Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/Rochester Institute of Technology/Hist 324: Oral History (Fall 2013)/Course description

This course will survey women’s history in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will move chronologically and thematically, focusing on the diversity of women’s experiences across race and class as well as the construction of dominant gender norms. We will answer questions including: How did ideas of what a woman should be and do develop, and how did they change over time? What happened to women that did not (or could not) conform to these ideals of womanhood? How did women try to enact change in their own lives and sometimes, more broadly? What are the legacies of this history for subsequent generations including those of us living today? What’s at stake in writing and disseminating women’s history, and why does the representation of women’s lives in the past matter today?

This course will introduce students to a range of research methods and historical interpretations through examination of different types of primary sources and contrasting scholarly (secondary) texts. Areas of focus include Native American women, pre- and post-contact with Europeans; Puritan New England and the Salem witch trials; African American women, slavery, and the plantation household; Industrialization and Domesticity; women’s involvement in reform movements including racial equality and women’s rights; women, work and family structures; and feminism.

Because women’s history continues to be underrepresented on the web, and in particular on Wikipedia, your major assignment for this class will be researching, writing, posting, and tracking responses to a Wikipedia entry related to women’s history. You may choose to write a biographical entry on a woman who lived in the past, or write about women’s participation in a particular event or movement. To prepare for this assignment, we will have two workshops at the library, one on Wikipedia and one on conducting historical research. You will present drafts of your Wikipedia entry to the class for peer editing and revision prior to posting on the web, and you will also share the responses you get on your entry with the class.

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