoped would read their articles) and may reflect how a particular community or city felt about an issue or topic at the time.  Researchers often use historic newspapers to learn about life in a particular time, compare to a newer era, to re-examine statements of fact, (and your perspective is important -so you will too!)

Links:

www.lib.utah.edu > Research Databases (tab)  

• Library Newspapers Database List
• Los Angeles Times Archive
• New York Times Historical Newspaper
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers (3 titles)
• San Francisco Chronicle Archive
• Wall Street Journal Historical Newspaper

Assignment Element: Search for any article about your population/group published from 1975-1989 and create 3 bits:
1. What is a question you could ask a member of your group based on what you found (below)?
2. A quote from the article agreeing with #1
3. An MLA citation of the article

• Students will be able to discuss differences of a modern or post-modern historical point-of-view.
• Students will learn several scholarly methods of historical research (where the student is not a intruder/imposter; but an active participant).
• Students will be able to discuss the idea of research as a "conversation" rather than a means to an end.
   

(Scholarship as conversation)"…(research) techniques... that are "anti-hierarchical, student-centered, promoting community and collaboration, validating experiential knowledge, discouraging passivity, and emphasizing well-being and self-actualization,"  students can identify where they came from and connect their past experiences and knowledge with their work and role in the academy."