Satire, the most honest form of writing

In History 351 we read an excerpt from Homo Sovieticus by Zinoviev and a student asked what exactly was satirical about it. In my explanation, I let slip that satires were the most honest genre. I was thinking that satires don't pretend to be anything they're not, that is, they acknolwedge that aren't accurately portraying or relating the ideas contained within them.

moral relativism and amoralism

Give me amoralism every time.

We had an interesting, if too brief, discussion in the capstone course about why historical context is important. As one student put it, "if you take anything out of its context, you aren't gonna understand it right." True, so true.

The question was presented in a chapter, from a book useful for getting such discussions started, in such a way as if there is ever any historical utility in making moral judgment about a historical context. To make a moral judgment indicates to me that the historian is not well enough aware of his/her own context. Amoralism is the more logical approach than moral relativism because moral relativism is simply another moral judgment.

Thinking abstractly

Historians like facts. Students like grand connections across time and space. The meeting point: abstract thought and analysis.

Ever wonder about enrollment?

I sometimes do, especially when administrators want to cancel a class that doesn't have enough students enrolled two weeks before the semester starts. One week before the semester started, my History 351 technically didn't have enough students enrolled, but look at it now: 3 short of the maximum. (History 490 is capped at 15.)

Looking ahead to the fall semester

Here's what I'm thinking for my weekly schedule.

Book reviews

Asking students to write a book review of a book directly related to class but supplemental to the assigned readings for the class, I think, was a very good idea. I can see how students process the books they chose for their reviews in a number of different ways but primarily in terms of how the books "fit into" the course - especially its assigned readings and class discussions. The other main way that students process the books is that they identify and assess the books' argumentation, a skill we've been working on all semester in shorter writing assignments. The result is evident in the grades: consistently students earn higher grades on the book reviews than they were earning on the short assignments. I think this is because they've learned how to home in on the main point quickly in the short assignments, which were two-page analyses of long readings and now, in the longer assignment of the book review, they have the space to develop their analysis of one book but still are practicing the skill of expressing themselves succinctly.

Counting Cranes at dawn

I finally got away for a weekend. I went to my hometown and counted cranes. Yes, the exciting, glamorous, secret life of a professor is revealed here!

Here's a picture of serenity, otherwise known as the beaver pond on my family's bit of farmland in Wisconsin.

Dehumanization, part three of three

Finally, my third class from last week. (I wish I had more time to blog.) My third class is History of the Holocaust and perhaps it's obvious that Nazi victims were dehumanized. Yet the particulars about how they were dehumanized came to be highlighted as we turned to a new part of the course about "culpability," in other words, we turned to examining perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers (including resisters). An excerpt from Lifton's work on Nazi doctors highlighted how the use of language distanced the doctors from the prisoners of Auschwitz, making them into things other than human beings in their minds. An excerpt from Browning's famous Ordinary Men made plain that not all perpetrators were able to dehumanize the victims, but that most could become used to killing civilians.

None of the readings intended to excuse the "willing participants" (a phrase we came up with to describe and encompass all who exhibited behavior that did not help the victims), but it was clearly difficult for students not to keep very clear the distinction between understanding a person's behavior and exculpating a person.

Dehumanization, part two of three

In my Wednesday class, on Europe from 1789 to the present, we discussed readings about the First World War. A common theme that jumped out to us from Sassoon's poetry, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Sholokov's Quiet Flows the Don, and even Juenger's The Storm of Steel was the moment a main character had to decide whether to kill the person, the enemy, right in front of him. It seemed to us that each of these stories at some point dealt with the question, why not kill that person? A main character was forced to see the enemy as an individual human. Sometimes this moment resulted in the main character choosing not to kill, sometimes this moment came too late. Against much writing and promotion of duty -- whether the duty owed to one's nation as in, for example, another reading we had from Bernhardi which argued the necessity of war in the abstract, or the duty that overrides one's panic in the trenches as in Juenger's writing -- there certainly seemed to be common theme to undo the dehumanization that had been done.

Dehumanization, part one of three

I don't think I have enough time this semester to devote to blogging. But I promised to post about the theme of dehumanization appearing in all three of my classes last, so here goes part one in what looks to be a three-part post.

In my Tuesday class the history of the crusades, we started talking about the different perspectives of the participants (willing or not) in the crusades. One of the assigned readings, "The Crusaders' Perceptions of Their Opponents," by Margaret Jubb, discusses the labels used by (Latin) Christian chroniclers. She asserts, "It is significant that the term 'Muslim' is absent from medieval sources. Instead, the crusaders' opponents are variously described by the chroniclers as 'infidels', 'Gentiles', 'enemies of Christ/God', and above all, 'pagans'." [This is on page 228 of the book, Palgrave Advances in the Crusades, edited by Helen Nicholson. Someday blogging will advance enough to allow a respectable footnote.] This is an interesting observation, but it would have been more interesting had her article discussed more than just the crusaders' Muslim opponents. How did chroniclers label other opponents? Did they also insist on ignoring evidence that contradicted their views of their other opponents the same way that they ignored evidence about Muslims' religious practices? (Jubb points out how the chroniclers ignored evidence of Muslims' monotheistic and aniconic religion. - p. 229) By comparing the use of labels, I think her argument regarding the use of the "other" to define themselves would have been broadened, strengthened, and enabled to ask more probing questions about medieval perceptions of the "other."

A theme across all my classes this week (will post more later)

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

A run of run-on sentences

I had a lot of grading to do over spring break. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was just that once I started noticing them I kept noticing them, but there was an inordinate number of run-on sentences in the papers. I hope not to find them in the midterms I still haven't graded.

My Office - another detail

Here's another detail from my office: a little piece of tsotschke I picked up at the local thrift store. It looks much better in this photo than it does in real life, oddly enough.

My Office - one detail

As a follow-up, here's a photo of a detail from inside my office. Come visit and you can meet the sheep in person.

My Office

The architectural magnificence of our campus is often overlooked because people are simply trying to figure out where they are. It's a bit like being in an airport - trust the signs, believe the signs, follow the signs, and you'll get there. There are only three main buildings on this campus and they're connected both underground and via a skywalk on the same level. My office is on this magical level. From my office's perspective it is the lower level of Founders Hall. This first photo is of just such a sign to be believed. It says "History Department" but only two of our offices are down here. Also, note that the hint of sunshine at the end of the hallway is the closest my office comes to an outdoor view--and from within my office there is no hope of seeing this hint. I'm not complaining because I like my office, but I just don't think I'll ever have plants in my office.

Medieval Jedis

A very brief post for a very brief comment from class.

In class some students wondered whether the Dominicans, formed in time to root out Cathar heresy, or the Knights Templar would be the better analogue to the Jedis in Star Wars. (I have yet to find anyone on the internet who makes an argument for the Dominicans.)

"History Help" Session

The History Help session - I had to give it a title in order to reserve the room and this is the best I could come up with - was a success from my point of view. A dozen students from all three of my spring classes attended. They came with questions and we covered the two topics that earned the most votes on the questionnaire I had circulated in the classes last week. We talked about how to write a proper Chicago style full citation in a footnote. We even talked about other uses of footnotes. Finally we spent a little time in the library databases looking for articles. This last part surprised me a little because I thought it was going to be more productive than the footnoting part, but I couldn't tell if students were actually finding articles for their papers or if they were learning anything new about databases.

In order to find out if the session was a success from the students' points of view, I sent out a link to a very quick survey (from surveymonkey.com) to all those who attended. If they respond, it'll help me determine if holding such a session again - as in, next semester - would be worthwhile.

The Dove Phone

Sometimes something silly becomes part of a class.

Here is an image of Pope Gregory VII, of Investiture Controversy fame, that has inspired some students to new heights of silliness: the dove phone.

Impressed with the discussions

Only brief notations for this week: no time for blogging and impressive discussions in all classes (as the whiteboards demonstrate), despite a few grumblings about "dry" or "too detailed" reading assignments.
Students underestimate themselves.

First Week Reflections

Two things stick out for me this week: 1.) the variety of questions and skill sets students bring to a class; and 2.) the amount of time it takes to take care of the administrative side of courses.

The variety of questions and skill sets led me to decide to offer an "extra help" session to those who need or really want some extra help with what I tend to think of as the "technical" parts to studying history, writing history, and participating in class. There were questions (or just questioning looks) about how to find scholarly articles and how to cite sources properly using the Chicago style. There were also questions about D2L. Even though D2L truly is a supplement to these courses, I would like students to feel comfortable enough at least to click around D2L to see not only the announcement/news and materials and links I'm putting up there, but also what other students are writing on the discussion boards. There were also questions about how to write an history essay or paper. My first step in responding to this particular need was to make available a paper a former student of mine wrote; we'll see what other steps become necessary. Finally, students seemed confident about knowing what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, but this may be just the most vocal students in class--those who are actually unsure may be a bit shy about asking about plagiarism, so I also included plagiarism as a possible topic for the "extra help" session.

Every semester I am amazed and a little frustrated by how much time is needed to take care of the administrative tasks: making enough photocopies, setting up attendance records and gradebooks (Excel), figuring out if students have added or dropped, and emailing newly added students. I estimate I spent about 2 hours per class just this week on administrative tasks, and I bet that's a low estimate. Administrative tasks always take up less time in weeks subsequent to the add/drop deadline.

First night of the crusades course

The first class of the crusades course met last night and I am very surprised no one has dropped the class yet (it's been about 14 hours).

Syllabi & Syllabuses

Finally! The syllabi are finished and uploaded both to D2L and the schedule of courses.

Unfortunately there's no resting on these laurels because finishing the syllabi generated two other things that need to be written up for each course.

Switched one of the assignments - before the semester even started

I switched one of the assignments in the draft syllabus for History 354 I put on D2L. I wonder if anyone will notice.