History

Special History Projects

Members of the history department regularly use unorthodox approaches to their teaching. Several of our faculty members teach with games from the Reacting to the Past series. In addition, students in our classes draw up their own versions of the Treaty of Versailles, investigate the oral history of their home towns, and arrange for the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Often times, our course assignments diverge from those typically associated with history courses. Take, for example, the “Object Lesson” assignment from American Environmental History (HIST 261).

On other occasions, entire classes go in unexpected directions. One year, the Senior Research Seminar (HIST 386) investigated the history of the college and worked together to create a missing yearbook from a particularly tumultuous year of the college’s history. (One so tumultuous they forgot to make a yearbook).

One member of our department suffers from an unnatural fascination with zombies. As a consequence, a recent May Term course created a book about the zombie onslaught against our college. A History of the Great Zombie War: The Simpson Experience is now available on Amazon.com.

In addition to on campus course-work, our faculty members sometimes lead students on special excursions off-campus. Recently, three students travelled to New York City to help Professor Proctor make a presentation at a national conference on creativity in education.

Even traditional assignments lead in unexpected directions. A recent class discussion about the writings of Diderot, an 18th century French philosophe, resulted in a lengthy and spirited discussion of the merits of creating a race of “goat men.” 

proctor

“I am not a zombie. Nor am I a goat-man.”

 

Last Updated: 11/18/11