Doing History: Student Projects

Students in the Lawrence History Department do original research. Some of the opportunities for such research include

Student:	Sarah Welch '07
Project Title:	American School Consolidation of the 1940s: Redgranite, Wisconsin
For my senior research project I decided to begin with a study of the history of American education. I studied many topics during my self-designed Seminar class before proposing to research the history of schools in my hometown, Redgranite, Wisconsin. I wondered why most one-room schoolhouses in my town closed in the 1950s in a seemingly large sweep. Through research done in my seminar, over the summer a bit, and during my senior year in the Practice of History course, I discovered that small schools all across America were being forced to close due to national pressures of modernization coinciding with the Space Race and the Baby Boom. My project was so neat because this small idea from my town turned out to be a serious national issue (as well as a hot local debate!). My research from the local newspapers and school board minutes at my county historical society, as well as an interview with my grandfather, turned out to give me phenomenal primary accounts of American life generations ago. As a beginning teacher applying to jobs in scattered Wisconsin towns I am now able too look around and see the impacts of redistricting and consolidation everywhere I go! My project was nominated for the 2007 Harrison Symposium where I was able to present my research along with a slideshow of photographed schoolhouses from my town.

Student:	Liz Spoden, '05
Project Title:	Slavery and Civilization: Concepts of Race and Identity Among the Cherokees
During my senior year I headed to Chicago to participate in the Newberry Library's "Seminar in the Humanities." I had been warned that this program simulates a grad school experience and they weren't kidding. It was intense-but incredibly rewarding. I had the opportunity to access rare primary sources and craft an original thesis.Upon my return to Lawrence I wanted to explore the subject in more depth. Although the tutorial curriculum I developed with Professor Podair was primarily concerned with understanding the Civil War from a Southern perspective, frequently the course veered into aspects of my research paper. Our conversations helped me reassess the work I began in Chicago and reach very different conclusions. In the spring I presented a shortened and revised version of the paper at the Harrison Symposium for Research in the Humanities. When I look back on what became a year-long project, I still feel a sense of accomplishment. Now that I am in graduate school I appreciate even more the research and writing skills I gleaned from my work at the Newberry and, later, at Lawrence. It has helped me to approach my current thesis work with much more confidence.