Prof. Newton shares how a little bit about his approach to helping students consider historiography. His memo assignment reminds students that they have a substantial role in writing the history they are studying. It’s a simple assignment that is useful for the novice and professional historian alike. […]
Tag: Past
Making Cents of Origins
Thanks to the wireless internet on campus and an enterprising student in class with a laptop, a quick e.g. turned into an even better example this semester. […]
“I’ve Seen Things…”
This semester I taught our senior seminar, required of all majors and minors before they graduate from the department. It was on the topic of tradition. Well, not really. It was on the topic of the discourse on tradition. That’s a difference that matters, I think. […]
For Example…
What’s the relevance of the study of religion? Well, religious studies students know how to study things like myths and origins tales, right? And all of us tell origins tales, no? From Uncle so-and-so spinning an annual yarn at some family holiday to scholars trying to find the origins of civilization, we’re all doing it. So that suggests that we’re particularly well-equipped to say a fair bit about how these tales work and why we all tell them. For example, […]