Resource Type: Research assignment
Instructor: Kara Schlichting
Title: Associate Professor
Department: History
Course: Hist 348, History of the Outer Boroughs

Description

“The Social History of Queens and Brooklyn Research Project” is a research assignment that culminates in an original research paper. Students will research a topic of their interest related to 20th century social history. Social history explores the everyday experiences of regular people, including how ordinary people experienced major events (political, social), the institutions that shape peoples’ lives, cultural practices, and family and community dynamics.

We will use material from 2 oral history collections as inspiration:

• Brooklyn Center for History Oral History Collection
• LaGuardia Wagner Archives’ Voices of Queensbridge

This assignment is for my course, Hist 348, History of the Outer Boroughs. The assignment is scaffolded and spread across the semester. The research components of the assignment are as follows:

• Step 1: Listening to selected Brooklyn Stories via the BCH Oral History Collections
• Step 2: Reading selected Queens Stories via the LaGuardia Wagner Archives
• Step 5: Annotated Bibliography I: Local Newspapers
• Step 6: Annotated Bibliography II: Primary Sources Beyond Newspapers (maps, photographs, new oral histories, government documents, etc.)

Assignment learning objectives:

Students will gain the ability to…

Know how to find, evaluate, and cite primary and secondary sources in various formats.

• analyze primary sources by correctly identifying the type of source, from when and where it originated, its intended audience, the probable motives of the author, and the author’s assumptions and/or biases.
• articulate a substantive, contestable, and specific thesis or main claim in their papers and support it with evidence.

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