HIST 593

Fall 2014 All Classes

All Classes

Approaches to History

Credit: 4 hours.

Required course for entering history graduate students offering in initial foray into historiography, methods, and conceptual approaches for students in all fields. Provides experience dealing with three challenges that face all practitioners of the discipline: identifying the historical problem to be tackled, deciding what methodologies are best suited to that problem, and locating and then making use of the primary sources necessary for analyzing the subject at hand. Assigned materials, class discussions, and assignments will prepare students for the second semester required research seminar. Restricted to first-year graduate students in history.

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HIST 593 class schedule data for fall 2014
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	53136	Discussion/ Recitation	A	1:00PM -2:50PM	W	Gregory Hall	Crowston, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/25/14-12/10/14 Section Info: Required for students who are entering the History graduate program. Description: This course is the first half of a two-term sequence designed for first year students in the History Ph.D. program at UIUC. Rather than providing definitive answers or covering an established "canon" of great books, this course aims to raise questions and inspire thought and debate. Some of our questions will include: What is "history" and how have methods and approaches for conceiving and studying the past varied over time and space? What values, assumptions and theories underlie various approaches to writing history? What challenges to history as we know it are posed by post-modernist, post-colonialist and other critiques? What lessons do historiographical debates carry for our own practice as historians, teachers, and citizens? Course readings are selected to highlight contrasting theoretical standpoints and methodological approaches to the writing of history In addition to raising questions about historiography, the course aims to impart practical skills that will be useful for graduate and professional careers. By the end of the course students will have worked through major genres of graduate writing and explored the riches of the UIUC library system. A third aim of the course is to prepare student for the spring semester first-year research paper. By the end of this semester, students will have chosen a topic for the paper, discussed it with a potential advisor, and prepared a detailed research proposal. Class readings and discussions will introduce students to potential approaches and methods for the paper and outline the essential elements of a successful proposal and paper. Restriction(s): Restricted to History major(s). Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.