This website is the blog for the Spring 2011 version of HIST 246. If you are looking for the Fall 2011 course, please go here. You can also see the final exhibit produced by students in the Spring 2011 and Fall 2011 versions of this course: Dick Dowling and Sabine Pass in History and Memory.
Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category
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Wednesday, August 17th, 2011Some final announcements
Friday, April 22nd, 2011First, please be sure to extend your thanks to Mercy, either in comments to this post or by email, for all the work she has done for our course this semester! In addition to grading your blog posts, writing some outstanding round-ups about your posts, and lecturing to our class about her research, Mercy has been doing lots of work behind the scenes on our Dowling archive. Thanks, Mercy!
Second, as noted on the syllabus, you have the opportunity to write a third position paper to replace one of your earlier position paper grades. To take advantage of this opportunity, you must download the prompt and packet of readings from OWL-Space and submit your paper by 11:59 p.m. on May 4. When submitting your paper, you also must specify which earlier position paper you would like to replace. This paper is totally optional, so please think carefully about whether you have the time to take it on, and let me know if you have questions.
Group Project Rubric
Thursday, April 21st, 2011To determine your individual grade for the group project, I will use the following rubric to assign your group a grade for the project as a whole, and you a grade for your individual contribution. These two grades will be averaged together to produce your final individual grade for the assignment.
As the rubric below indicates, one component that will be required from you is a private email to me, submitted in conjunction with your final product, in which you assign yourself what you think is an appropriate grade for your work on the project, together with a detailed explanation why you think this grade is appropriate. Think of this explanation as a “position paper lite”–you are taking a position (“My work deserves this grade”), but you also have to defend that position by clearly articulating the reasons, providing specific evidence to back up your position. If I believe that your defense of your position is persuasive, on the basis of the evidence you provide, then I will plug your self-assigned grade into the rubric below and take into account when calculating your final grade. If your email is not persuasive, I reserve the right to alter your self-assigned grade to one that I feel is more appropriate, which is why it is in your best interest to be honest and fair when assessing your own work. Before simply saying, “my work deserves an A+” you should carefully consider whether you can defend that position.
Here is how I will break down both your group grade and your individual grade–the two numbers that will be averaged together to get your final project grade:
GROUP PART
G1. GROUP OBJECTIVES (50%)
Did the group produce the digital object assigned? How well does the submitted product meet the objectives laid out by the group in their mission statement? Does the project demonstrate the group’s ability to “work collaboratively to make historically informed, reflective judgments about how to commemorate and interpret the Civil War for public audiences today”? Is there a clear “point” being made by the product?G2. USE OF SOURCES (20%)
Does the group make effective use of the various repositories of sources available to the class? Are claims made in the project accurate and substantiated by reliable documentary or secondary evidence, with due attention to the perspective of the creators of the sources used? Are sources used somehow documented or cited within the group’s materials (i.e., links or bibliographic citations on Google Docs, blog posts, or other materials produced by the group)? Are there major sources available to the class that are directly relevant to the group’s objectives but are ignored?G3. PRESENTATION (20%)
Are there repeated typographical, grammatical, or spelling errors in the project? Has the group taken steps to ensure that the final digital product has a finished and appealing look appropriate for viewing by the general public (i.e., resolution of images is consistent and sharp, hyperlinks are not “broken,” files can be opened, etc.)?G4. DIVISION OF LABOR (10%)
Did the group make expectations about the division of labor clear? Is the record of who did what somehow documented by the group?
INDIVIDUAL PART
I1. INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNED TASKS (50%)
Based on the documentation available prior to the final submission and self-rating, did the individual group member complete tasks assigned to him/her by the group as a whole?I2. OVERALL INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION (30%)
Based on the documentation available prior to the final submission and self-rating, to what extent did the individual member participate in group work, communications, and internal group feedback? Was the individual group member’s contribution to the finished project (either in the planning or execution stages) demonstrably and grossly disproportionate when compared to the contributions made by the other members?I3. SELF-ASSIGNED GRADE (20%)
Without Sanctuary
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011Today in class, we talked about the implications of the retreat from Radical Reconstruction, followed by the disfranchisement of African Americans across the South between 1890 and 1910. One of the results was that spectacles of racial violence–like lynchings–increased in number and even, literally, in popularity, as huge crowds attended some of the most gruesome hangings, collected souvenirs, and exchanged postcards about the experience. You can learn more about this period by viewing a gallery of these postcards at the website Without Sanctuary. The movie at this site provides a slideshow of some of the postcards, together with a narrative by the writer who collected them. Viewing this site is optional, and please be aware that many of these images are very graphic and disturbing.
Group Meetings
Friday, April 1st, 2011In the early part of this coming week (April 4-6), I would like to meet with each group individually to draw up a contract for your project. Please confer with your group members and choose one of the times on this Writeboard to meet with me. The password is the same as the other Writeboards we’ve used, and you can edit the page to sign up for a time.
Important announcements
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Remember that tomorrow, Dr. Murphy will be our guest speaker and will be speaking with you about Irish immigrants in the antebellum United States. Many of you have raised questions about how Dowling’s Irish-ness affected his life and memory, so this will be a wonderful opportunity to ask these questions to one of the experts!
Courtney also emailed me to let me know about another wonderful opportunity that you may want to take advantage of tomorrow night: a lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston about an important Civil War painting.
Finally, as noted on the schedule, please be aware that you need to read Bruce Levine’s Confederate Emancipation this week and weekend. Be prepared to discuss the book in class on Tuesday.
Internship Opportunity
Thursday, February 17th, 2011This is an announcement to let you all know that the Humanities Research Center will be sponsoring three undergraduate research interns to work on the Dowling Archive project–two this summer, and one this fall. If this is something that interests you, I’d encourage you to apply. Please be aware that these internships are unfortunately limited to three, so it’s possible that not everyone who applies will be accepted. See the information at the Humanities Research Center for more information, and please note that the deadline for applications is March 9.
Student Group Blogs
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011As mentioned in class, I have assigned each of you to a small group. Later in the semester each group will be working on a digital project about Dowling, as explained on the assignments page. In the next couple of weeks, I will be giving you more details about these projects and directions about getting started.
For now, you don’t need to worry about the projects except to know that I have created a blog for each group. For the remainder of the semester, you will be posting your weekly blog post assignments on these small group blogs, instead of in the comments to posts on this blog. The group blogs will also provide a place for you and your fellow group members to work collaboratively on your projects later in the semester.
Here are the group member assignments, with links to each group’s blog:
- The Map Group: Courtney, Craig, Renee, Ross
- The Movie Group: Adam, Gabby, Kat, Stephanie
- The Podcast Group: Alex, Elizabeth, Tyler
- The Timeline Group: Clarissa, Jocelyn, Juri, Victor
As I explained in class, these assignments have been made very deliberately to help you put the particular skills and interests that you identified in your survey responses to best use. If you have any questions about them, let me know.
For now, there are three things you need to do to post your third blog post on your new group blog.
STEP 1: Go to http://blogs.rice.edu and click on “Sign in Here” to create a new account. After you’ve entered your NetID and password and logged in, you will be prompted to create a blog, but you don’t have to do that. Once you’ve logged in, you can simply close your browser.
STEP 2: Look for an automated email in your inbox sometime tomorrow about your small group blog. It should provide you with a link that you will have to click to confirm your addition as an author on the small group blog.
STEP 3: Once you’ve confirmed your membership on the small group blog, click on the links below to find you group’s blog. In the lower right hand corner, you will see a link to “Log In” (or it may say “Site Admin” if you’re already logged in). Click there, and you will see the “dashboard” that was displayed on the screen in class today. Once inside the dashboard, click on “Add New” post (it’s in the drop-down menu under posts on the lefthand side). Now give your post a title, type in your response to the Blog Post #3 prompt, and when you are ready, click Publish.
Be sure to take these steps as soon as you can to ensure that you don’t have technical difficulties which prevent you from meeting the 9 a.m. Thursday deadline. If you encounter problems along the way, email Dr. McDaniel as soon as possible. If for some reason technical problems arise during the night before the deadline and you can’t get your response to post, then this time only you can leave your response in the comments box on the prompt post, just as you’ve done in the past. You should, however, treat that as a last resort; you need to get signed up on your small group blog and learn your way around the dashboard as soon as possible.
Fondren Brown Bag
Monday, January 17th, 2011Given our discussions last week about the documentary problems with the black Confederate thesis, you may be interested in knowing about a “brown bag” discussion that will be taking place tomorrow in Fondren Library on the subject of “Trusted Information in Research.” Here’s the preview that was circulated about that event:
Please join us!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 @ noon
Kyle Morrow Room, Fondren Library, 3rd floor
for a Brown Bag discussion (bring your lunch)Dr. Melissa Kean, Rice Centennial Historian, speaking on Trusted Information in Research
From web hoaxes to fraudulent research in respected peer reviewed journals, it can be challenging to conduct research with confidence.
How can trusted information be identified? How do researchers proceed in this environment?
Melissa Kean will share her experiences as a historian evaluating the authority and reliability of the sources she finds.Don’t miss this chance for an interesting discussion and the always entertaining tales of Dr. Kean!
This Brown Bag is part of Fondren Library’s ongoing work towards fulfilling the university’s mission of raising its research and scholarship profile.
We’ll end class tomorrow about five minutes early so that anyone interested in attending this talk can–be sure to bring a lunch with you if you plan to go!
Welcome!
Monday, January 10th, 2011
Welcome to HIST 246 for the Spring 2011 semester at Rice University. You may wish to have a look around by reading about the course, looking over the assignments, and browsing through the schedule.
If you are enrolled in this class, please fill out the student info web survey by January 18 at the latest. Please do not fill out this form unless you are already registered for the course in ESTHER. If you don’t already have one, you will also need to create a Google Account for this course.
During the first week of class, you should also work on purchasing these required books for the course:
- Thomas J. Brown, The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004). ISBN: 978-0312397913, Amazon
- Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Vintage, paperback, 2008). ISBN: 978-0307277329, Amazon
- Eric Foner, Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and its Legacy (Louisiana State University Press, paperback, new edition, 2007). ISBN: 978-0807132890, Amazon
- Bruce Levine, Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (Oxford, paperback, 2007). ISBN: 978-0195315868, Amazon
If you have any general questions about the course, please use the contact information in the sidebar of this page to reach Dr. McDaniel, or leave a comment on this post.