History Department Adds New Course

Faculty voted by a wide margin-—99 to 5 with 17 abstentions—to accept a new, intensive 400-level history research course on Monday. The course, which will be offered winter term, will allow a select number of dedicated history students to write a 25 -page publishable research paper an approved topic of her or his choosing.

The course was designed and proposed by history instructors Michael Golay and Betty Luther-Hillman, who will teach the course collaboratively next winter term. Golay said he started thinking seriously about proposing the course after hearing about the advanced 400-level biology course known as the Fruit Fly Lab, which aims to expose students to biological research beyond the introductory courses by developing biological tools for other researchers to use

“The Fruit Fly project seemed to give biology students an opportunity to really dig deeper,” Golay said. “In the history department we have terrific senior electives, most which have a research paper requirement, but this course goes well beyond even a 333 in terms of time, effort and commitment of the student to the project.”

The course aims to introduce students to the process of creating a research paper similar to that of a professional historian. For the first few weeks of the term class time will be devoted to reading and analyzing articles of scholarly journals, and the rest of the term class time will be dedicated to working individually on the research projects and having workshops. Peer editing and conferencing one-on-one with the teachers will also be an essential part of the course.

“Students will be working very closely with the two teachers and getting a lot of feedback from them, but they will also be working closely, getting a lot of feedback from their peers, which sometimes might be more valuable,” Luther-Hillman said.  “While students will be working on their own projects, I wouldn’t underestimate the value of having peers that you are working side-by-side with. Professional history research, like any good research, is often collaborative.”

Due to the commitment and content of the course, students have mixed feelings about who might take this course and how popular it might be among seniors. “Most seniors are not interested in writing any more extensive papers after 333,” upper Marcus Polk said. On the other hand, upper Sarah Walter argued that, although the paper is longer than the traditional 333 paper, students have more time for research and writing. “Yes, it’s 25 pages,” she said, “but you get the whole term to do it.” 

The course, like the 411/421 English course and the Fruit Fly Lab, will be selective. Though the requirement would be History 333 or equivalent, only the students who show they have a real interest in the course will be accepted. It is expected that students taking and applying for the course have a desire to read and write. 

“Students must need to have shown a good track record with managing the research in the US history courses and their applications will have to speak to their desire to research and a willingness to take on independence for the course,” History Department Chair Meg Foley said. Foley also mentioned that there are students who do extra research projects on their own time who would enjoy the support this course gives.

Senior Alyssa Heinze, who won a Negley award for her work on the 333 paper, said the time the course gives to work on a single project looked appealing. “I often found myself wishing I had more time when writing and researching my 333,” Heinze said. 

Leigh Marie Braswell, fellow Negley winner, agreed and felt the freedom of what students could research would offer students something they could not get from other history classes. 

“Other classes dictate at least the nation or time period of focus. This open-endedness seems like it would foster a lot more creativity than the 333 or a senior elective,” Braswell said. 

Although the course passed easily some, teachers expressed strong reservations because the course would be team-taught.

Math instructor Joseph Wolfson, who voted against the proposal, thought there was an inequity issue because of the small class size. 

“I opposed the project for a very simple reason, because two teachers are getting credit for it so they are getting credit for working with five students. I don’t have such leeway,” he said. “I think it’s an equity issue.”

Anne Rankin, one of the teachers working on the Fruit Fly project, had mixed feelings about projects such as the new history course and her own Fruit Fly lab. “Exeter is a high school, it’s not a college, and I think all teachers need to be involved in teaching all levels of students,” she said.

Many students were not sure the course would be right for them.

“Oh, my god,” upper Helen Edwards said while reading the course description. “A twenty-five page research paper—I stopped reading there.”