AMST 370
REQUIREMENTS
Handler & Gable, The New History in an Old Museum
Mary Antin, The Promised Land
Stanley Applebaum, The Chicago World’s Fair
Notes:
- There is a substantial amount of reading that is available on reserve either in the American Studies Library, in Swem, or on Blackboard. It is marked on the syllabus with "*".
- You will need to buy a zip disk, or a CD-RW, or CD-R (depending on your computer's capabilities) for your final project.
Participation: You are expected to attend every class meeting, both on Monday nights and Tuesday afternoons. Missing more than one or two classes will be reflected in your class participation grade. Once you are in class, you are expected to have read the material, and to be ready to discuss it. Finally, you will be expected to attend lectures sponsored by the American Studies Program this spring. You will be given plenty of notice on upcoming lectures.
In order to stay in contact, you should check your email at least twice a week. You will also need to check the web site regularly for information on assignments and readings.
Writing: You will write two short (4-5 pages) papers during the semester on topics related to class discussion. The first one is due Friday, Febrary 11. The other will be due Friday, April 1. In addition, you will be asked from time to time to turn in brief, informal writing or research assignments (reaction papers and the like). Finally, you will be required to submit discussion questions on the reading each week.
Final Project: Early in the semester we will break the class into groups of 3-4 students each. Each group will develop a web-based research project loosely tied to the course topic. The site will be presented during the last lab of the term, and then, if it is good enough, be included on the permanent AMST 370 web site. Early in the semester each group will decide what its project is about (in consultation with Professor Weiss). You will learn all the necessary technical skills in our computer workshops, and will work over the course of the semester with us and, at times, Rob Nelson from Instructional Technology, planning and designing your work. I will distribute guidelines and project ideas in the next few weeks. You can visit some representative projects from the last few years here.
Final Grades: They will be determined roughly as follows: class participation, 30% (including informal writing); papers, 30%; final project, 40% (20% technical, 80% substantive). You will receive both a group grade and an individual grade for the final project, weighted roughly on a 40/60 ratio.