J425, History Capstone Seminar, Fall 2024

CONDITIONS OF LEARNING.  We assemble this semester in the face of the diminished but ongoing Covid pandemic still challenging our country and world, having resulted in at least over 1.2 millions deaths in the United States (and over 26,000 deaths in Indiana) since March 2020.  Currently spreading are new variants such as KP.2 and JN.1, fortunately less lethal thus far, but present in Bloomington and on the rise nationally and globally (albeit undercounted).  University policy, such as it exists, is that any public heath precautions are voluntary.  I myself will be getting the new vaccination booster, imminently to become publicly available.  I have no information about the classroom’s ventilation capabilities.

Meanwhile, the Covid pandemic has taken a terrible toll on elementary as well as secondary education (as measured in terms of recent standardized testing), which, along with many other effects of the pandemic, inexplicably remain largely unaddressed in many domains of our society and culture, including education.  Many departments in many research universities have been closely studying these effects, but public policy at the local, state, and federal levels has, for whatever reasons, lagged behind in taking action.

This course has long necessarily been designed to be responsive to students by addressing chronic inequities in education funding in this state and nationally through a focus on fundamental historical knowledge to enable students to participate in democratic and global citizenship, and through a focus on foundational skills to enable students to participate in a dynamic modern economy.

CLASS CONTRIBUTION.  As with any seminar, the success of this course depends on your regular attendance, your conscientious preparation, and your active participation.  Respectful, informed, and constructive participation in discussion is the expectation for a seminar course.

From week to week in class, we will discuss our progress with one another as we grapple with the fundamental challenges of researching, analyzing, and presenting history.

Outside of class, each of you is required to meet individually with a faculty consultant three times over the course of the semester, and to report on those meetings.  Choosing such a faculty consultant will be an early task in the course.

In addition, I will meet each of you individually on three occasions over the course of the semester, during our regularly scheduled class time.

Altogether, we will in this class be acting in the manner of a scholarly community — as a team of mentors and peers — to help everyone contribute to the collective enterprise and individual effort of investigating history.

If you must be absent at some point, you should have the courtesy to alert the professor beforehand, and you should have the responsibility to complete and submit the current research report.

ASSIGNMENTS.  In this particular seminar, there is no overarching theme and there are no assigned readings.  The centerpiece of the class is for you to choose a topic of compelling interest to you, to explore necessary primary and secondary sources, to share strategies and ideas with your peers, to brainstorm with a faculty consultant, and to produce a final research project.

Consistent with a capstone seminar, there will be a series of short research reports culminating in a final project in whatever format is most usefully related to your future career plans.  That format should be decided in consultation with the professor.

For examples of some recent J425 Capstone Projects and students’ motivations behind them, see J425 Capstone Projects.

For a guide for undertaking library and database research, see the History Research Guide.

For a guide on pursuing a history research paper, see “Making the most of your history research experience” prepared by the History Department.

For general tips on interpreting primary documents and evaluating secondary readings, see the following two guidelines:  Strategies for Interpreting Primary Documents and Strategies for Evaluating Secondary Readings.

All writing assignments are to be submitted in Word or PDF format via the Assignments feature in Canvas.  They should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins in a readable (10, 11, or 12 point) font, with your name (but never your student identification number), course number and title, date, and paper title compressed at the top of the first page.

Citations for all research in primary and secondary sources must use the Chicago Manual of Style.  Accessing it requires your usual Indiana University login.

Plagiarism on any assignment will result in failure of and ejection from the class, and will become a permanent part of the student’s transcript and academic record.  Writing must be original, and all quotations, derivative ideas and uncommon facts must be duly footnoted.  See “Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It” from Writing Tutorial Services.  For student responsibilities and university procedures related to academic misconduct, see the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct.

Use of “generative AI,” such as ChatGPT, to produce any assignment constitutes plagiarism.  These programs generate illiterate documents on the basis of grossly inaccurate algorithms.  Garbage in, garbage out.  As with any plagiarism, use of “generative AI” is contrary to education, to thought, to knowledge, to integrity, to self-respect, and to respect for others.

GRADING.  Grading will be determined as follows: 10% class contribution; 60% research and revision reports; 30% final draft and statement of revisions.

ASSISTANCE.  If at any time during the semester you have questions about the course website, reading material, class discussion, writing assignments, or your performance in this class, please feel free to email the professor.

Whenever you email the professor, please put “J425” somewhere in the subject line.

If you have any kind of accessibility issue, please provide the professor with official written notification from Accessible Educational Services (Eigenmann Hall 001) as soon as possible so that any necessary accommodations can be made.

International students may find resources at the Office of International Services (Ferguson International Center).

If any difficult situation confronts you in your personal life and affecting your academic life, please avail yourself of a range of university services found at:  Division of Student Affairs.

Among the available university services are:  Counseling and Psychological Services and the Student Advocates Office.

If you experience or witness any bias-based incident — i.e., any any act of discrimination or harassment based on race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability — you can report it to the Division of Student Affairs via:  Bias Incident Reporting.