These are capstone courses, to be taken in sequence, designed to help majors pursue an individual research project under the supervision of a faculty of the History Department. The purpose of course meetings is to give the students a chance to learn the mechanics and methods of senior research and to share with classmates the work process and experience, excitement and frustration in historical writing and research. The courses, which aim to enhance the seniors’ critical thinking, oral skills and capability of examining and interpreting historic events, will explore the methods of collecting, sorting, and analyzing source materials and collectively deal with common problems rising from research. The end result of their research will be a 25-50-page essay based on primary sources and presented to the public. The seniors in the class will also need to prepare a Portfolio that summarizes their college experience as a History Major.

CILO-1: Investigate a chosen topic on the basis of key primary sources and secondary literature and by using appropriate vocabulary and terminology. CILO-2: Acquire basic historical research skills, including the effective use of libraries, archives, and databases. CILO-3: Acquire basic skills of the historical crafts, reconstructing the specific social, political, economic and cultural contexts of a past event, identifying and analyzing the changing processes within these contexts, and make use of case studies for evaluating theories of and approaches to specific themes.