Description: |
Campanile Under Construction- 1914
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This class teaches students to be rigorous and effective investigators. Taking UC Berkeley as a case study, we will discuss the role that universities and university level research has played and continues to play in public life. We will discuss what research looks like at a university, who does it, and who benefits. A survey of campus history will be complemented by close examination of primary sources, as well as discussions on finding and utilizing primary sources effectively. Tracking campus history to the present moment, we will then map our conversations onto current events for a larger discussion on writing research papers using both primary and secondary sources. Some of the issues that we will cover in our readings and discussions will include: how and where we find information, what types of information and what sources of information we find valuable, and what we do with the information we have access to. Over the course of the semester, students will embark on a process of discovery related to a key issue within their chosen topic, to determine where, how, and why their research holds particular relevance to our world today.
