Welcome to the 1890s! There are a few familiar names, though not always included together: Vincent Van Gogh, Lizzie Borden, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, Sitting Bull, Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalane, and Sigmund Freud, to name a few. It was the age of “new immigration,” “new imperialism,” “separate but equal,” “labor wars,” breakthrough inventions, worldwide economic depression, plus the convergence of anarchism, populism, and end-of-the-century millennial hopes and fears. Using online materials, including historical newspapers, censuses, vital records, digitized maps, and mixed reality (XR) tools, students create a fictive, but historically plausible persona, whom they then lead and follow around the globe, generating letters, postcards, and other artifacts. All individual journeys converge at the close of 1899, and dawn of the twentieth century. Along the way, there are short weekly assignments, impromptu collaborations, and robust contributions to a productive, welcoming class eco-system.
Learning Outcomes:
Students fully engage Bennington's core capacities (IRCEC: Inquire, Research, Create, Engage, and Communicate), as we work to:
1. Generate tentative observations based upon identified facts and intuitive insights
2. Successfully collaborate with others on a range of activities
3. Craft plausible, engaging, fact-driven narratives about fictive individuals from the 1890s
Delivery Method: Hybrid
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 4
M/Th 3:40PM - 5:30PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 20
Course Frequency: Every 2-3 years
Categories: All courses , Fully In-Person , History
Tags: Biography , genealogy , international politics , Narrative , Reading and analysis , researching