YALE UNIVERSITY WmnsSt 425a (69425) Rachel Seidman Women's History: Methodological and Comparative Inquiry Th 1.30-3.20 WLH 012 Limited enrollment. a.k.a. Histry 430a ------------------------------------------------------------------- Syllabus/Course Description: WOMEN'S HISTORY: COMPARATIVE AND METHODOLOGICAL INQUIRY HISTORY 430a/WOMEN'S STUDIES 425a FALL 1993 Rachel Filene Seidman Office Hours: Thursday 3:30-5:00 776-0503 (Before 10 p.m.) (or by appointment) In this seminar students will explore the process of writing women's history. We will read and evaluate different approaches employed by historians of women, and we will undertake a variety of research projects designed to give students hands-on experience with sources. The course has several goals: To introduce students to issues in nineteenth-century women's lives; to expose students to research sources available to them and develop their research skills; to strengthen students' analytical and writing skills. In order to give a chronological and topical focus to this endeavor, we will concentrate on the idea of domesticity in the nineteenth- century United States. REOUIREMENTS: Class Discussions are central to this course, and should be attended faithfully. Some classes will entail a visit to a library or another institution, and you are required to take part in these as well. Responses to readings will be required each week. These will be simply one or two paragraphs discussing what interested you most about the reading, and what you would like to discuss in class. They must be handed in by 9:30 a.m. the day of class, to the box in the Andrews Study Room, Sterling Library, Room 214. You may choose two weeks in which you do not complete this assignment. Research/writing excercises will give you important practice and information that will help you when you go to write your research paper. You should try to pay attention to your writing style in these, so that I can begin to work with you on this before you undertake the larger project. Research paper-- this is the final requirement of this course. It will be 15-25 pages on a topic of your choice. You will need to consult with me individually about your topic by October 21 and turn in a bibliography by October 28. A rough draft of at least 8 pages is due November ll. You will exchange these drafts with other students and comment on each other's work. I will also comment on these drafts. An oral presentation on your work will be given during the last two weeks of class. The final draft is due December 16. Grading: Class participation (including weekly paragraphs): 25% Research/Writing exercises: 25% Oral Presentation: 10% Final Paper: 45% If you will need an extension on any assignment, you must request it by the Friday before the assignment is due. For example, an extension for an assigment due on Thursday, September 9th would have to be reguested by Friday, September 3rd. Exceptions will be made for Deans' Excuses ONLY. Each day an assignment is late (without extension or beyond the granted extension) results in the loss of half a grade (i.e., from A to A-). * * * * * SYLLABUS Note: Readings marked with an asterix (*) are in readings packet available at Minit Print on Broadway. All others are available at the Yale Co-op. Non-packet readings are also on reserve at CCL. September 2: Introduction September 9: Thinking about Women and History Reading: Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, chapters 1,2 and 3 *Gerda Lerner, "The Necessity of History and the Professional Historian" [presidential address to the Organization of American Historians], Journal of American HistorY, 69 (June 1982): 7-20. *Nancy Hewitt, "Beyond the search for sisterhood: American women's history in the 1980s" 10 Social HistorY October 1985): 299-321. Assignment: Write a short (3-page typed, double-spaced) autobiography. You can focus on any period of your life or try to cover it all. Be prepared to share this in class. September 16 (NOTE: we will reschedule this class for Rosh Hashanah): History as Detective Work Reatina: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale, ch. 1-5. September 23: Thinking About Sources Readina: *Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersbura, (Intro, Ch. 2, Ch. 4, Essay on Sources) *Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860, (Intro, ch. 3,4,5, A Note on Sources) *Deborah White, "Mining the Forgotten: Manuscript Sources for Black Women's History," 74 Journal of American History, (June 1987): 237. Assignment: Using Orbis, find three secondary sources on Virginia Woolf, Dorothea Dix, or Sojourner Truth that are in Sterling library. Locate at least one of them in Sterling's stacks, taking time to explore the other books around it. Find three journal articles using "Acad" on the Orbis screen. Using the bibliography of one of the secondary sources, find three primary sources about her or her work (these do not have to be available at Sterling). [NOTE: PLEASE ASK ME OR A REFERENCE LIBRARIAN OR A FRIEND/CLASSMATE IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE ORBIS FULLY.] September 30: Biography as History Reading: Kathryn Kish Sklar, Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity (pages xi-xv, 59-167, 258-273). *Dorothy Sterling, Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery (pages 1-60, 213-262, 357-387) Source Introduction: Sterling Library Manuscripts and Archives (Judith Schiff) NOTE: MEET IN ANDREWS STUDY, Sterling 214, at 1:30. October 7: Using Material Culture Reading: Dolores Hayden, A Grand Domestic Revolution, p. 3-131; 183-265. *Jules Prown, "Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method" in Material Life in America, edited by Robert St. George. p. 17-37. Source Introduction: Mudd Library, Goverment Documents Collecton (Sandy Peterson) NOTE: MEET AT MUDD, 1:30. October 14: Understanding Docwments Assignment: Pretend that we are putting together a collection of documents on nineteenth-century women's history. In groups of two or three, choose a primary source document that you would like to see included in the collection. Then write a 5-page introduction to the source, noting who produced it, any biographical information about the author/creator, the most notable message/meaning of the document, and how we can best understand the larger significance of this document/object. (Note that to address some of these issues, you will need to do some background reading. You should also take a look at some documentary histories for examples of introductory essays. For example, see Ira Berlin, ed., The Black Military Experience. Turn in a photocopy (if possible) of your document/object with the paper. October 21: Exploring Oral History Readina: *Davidson and Lytle, "The View from the Bottom Rail" in After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, p. 169-204. *Barbara Allen, "Stories in Oral History" Journal of American History, 79:2 (September, 1992): 606-611. Assignment: Brief (one page) description of your paper topic due today. Be prepared to share this with the class. Include a plan for how you are going to go about researching this, sources you will use, etc. October 28: Gender and Sexuality Reading: *Joan Scott, "Gender as a Useful Category of Analysis" * Cathy Peiss, "Charity Girls and City Pleasures: Historical Notes on Working-Class Sexuality, 1880-1920" * George Chauncy, "From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: Medicine and the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviance" Salmagundi No. 58/59 (Fall 82/Winter 83) Assigment: Hand in a working bibliography for your research. Continuation of class discussions on research projects/plans. November 4: Writing/History Readina: *Bill Cronin, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History and Narratlve" 78:4 Journal of American History, (March 1992): 1347- 1376. *Peter Elbow, Writina with Power, p. 3-25, 121-138, 167-175, 279- 313, 339-356. November 11: Just Writing Assignment: 8 pages of rough draft due by this date. Please turn in one copy to the instructor, and one copy to the box in Sterling 214. November 18: Feedback and More Writing Assigment: Read two other students' 8-page rough drafts and comment on them. Try to offer constructive criticism on style, organization, clarity, argument. Assignment: Oral Presentations in Class Each student's report of her findings of shall be no more than 10 minutes. November 19-28: THANKSGIVING BREAK December 2: Preliminary Results Assignment: Oral Presentations in Class December 3-10: READING PERIOD December 16: Final Paper Due, 3:30 p.m. to box in Sterling 214