Assignments

Grade Percentages

Course Participation: 15%

5 Book Reviews: 50% (10% each)

Book Review Comments: 15%

Final Project: 20%

Course Participation

The course participation portion of your grade will be based on your consistent and active participation in classroom discussions (in a constructive manner), including 1) your demonstrated understanding of the theses, arguments, methods, and evidence in the weekly readings and 2) your analysis of writings both as individual works and in the larger context of the course and early modern history. Please feel free to ask me at any time throughout the semester how your course participation is going.

As you are graduate students, I assume your attendance at class every week. That said, life happens. If you need to miss class, please contact me and we will make an alternate plan for your participation that week.

While this is an in-person class, you should plan to participate virtually (via Zoom) any week you have symptoms of illness or believe you have been exposed to a contagious disease (COVID, flu, etc.). Per CDC recommendations, all students must wear a mask that fully covers their mouth and nose (and does not contain an exhalation valve).

Book Reviews

Over the course of the semester, you will write 5 book reviews of approximately 1000-1200 words each. This will be a mix of books assigned as reading each week and other books you are interested in that have been published in the last five years (2016-2021).

There is some flexibility in the ratio, but I expect this to be either a 4-to-1 or 3-to-2 ratio of assigned/free choice books.

You will be expected to (co)lead the class discussion on the days we cover your reviewed books.

Book reviews on assigned readings will be posted to the class blog and are due Mondays at 11:59pm.

Book Review Comments

You will post weekly comments on your classmates’ book reviews. These comments should provide substantive feedback or amplification of the reviews and be 100-300 words in length.

Comments are due Wednesdays at 11:59pm.

Course Projects

You will have a choice of activities for your final project, which should be approximately 3,000-3,500 words. You may choose to write an historiographical essay, a Wikipedia article, an undergraduate lesson plan, an article/book prospectus, or some other alternative that you pitch and I accept as commensurate. Click here to download a PDF of detailed guidelines.

Final projects are due at the end of the University-assigned final exam period, which is Thursday, May 12 at 10:15pm.