Utica College (Utica, NY)
The
History Project
Summary
The History Project is a two-semester required integrated learning experience
where junior and senior history majors conduct original historical research
using local resources, related to a common theme, which allows them to
place local and regional history within national and international perspectives.
The Practice
In the late 1990s the history faculty changed the emphasis of the curriculum
from period and area history courses and a traditional senior thesis to
a program that featured a reduced number of period and area history courses,
but emphasized the development of skills in original research. In particular,
the faculty wanted students to be able to read primary sources, examine
historical artifacts, and extrapolate information from these types of
resources. They also wanted students to explore the dynamic relationship
between history and community culture. To meet their goals, the faculty
developed the History Project as a vehicle where students learn to conduct
original historical research and present their findings in both a significant
paper and in a conference setting. The best papers are published in the
college's annual historical journal, The History Project.
The History Project involves two successive courses, History 455 and
456, taught by a different history professor each year who selects the
theme for the year and monitors the work of the students. Students use
a variety of sources such as local historical societies, local and state
archives, and library collections. Students work independently between
classes, but during class time they share results and insights. From the
instructor's perspective, the students are doing guided research, not
independent research.
A culminating element of the History Project is that the students' manuscripts
are blind reviewed as part of the publication selection process. This
provides students with the opportunity to measure their abilities against
the standards of professional historians. To date, five volumes have been
published: Industrialization and Deindustrialization in the Mohawk
Valley; 1919: a Year of Crisis and Change; Faces in
the Crowd: Ethnic Portraits; Building the Mohawk Valley: Enterprise
and Society; and War and Terror: Central New York Reacts.
The themes associated with these projects have provided students with
the opportunity to understand how a community grows and decays; to look
at a single year in a community's life; to explore ethnicity and learn
how constituencies change communities; and to understand how local history
is connected to greater regional, national, and international issues,
and how the people of central New York reacted to or were influenced by
various wars and conflicts.
Effectiveness
The History Project is structured to provide the local community with
intellectual capital. Members of organizations with a historical focus
and individuals interested in history are invited to attend the presentation
of the final papers at the annual college-sponsored research conference
each spring. The annual journal is made available to the city library,
twenty-seven area high schools, local historical society shops, and museums.
Local teachers are now receiving History Project materials to assist them
with meeting the standards requirements for grades requiring more local
and regional history coverage. History majors with education minors are
encouraged to develop activities similar to the History Project in their
teaching roles. As awareness of the History Project grows, local community
leaders are seeking out the department to explore how historical themes
of interest to them could be included at some point.
At the program level, the department annually analyzes the student work
by using a standard rubric. The most recent outcome of this evaluation
process has been the development of a one-credit course for students’
first year at the college. This course, offered for the first time in
fall 2002, serves as an introduction to the concepts behind the History
Project and addresses history as a field of study, including basic methods
of historical research and writing, and familiarity with different schools
of historical thought.
Resources
Copies of the History Project volumes are available from Utica College.
Information about the types of community resources students are using
and the format of the courses and conference are available from the contact
person.
Contact Information
David G. Wittner
Associate Professor of History
Chair of Social Sciences
Utica College
1600 Burrstone Road
Utica, NY 13502
Phone: 315-792-3332
dwittner@utica.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
