HIST 4000: Honors Proseminar
HISTORY 4000
Fall 2010
Thu. 2:30 – 4:25
Location: GSH 164
Professor Camille Robcis
Office: McGraw Hall 364
Email: car27@cornell.edu
Office Hours: Tue. 2-4 pm
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the theory, practice and art of historical research and writing.
The primary purpose of this seminar if to provide you with various tools to prepare you for
the researching and writing of an Honors Thesis. We will learn to analyze the relationship
between evidence and argument in historical writing; to critically assess the methods and
possible biases in a piece of historical writing; to identify debates and sources relevant to a
research problem; to use sources creatively; and to understand the various methodological
issues associated with historical inquiry, analysis, and presentation.
Course Requirements:
Writing an Honors Thesis is a major undertaking. As such, this course sets the bar high: be
prepared to work! This is a reading- and writing-intensive seminar with significant weekly
reading and writing assignments. Your grade will be determined based upon two criteria:
Participation (approx. 40%):
This class is a seminar. The dynamism of the course will come from the participation of all of
you. Therefore, consistent participation in the seminar is extremely important and will be
weighed heavily in determining your final grade. Your participation grade will be based on
two factors:
1. Regular attendance and completing the readings. Come to class prepared to share and
articulate your opinions about the readings, both in terms of the content and the
methodology.
2. Serving as discussion leader for at least one week in the course, depending on
enrollment. This includes two components: first, you will be asked to write a critical
review of the text(s) for the week in question that is between three and five pages.
The review should NOT recapitulate the contents of the readings but rather subject
both the content and the methodology to analysis and critique. You should complete
this by noon, the day prior to the seminar and post it on the class Blackboard site. It is the
responsibility of all the participants in this class to read both the assigned readings and briefs prior to
the seminar. The second component is a fifteen minute presentation at the beginning of
the seminar in which you draw out further the issues raised in your brief and frame a
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number of questions to begin discussion. I strongly encourage all of you to meet with
me prior to your presentations to discuss the readings and presentations.
Heath Pamphlet and Related Assignments (60%):
Over the course of this semester, you should begin the process of identifying a topic for your
Honors Thesis. This will be accomplished through the writing of a “Heath Pamphlet.” The
Heath Pamphlet is a preliminary statement of your thesis, your questions and arguments, a
critical review of the secondary literature germane to the topic, and a bibliography of relevant
primary sources. I also hope that you will be able to introduce some primary sources into
your discussion. The pamphlet should be approximately 20 pages in length and will serve as
the template for the researching and writing of your Honors Thesis the following year. To
facilitate the writing of the pamphlet, you will be asked to turn in, at various points over the
semester, assignments regarding your topic and a preliminary, annotated bibliography. All of
you will be required to present on your chosen thesis topic and pamphlet in one of the last
two seminar sessions.
Please make sure to cite all sources carefully in your papers. Refer to the Code of Academic
Integrity or further information (http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html). Any
violation of the Code of Academic Integrity will be forwarded to the Office of Student
Conduct and will result in a failing grade for the course.
Library Website:
Writing an honors thesis will require you to spend a lot of time at the library. You should
become familiar with the online catalog and the basic databases to find articles and primary
sources. Do not hesitate to ask the reference librarians for help. To assist you with your
research you may also find the following website useful:
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/histhonors
Required Books:
Available for purchase at the Cornell Bookstore, or on reserve at Uris Library. All other texts
are available through the Library’s catalogue (in the case of journals) or through the
Blackboard course site (if they are marked * ; look under “Tools” and “Course Reserves”).
Please make sure that you come to class with a printed version of these texts so that we can
refer to specific passages.
Georg Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern
Challenge (Wesleyan, 2005)
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I (Vintage, 1990)
Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (Farrar, Strauss, and
Giroux, 2008)
Archives Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, ed. By Antoinette Burton (Duke, 2005)
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Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
(Harper Perennial, 1993)
Course Outline:
Week 1 [Aug. 26]
Introduction
Week 2 [Sept. 2]
Historiography
Georg Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century.
Week 3 [Sept. 9]
The Problem of Experience
E.P. Thomspon, “Preface” to The Making of the English Working Class.*
Joan Scott, “The Evidence of Experience,” Critical Inquiry 17 (Summer, 1991): 773-797.
Laura Lee Downs, “If ‘Woman’ Is Just an Empty Category, Then Why Am I Afraid to Walk
Alone at Night?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 35, no. 2 (April 1993): 414-437
Joan Scott, “The Tip of the Volcano,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 35, no. 2 (April
1993): 438-443.
Laura Lee Downs, “Reply to Joan Scott,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 35, no. 2
(April 1993): 444-451.
Week 4 [Sept. 16]
The Role of the Historian
Robert Darnton, “Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint Severin,” in
Robert Darnton, The Great Car Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History
(Basic Books, 2009): 75-104.*
Roger Chartier, “Text, Symbols, and Frenchness,” Journal of Modern History, Vol. 57, No.4
(Dec. 1985), pp. 682-695.
Dominick LaCapra, “Is Everyone a Mentalité Case?” in History and Criticism (Cornell UP,
1985): 71-94 *
Assignment: Thesis topic due in class: This must include a preliminary title and a short – no
more than 150 words – description of your topic. You must explicitly state what your primary
question(s) / argument(s) are.
Week 5 [Sept. 23]
Subaltern Histories
Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” in The Marx-Engels Reader (Norton,
1978), 594-617.*
Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History” in Provincializing Europe:
Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton UP: 2000), 27-46.*
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Gayatri Spivak “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography” in The Spivak Reader
(Routledge, 1996), 203-235.*
Week 6 [Sept. 30]
Genealogy and the History of the Present
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I (Vintage, 1990)
Patricia O’Brien, “Michel Foucault’s History of Culture” in The New Cultural History ed. Lynn
Hunt (University of California Press, 1989) 25-46.*
Week 7 [Oct. 7]
Violence, Trauma
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men.
Carolyn Dean, “Goldhagen’s Celebrity, Numbness, and Writing History” in The Fragility of
Empathy After the Holocaust (Cornell UP, 2004), 43-75.*
Dominick LaCapra, “Writing History, Writing Trauma” in Writing History, Writing Trauma
(Johns Hopkins UP, 2001), 1-42. *
Week 8 [Oct. 14]
Library visit
The class will meet at the Uris Library Electronic Classroom with Dr. Virginia Cole for a
required session intended to assist you in your thesis research.
Assignment: Preliminary bibliography of secondary sources for your Heath Pamphlet.
Week 9 [Oct. 21]
Memory and Fantasy
Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother.
Jacqueline Rose, Introduction to States of Fantasy (Clarendon Press, 1996), 1-15.*
Week 10 [Oct. 28]
Archives
Selections from Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History.
Week 11 [Nov. 4]
Critical History
Joan Scott, “Critical History” in Manifestoes for History (Routledge, 2007), 19-38.*
Dominick LaCapra, “History, Language, and Reading: Waiting for Crillon,” The American
Historical Review, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Jun. 1995), pp.799-828
Assignment: Revised argument, bibliography, and outline for the Heath Pamphlet.
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Week 12 [Nov. 11]
Heath Pamphlet Presentations
Week 13 [Nov. 18]
Heath Pamphlet Presentations
Nov. 25
NO CLASS - Thanksgiving Break
Week 14 [Dec. 2]
Heath Pamphlets Due
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