Private Group active 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Mining the Archives, Reinterpreting the Past — English 89000

During the past two decades, a revolution has occurred in scholarship: troves of archival materials that were once very hard to access and search have been digitized and put online. Rare books and manuscripts; entire runs of newspapers; obscure pamphlets; letters; visual and audio files—these are some of the rich resources that are now universally available and instantly searchable. How does one sort through the apparently endless digitized archives? How do we take notes without accumulating masses of mere trivia? Most importantly, what are the most effective strategies for using archival research as the basis for writing original essays or book-length monographs? How do we move from the raw material of the archive to the publishable article or book? This course addresses such issues. Students from any field or period concentration will have the opportunity to explore online and physical archives that are especially interesting to them and relevant to their work. Class readings include articles or book chapters about archival research. Students will periodically report to the class about their progress in the archives and will write a term paper based on their research.