Posts in Teaching
Exhibition: (New) Blueprints for Counter Education

I am happy to announce the exhibition (New) Blueprints for Counter Education, which I have curated as part of my work for the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. Featuring new work by Artur Silva, Lasana Kazembe, Jason M. Kelly, and Kara Taylor, the exhibition uses virtual reality, poster art, film, and music to consider our current moment—and the ways that the visual arts, philosophy, poetry, performance, and history equip us to both understand and respond to the challenges that we face.

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Historiography (2): Taking Notes Using the "Historiography Worksheet"

There are many different ways to introduce students to historiography. One of my primary tools is a "Historiography Worksheet." The purpose of the Historiography Worksheet is threefold. First, it teaches students about the complexities of historiography--as both a practice and a field of study. Second, it provides a framework for classroom discussion. Third, it offers students a standardized note-taking format that helps students develop their skills analyzing and synthesizing historical arguments.

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Identifying Narrators and Finding a Rapport: Tips for New Oral Historians (and Public Historians)

This short guide is primarily targeted to students new to oral history, who might not yet feel comfortable reaching out to strangers, or even friends, for an oral history interview. There are a number of tips in here that will make you more effective in the process of oral history interviews, but much of this information is more broadly applicable to public history practice and community engaged scholarship.

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Introduction to Gephi and Historical Network Analysis Module

I have designed this module to introduce you to historical network analysis using Gephi. The readings will present some of the general frameworks and theories of social network analysis and historical network analysis, but, I would like to emphasize that 1) they are not comprehensive and 2) they tend to emphasize early modern European networks, which is where my research interests tend to be focused. The Gephi section will provide a working knowledge of Gephi, a popular and (relatively) easy-to-use network analysis program. There are a number of tutorials on the internet, so instead of re-creating the wheel, I am assigning a few of these tutorials.

By the end of this module, you will

  1. Have a general knowledge of the basic theories of Social Network Analysis (SNA).

  2. Understand the limits and opportunities for using network analysis in historical contexts.

  3. Have a working knowledge of Gephi and its feature set.

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Archive as Pedagogy: Oral History and a Journal of the Plague Year

In March 2020, the COVID-19 Oral History Project, based at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), teamed up with A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19 (JOTPY), based at Arizona State University to create and curate a series of oral histories focused on the lived experience of the pandemic. Among the results of this collaboration has been a focus on research-based pedagogy and learning for undergraduate students, graduate students, and the public at large. This pedagogical emphasis has both shaped the archive and has been shaped by the process of developing the archive.

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Rights-Making and Rights-Taking: A Module on Stonewall and Intersectionality

In the end, I decided to frame rights in the context of "rights-making" and "rights-taking." By "rights-making," I asked the students to reflect on the fact that civil, human, constitutional, etc. rights are always made in a historical context. In practice, rights are never constant. They are negotiated, claimed, and fought for. By "rights-taking," I wanted them to think about how, in these historical contexts, rights are taken (i.e. claimed) by activists or taken away by those with power. Rather than working from a history-of or a taxonomical approach to rights, we would focus on rights as an assemblage of ideas, concepts, social relations, symbolic forms, claims, laws, practices, and materialities in motion.

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Censorship (again), but with an Autocratic Twist

It must be that time of year again. Politicians on the right are lining up to censor history— specifically, what texts can be used in the classroom. And, once again, they’re pulling out their copies of Howard Zinn, shaking them in the air, and decrying writers who challenge their triumphalist versions of U.S. history. This time it’s the president—a person who, I can say with relative confidence, has never read more than a few pull quotes from the book.

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Understanding Information and Disinformation: An Open Access Module

Central to any historical work is reading, interpreting, and analyzing texts (whether these texts are written, visual, audio, etc.). Because of this, historians have to read texts very closely, sifting for valuable information and clues.

This course module has been created to help students better understand the nature of disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information.

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