Proseminar: Social History of the US in the 19th and 20th Century

obligatory courses
proseminars

familiarise students with the key events of the 19th and 20th centrury in the United States and their meaning for the US.

2. familairise students with essential literature for the periods and their types

3. preparation for the writing process of essays, research papers, source analysis

4. prepare students to search for academic literature, and to evaluate its usefulness for research

5. prepare students for reading and undestanding academic literature and sources and utililising the obtained skills to write basic research papers.

The seminar will be devoted to gain basic skills neccessary for research and evaluation of the 19th and 20th century socio-political phenomena in the United States. It will prepare students to utilise the scholarly literature on the topic, its evaluation, using and utilising sources, reaerch and writing techniques for simple term and diploma papers. The seminar will also pay attention to the skill of reading of academic texts, searching needed information, its analysis and evaluation and formulating research hypothesis and research conclusions.

This seminar will be focused on two basic compontents - the skill of finding a socio - political phenomenon in American history, locating it in a multilayer historical and social context and, discussing and evaluating the problem and presenting the reserach conclusions in the written form.

Students will learn how to gain source material to their projects, organising it according to the problem lines, how to divide the source material into sections, developing a research problem and theses and defending the project's main point. We will discuss the types of scholarly literature, methods of its analysis, writting techniques and scholarly apparatus.

This is why the other component of the seminar will to teach students the methodology of effective research and methods of disseminating its results.

1. Gordon Harvey, Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2008.

2. Richard Marius, Levin Page, A Short Guide to Writing About History. 6th ed. New York: Longman, 2006.

3. William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide

for Students. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University

Press, 2009.

Upon completion of the course, the student:

Knowledge:

- Understands various forms of documenting the history of the United States.

- Recognizes the historical context and creation of historical sources.

- Understands the relationships between social phenomena in the past United States and the ways they are expressed.

- Recognizes the importance of academic integrity.

Skills:

- Can analyze, evaluate, and draw conclusions about phenomena and processes based on historical sources (written, oral, visual).

- Can explain the significance of a given source for the social history of the USA and its study.

- Can formulate conclusions and assessments resulting from the source.

- Can search for necessary information about events presented in the source.

- Can apply interdisciplinary analysis to present and analyze socio-political events in the USA in written form.

- Can prepare written papers in English.

- Participates, under the guidance of a supervisor, in the preparation of research projects related to the USA.

Social Competencies:

- Is prepared to engage in discussions about controversial events in the history of the USA with respect for different viewpoints.

A 1,500-word paper as a minimum requirement to complete this course. The topics will assigned by the instructor and will be rather analytical than descriptive. Students will also be requested to present on an assignet topic. Active participation is highly recommended. Attending the course is also obligatory. The paper and attending constitutes 51% of your final grade and essentially means "pass". To get a higher grade, your paper should be excellently written, reserached and impressive (requirements will be provided later); additionally your oral presentation and active participation in class discussions will add the remaining 49%.

Assessment methods and assessment criteria:

First semester: regular attendance and participation in class discussions. Homeworks. In the first semester of the seminar you will be

asked to prepare draft proposal and literature to the topic. To get zaliczenie in January students are required to present the overlall idea of the projest and a draft of the introduction. First chapter should be ready in mid March, second in mid-April, third in mid-May. The final zaliczenie and approval of your thesis for defence is based on the quality of your writing and progress of your work.