For those who missed it…. February 5, 2010
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You can still see the powerpoint version of today’s lecture.
Extra Credit Opportunity: Business Ethics Panel February 3, 2010
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Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) is dedicating the week of February 8-12 to business ethics by displaying a variety of information concerning the fundamentals of ethics (including basic meanings or perceptions, specific situations and how ethics relate to society today). On Thursday, February 11th, we will hold a panel discussion in Grubbs Hall Room 109 at 7:00 pm. This event will entail the showing of a short video that outlines a specific situation about a medical insurance dilemma. Each panel member will be allowed a specified amount of time to give their professional opinion about the situation and then discussion will open to the audience.
Two quick reminders on the article review assignment February 2, 2010
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- For the article review, Please don’t send me PDF files with the entire article. I really, really just want the basic bibliographic information: author, title, journal, date, pages. If you want to include a JSTOR link, or something like that, fine, but don’t just send me the article and expect me to go looking for the information I need. That’s not the assignment.
- When you’re picking your articles, please try to pick something that deals with the history of the last 500 years. It can go back further than that, of course, but the goal is for you to read something that is related to this course.
Extra Credit Opportunity: Faculty Reading January 28, 2010
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Poetry, fiction presented at 4th annual Faculty Reading
Poetry and fiction will come together in the 4th annual Faculty Reading at Pittsburg State University. Pittstate creative writing faculty, poet Christopher Anderson and novelist Kathy De Grave, will read at 8:00 Thursday, Feb. 4, in the Governor’s Room at the Overman Student Center.
“This should be an exciting reading. Kathy and Chris are both writers whose characters startle,” said Professor Laura Lee Washburn, director of the creative writing program. “I’ve seen images and ideas in their works that exist nowhere else. One of Chris’s poems mentions the ‘foretaste of damnation,’ and Kathy’s Fire Handed Down certainly grapples with heaven and hell.”
Both Anderson and De Grave teach creative writing and American Literature at PSU. Anderson’s poetry has appeared most recently in Tar River Poetry. De Grave is the author of the novel Company Woman and her short stories have been published in such journals as Margin and Potato Eyes and in the anthology Our Working Lives.
The reading is co-sponsored by the Student Fee Council and is free and open to the public. A reception (which means food!) will follow in the Heritage Room.
As usual, a 1-2 page summary-reaction paper will earn you extra credit.
Extra Credit Opportunity: State of the Union January 27, 2010
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The annual presidential report to Congress, the State of the Union address will take place tonight at 8pm, central time. For extra credit, watch the speech (and, if you wish, the Republican response), and write a short (2 pages, max) summary and reaction.
Something to think about: Special Topics January 26, 2010
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Tomorrow in class I’ll be surveying you about the History Department’s Special Topics classes for Fall 2010. History has been doing this for almost thirty years: polling students to find out what topics they’d like to study, and crafting special topics courses that are both historically sound and interesting. Special topics courses can cover almost anything historical, up to and including the history of the present (such as Dr. Harmon’s class this semester: US Involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan), the history of a country we don’t normally teach (such as my course this semester: Korean History since 1700), or a topic which isn’t covered by our usual catalog choices (Samurai, for example, or migration, or military history). As long as it’s a history course, and one of us can teach it, we’ll consider it. Top choices will be voted on later this semester to help us finalize the offerings.
Two administrative reminders January 24, 2010
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- If you email me something — like the student information form, notification that you’ll be absent, etc. — I will almost always reply to verify that your message was delivered. If you don’t get an email back from me in a timely fashion (a day or so), you might want to consider trying to send it again, or check with me in person.
- I am teaching identical two sections of this course, both on MWF and both in Russ 407. I’m not encouraging you to section-hop, but if you have a temporary conflict (doctor’s appointment, that sort of thing) and can’t make your usual section time, let me know and I’ll be happy to have you sit in the other section. This can’t be a regular thing: both classes are basically full. But keep it in mind if something comes up.
Extra Credit Opportunity: “Terrorism, War, and The Challenge Facing the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” January 22, 2010
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Your first extra credit opportunity of the semester is on Tuesday the 26th:
The International Academic Affairs Committee, the Dept. of History, the Dept. of Social Sciences, and the International Studies Program are sponsoring a program entitled: “Terrorism, War, and The Challenge Facing the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” It will be held on Tuesday January 26 in the Crimson and Gold Ballroom. Admission is free, and the program is open to all members of the university community as well as the community at large. People are free to attend whatever session interests them. The featured speakers in the morning are professional historians who work for the Department of the Army. The US military officers on the afternoon panel have extensive experience as advisers in Iraq and Afghanistan. An Afghani officer is also included on the panel.
9:00 Registration
9:45 Welcome—Dr. Lynette Olson, University Provost
10:00 Mr. William Lambert—Military and Political Overview of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Theater
11:00 Dr. Don Wright—The War in Afghanistan
12:00 Break for Lunch
1:00 Military Officers Panel—MAJ Dave Conner, MAJ Paul Culberson, MAJ Nicholas Dickson, MAJ Nelson David, and LTC Mohammed Omari
2:00 Wrap-Up Panel—All Participants, Dr. John Daley (Chair, Dept. of History) Moderator
You don’t have to attend the whole day: just one panel is enough for extra credit, but if you want to do more (the afternoon sessions look particularly good to me!) you can. The usual requirements of extra credit: attend, and write me a 1-2 page summary and reaction paper.
A quick guide to Dresnerworld January 11, 2010
Posted by jdresner in administrative, hist 102 (Spring 2010), textbook.comments closed
The main page at http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org is structured like a blog, with the most recent postings at the top. I will use it for announcements, handouts, recommendations of interesting things to read and extra credit opportunities. If you use an RSS feed reader, you can follow the blog that way; otherwise, it’s a good idea to check in every few days.
There are also some stable pages which will be useful resources, most of which can be accessed through the tabs in the blog header. The “hist 102 (spring 2010)” tab contains the complete course schedule, including links to assignments, policies, handouts, etc. You can find the syllabus through that page, or through the “syllabi” tab. If there are changes to the schedule or assignments, I will announce them in class, on the blog, and I will change the schedule (but the syllabus will remain unchanged); in the event of a discrepancy between the syllabus and schedule (the result of a schedule change or other unforseen circumstance), the schedule is to be considered the authoritative source.
I recommend that you read the syllabus before class on Friday — I will not be distributing paper copies of the syllabus, or most of the assignments and handouts; if you need a paper copy, you are free to print them out yourself — and I will be happy to answer any questions about it at that point.
I also recommend that you get hold of the textbook as soon as possible. You will be expected to have read the first chapter by next Friday (the 22nd of January).
See you Friday!
Spring 2010 Textbook for History 102: World History Since 1500 (sections 3 and 4) December 28, 2009
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The textbook we’ll be using is;
Voyages in World History: Volume 2 Since 1500 by Valerie Hansen and Kenneth R. Curtis.
If you want to order it online, make sure that you get the second volume: the ISBN for that is 978-0618077250
The syllabus and other details will be posted here over the next few weeks.
