Elisabeth Perry, Women and Social Movements Syllabus

WOMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:
PUTTING HISTORICAL PROJECTS ON THE WEB

Elisabeth I. Perry	T-Th 2:15-3:30
Hum 313	Hum 235 (computer room) or Hum 342 (seminar room)
977-2905 (o); 772-6536 (h); 799-5305 (c)	Office hours: Tu 3:30-4:30, Th 1-2:15
perrye@slu.edu

Office hours: I plan to be in my office at least an hour before and after every class, but am also available for consultation by appointment almost any day of the week, unless I'm out of town!

Concept for this class: In 1998, two historians of women at SUNY/Binghamton (Kathryn Sklar and Thomas Dublin) began to put primary sources in U.S. women's history on the Internet, organized around women's participation in American social movements. The website http://womhist.binghamton.edu now presents hundreds of primary documents organized into over 40 historical projects.

In this special topics course at SLU, students will be working on similar projects based in local primary source collections. I chose this approach because I felt that bringing St. Louis women's history sources onto the web was a particular contribution that we in St. Louis could make to the larger Internet project. Historians have exploited few local women's history collections, and so they remain relatively "fresh" territory for us to explore.

Here are some possible areas to explore for projects: impact of Virginia Minor's Supreme Court suffrage case on the Missouri woman suffrage movement, relationship of midwest woman suffragists to the eastern-dominated movement, women's response to St. Louis's experiment in a Red Light District, women's roles in the St. Louis civic betterment movements of the Progressive Era, impact of women's involvement in the defense councils of World War I, role of St. Louis black women in civic reform, the political career of radical labor organizer Kate Richards O'Hare, women in local civil rights movements, Missouri women and reproductive rights issues, role of religious women in male-dominated Catholic church issues, etc. I'm sure there are more! These are just some ideas that we can start with.

Students will work individually or with a partner(s) on projects which, when revised and successfully completed, may (after editing by Binghamton staff) be mounted on the SUNY/Binghamton website and credited to their authors.

Preparation for the course: since this is an advanced course, I expect you to have at least some background in American as well as women's history before class starts. I've already suggested several texts and document or essay collections and will assume you will absorb some of this material, enough to make you a little bit comfortable with the field, on your own. On St. Louis women's history, the only source so far available is Katharine T. Corbett, In Her Place: A Guide to St. Louis Women's History, published in 1999 by the Missouri Historical Society and available for purchase at the society or elsewhere in St. Louis. It is also in the Pius Library Reference Room (Ref.: HQ1439.S87 C67 1999). You might find her book on St. Louis in the Gilded Age useful as well (Ref.: F474.S257 C67 1993).

Web Project: This is the course's main focus. You must identify a possible web project, develop a research question, present an annotated bibliography that informs the research question, select 15-20 relevant documents that address your question, transcribe the documents (accurately! in WORDPAD as TEXT DOCUMENT only!), write short headnotes (1-2 paragraphs) for each document, write an introduction to the whole project (3-5 pps., plus endnotes), and identify related links.

Attendance, participation, keeping to the schedule: you will be expected to attend every class. This is a collaborative class, i.e., even if you are working on your own individual project, the class as a whole will respond to everyone's projects, assisting one another in issues such as selection of documents, clarity of headnotes and introductions, relevance of links, etc. If for some reason you must miss a class, you MUST talk to me about it and make arrangements to make up for what you missed. I won't keep formal attendance, but the class is small enough so that I'll know if you've gone AWOL!

Field trips: we will visit at least one local archive, and you will be expected to attend.

My responsibilities: I intend to be available to you as much as possible! If needed, I will go to a collection with you and of course help you sharpen the focus of your question. The selection of documents is up to you, but I will help you make judgments and critique your annotations as best I can. I will also assist you in locating appropriate bibliography and working out the format for the links, annotations, and footnotes. We will have technical assistance from ITS and also from a graduate student assistant, as needed.

How to pick a historical project to mount on the web: there are two ways to do this -

1) select a topic that you're interested in and then find a collection that will answer a research question that you have developed;

2) locate a collection that appeals to you and then devise a research question based on the material available in that collection.

I will help you determine the best approach for you. Whichever approach you do choose, first you must read the collections descriptions that are in the packet I am distributing to you at our first meeting, and perhaps have done some preliminary exploration in collections that interest you.

NOTE: THE PACKET IS NOT THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PRIMARY DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS IN ST LOUIS! There are others, available in microfilm either in Pius Library, elsewhere in the city, or through Interlibrary loan (this takes time, however, so it's best to avoid having to use ILL except for secondary sources). Newspapers and older periodicals also contain primary sources, as do some published books, and these can be used to supplement a local primary source collection. Check out these websites for particular information about collections at UMSL on women's topics: <http://www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/womencoll.html> (archives relating to women's history) <http://zelli.umsl.edu/umslsearch.html> (to do a keyword search of the archives).

At this point, I do not think we will have any common reading assignments or other writing assignments beyond what I have on this syllabus. But don't think that because we aren't tackling a common reading list that you will lots of free time in this course! You will have to spend a LOT of time outside of class picking a topic, refining your research question, selecting your documents, doing the background reading, and writing the required head notes and introduction.

WEEK ONE
Tu, Jan 14: introductions; our (mutual) expectations of the class; discussion of "what is history and how it's writ," the differences between primary and secondary sources, what is historiography and why it's important, the usefulness (or lack thereof) of Internet sources. We may also share responses to the semester break reading assignment (a survey in U.S. women's history) and discuss current issues in women's history.
Th, Jan 16: sharing responses to selected Binghamton projects (each student will have chosen a project to "review"); we probably won't finish today, and will continue in following weeks. Meanwhile, READ through the packet list of collections so that you're familiar with it before our field trip to the Missouri Historical Society archives next week.

WEEK TWO
Tu, Jan 21: meet in the browsing room of Pius Library for a brief introduction to research resources with Jamie Schmid, History Bibliographer.
Th, Jan 23: field trip to Missouri Historical Society Library and Archives at 225 S. Skinker, archives workshop with Dina Young, archivist. Meet as close to 2 PM as you can! I can carry 6 in my minivan and return you to campus afterward.

WEEK THREE-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE DEFINITIVELY CHOSEN YOUR PROJECT TOPIC!
Tu, Jan 28: finish reviewing Binghamton projects; have a strong preliminary sense of your research question for the semester, which we will discuss and refine together. Bring to class a bibliography of secondary sources for your project. This must contain at least TWO references (scholarly monographs, articles, etc.) with short descriptions of how they inform your research question. There are many bibliographical style sheets on the Internet; do a Google search for "history department style sheet" and you'll come up with many. My main criteria for bibliographies: clarity and consistency! Bring a print version of your bibliography to class but send to the class e-mail list an attached version by the evening of Mon., Jan. 27.
Th, Jan 30: further discussion of your project ideas, definitive decision by today!!!

WEEK FOUR
Tu, Feb 4: on the Binghamton website, read the FIRST project, "What are Social Movements? A Sociological Perspective," following through on all of the links (Abstract, Document list, Introduction); we will discuss this in class.
Th, Feb 6: Based on discussion of your research question and bibliography in class, bring a revised, expanded version of your bibliography to class, sent as an attached e-mail Wed. evening, Feb. 5.

WEEK FIVE-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE CHOSEN TWO DOCUMENTS YOU INTEND TO USE IN YOUR WEB PROJECT
Tu, Feb 11: presentation of two documents (these can be photocopied, if you have not yet transcribed them). Be sure to be able to answer questions concerning the importance and relevance of your document choices.
Th, Feb 13: visit from a SLU alumna, Kate Piccirilli, currently working for the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom-UN Office in New York City; she will talk to us about women and social movements in a contemporary context. Discussion of how you have refined your research question and project scope, based on discussion of previous week and consultations with me.

WEEK SIX
Tu, Feb 18: 1st tech session, location tba. At this session Sandy Gambill from ITS will teach us how to put our first two documents on the class web page.
Th, Feb 20: document presentation continued.

WEEK SEVEN-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE CHOSEN FOUR MORE DOCUMENTS
Tu, Feb 25: presentation of four more documents
Th, Feb 27: document presentation continued.

WEEK EIGHT-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE CHOSEN ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS YOU INTEND TO USE IN YOUR WEB PROJECT
Tu, Mar 4: presentation of all of your 15-20 documents.
Th, Mar 6: document presentation continued.

WEEK NINE-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE TRANSCRIBED AND PROOFED ALL OF YOUR DOCUMENTS
Tu, Mar 18: I will be out of town today; second tech session with Sandy Gambill, ITS.
Th, Mar 20: review of transcribed documents, continued.

WEEK TEN-BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE DRAFTED AT LEAST HALF OF YOUR HEADNOTES
Tu, Mar 25: review headnotes
Th, Mar 27: ENDOWED CHAIRS CONFERENCE on Islam and Global Issues

WEEK ELEVEN
Tu, Apr 1: review of headnotes, continued.
Th, Apr 3: (I will be out of town at a conference; possible class with tech assistant?)

WEEK TWELVE--BY THIS DATE YOU MUST HAVE A DRAFT INTRODUCTION (800-1000 WORDS)
Tu, Apr 8: review of introductions.
Th, Apr 10: review of introductions, continued.

WEEK FIFTEEN-BY THIS DATE, NO MORE REVISIONS! THIS IS IT! FINAL PROJECTS DUE!
Tu, Apr 29:
Th, May 1: PRESENTATION OF PROJECTS