Engagement with your fellow students and course material is crucial for HIST 458/708. As a seminar course, it is grounded in the examination, exploration, and deconstruction of primary and secondary sources related to the history of the witch hunts in early modern Europe. Such engagement should be collaborative as we work together to develop and deepen our analysis and understanding of this topic.
There are two components of student engagement in this course: in class discussion and online discussion.
In class discussion
As a seminar, our course is founded on group discussion. As we are a large seminar, each class will be organized around small group discussion and whole class discussion. You will remain with the same small group over the semester and the roles you play in your group will be determined by the type of sources we are reading.
Secondary sources (Jan 20, Jan 27, Feb 10. March 10):
- Academic Reading Circles: each student in their group is responsible for fulfilling a different role in analyzing the texts. Sign up for these roles will take place in the first class. The schedule will be posted in the “week by week” section.
- For more information see: Academic Reading Circles (Secondary Sources Only)
Primary sources (Jan 13, Feb 3, Feb 17, March 17):
- Analyzing witch trial records: each student in their group will have different tasks to deconstruct and analyze witch trial records. Sign up for these roles will take place in the first class. The schedule will be posted in the “week by week” section.
- For more information see: Primary Source Discussion
Online Discussion
As a launchpad for our in class discussion, we will start our conversations on the chatboard. You will be divided into the same groups on the chatboard that you are a part of for our in person classes.
- Each group member will be responsible for posting questions for one topic over the semester. These questions are designed to begin discussion that will continue in class.
- Sign up for online discussion leader spots will take place in class. I will post the schedule in the “week by week” section.
- Questions should be posted by discussion leaders by the Monday evening before class. Responses from group members should be posted before class on Thursday.