Hist 4004/CRN 16024
The Story of
Dr. Crandall Shifflett
TThs 9:30-1045 MajWm 427
Virginia Tech
Spring 2007
MajWm 441
231-8372 (office)
Office Hours: By Appointment
History Teaching
Assistant:
Jared Bond
Office Hours: 8-9 Tuesday; 12-1 Thursday and By Appointment
Office: 408 Major Williams
Course Description: The content of this course focuses on the history of Virginia's Indians
from the Precontact Period to the present. Students will use a variety of
source materials in the course: maps, rare first-hand accounts, oral histories,
the Virtual Jamestown digital archive, archaeological evidence, videos, images,
and secondary literature to address research questions that arise out of class
discussions. Tools, such as Primary Access, and techniques of more advanced
technologies, such as large visual displays of data on massive LCD panels, will
be used to experiment with the learning, thinking, and interpretation
("making sense") of historical data. The objectives are to:
Digital Narrative Assignments:
Each student will use Primary Access to create a digital narrative for the
class on significant individuals, events, or topics to be assigned at the first
class meeting. Each presentation should include, if possible, at least 3
images, 1 primary source (see Virtual Jamestown or search the Web) and other
visual (i.e., a map, timeline, 2D/3D artifact, table, graph, etc.) components.
Presentations are limited to 3-5 minutes. At the beginning of your Primary
Access presentation, each student will hand in a printed version of the text
that includes 3-4 major secondary sources.
Students in this course will also work with computer science faculty, graduate students in history and computer science, and me to develop tools and techniques for interpreting history. All who study history have to "make sense" of the past and this course experiments with historical interpretation as a "process" to move from the accumulation of information to higher levels of thinking and critical inquiry that culminate in an interpretation of the data. The course will use several visualization techniques. For example, with the assistance of graduate students in history and computer science, students will work with data on 50 LCD panels in the Center for Human Computer Interaction, Knowledge Works II, at the corporate research center. A 50-panel tiled LCD display with 96 million pixels and touch-screen capability will present the research, each panel the equivalent of a 3x5 index card of historical data. Students will be able to visualize (in the form of icons) their entire deck of notecards, change the historical antecedents of an event or action, or draw into the mix new circumstances, conditions, and understandings and analyze their potential impact upon the outcomes, or "game" different strategies for testing "what might have beens."
Class Vision: a PBS-style documentary on Virginia Indians, 1607-2007
Periods of Indian History
The class will meet regularly in Major Williams 427 (
Background Texts:
Frederic W. Gleach,
Powhatan's World and Colonial
Karen Kupperman, Indians and
English: Facing Off in Early
Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. Hill and Wang, 2004.
Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of
Calendar
Jan 16 Introduction to course, Virtual Jamestown, and plans for semester. All students must attend or be dropped from the course. Assignments of Primary Access topics and dates.
Digital Sources, Background Readings, and Recent Videos
Jan 18 Virtual Jamestown Overview
Jan 23 Using Virtual
Jamestown
Jan 25 Open Lab
Jan 30 Defining the
Research Questions
Feb 1 Townsend, Chs.
1-5
Feb 6 Sample Oral
History Interviews; Townsend, Chs. 6-9
Feb 8 Documentary
Record
Written Assignment,
2 pp.: Using Virtual Jamestown, choose three Virginia laws and defend their
importance in Indian history
Feb 13 Visual Record:
White/DeBry Images
Kupperman, Ch. 2
Preview the John White watercolors on Virtual Jamestown
Written Assignment: 2 pp. reaction essay due on Kupperman, Ch. 2 at class time
Feb 15 Visual Record: Artifacts
Written Assignment: Choose three artifacts from Virtual Jamestown or Jamestown Rediscovery and explain their significance in 2 pp. reaction essay due at class time
Feb20 Visual Record:
Preview The New World (2-pp. reaction papers due)
Feb 22 Visual Record
: Preview Black Robe (2-pp. reaction papers due)
Feb 27 Visual Record
: Preview The Mission (2-pp. reaction papers due)
Mar 1 Mid-Term Exam
Spring break 3-11
March
Mar 13 Primary Access
Introduction (Andy Mink)
More Secondary Sources
Mar 15 Gleach, 1-60;
106-22; Rountree, Prologue and Ch. 1; Kupperman, Ch. 1
PA: Wahunsunacock/
Tsenacomacah
Mar 20 Townsend, Chs.
1-5; Rountree, Ch. 2
PA: Indian/English trade/ liminals
Mar 22 Primary Access II (Andy Mink)
Mar 27 Townsend, Chs.
6-9, Rountree, Ch. 3
PA: Opechancanough/Pocahontas/ Indian women
Mar 29 Kupperman,
Chs. 2; Gleach, Chs. 5-6
PA: Paspahegh/ Pamunkey
Apr 3 Open for Lab
Apr 5 Kupperman, 3-5
PA: Indian religion/
Laws on Indians
Apr 10 Open for Lab
Apr 12 Rountree, Ch.
4
1622 Indian attack/
reservations/ treaties
Apr 17 Open for Lab
Apr 19 Rountree, Chs.
5-7; Gleach, Ch. 9
PA: fringe and core/
mulatto/ Gingaskins
Apr 24 Kupperman,
Chs. 6-7
Apr 26 Rountree, 8-10
PA: Walter Plecker/
Racial Integrity Law/ 8 unrecogized tribes
May 1 Open
Final Exam: 5 May,
A total of 1,000 points may be accumulated for the class based upon the
following assignments and values:
Midterm exam=200
Final exam=300
Digital Narrative Assignments=200
Class participation, assignments, and attendance, *300 points, distributed as
follows:
Grading Scale
93+=A
90-92=A-
87-89=B+
83-86=B
80-82=B-
77-79=C+
73-76=C
70-72=C-
67=69=D+
63-66=D
60-62=D-
Below 60=F