Haverford College

Department of History

History 400: Senior Thesis Seminar

Hall Room 201, Tuesday 7:30-10 PM

History 400 is a two-semester seminar designed to guide senior majors through the research, drafting and revising of a substantial, original piece of writing. As such, this seminar offers seniors the opportunity to practice the craft of historical writing through independent research. Over the fall semester, you will complete a series of assignments that guide you through the conceptualization, research, and initial writing of your thesis. For the final assignment, you will write a 10-12 page prospectus of your thesis with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. During the spring semester, you will finish your research and write the thesis.

A couple of caveats/pointers:
Historical research does not proceed in a linear fashion from picking a topic, to devising a thesis, taking notes, drafting and revision. Rather, the research process regularly loops back. You will continue to revise and refine your argument throughout the year and sometimes, you may find yourself lost in the details, uncertain of how to fit all the disparate pieces together. The best strategy for navigating through this crooked path is to write as you go along. This technique is essential for managing your evidence and preparing yourself to write. You should keep a research journal so that you can record questions, ideas, new versions of your argument and the ways that new evidence fits into the larger whole. In addition to your research log, work out your argument and half-digested ideas on your friends and/or fellow history majors. And if you find yourself momentarily stuck, take a step back and take stock of what you know at that point and more importantly, what it is you are arguing. If all else fails, take a walk or get some sleep and return to the project with a fresh mind. Above all else though, keep working through your ideas in written form at every step of the research process. Remember that the thesis is a process as much as it is a product – that is part of the learning experience. Your initial ideals will evolve in response to the evidence you identify and the problems it poses.

All class meetings are mandatory. Also, please provide only hard copies of all assignments to your advisor. DO NOT send any assignment as an attachment unless told to do so by your advisor.

Your grade will be determined according to the following breakdown:
Document 2 (Thesis proposal): 10%
Document 3 (State of the field essay): 15%
Document 4 (Analysis of evidence): 15%
Oral Presentation: 10%
Document 5 (Thesis prospectus): 40%
Class participation: 10%

Texts Required:
A copy of an up-to-date style guide for correct historical notation and bibliography formats is a requisite for this course. We expect you to provide accurate citations in correct form. If you do not have one of the following, you should purchase either Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers or The Chicago Manual of Style (6th edition). Turabian has been ordered for this course and is available at the bookstore.

Course Outline:

August 30: Introduction to the Seminar.

September 13: Class Meeting. Discussion of Document 1 and preliminary findings.

Please submit 2 COPIES of Document 1 by 5:00 PM on September 12: one should be sent to the reference librarians (mschaus@haverford.edu and jgulick@haverford.edu) and one submitted to Professor Graham in Hall 212 – there will be a box outside my office). Complete and attach the advising form (distributed in the first class) to the copy submitted to Hall 212.

DOCUMENT 1:
Assignment Description: Please write a 3-5 page description of your thesis topic including the specific questions you want to address and the historical problem these questions engage. Additionally, your description should identify important secondary literature and potential primary sources. As you begin to conceptualize your argument for the first time, try to complete the following statements:

I am writing about ________________(specific question/case study) because I am trying to demonstrate who/how/why __________________(your indirect question and so your historical problem) in order to explain how/why_______________ (broader historical significance).

[Note: it is all right if you are not certain of the answers to the above at this point, that will come as long as you keep posing the questions as you move through your research]

Please complete the advising form indicating three (ranked) choices of thesis advisors [Note: We cannot guarantee your selections but will do our best to accommodate everyone]. I will email you as soon as the department decides on the assignments of advisors, and I will pass on your thesis description to your advisor.

September 20: PLEASE NOTE THAT CLASS MEETS AT 7:30 PM IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AT MAGILL LIBRARY. Thinking about evidence. James Gulick, Margaret Schaus, Diana Peterson and Ann Upton discuss how to find and evaluate evidence, identify local collections of interest, review archive etiquette. Review of the different types of evidence available for historical research including literature, newspapers, images, legal records. Class then breaks into smaller advising groups where students present their topics and indicate the potential sources they intend to consult.

September 21-October 4: Use this time to meet with one of the reference librarians as well as read the relevant secondary literature. In tandem with secondary reading, track down and review a discrete set of primary materials, make an inventory of what information they provide [i.e. you MUST quickly read through/review your primary sources. Read collection descriptions where available, and we suggest that you read at least a few files or a box and browse through the remaining materials in a collection, pausing when you come to distinctly new kinds of documents].

Revise and refine your working thesis and the chapter outline as you work through your secondary and primary sources. Some steps to take as part of this refining process: write an evaluation in your research journal of your secondary literature. What elements have they stressed and what aspects have been neglected or underplayed? Are there strong disagreements, radically different approaches, consensus? How would you situate your research and argument within this literature? Next conduct an evaluation of your primary sources—what kinds of information will they yield, what stories do they tell, what are their biases or limitations as sources? Consider exactly what evidence you will need to prove your working thesis—will your primary sources supply this or do you need to reframe your topic and thesis accordingly, search for other primary sources?

October 4: Class Meeting in small advising groups (location determined by your advisor). Oral reports of Document 2. Please prepare ahead of time a brief statement of your thesis and its historical significance, the primary source base you will be using and how it will support your claim. If you have doubts or concerns, share these too. Please Note: This exercise is intended for you to test out and so revise your main points in Document 2. Therefore, read the assignment below and prepare a brief oral version of it for this class meeting. Students will be expected to question their colleagues and provide constructive criticism during this session.

October 7th: Document 2 due. One (printed) copy to your advisor.

DOCUMENT 2:
Assignment Description: A 5-8 pp. thesis proposal that should include the following, but not necessarily in this order:
1. A description of the historical problem you are addressing (remember: your problem should not be vague or general but specific enough so that it engages particular events/ideas/people/moment in time. It should also raise larger methodological or historiographical issues but these will derive from your specific focus.
2. A clear statement of your thesis (keep it to no more than 3-4 sentences).
3. A historiographical review of relevant literature that situates how you will add or revise or extend our understanding of the given historical problem. The point here is not to be exhaustive but strategic. Show yourself to be a fair and critical reader who knows the scholarly treatment of your topic and can delineate what contribution your study will offer.
4. A description of your primary sources that explains how and why these sources will support your argument.
5. A bibliography of secondary sources and primary sources

FALL BREAK OCTOBER 7-17

October 18: Class Meeting. Debriefing of Document 2—Where do you need to go from here? Students present their evidence and identify strengths and weaknesses. This is the time to ask questions about reading, note-taking, research strategies, problems, and progress.

October 25: Small group meetings with advisor. Document 3 due.

DOCUMENT 3:
Assignment Description: Please submit an essay (6-10 pp.) summarizing the state of the field concerning your topic. What are the main arguments and interpretations? What is at stake in these arguments? How do you see your own work aligning or diverging with that of other scholars? This document will eventually be incorporated (in revised form) into your thesis. Please include a bibliography of the secondary literature.

November 7-14: Mandatory individual meetings with your advisor.

November 22: Small group meetings with advisor. Document 4 due.

DOCUMENT 4 :
Assignment Description: Please submit a 5-page paper offering a close analysis of a single piece of your evidence. This analysis should provide a model of what you will do in your thesis. Explain what the evidence tells, what it cannot tell you, how you will supplement it with other evidence, why it is interesting or pertinent to your thesis.

November 28, 29, 30th: Oral presentations of your thesis topics. Please sign up for a date (sheets posted outside my office, Hall 212) and prepare a 3-5 minute presentation of your topic, your evidence, and your argument.

December 9th: Document 5 due.

DOCUMENT 5:
Assignment Description: Please submit a 10-12 page overview of your thesis to your advisor. This prospectus should include an outline of your argument, the evidence you will use for each part of your argument, and your progress to date. Be as specific as possible in describing the chapters and what you intend to achieve in each one. Please include a updated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, indicating what you have read and what remains to be read.