APPROACHES TO PUBLIC HISTORY
Spring 2015
Tuesdays 4:55-7:35 pm
KJCC Room 607
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
ellen.noonan@gmail.com
Public historians build bridges between the work of academic historians and the
interests of diverse public audiences. Through readings, media analysis, visits by
working public historians, and project work, this course explores the intellectual,
political, and pragmatic issues public historians face as they build those bridges in a
variety of settings from the brick-and-mortar precincts of museums to the vast digital
reaches of the internet.
Your Responsibilities
 Complete weekly class preparation (readings, media analysis) as required and
arrive prepared to participate
 Visit Chinese Inclusion/Exclusion exhibit at New-York Historical Society before
March 3rd class session
 Take a guided historical walking tour and make an oral presentation about it in
class
 Complete two short writing assignments on immigration history
 The course's major project will entail working in small groups to develop a
funding proposal for a public history project (website, museum exhibit, film, oral
history project, education program, etc.). Guest professionals will help to lead inclass peer reviews of the proposals. Assignments leading toward this culminating
project will take place over the course of the semester and will include forming
groups, choosing a topic and mode of presentation, reviewing funding guidelines
and sample proposals, conducting research to identify historical themes and
sources to be used, and drafting the proposal and budget.
Assignment Due Dates
 Tuesdays February 3, 10, 17, 24 (two of these dates): short immigration history
writing assignments
 Friday March 27: Draft project proposal
 Tuesday April 21: Walking tour oral presentation
 Friday April 24: Final project proposal
Grading (see attached Grading Rubric)
 Class participation — 40%
 Short papers and presentations — 25%
 Final project — 35%
Schedule
January 27: Themes and Stories in 20th Century U.S. Immigration History
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New York Times Immigration Explorer (pre-class assignment will be emailed to
you)
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigrationexplorer.html
Vincent DiGirolamo «Ellis Island: Place and Paradigm» podcast + slides
http://ashp.cuny.edu/?podcast=ellis-island-place-and-paradigm
Primary source documents in class
February 3: Ellis Island immigration
 James Barrett, «Americanization from the Bottom Up: Immigration and the
Remaking of the Working Class in the United States, 1880-1930,» Journal of
American History (Vol. 79, No. 3) December 1992, 996-1020.
 Matthew Jacobson, «Immigration, Race, and Citizenship» podcast
http://ashp.cuny.edu/?podcast=immigration-race-and-citizenship
 Elizabeth Ewen, «Our Daily Bread» and «How Many Tears This America Costs,»
from Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars, 94-127.
Project instruction: narratives
February 10: Angel Island immigration and restriction
 Mae M. Ngai, «The Johnson Reed Act of 1924 and the Reconstruction of Race in
Immigration Law,» pp. 16-55 in Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of
Modern America (2004).
 Ronald Takaki, «Ethnic Islands,» pp. 230-257 in Strangers from a Different Shore: A
History of Asian Americans (1989).
 Roger Daniels, «Japanese America, 1920-1921,» pp. 155-185 in Asian America:
Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850 (1988).
Project instruction: workplans
*February 17: Puerto Rican and Mexican Migration and Immigration
 George Sanchez, «Across the Dividing Line» and «Where Is Home? The
Dilemma of Repatriation,» pp. 38-62 and 209-226 in Becoming Mexican
American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945
(Oxford University Press, 1993).
 «The Flapper and the Chaperone,» pp. 51-71 in Vicki Ruiz, Ruiz, From Out of the
Shadows : Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford University
Press, 1998/2008).
 Reading on Puerto Rican migration TBD
Project instruction: budgets
February 24: Post-1965 immigration
 Reed Ueda, «The Transformation of Policy,» pp. 42-57 in Postwar Immigrant
America: A Social History (1994)
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Nancy Foner, «Transnational Ties,» pp. 169-187 in From Ellis Island to JFK: New
York's Two Great Waves of Immigration (2000)
Leon Fink, «How the Dead Helped to Organize the Living,» pp. 54-78 in The Maya
of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo South (University of North
Carolina Press, 2003).
Project instruction: topic selection
March 3: History Education 1: Museum Education (GUEST: Mia Nagawiecki, Director of
Education, New-York Historical Society)
 Attend Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion exhibit at New-York Historical Society
(170 Central Park West, see www.nyhistory.org for hours) and review related
education materials
March 10: History Education 2: Disciplinary Literacy
 Samuel Wineburg, “Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts,” Historical
Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (Temple University Press, 2001).
 Common Core standards for Reading and Writing in Social Studies/History (2010)
 C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards
 Historical Thinking Matters (historicalthinkingmatters.org)
 Beyond the Bubble (beyondthebubble.stanford.edu/)
 National Archives DocsTeach (docsteach.org)
 National History Education Clearinghouse (teachinghistory.org) [REFERENCE]
SPRING BREAK
March 24: Digital History 1: Varieties of Digital History
(The following sites may be among those we review; final assignments will be made
prior to spring break. No one will be responsible for every site on the list.)
 Calisphere (http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/)
 Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years (http://digital.library.unlv.edu/boomtown/)
 What's on the Menu? (menus.nypl.org)
 Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (http://hurricanearchive.org/)
 Funeral for a Home (funeralforahome.org)
 Historypin (www.historypin.com)
 For All the World to See (http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/foralltheworld/)
 An American Family Grows in Brooklyn
(http://www.brooklynhistory.org/exhibitions/lefferts/)
 Visualizing Emancipation (http://dsl.richmond.edu/emancipation/)
 Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930
(http://www.acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/harlem/index.php)
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March 31: Digital History 2: User Experience Design (GUEST: Aaron Knoll, User
Experience Design Lead, Teach for America)
 Work will be done in class based on sites viewed the previous week
April 7: History Education 3: Videogames (GUEST: Leah Potter, Game + Instructional
Designer, Electric Funstuff)
 Mission U.S. (www.mission-us.org) Mission 4: City of Immigrants
Other history games [REFERENCE]
 Jewish Time Jump (http://www.converjent.org/jewish-time-jump-new-york_page/getthe-game/)
 Past Present (http://pastpresent.muzzylane.com/)
 Pox and the City (http://www.stockton.edu/~games/PoxFinal/Pox.html)
 Drama in the Delta (http://dramainthedelta.org/)
April 14: Oral History
 “Making Sense of Oral History,” History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the
Web, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral
 Ronald Grele, “On Using Oral History Collections: An Introduction,” Journal of
American History 74:2 (September 1987): 570-578.
 Crossing Borders Bridging Generations (http://cbbg.brooklynhistory.org/)
 Remembering Jim Crow
(http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/)
 The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (Clarity Films, 1980) (view clips in class)
April 21: Documentary Film and Walking Tours (GUEST: Josh Brown, American Social
History Project)
 Radio Bikini (Robert Stone/Crossroads Films, 1988)
 Prohibition (Ken Burns/Florentine Films, 2011) episodes TBA
 Making Objects Speak
(http://jjcweb.jjay.cuny.edu/history/making_objects_speak/) [REFERENCE]
April 28: Peer review (Guest Reviewer TBA)
May 5: Peer review (Guest Reviewer TBA)
Housekeeping
 If you need to contact me, please use ellen.noonan@gmail.com rather than
my NYU email
 If you are very sick or have a genuine emergency that will prevent you from
attending class, you must contact me in advance; you must also let me know
in advance if unusual circumstances require you to arrive late or leave early.
Except in the most urgent situations, missing class will affect your
participation grade.
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Digital devices (laptops, tablets, phones) are welcome in class, but only if you
are using them to take notes or otherwise participate. Please resist the urge
to check email or social media—if I get the impression that you are repeatedly
doing so during class time, it will count against your class participation grade.
Accuracy always matters; take care with the grammar, spelling, and
punctuation of all written work. Read it out loud and proofread carefully—you'll
always find something to be fixed or improved.
Assignments turned in after the due date will be penalized by half a grade
(e.g., an A will automatically drop to an A-) unless you have obtained advance
permission from me.
If you are experiencing technical difficulties with preparing for class (for
example, a website that is down or audio that you can't get to play on your
browser), please let me know in advance rather than coming to class without
having completed the assignment.
Most weeks there will be at least 30 minutes of class time for groups to meet
together and work on their final projects. This time is not guaranteed, nor is it
optional (e.g., if your group has plans to meet at another time, that doesn't
mean you can leave class early).
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