HIS 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Writing from the Margins

2 credits (Fall)

Whose lives get preserved in the historical record? How? Why? This short course incorporates autobiography and material culture to explore the stories of people who lived at the very margins of their social contexts. Through the ceramic work of an enslaved person in the U.S. named Dave and the embroidered jackets of a German psychiatric patient named Agnes Richter, we consider how, despite the odds, first-person traces of individual existence survive in the historical record. Students develop their own low-key research projects on the stubborn, willful interactions of hand, text, and material.

Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: August 30 to October 11. Half-semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Maynard