IFS-GA 1620, HIST-GA 1620
Prof. Herrick Chapman
New York University
Spring Semester 2013
Wed. 9:30-12:00
Office hours Tues. 3-5
RESEARCH SEMINAR IN FRENCH STUDIES
This seminar offers students the opportunity to write a major research paper over the course of two semesters and the intervening summer. We begin by reading examples of research writing in the disciplines of history and literary studies, as well as work on analytical methods, strategies in writing and research, and the uses of theory. We also examine the grant proposal and research prospectus as genres to master to advance one’s research. The course provides opportunities to practice skills in presenting work orally and critiquing the work of colleagues. Above all, the course serves as a structure and a community, an atelier, to help enable students to write an article-length work of original research in the company of colleagues engaged with their own projects.
Students should move quickly to identify their topics and begin formulating the central questions that will shape their project. A three-page précis will be due at the end of February, an annotated bibliography in late March, and a proposal draft in late April. The group will provide advice along the way, as well as detailed oral and written criticism of the draft proposal near the end of the semester. Students should be prepared to use time during the summer to do additional research on the project. During the fall semester we will meet regularly to report on progress and to provide detailed critiques of the essay draft. That draft will be due in October, and a final version of the paper in December.
Common readings for the first semester of the course will be available on My Classes, except for the book by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research,Third Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), which students should purchase on their own.
Requirements
Attendance and Participation. The success of the course depends heavily on the active engagement of all its members in the discussion of the topics at hand every week and in the careful reading and criticism of student work.
Précis of your research paper. This preliminary research proposal should present your topic, articulate the central problem or question that will likely define the project, and sketch out the main ideas and issues you think will give the project its vitality and depth. Identify the main works in the literature of greatest relevance to your research question, and discuss your method and the sources you think will be available to you. You may offer a hypothesis (what you think your argument will be), or identify what you’ll most need to know in order to do so. Length: 800 words maximum. Add a bibliography of primary and secondary sources (single-spaced, one to two pages). Follow the format of the Chicago Manual of Style. Email your précis to the class as a Word attachment by February 28.
Annotated bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources. Email to the professor by March 28.
Research paper proposal. Follow the model of the grant proposals we will discuss in class. Length: eight to ten double-spaced pages (2500 word maximum) and a one-page, single-spaced bibliography of primary and secondary sources (Chicago style). Email to the class as a Word attachment by April 25.
Comments on the précis, proposals, and drafts of fellow students. Focus on form and especially on content, assessing the framing of the problem, the elaboration of the topic in relationship to the problem, the method, the evidence, and the articulation of what is at stake in the project. Be as constructive as you can, identifying strengths and weaknesses and helping the student improve the work. These comments will be presented orally in class, but must be written out and emailed to the student by 8:00 p.m. on the eve of class.
Class Schedule
January 29 – Introduction
February 5 –Models
Wayne C. Booth et al., The Craft of Research, selected pages.
Ruth Harris, “Letters to Lucie: Spirituality, Friendship, and Politics during the Dreyfus Affair,” Past and Present (2006): 118-138.
Marie-Eve Thérenty, La Littérature au quotidian: Poétiques journalistiques au dix-neuvième siècle (2007), selected chapter.
Tyler Stovall, “The Color Line Behind the Lines: Racial Violence in France during the Great War,”American History Review 103, 3 (1998): 737-69.
February 12 –Concepts
Selection of articles by students. Email a PDF of your article to the class by Saturday, Feb. 8.
Raymond Williams, “The Meanings of ‘Culture,’” in Cultural Sociology: An Introductory Reader, ed. Matt Wray (New York: W. W. Norton, 2014).
William H. Sewell, “Agency and Structural Change,” in Cultural Sociology, ed. Wray.
Howard S. Becker, “Art Worlds,” in Cultural Sociology, ed. Wray.
Brett Bowles, “Résistance oblige? Historiography, Memory, and the Evolution of Le Silence de la mer, 1942–2012,” French Politics, Culture & Society 32, 1 (Spring 2014).
Email the professor a paragraph about your topic, problem, and prospective questions before having an individual meeting this week about your project.
February 19 –Writing
Booth et al, The Craft of Research, selected pages.
Stephen J. Pyne, Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction (2009), ch. 21.
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” (1945).
Lynn Hunt and Deborah E. Harkness, articles on “The Art of History,” Perspectives on History (2010).
Joseph R. Gusfield, “The Literary Art of Science,” in The Culture of Public Problems (1981), 83-108.
William Cronon, “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” Journal of America History 78 (1992): 1347-1376.
February 26 –Archives
Nicholas B. Dirks, “Annals of the Archives: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History,” in B. Axel, ed., From the Margins: Historical Anthropology and its Futures (2002), 49-65.
Arlette Farge, Goût de l’archive, 69-96.
Robert B. Townsend, “Processing the Past,” Perspectives on History (2011).
AHA Committee for Graduate Students, “Some Tips and Suggestions For Your Research Trip” (2006).
Judith R. Walkowitz, “On Taking Notes,” Perspectives on History (2009).
Friday, February 28, email the class your précis.
March 5 – Précis
March 12 –Grants and the Dissertation Prospectus
Adam Przeworski and Frank Salomon, “On the Art of Writing Proposals” (SSRC, 1995).
Elizabeth Jakob et al., “How To Fail in Grant Writing,” Chronicle of Higher Education (December 5, 2010).
Sample grant proposals and prospectuses.
March 19 – Spring Break
March 26 – Scholars at Work: Guest
Friday, March 28, email to the professor the annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
April 2 – Individual consultations
April 9 – Advancing the Work
Olive Homes, “Thesis to Book: What to Get Rid Of and What to Do With What is Left,” in E. Harman and I. Montanges, eds., The Thesis and the Book (1976), 52-85.
Brad S. Gregory, “Managing the Terror,” Perspectives on History (2009).
Marybeth Gasman, “Roadblocks to Doctoral Success,” Chronicle of Higher Education (April 20, 2011).
Rachel Toor, “The Problem Is You Write Too Well,” Chronicle of Higher Education (September 6, 2011).
Lynn Worsham, “Fast-Food Scholarship,” Chronicle of Higher Education (December 16, 2011), including online readers’ comments.
April 16 – Scholars at Work: Guest
April 23 –Writing Week, No Class
Friday, April 25, email your proposal to the class.
April 30 – Proposal Critiques
May 7 – Proposal Critiques
May 16 – Revised proposal due
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