HIST 190: Research Proposal Assignment

Research Proposal Assignment
Skeletal Version: March 14

Final Version: April 4

HIST 190

Spring 2021

This is it, folks—the assignment that will take you all of the way to the end of this course.

In anticipation of your final project in History 190 (a serious and complete research proposal), you will turn in a "skeletal" proposal a little bit after the midterm break. As we have discussed, learning to write effective proposals is one of the most important skills you can possess and the more experience you have with them, the more effective you will be in further academic work and the corporate or non-profit worlds. The "skeletal" proposal is not a "rough draft" or half-hearted effort. It is very serious work, in which you will show the "skeleton" or outline of your final proposal.

In order for this process to work, you must imagine that you are applying for the rough equivalent of a year long honors term—a full semester devoted to a major research project, culminating in a book-length project. Similarly, you could imagine the kind of proposal you might write for a research project such as an advanced degree thesis. In other words, you need to imagine that what you are proposing to do will be a significant amount of future work, and that you are asking for the go-ahead (and funding) to pursue that work.

The fact that you will not actually have to do every bit of that research in this class is no reason for taking the proposal less seriously (that would be a recipe for a barely-passing, or not passing, grade). In fact, you may choose to pursue this research in a future class (or even in a graduate program. Above all, however, the skills you will build in the process will stay with you for the rest of your life. If you just play at this task, or tell yourself that it isn't "real," you will fail to be ready for the next time (and it is inevitable)...when you will care about having your proposal taken seriously (Fulbright, graduate research, business funding, and so forth).

Take it seriously.

Your full proposal (due at the end of the term) will consist of six key sections, and so, too, will your skeletal proposal (due during the fifth week). By the last day of the semester, your polished revision (final draft) will be due. Pay close attention to the details below (and we will discuss them repeatedly in class). The word counts I have noted below are for the full proposal (due at the end of the term). Your "skeletal" proposal should amount to a solid one-third to one-half of the final length. Do not "go small" with the "skeletal" assignment. Not only will that hurt your grade, but you will also put yourself in a poor position to complete the final proposal in at the end of the term.

Research Proposal Sections (Full Version, Due on April 4)
Check below for "Skeletal Version" page lengths (Due March 21), in the summaries below.
 
  1. Executive Summary (a solid overview of your project; 3-5 pages)
  2. About the Author (give a positive assessment of yourself for this project; 2-3 pages)
  3. Historiography (Literature Review;  what has been written about your topic?; 3-5 pages)
  4. Writing Sample (the draft "lead" of your final proposal; 10-12 pages)
  5. "Chapter" (or Section) Summaries (2-3 pages)
  6. Annotated Bibliography (3-5 pages)

1. Executive Summary (1,000-2,000 words; about three to five pages).
"Skeletal" version: 1-2 pages.
This is where you make the case (and argument) for your proposed research. Every section of a proposal is important, but few readers will continue beyond the executive summary if it is not compelling. Here is where you describe your proposed research and provide your approach to the topic.

 2. Author Summary (500-1000 words; about two or three pages).

"Skeletal" version: 1 page.
In this section, you must explain why you are the person who should receive approval (or funding) for your project. Imagine that it is a competitive process (it almost always is), and that you need to stand out in a pile of proposals. Why you? What do you bring to the project that will make your proposal stand out?

 3. Historiography (Literature Review) (1,000-2,000 words; about three to five pages).

"Skeletal" version: 1-2 pages.
If you have done an effective job with the first two sections, your reader is going to want the details at this point. What sources are available? Is there enough "out there" for you to do a successful piece of research? In addition to discussing actual sources, it will be necessary to show some of the ways other scholars and writers have approached your topic. In the case of Geil research, that will usually require a sense of how other historians have written about your broader topic (religious attitudes, missionaries, early anthropology, public speaking, transportation, and so forth) during the time in which Geil lived.

4. Writing Sample ("the Lead") (3,000-5,000 words; about ten to fifteen pages).

"Skeletal" version: 3-5 pages.
This is where you show the review committee (in a competitive proposal process) what you can do. If the reviewers like your proposal thus far, this is where you "seal the deal." You will write a (polished) draft lead of the kind that could be the beginning of your final research project (long after months of research have been completed). A great writing sample shows what you are capable of (all the fireworks you can bring to show your potential).

5. Chapter Summaries (500-1,000 words; about two to three pages).
"Skeletal" version: 1 page.
Sketch an outline of the rest of your book-length final project, telling where your research project would go. We will discuss this in class, but (this semester) it is not central to your work. Just give a sense of what the final project would look like.

6. Annotated Bibliography (1,000-2,000 words; about three to five pages).
"Skeletal" version: 1 page. 
Provide a full "annotated" bibliography (for every item, explain it in a sentence...or three...but no more than three). We will look at examples in class.  

***  ***

"Skeletal" (Draft) Research Proposals are due

by 5:00 p.m on Sunday, March 21, 20121

Full Research Proposals are due
by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4, 2021.

HIST 190: Historical Research Methods Letter Assignment

 On this date on Round and Square's History 

30 August 2015—China's Lunar Calendar 2015 08-29
30 August 2015—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2015
30 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-29
30 August 2014—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2014
30 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-29

30 August 2013—Syllabic Cycles: Mountains Syllabus (b)

30 August 2012—The New Yorker and the World: Course Description (h)

30 August 2011—Annals of Ostracism: Discovered Notes

[a] Text and illustration RF

Historical Research Methods

History 190

Spring 2021

Preliminary Writing Assignment 

Research: The Letter

By choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) research materials. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with “research,” and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of research works on the syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about historical research, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying research materials. 

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).

It needs to be a real letter to a real reader. Do not treat this assignment as an "exercise." Your letter will be mailed through the Beloit College history department and sent to your reader.

You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter needs to be “long enough” to get you deeply into several issues regarding social and cultural theory, including particular approaches and a few examples.  There is no absolute upper limit, but I am going to make an absolute lower limit of 1,200 words (about four pages). 

Realistically, your letter should probably be somewhere in the 1,600-2,000 word range (about six- to eight-pages). Fewer than 1,200 words (about four pages) is the bear bare minimum, and you are unlikely to receive an "A" for it. The letter requires detail, and that usually requires 2,000 or 3,000 words, with solid examples (including quotations) from your texts. 

Do not, under any circumstances, turn in an assignment shorter than 1,200 words.

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “historical research methods” in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't. 

Make it make sense.

3. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss the “what is research?” question. Provide your reader with 

              at least a few ways of thinking about it. Use examples from texts you have 
              noticed in the Geil archive.

          b. To some extent (you may choose to emphasize this matter or just treat 

               it lightly), you must introduce William Edgar Geil (1865-1925). It is 
               entirely your decision how you do so, however. You certainly have plenty 

               to discuss about Geil, but this letter need not be a "biography" of him.

          c. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to "do" research, using the Geil archive. Use examples, either from the 
              course or your own work.

          d. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to “learn to do research” by 

              discussing the details of some of our texts. Think about your possible research 
              proposal project. Explain it to your reader.

          e. You must have at least one illustration. Think about "the rhetorical role of 
               illustrations" in the New York Review of Books.

[d] Evocation RF

4. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.  

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (.pdf file to lafleur@beloit.edu)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 7.

Add the word count and your box number to all papers!

[e] And then you may rest RF

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2021 01-31

 Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/3........................................................................................................................1/26

This is one in a never-ending series—following the movements of the calendar—in Round and Square perpetuity. It is today's date in the Chinese lunar-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. 

As for interpreting the translation, unless you have been studying calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing (almost any "it" you will see). There are clusters of meaning, and they require patience, reflection, careful reading, and, well, a little bit of ethnographic fieldwork. The best place to start is the introduction to "Calendars and Almanacs" on this blog. I teach a semester-long course on this topic and, trust me, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the lunar calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. And do not assume that people from China understand the traditional calendar particularly well, either. I have encountered confusion and furrowed brows for countless items in the calendar. It can seem "remote," in other words, from the world we live in these days, and yet it is printed anew every single year.

As time goes on, I will link all of the sections to lengthy background essays. This will take a while. In the meantime, take a look, read the introduction, and think about all of the questions that emerge from even a quick look at the calendar. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.                              

                                                         Section One

                                                  Solar Calendar Date

(top to bottom, right to left)

卅

一

日期星

First Month, Thirty-First Day

Sunday, January 31

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不進福

將神德

Fortunate Exemplarity

Entering Spirits

Not General

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰甲

中中吉

酉巳丑

凶中凶

戌午寅

中凶吉

亥未卯

凶凶吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Inauspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 In-Between

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

 ————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
除開穿

服池井

Boring Wells

Opening Ponds

Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

九

己

卯

土

昂

滿

Nineteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jimao (16/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Pleiades (18/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

宜

入訂祭

倉婚祀

伐納祈

木采福

結裁求

網衣嗣

牧合入

養帳學

不債

重下楊

喪兀忌

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Seeking Inheritance

Entering Study

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Cutting-out Clothing

Linking Sails

Entering Granaries

Felling Timber

Binding Nets

Raising Livestock

Debt Not

Baleful Astral Influences

Poplar Taboo

Lower Amputee

Repeat Mourning

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白

White

————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation is under the bottom of each character)

占

門 大

Divination

Gate, Great

The Other Studies Another Syllabus 2021a

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Syllabic Cycles"

On this date in Round and Square History

15 January 2015—Attendance Policy: Spring 2015

15 January 2015—China's Lunar Calendar: 2015 01-15

15 January 2014—Erlangen 91052: Introduction 

15 January 2014—China's Lunar Calendar: 2014 01-15

15 January 2013—Channeling Liam: Free Will

15 January 2012—Hurtin', Leavin, and Longin': Upbeat and Downcast

15 January 2011—Kanji Mastery: Resource Center

[a] Other-Another RF

The Other Studies Another

HIST 310

Spring 2021

Mondays and Wednesdays 7:00-10:00

Every class begins with a quiz, 

and our actual class session will begin at 7:30

Robert André LaFleur                                              Office Hours:

Morse Ingersoll 206                                                  Email me (we're still
363-2005                                                                     in the midst of a pandemic)        

                                                                                   lafleur@beloit.edu
Required Books          
Durkheim, Emile. Selected Writings (Cambridge).
Granet, Marcel. Festivals and Songs in Ancient China. 
Granet, Marcel. The Religion of the Chinese People (.pdf)
James, Wendy. Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute (Berghahn, 1998).
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918. 
Mauss, Marcel. Manual of Ethnography (Berghahn, 2007).
Mauss, Marcel. The Gift. 
Robb, Graham. Discovery of France. 

Evaluation  
Quizzes/attendance                    15%  
Research Prospectus                  20%
Research Presentation               15%
Research Paper                          50%                        
Daily attendance and class participation are expected; absences during the semester will affect your grade. Late assignments will be penalized. 

HIST 310

The Other Studies Another

Spring 2021

Week I

A Big, New World

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, February 15

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

Le Tour de la France—Introduction

Le Tour de la France—Read ALL ELEVEN posts!!! (the links are clearly marked)

Wednesday, February 17

Graham Robb, The Discovery of France 
          Part One
                  The Undiscovered Continent
                  The Tribes of France I
                  The Tribes of France II
                  O Òc Sí Bai Ya Win Oui Awè Jo Ja Oua
                  Living in France I: The Face in the Museum
                  Living in France II: A Simple Life
                  Fairies, Virgins, Gods, and Priests
                  Migrants and Communters
       Interlude: The Sixty Million Others
          Part Two
                  Maps
                  Empire
                  Travelling in France I: The Avenues of Paris
                  Travelling in France II: The Hare and the Tortoise
                  Colonization
                  The Wonders of France
                  Postcards of the Natives
                  Lost Provinces
                  Journey to the Centre of France

                  Epilogue: Secrets

Sunday, February 21

1,000-word "miniature" review essay examining themes in Le Tour de la France (including the introduction), Graham Robb's Discovery of France,  and Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days.

This should be written as a brief, but well-structured 
academic essay, and not as an "informal" work.
Due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 21

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week II

Introducing Marcel Granet (1884-1940)

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, February 22

Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918 
                  The Nature of Time
                  The Past
                  The Present
                  The Future
                  Speed
                  The Nature of Space
                  Form
                  Distance
                  Direction
                  Temporality of the July Crisis
                  The Cubist War
                  Conclusion

Wednesday, February 24

Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People: 1-29
                  Maurice Freedman, “Marcel Granet, 1884-1940, Sociologist” (.pdf)        
Rolf Stein, The World in Miniature: 1-3 (.pdf)
                  In Memory of Marcel Granet                                                     

Robert LaFleur, "Time , Space, and the Calendar in Early Chinese Mythology."

Robert LaFleur, "La Pensée Catégorique: Marcel Granet's Grand Sinological Project..."

Marcel Granet, "Peasant Religion" in The Religion of the Chinese People: 33-56.
                         Preface        
                         Peasant Religion
                              Rural Life
                              Holy Places and Peasant Festivals
                              Ancient Beliefs
                              Popular Mythology and Folklore

I am noting here the rest of the book, so that you can see where "Peasant Religion" fits into the larger context. We won't be reading the material below this module, but the structure of this book fits the entire breadth of Granet's work.

                         Feudal Religion
                              The Life of the Nobles
                              The Cult of Heaven
                              Agrarian Cults
                              The Cult of the Ancestors
                              Mythology
                  The Official Religion
                              The Literati
                              Orthodox Metaphysics and Morality
                              Cults and Beliefs
                  Religious Revivals
                              Taoism
                              Buddhism
                  Religious Sentiment in Modern China

 *** ***

Read the Research Prospectus Assignment 

Due on Sunday, March 7 at 5:00 p.m.

Week III 
Festivals, Songs, Mythology, and Civilization

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, March 1

Marcel Granet, Festivals and Songs in Ancient China 
             I  The Love Songs of the Shih Ching 
                   Introduction                                          
                   How to Read a Classic
                   Rustic Themes                                                                 
                   Village Loves                                                                  
                   Songs of the Rivers and Mountains                       
             II  The Ancient Festivals 
                   Local Festivals                                                  
                   Facts and Interpretations                                    
                   The Seasonal Rhythm                                         
                   The Holy Places                                                
                   The Contests                                                                 
                    Conclusion     

Wednesday, March 3

Robert LaFleur, "Rural Religion in China"

This is my "explanation" of what is going on in Granet's "Peasant Religion." It is a long interpretive essay, but it will explain a great deal that wasn't clear before. You might want to read it along with your .pdf copy (if it is printed and you can mark it) of "Peasant Religion."

 *** ***

Read the Research Prospectus Assignment 

Due on Sunday, March 7 at 5:00 p.m.

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

[b] Louvre One Another RF

Week IV

Marcel Mauss and the Année Sociologique Tradition

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, March 8

LaFleur, Writing, History, and Culture (Rob's Writing Guide)

                  Part III—Read first

                  Part I—Read very carefully and take notes

                  Part II—Get a sense of what's there, without taking too much time.

Durkheim and Mauss, Primitive Classification 

                  The Problem

                   The Australian Type of Classification

                   Other Australian Systems

                   Zuni, Sioux

                   China

                   Conclusions

Bronislaw Malinowski and Argonauts of the Western Pacific (blog post)                            Cohen, Preface to History in Three Keys (.pdf file)

LaFleur, "Historiography, Temporality, and Decision-Making..." (.pdf file)

            

Wednesday, March 10

LaFleur, "Smoke Hole at the Center of the Universe" (.pdf file)

Mauss, The Concept of the Person

Mauss, Seasonal Migrations Among the Eskimo

 *** ***

Final Research Essay (10,000 words)

due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week V

Marcel Granet's Final Masterworks—1

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, March 15

These are the actual readings for Week V. Weeks VI and VII include the Durkheim materials.

Marcel Mauss, Manual of Ethnography

                  Introduction (please read this carefully)

                  Preliminary Remarks
                  Methods of Observation
                  Social Morphology
                  Technology
                   Aesthetics
                   Economic Phenomena
                   Jural Phenomena
                   Moral Phenomena
                   Religious Phenomena

Marcel Granet, "Religious Sentiment in Modern China" (.pdf file)

Wednesday, March 17

Marcel Mauss, The Gift 

                *Foreword: Puzzles and Pathways by Bill Maurer   

                 *Translator's Introduction: The Gift that Keeps on Giving by Jane Guyer
                   In Memoriam: The Unpublished Works of Durkheim and His Collaborators
                  *Essay on the Gift: The Form and Sense of Exchange in Archaic Societies

                   Selected Reviews

 *** ***

Final Research Essay (10,000 words)

due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week VI

Marcel Granet's Final Masterworks—2

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, March 22

While reading these chapters, think always of the "elemental forms," the foundations (according to Granet...and Durkheim) that are still there when social and religious practice becomes much more detailed and complex.

Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People, 57-119

                  Feudal Religion

                  Official Religion

Emile Durkheim, Selected Writings, 108-154

                  Moral Obligation, duty, and freedom

                  Forms of Social Solidarity

                  The Division of Labor and Social Differentiation

Wednesday, March 24

While reading these chapters, continue to think always of the "elemental forms," the foundations (according to Granet...and Durkheim) that lie at the heart of even the material Granet discusses in these chapters.

Marcel Granet, Chinese Thought, 9-279 (don't worry; see below)

* Skim over the introduction (9-30), without taking too much time on it (pages 

* Read, as carefully as you can, given time constraints, pages 31-126. Look for connections to the Durkheimian writings and the elemental forms.

* Skim over the (extremely long) "Numbers" chapter; look for themes of "cyclicality."

Emile Durkheim, Selected Writings, 219-238

                  Religion and Ritual

 *** ***

Final Research Essay (10,000 words)

due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week VII

Research Presentations

Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Monday, March 29

Research Presentations (in class)

Wednesday, March 31

Work on your seminar papers.

 *** ***

Final Research Essay (10,000 words)

due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4

Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

[c] Writing One Another RF

Anthony Giddens. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, 1-107
                   Durkheim’s writings in sociology and social philosophy
                   The field of sociology
                   Methods of explanation and analysis   

Anthony Giddens, Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, 108-268
                    The Science of Morality
                    Moral obligation, duty and freedom
                     Forms of social solidarity
                     The division of labour and social differentiation
                     Analysis of socialist doctrines
                     Anomie and the moral structure of industry
                     Political sociology
                   The social bases of education
                   Religion and ritual
                   Secularisation and rationality
                   Sociology of knowledge