Hands On the Past: History, Memory, and The Archive

3 units

The future depends on the past. This course taps into that understanding by offering an alternative hands-on methods class to encourage undergraduate student engagement with history and archives, both on and off line. In this particular class, students will be nurtured to more deeply interact with the historical past by exploring gender, race, violence and sexuality through three central questions explored throughout the course: What and how is African American history conducted? How do we best document the past with students fully at the intellectual table of production and preservation? How do we make history with history? These exciting and diverse interests will be pursued through in class discussions and course assigned readings, but especially by taking a spring break research project trip across Missouri to various local repositories and the State archives, to activate and fuel the idea of putting hands on the past.