HST296A: Class notes, 19-Jan-2005
Week 1: Introduction
Community Studies is a relatively new field, rescued from antiquarians
and genealogical studies and growing in the 1960s and 70s. We'll be
starting with a classic: Powell's Puritan
Village.
Research Paper: for grad students the length should be 20-22 pp. It is
not necessarily the study of a particular community, rather it is the
study of how we create community/how communities are created. What is a
community, what are the bonds, how do communities react to a crisis, or
how do communities connect within themselves and with other communities.
A few quick paper ideas:
- creating virtual communities through 19th cent.
literature/periodicals (Godey, of course)
- creating imagined communities: Alice and middle class white
suburbia, or how about the American Dream
- creating virtual communities by creating real spaces: Olmstead,
perhaps
We'll approach communities through a variety of themes: family,
deviants, sub-community, wartime, the west/prairie, 19th cent., urban.
(see syllabus)
We'll visit Special Collections on March 9 for resources, esp. for
papers.
hope.greenberg@uvm.edu,
created/updated 19-Jan-2005
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