Technical Assistant for Seminar: Jeanne Bowlan
bowlan@rci.rutgers.edu
This seminar will explore the emergence of woman’s rights (also called first wave feminism) in the mid-nineteenth century United States. Traditionally the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention of 1848 has been designated the birthplace of woman’s rights, but recently historians have begun to challenge standard interpretations of this single event. We will focus this semester on three issues related to these challenges: the development of women’s social and political activism in the decades surrounding 1848, including campaigns against slavery and intemperance and for the rights of Indians and workers; ideas about woman’s rights held by African American, immigrant, Native American, and working-class as well as white middle-class women and men; and international events, such as the European Revolutions, the abolition of slavery in the British and French Caribbean, and the U.S. war against Mexico, that shaped women’s politics in the 1840s.
This course is one of twelve seminars at colleges and universities across
the United States that is being sponsored in part by the National Endowment
for the Humanities. It is being taught in conjunction with the Women and
Social Movements Website
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/projectmap.htm
as
part of a collaborative effort to increase the availability of primary
materials in women’s history on the worldwide web. Students in the course
will be introduced to major debates over the emergence of woman’s rights
in the United States, will learn how to read and interpret primary documents,
and will select and organize a group of documents to address critical historical
and historiographical questions. You will also be taught how to construct
a web project using these documents and HTML and over the course of the
semester will mount and edit your project on a course website at http://irw.rutgers.edu
These projects will be developed collaboratively, in groups of 3-4 students
each, to facilitate the work of website construction and the analysis of
secondary and primary sources.
The major assignment for this course consists of a collaborative research project mounted on a local website. The strongest project(s) will be submitted to the Women and Social Movements Website for further editing and publication. You do not need any special computer skills to take this course, but you must be willing to learn, along with me, how to create a women’s history website. During the month of February, the class will meet in the Computer Lab at Loree 023 on the Douglass Campus for both discussion and training in HTML.
Grades for this course will be based on weekly attendance and discussion (1/3), completion in a timely fashion of all assignments, including placing successive portions of your project on the course website (1/3), and the quality of the final project (1/3). Any student missing more than two classes or arriving late consistently will be penalized.
EACH WEBSITE PROJECT WILL CONSIST OF THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS:
# a research question
# a bibliography that informs and frames the research question
# a set of 20 documents that addresses the question (with annotations)
# short headnotes (1-2 paragraphs) for each document
# an introduction to the whole project (with footnotes)
# related links
Readings for the Course
The following books are available at the Rutgers Bookstore:
Lori Ginzberg, Women in Antebellum Reform
Kathryn Kish Sklar, Women’s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery
Movement
Bonnie S. Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s
Movement
Nell Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol
COURSE SCHEDULE
Tuesdays
Jan. 22 Introduction: Origin Stories and the Web
Jan. 29 Working with
Library Resources
ALEX LIB DUE: Examine projects on http://womhist.binghamton.edu/projectmap.htm
READ: Ginzberg, chs. 1 and 2, and section on Primary and Secondary Sources
on Women and Social
Movements Course Site:
Go to http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hist465/outline.htm
Click on PROJECT GUIDES in left hand column. Then read material on Getting
Started and Primary and
Secondary Sources
[If above site does not work for any reason, you can reach it by going
to
http://chswg.binghamton.edu/collaboration.htm and clicking on Course
Website in opening paragraph]
Meet at 11:30 in the Main Foyer of the Alexander Library with US History
Librarian Tom Glynn, Women's
Studies Librarian Kayo Denda and Stanton and Anthony Papers Project Assistant,
Margaret Sumner
Feb. 5 Women in Antebellum
Reform
LOREE READ: Ginzberg, chs. 3-5
and examine Female Moral Reform Society Project on
023
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/projectmap.htm
11:30-1:00 Discussion and select groups and focus for projects
1-2:30 HTML Workshop with Jeanne Bowlan
*To Review HTML, Go to http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hist465/outline.htm
Click on HTML Tutorials in left hand column
Feb. 12 Origins of Women’s
Rights
LOREE READ: Sklar, pp. 1-76
and ONE set of primary documents
023
Develop a research question related to readings and documents
Groups meet to analyze headnotes to documents
HTML Workshop with Jeanne Bowlan
Feb. 19 International
Connections
LOREE Read: Anderson,
Joyous
Greetings
023
Discuss international connections
Groups: develop a research question and use footnotes to select 10 possible
documents
HTML Workshop with Jeanne Bowlan
Feb. 26 Race and Woman’s Rights
LOREE Read: Painter, Sojourner
Truth
023
Bring Sklar’s Women’s Rights to class
Discuss race and woman’s rights
Groups: select documents from Sklar on race and women’s rights
Develop research question and head notes for one document
HTML Workshop with Jeanne Bowlan
Mar. 5 Topics, Bibliographies
and Documents
Go to http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hist465/outline.htm
Click on PROJECT GUIDES and Read Compiling and Creating A Bibliography,
Selecting Documents and
Writing Headnotes
Each group must bring a research question, a one-page bibliography of secondary
sources, and a list of
at least 10 possible documents with COPIES of question, bibliog., and one
document for rest of class
Meet in groups to write headnotes to two documents
Mar. 12 Constructing a Website
Go to http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hist465/outline.htm
Click on PROJECT GUIDES and read Transcribing Documents: Editorial Practices
and
Putting Documents
on the Web
Transcribe and Post two documents with headnotes to the course website
http://irw.rutgers.edu
Bring copies for members of class
HAND IN XEROX COPIES OF FIRST 10 DOCUMENTS WITH COMPLETE CITATIONS
Mar. 19 SPRING BREAK [KEEP TRANSCRIBING!!]
Mar. 26 Progress Reports
Return to http://womhist.binghamton.edu/projectmap.htm
and
ANALYZE ONE Project
Including headnotes, endnotes, annotations, and introduction
HAND IN LIST OF FINAL 10 DOCUMENTS WITH CITATIONS
Report on progress in transcribing and posting documents, writing headnotes,
proofreading docs, etc
Meet in groups to discuss Endnotes and Annotations
Apr. 2
Documents, Headnotes and Introductions
Post first 10 documents with headnotes and endnotes
HAND IN XEROX COPIES OF SECOND 10 DOCUMENTS WITH COMPLETE CITATIONS
Meet in groups to discuss Introduction
Apr. 9
MEET IN GROUPS TO WORK ON PROJECT
HAND IN DRAFT INTRODUCTION
Apr. 16
Peer Review
Go to website and evaluate projects of other groups besides your own
Identify at least one image and 2 links to add to your website
Finalize Introduction
Apr. 23
Completing the Project
Post Introduction, Finalize rest of Website (Proofread, Format, Add links,
etc)
Each group do 10-minute presentation on website
Apr. 30
Origin Stories: Woman’s Rights on the Web
PRESENTATIONS OF WEB PROJECTS TO INVITED GUESTS
HAND IN:
* TWO HARD COPIES OF ENTIRE PROJECT
*XEROX COPIES OF EACH ORIGINAL DOCUMENT WITH COMPLETE CITATION
* DISK WITH COPY OF ENTIRE PROJECT