HUM184

Historians have something different to say about public events from journalists, political scientists. And this is not because of what we know, it's because of how we think. There's something called historical thinking, which is what we teach our majors in college, and which we supposedly are very good at. And it's what we can contribute to public culture. When we talk about historical thinking, we're usually looking at the kinds of questions historians answer. For example, when we teach history, whether at the high school level or the college level. One of the things we tell students is that it's much harder to ask Good question then to find the answer. And that's because asking a good question means thinking about context. It means trying to figure out what's important and why it's important. The classic graduate orals question, for example, after somebody goes through 15 minutes of narrating something or a question that's often asked. And dissertation defense is so odd. And it's combining the exciting narrative that narrative that people find interesting about history with that. So what question and what we say when we talk about historical thinking, we talk about asking that. So what question in terms of context, in terms of change? The other thing that historical thinking emphasizes is understanding how change happens, why change happens, or why it doesn't. So any question. Any aspect of public culture can benefit from these kinds of questions, from asking, how did we get here? Why did it turn out this way instead of that way? These are always historical questions.

I think it's important to study history because we can learn about what it means to be a human being. And when you learn about human beings and their world, you equip yourself with all sorts of tools and knowledge to make you succeed and just about anything. It's one of the most grounding disciplines where you get this completely comprehensive sense of how things have come to be the way they are. So whether it's a very individual pursuit of knowledge or information, or you're interested in more global issues. Like you want to know why your country operate the way it does, and just the way individuals and societies have shaped themselves over the years. This is the discipline for it helps us think about why we arrived, where we've arrived, how we came to be the way we are, what we've done well, what we could have done better. It helps us see patterns in human behavior over time. But it also helps us understand how things change over time and how change is possible. What really drew me in was going to university and learning how much more complicated and messy and was that behind works of art like the statue of David, they were really important political messages. I could learn how to see a painting through the eyes of someone who lived in the 4800 and see it totally differently from how I see it now. We have social history and labor history, gender and sexuality. History of the emotions, history of the senses, urban history, oral history, indigenous history really has become just such a wide fascinating field. I think the most unfortunate misconceptions and the most universal one that people have about history is that it's this mindless memorizing facts, facts, facts, dates, date, day towards boys well as treaties, treaties, treaties, and it's not that at all. When you study history, you learn how to solve problems. When you study history, learn how to be detail oriented. You learn how to manage information. You learn how to develop your own ideas, your own voice, and to make a case for those ideas on paper. Persuasively. And in a room full of people who may have totally different opinions from you. Because fundamentally a degree in history means that you're able to process a great deal of information. You know how to write correctly and well, you know how to make independent connections between material. And you're probably very good at researching a question. All of those kinds of skills are applicable in so many different professions and they're the very thing that employers are looking for today. You can go into law, you could go into communications, you can go into business. We have many of our recent graduates who are in government. The mayor of New West, the mayor of Maple Ridge, for example, history. It tells us stories about our humanity and where would we be without our stories. It teaches you to think about other people and big problems. Hopefully it will make you more responsible and more compassionate and someone who just has a better handle on how to navigate, to think about and ultimately to contribute to the world.

Milestone 2 Assignment

 

Instructions

Milestone Assessment Template

You have reached a Milestone Activity! Please be sure you have completed all of the learning activities. Milestone Activities are important stops along your educational journey to check your progress towards mastering the competency and to get feedback and guidance from your tutorial faculty. 

Please note:  You must complete this Milestone Activity before moving on in this competency. Milestones ask questions that touch upon concepts covered in previous Learning Activities and provide you with the opportunity to see concepts from the perspective of experts in the field, your faculty. 

This Milestone Activity is not graded and will not impact your score on your Final Assessment; however, your response must score a “Proficient” or “Exemplary” on each rubric criterion, listed in the Assignment rubric, in order to access and submit your Final Assessment.

To complete this Milestone Activity, read the prompts below and then provide your response based on the activity guidelines. In order to score a “Proficient” or “Exemplary”, your response must be thoughtful and substantive, and you must reference or cite content from this competency. Your tutorial faculty will use the attached rubric to determine if your submission shows the depth of thought required to successfully complete this Milestone. Let’s get started!

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By now you have learned about the discipline of history. You have also seen how it explained Haitian slavery and the Haitian Revolutions in order to create the context for the development of Haitian Vodou and the zombi. 

You will answer the essay below using the information in this module.

Explain the nature of Haitian Slavery and Its Role in the Haitian Revolutions. How did these revolutions reshape the social, political, and economic landscape of the region? How does this history create a context for the development of Voodoo?

You must write your answer in essay format and you must include citations with every paragraph based on the sources provided in this module.  Do not use outside sources and do not use an AI to write your essay.

Write everything in your own words. If you plagiarize, I will not affirm your work until you put everything into your own words. If you need help on how to put ideas into your own words then check out PurdueOwl.

What Do You Need To Do?

Answer this essay question:

Explain the nature of Haitian Slavery and Its Role in the Haitian Revolutions. How did these revolutions reshape the social, political, and economic landscape of the region? How does this history create a context for the development of Voodoo?

Logistics

· Only turn in the essay for this milestone.  Do not include the essays from previous milestones.  You will put them all together for the final assessment only.

· DO NOT use sources other than the ones you are given.  If the links are broken then you need to contact the professor immediately via email.

· Each paragraph will be followed by a citation that includes which provided sources you used in parentheses.   Information on how to cite these sources are in the module under each source.

· Your essay must be at least 500 words.

· Be sure to synthesize the information from all the sources that are given in your answer.  Don't focus only on one or two sources.

· Do not use ChatGPT or any other AI to do your work.  It will be apparent because your work will not match up with the information provided for you.

Remember that milestones 2 through 5 make up the final assessment.