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Rationale for the Development of New Core Courses Discussions
among faculty and graduate students identified a clear consensus that
the department's two required core courses were not sufficiently
connected to a larger intellectual trajectory for graduate students,
and might more effectively foster the development of intellectual
community among the incoming class. Dissatisfaction with Current "Core" Historiography Seminar (301) *
Inconsistent approach to seminar (sometimes key works in social theory;
sometimes introduction to variety of historical method through tour of
scholarship by Duke historians) *Central thread to course often missing * Insufficient connections to later coursework Dissatisfaction with Current "Core" Research Seminar (302) *
Focus on developing finished product for M.A., encouraging continuation
of previous research, rather than experimentation and honing of general
research skills *Chance
to develop culture of intellectual feedback with presentation of paper
drafts offset by lack of opportunities for collaborative work or
extending knowledge of how to formulate historical problems, connect
them to relevant sources and research methodologies, and navigate
virtual and physical libraries
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Hoped for Consequences of the New Core Courses 1) more cohesive, intellectually confident, and energized cohort of students 2) fewer difficulties in launching and carrying out independent research, even in the face of unanticipated problems 3)
fewer students falling through cracks of the program, with resulting
decline in average time to degree and attrition from program
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Assessing Actual Consequences of New Core Courses, Intended and Otherwise There
won't be any easy way to measure the medium or long-term impact of
these new core courses until we make it to the medium or long term.
(Even then, isolating the impact of these courses from the many other
changes we are contemplating will be difficult if not impossible.) In the shorter term, we'll be looking closely at: student evaluations of the new courses; andthe assessments of the faculty who teach them. In the slightly longer term, we expect to consider: the
assessment of 2-4 year graduate students about the impact of the new
core courses on their later graduate student experiences; andthe
views of other faculty who teach graduate students on how well the new
core courses seem to have prepared their students for more advanced
work.
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Basic Contours of New 301: Introduction to Historiography * Sustained examination of theoretical and historiographical readings central to current practice in the discipline *
Focus on a handful of pivotal debates in history, such as "what is/was
nationalism," or "what is/was capitalism," or "what is/was gender,"
using those questions to develop a cohesive set of readings in social
theory and historical scholarship *
Choice for the faculty rotating into the course choice over the main
organizing questions and the scholarship to examine them, but not the
basic structure of the seminar * Key goals of seminar: provide significant points of contact for all entering studentsavoid pitfall of attempting to cover too much ground thinlycreate intellectual community in cohort through common conceptual foundation for later coursework
Fuller description of 301
This segment of the larger February 2004 Report discusses the new expectations for the core course in historiography.
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Rejected Alternatives Very
few participants in the department's deliberations argued that our
current core offerings did the job that we would like them to do. Some
participants in the debate (mostly faculty members whose own graduate
school experience lacked required core courses) raised the possibility
of simply junking both 301 and 302, contending that the best way to get
history graduate students energized was to give them as many chances to
pursue their own independent research as possible. We declined to
follow that path on the basis of the following considerations: our
graduate students generally need some sustained attention to the
distinguishing conceptual orientations and practical habits of
historians, along with some consideration of how historians so
frequently borrow from the intellectual tool kits of other academic
disciplines, and what nonetheless generally sets historical research
and strategies of historical explanation apart from those other
disciplines;with
our current class sizes of 8-12, we need some mechanism for building
intellectual community among students with a wide range of interests
and intellectual predispositions;in
light of the profession's likely increasing emphasis on breadth,
comparison, and transnational experience, we should find effective ways
of introducing our students to the enormous diversity in historical
practice, and to the virtues of interacting with scholarship and
historical problems beyond their zones of familiarity; andwith
respect to 302, close attention to the analytical building blocks of
historical research should produce more mature and sophisticated
independent historical work in the second year.
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One of the Duke archival collections that might serve as the basis for a week's assignment in 302
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Basic Contours of New 302: Introduction to Research Methods *
Series of Problem-Based Research Exercises, with creation of a
department file of such exercises and a prototype syllabus to furnish
consistency over the years *
Experience with answering questions through secondary and a variety of
primary sources (including archival holdings, official documents, and
published works) *
Experience with formulating research questions, either as a result of
constructive reading of secondary sources, or engagement with rich
primary sources *Experience connecting such questions to both research methodologies and extant and accessible sources *Consideration
of how to weigh alternative interpretations of conflicting or ambigious
evidence, and how to develop strategies of corroboration; * Introduction to Web-based primary source archives *
Flexibility in several (but not all) assignments so that students can
tailor work to their own interests; requirement of collaboration in
some assignments *
Likely culmination in full-fledged prospectus for a semester-long
research project, which in most cases would lead into one of two second
year research projects Key Goals of Seminar: Give students chance to experiment outside areas of expertiseEnsure solid foundation of research skills and familiarity with both new and old tools of historical investigationDevelop/deepen key habits of mind for sophisticated historical research
A Fuller Description of 302
This segment of our larger February 2004 Report provides an overview of
the new core course in research methods, including some illustrative
assignments for this course.
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