STATEMENT OF GOALS
The Department of History seeks both to expose students to the general richness, diversity, and complexities of history over long periods of time and in different regions of the world and to provide students with the opportunity to explore specific aspects of the past in greater depth. Courses offered by the Department also aim to develop students' ability to "think historically" and to foster an appreciation of the contested nature and the value of historical knowledge; they do so by introducing students to the variety of ways in which historians have approached and interpreted the past, by engaging them with those issues that have provoked historical debate, and by familiarizing them with the nature and uses of historical evidence.
STRUCTURES & REQUIREMENTS OF THE MAJOR
The History major consists of the following:
At least nine courses in History - ten courses for those who are accepted by the Honors Program. (No more than three of these courses can be taken in a non-Williams operated study abroad program, and no courses taken overseas, even in Oxford, may be used to meet the junior and senior seminar requirement.)
One Major Seminar, designated as History 301, "Approaching the Past."
At least one advanced 400-level seminar (History 402-479) or tutorial (History 480-492).
A three-course distribution requirement. As the Department of History believes strongly in the importance of acquiring an appreciation and understanding of both the diversity of human historical experience and the history of peoples whose cultures, experiences, and conceptual universes differ substantially from our own, majors are required to enroll in three courses to meet their distribution requirement, one in each of three different regions of the world:
Group A: | The History of Africa |
Group B: | The History of Asia |
Group C: | The History of Europe and Russia |
Group D: | The History of Latin America and the Caribbean |
Group E: | The History of the Middle East |
Group F: | The History of the United States and Canada |
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As the Department also believes that students should study the past across a broad chronological range, aware of the complex relationship between the pre-modern world and the more recent past, majors are also required to ensure that at least one of the three courses used to meet the distribution requirement deals with the pre-modern world, designated as Group G in the course catalog: |
| Group G: | Pre-modern History |
A concentration of at least three courses, linked by common themes, geography, or time period. All students are required to fulfill a concentration within the History major, a group of three, related courses that allow them to develop a specific focus and expertise as a major. The concentration may consist of courses related by geography, chronology or common themes (ie revolutions, military history, gender and sexuality). Only one of the three courses can be a 100-level seminar or tutorial, while at least one of the courses must be a 300- or 400-level course. Students are responsible for designing their own concentration, in consultation with their faculty advisor, in the fall semester of their junior year (via e-mail if studying abroad). In the formal concentration proposal they prepare at that time, students must list a minimum of six courses that could satisfy the requirements of the concentration, from which they will enroll in three (recognizing that not all courses are offered every year). Courses in the concentration may also be used to fulfill the distribution requirement. Once approved, a student's concentration is a formal contract that cannot be changed without permission of the Department's Curriculum Committee.
THE HISTORY CURRICULUM
The curriculum offered by the Department of History consists of a number of different types of courses, each offered to meet distinct pedagogical goals. The types of courses offered by the Department are described below.
First-Year Seminars and Tutorials (HIST 102-199)
The Department of History offers a number of writing-intensive seminars and tutorials at the 100-level for first (and sometimes second) year students that offer students an opportunity to explore an exciting historical topic in depth, to learn about the discipline of history, and to improve their research and writing skills. Because these courses emphasize the acquisition of skills required for the advanced study of history, they are ideal for students contemplating a History major; because they serve as an introduction to the discipline, only one course of each type may count toward the major. First-year seminars and tutorials may be used to meet the Department's group and concentration requirements.
Each 100-level seminar is normally limited to nineteen students and focuses both on training in research skills and the acquisition of reading skills. Seminars emphasize the importance of writing in particular and include varied assignments that stress the mechanics of writing and revision and focus on issues of argumentation, documentation, and style. Enrollment preference in 100-level seminars is normally given first and foremost to first-year students and then, if space permits, to sophomores.
Each 100-level tutorial stresses the importance of interpreting historical evidence and evaluating the arguments made by historians. It also fulfills the writing-intensive requirement. Enrollment in tutorials is limited to ten students, each of whom is expected to write five or six interpretive essays and present five or six critiques of his or her student partner's work. First-year students and sophomores will normally be given equal enrollment preference in 100-level tutorials, although first-year students will not normally be permitted to enroll in a tutorial during their first semester at Williams.
Introductory Survey Courses (HIST 202-299)
These courses are open to all students and are intended to provide a basic understanding of the history of peoples, countries, and geographic regions over relatively long time-spans. Most of all, they provide students with the background necessary for more advanced study at the 300- and 400-level and are also designed for the historical contextualization of subjects studied in other disciplines in order to formulate historically-informed opinions. An array of survey courses are offered each year, covering Africa, China, Japan, Latin America, North America, the Greco-Roman and Islamic worlds, Europe as a whole, and Britain, Germany, and Russia in particular.
Major Seminars (HIST 301)
Major Seminars explore the nature and practice of history, are required for the degree in History, and are normally restricted to junior History majors. Although these seminars vary in topic and approach, each focuses on the discipline of history itself on the debates over how to approach the past , on questions of the status of different kinds of evidence and how to use it, on the purpose of the study of history, on the nature of the very enterprise to which historians commit themselves. Focusing on questions of methodology, epistemology, and historiography, these courses ask a number of important questions: What kind of knowledge do historians claim to produce? What does it mean to study the past? How do historians approach the project of studying the past? Each year several Major Seminars will be offered; prospective majors must select two Major Seminars when they register at the end of their sophomore year (in case their first choice is full). Students who plan to study abroad during their junior year may take their Major Seminar in the spring semester of their sophomore year and are strongly encouraged to do so if they anticipate studying away for the entirety of their junior year.
Advanced Electives (HIST 302-399)
These advanced, topical courses are more specialized in focus than are the introductory survey courses offered at the 200-level and are normally intended to follow such courses. Enrollment is often limited. Because they sometimes presume some background knowledge, the instructor may recommend that students enroll in an appropriate introductory course before registering for an advanced elective. Such courses are, however, open to first-year students and sophomores with the instructor's permission.
Advanced Seminars (HIST 402-479)
These are advanced courses, normally limited in enrollment to fifteen students. Each seminar will investigate a topic in depth and will require students to engage in research that leads to a substantial piece of historical writing. All History majors are required to complete either an advanced seminar (HIST 402-479) or tutorial (HIST 480-92). Instructors may require prior coursework in the area of the seminar. Preference is given to senior History majors, followed by junior History majors.
Advanced Tutorials (HIST 480-492)
These are advanced reading and writing courses that offer an in-depth analysis of a topic in tutorial format. Tutorials are limited in enrollment to ten students and preference is given to senior History majors. All History majors are required to complete either an advanced seminar (HIST 402-479) or tutorial (HIST 480-92). Instructors may recommend prior coursework in the area of the tutorial. Each student will be expected to write and defend five or six formal essays and prepare five or six critiques of his or her tutorial partner' essays.
THE DEGREE WITH HONORS IN HISTORY
(Current Chair of the Honors Committee: Professor Chris Waters)
Introduction
The Department of History offers a thesis route to the degree with Honors in History. This involves a ten-course major that includes HIST 493 (Senior Honors Thesis Research Seminar) and HIST 494 (Senior Honors Theses Writing Seminar), along with the connecting Winter Study thesis course. Students wishing to undertake a serious and extensive independent research project (of roughly one hundred pages in length) or who are considering graduate study are encouraged to participate in the thesis program and honors seminar. Honors students regularly report that the thesis experience was the most rewarding aspect of their education at Williams.
Application and Admission
Students interested in pursuing the degree with Honors in History should start thinking about a formal thesis topic as early as possible and discuss their topics with the appropriate Department faculty member as soon as possible. Approaches to faculty members ought to be made no later than the end of the fall semester of the junior year; no faculty member is expected to advise more than one thesis and as acceptance of a student as an advisee is often made on a first-come, first-served basis it is crucial to approach a faculty member about writing a thesis as early as possible. It is always the responsibility of the individual student to procure the agreement of a member of the Department to act as his or her thesis advisor. A student who is uncertain of which member of the Department might be an appropriate advisor, or who otherwise is unable to find an advisor, should contact the Chair of the Department's Honors Committee. Students should also check the Department website to see which potential advisors might be on leave during the year in which they wish to write a thesis. Finally, students who are studying abroad in their junior year should approach faculty members about writing a thesis before they leave or, while away, via e-mail.
Students must formally apply to the Honors Program no later than the registration period during the spring semester of their junior year, submitting an Honors application form, available from the Department office, and spelling out in some detail the thesis topic to be pursued (the nature and scope of the project, its significance, the questions that will be asked, the general sources that will be examined, etc). The Honors application form must be signed by the faculty member who has agreed to serve as the student's thesis advisor.
Admission to the Honors Program is based on the student's demonstration of a solid record of work of honors caliber, normally defined as at least a B+ average in courses taken for the major, a serious project proposal that is acceptable to, and approved by, the entire Department, based on the formal recommendation of the Department's Honors Committee, and the agreement of an advisor (a faculty member, normally in the Department) to work with the student during his or her senior year as the formal thesis supervisor.
Registration and Summer Research
Once the student has been formally notified of admission to the Department's Honors Program, he or she should register for HIST 493 (Senior Honors Thesis Research Seminar), HIST 494 (Senior Honors Theses Writing Seminar), and HIST 31, the connecting Winter Study course.
While summer reading and research prior to the senior year is not an absolute prerequisite for writing a good thesis, it is strongly advised that all thesis students start early and have a good amount of work done before the start of their senior year. Students admitted to the Honors Program are eligible to apply for research funds from the Department to help facilitate research during the summer. Financial Aid students can also receive up to $125 in additional assistance for expenses incurred during their senior year in the preparation of a thesis.
The Honors Seminar
During the fall and spring semesters, students will participate in a seminar intended to help with the writing of the thesis and with the preparation for the spring Honors Colloquium, at which the student will defend his or her thesis. The seminar, taught by the chair of the Honors Committee, will bring thesis students and faculty members of the Department's Honors Committee together to work through the issues of historical research and writing. The year will begin with general discussions of various strategies for collecting data and turning it into a history thesis. This will be followed by a formal presentation and discussion of students' revised thesis proposals. Before Thanksgiving students will be expected to produce a draft introduction to their thesis, which will be presented to the Honors Seminar and critiqued by another student and a faculty member of the Honors Committee. By the end of Winter Study, students will be required to have completed at least one draft chapter of their thesis, which will be discussed in the Honors Seminar at the beginning of the spring semester. Performance in the Honors Seminar in the fall and during winter study will be evaluated (at the end of January) on the basis of participation in the seminar and the quality of completed written work; the evaluation will determine whether or not a student will be permitted to continue in the Honors Program. For students proceeding to HIST 494 in the spring, performance in the fall semester will figure into the thesis grade calculated at the end of the year.
The Thesis
The ultimate goal for students admitted to the Honors Program is to submit a substantial piece of original scholarly work of roughly one hundred pages in length, which will be due two weeks after the end of spring break. Students will submit four copies of his or her thesis at this time, one for the thesis advisor, one for the student critic, and two for the faculty evaluators who will assess the work at the Honors Colloquium. Following the Honors Colloquium, a final, corrected copy of the thesis must be submitted to the Technical Services Department of Sawyer Library by 4:00 PM on the last day of the final examination period.
The Honors Colloquium
The culminating event of the academic year for thesis students will be the Honors Colloquium, which will take place in the Williams Faculty Club in early May. Students will be asked to speak briefly about their theses. A student critic will then comment on the work and ask questions about it. This will be followed by questions from two faculty readers, and from other community members present.
Class of 1960s Scholars
All Honors students are designated 'Class of 1960 Scholars.' As part of this program historians from other institutions will visit Williams to discuss their work with Honors Seminar members; dates, times, and locations of those meetings will be announced in advance.
Grading
In order to qualify for Honors, the Department must agree that students have earned two semester grades of B+ or higher, based on their thesis, their Colloquium presentations, and their participation in the Honors Seminar. Students whose thesis and presentations are deemed by the Department to be of exceptional merit will be awarded Highest Honors. A letter from the Chair of the Department will inform students of these decisions and of any thesis prizes awarded.
Honors Students and Their Thesis Topics, 2007-08
Jimmy Bierman
Foreign Interventions in Lebanon: Misguided Benevolence
(Advisor: Professor Berhardsson)
Megan Brankley
When a Patron Falls: Contesting the History of 1965 in Post-Suharto Indonesia
(Advisor: Professors Reinhardt and Siniawer)
Ashley Burrell
'One God! One Aim! One Destiny!': The Use of Christianity in the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(Advisor: Professor Whalen)
Jeff Callahan
Falling Out of Love: Boston, the Big Dig, and the Romance of Automobility
(Advisor: Professor Dalzell)
Jim Clayton
Order Through Confrontation: Lanfranc of Bec's Search for Religious Stability
(Advisors: Professors Goldberg and Wood)
Katie Edgerton
The Same Old Story: History, Narrative, and Myth in the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1985
(Advisor: Professor Waters)
Roy Garcia
President Nixon, China, and the Bilateral Strategy: A New Interpretation of Sino-American Rapprochement, 1969-1972
(Advisor: Professor Reinhardt)
Lizzie Gomez
The Puzzle of a Revolution: Sendero Luminoso's Guerilla War in the Peruvian Highlands
(Advisor: Professor Kittleson)
Aston Gonzalez
'I Was Walking Every Inch with Those Kids': Media Coverage of Black Children in Three Civil Rights Event
(Advisor: Professor Long)
David Mathias
The Pauper and the Peasant: Poverty and Class in Carolingian Europe
(Advisors: Professors Goldberg and Waters)
Walker Matthews
Justinian's Reconquest of the West: Warfare, Ideology, Religion, and Politics in Sixth-Century Byzantium
(Advisors: Professors Goldberg and Edan Dekel, Classics)
Adam Pinto
Comic Books and September 11: Memory and Commodification
(Advisor: Professor Wong)
Alex Roth
Global Strategies, Regional Realities: Moving Towards the Eisenhower Doctrine in the Middle East, 1955-1957
(Advisor: Professor Merrill)
Honors Students and Their Thesis Topics, 2008-09
Charlie Dougherty
The Elusive Peace: Washington, Saigon, and the Search for Peace in Vietnam, 1966-1969
(Advisor: Professor Chapman)
Ryan Ford
The Founding Fathers as Fathers: Revolutionary Change and Crisis in Authority
(Advisor: Professor Dalzell)
Emily George
Piety, Religion, and Morality: Church, State, and the Constitutional Process in Massachusetts
(Advisor: Professor Aubert)
Jeremy Goldstein
Equally Entitled? Transatlantic Tensions and the Crisis over Representation in Eighteenth-Century North America
(Advisor: Professor Aubert)
Kate Ireland
Ruin in the City of Palaces: The Fall of the Great Agency Houses of Calcutta, 1830-1834
(Advisor: Professor Wood)
Galen Jackson
Militarized Democracy: The American Reactions to the Coups in Turkey
(Advisor: Professor Bernhardsson)
Katie Johnson
Maleficent Eden: French Views of America and its Cultural Products in the Interwar Years
(Advisor: Professor Waters)
Bucky Marshall
For These We Strive: The Philadelphia Light Horse and American Identity
(Advisor: Professor Wood)
Susan Raich
Like Father Like Son? Henry III's Tomb at Westminster Abbey as a Case Study in Late Thirteenth-Century English Kingship
(Advisor: Professor Peter Low, Art History)
Kevin Waite
The Masculine Divide: Violence, Manhood, and Nationalism in the Plain Folk South, 1820-1861
(Advisor: Professor Dew)
Shawn Woo
Scripture and Tradition: A Rapprochement of the Reformations
(Advisors: Professors Bernhardsson and Goldberg)
Honors Students and Their Proposed Thesis Topics, 2009-10
Margot Bernstein
The Perception and Manifestation of the Concept of Honor in the American South from the 1770's to 1860, and its Catalytic Role in the Coming of the Civil War
(Advisor: Professor Dew)
Eva Breitenbach
Constructing Society: The Utopian Planning of the Chicago's World Fair of 1893
(Advisor: Professor Wong)
Charles Crawford
The Effects of Genocide on Rwandan Politics, Foreign Relations, and Military
(Advisor: Professor Mutongi)
Ben Davidson
White Southern Childhood after Secession and the Acquisition of Racial Ideology
(Advisor: Professor Dew)
R. Alexander Dyroff
The Octopus and Uncle Sam in the Backyard: U.S. Policy, Intelligence, and Corporate Interest in Latin America
(Advisor: Professor Kittleson)
Cristina Florea
'My broken dreams of peace and socialism': Youth Propaganda, Personality, and Selfhood in the GDR, 1979-1989
(Advisor: Professor Garbarini)
Jonathan Galinsky
Mediation: The Development of English-language Media in the Middle East and its Relationship with Government and Media Audiences
(Advisor: Professor Bernhardsson)
Lindsey Jones
Mafia Activity in Kansas City in the 1970's and 1980's
(Advisor: Professor Siniawer)
Majida Kargbo
Bisexuality: A History of Narrative Conventions
(Advisor: Professor Dubow)
Zach Miller
Dismal Scientists, Diplomats, and Spooks: Bissell, Milliken, and Rostow and Thier Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy
(Advisor: Professor Chapman)
Meg Zisser
Thomas Dixon Jr., A Southern Tragedy"
(Advisor: Professor Brown)
