Final Project

What is the final project?

Throughout the semester, you will create website and exhibit using WordPress and Omeka or Scalar. This exhibit should uncover some aspect of the history if the Supernatural.

How do I pick an aspect of the Supernatural and a topic?

In this course, we are going to spend quality time working with various digital tools and thinking about the myriad issues (legal, ethical, technical, historical) that these tools bring to light. Over the course of the semester, each of you will use your newly-found digital skills to create and publish an original digital history project due at the end of the semester (in place of a final exam.)

This project will allow you to explore a research question of your choosing about the Supernatural, and will demonstrate your ability to use digital tools to help you analyze evidence, craft a historical argument, and communicate your findings to a larger audience.

Your final project has two components:

Proposal (5%)

Your project proposal will be due on 10 March by 11:59pm via Google Docs (share with gretchen.e.burgess@gmail.com) and should address three key components:

1. Your research question: What are you studying? Why? What do you hope to understand? (1%)
2. The main primary sources you plan to use to complete your project. Please include a brief description of each source or collection of sources so that I have a good idea of what you plan to use as the basis for your historical analysis. Please completely cite all sources and include the website, collection, or archives where each is located. (2%)
3. The best secondary sources available on your project topic. Please provide a brief description of their arguments and their importance to informing your analysis going forward. You must include a full bibliographical citation for each source. (2%)

Final Project (35%)

You’re going to build out your project on your class portfolio using WordPress. Each project must contain:

1. A written narrative, which is placed within your exhibit. (The equivalent to 4-6 double-spaced pages of text, ~ 1000-1500 words). This narrative must include an introduction to your topic (including the argument you are making and a well-constructed thesis statement) and any relevant context and evidence you’re using to support that argument. Please note: Your narrative will not be in one, linear location, rather placed in your exhibit pages;
2. At least five historical images/artifacts that you have the legal right to republish;
3. At least two visual elements—map, graph, chart or other similar graphical element– that help support your argument;
4. Links to your online evidence (original sources) and/or scholarship (secondary sources) that you used to support your argument or provide historical context;
5. A bibliography of all sources, formatted in Chicago Style as a Simple Page;
6. Design elements (theme, color, font, etc) that are aesthetically appropriate for your project;
7. Navigation and menus that help guide the reader logically through the site.
8. An “About” page that includes your name and small bio (Simple page); and**
9. A “Reflection” page that offers a reflection on the project process itself. It should include your rationale for organizing the site the way you did, any challenges you faced in your research and how you overcame them, and anything else you think I should know to grade your project.**

**You can add your About Page and Reflection Page as a WordPress Entry and link to your Omeka/Scalar exhibit or you can create Simple Pages within Omeka to house these.

These are minimum requirements. Beyond these, it is up to you to decide what else your site needs to contain and how you should present those elements in order to make and support a coherent historical argument.

There is no final exam. However, you will need to email me (gbeasle1@gmu.edu) by 30 April at 9pm to let me know that your project and class portfolio are complete. Late projects will lose points regardless of the quality of work.

In order for me to complete final grades, you are going to have to grant me temporary administrative access to your class portfolio (you can delete me once final grades are in PatriotWeb). We will cover this assignment and the administrative rights extensively in class.

What should I be working on each week?

• Weeks 1–2: Become familiar with digital history and some of the projects that scholars have created.
• Weeks 34: Form a basic question about a supernatural topic of your choice. Begin investigating sources at the DPLA and other databases to see whether your research question is feasible. By the end of week 4, you should be have found enough sources that you can settle on a particular topic and question.
• Week 5-6: This is a crucial week, because during this week you will learn how to create the WordPress site that will host your final project (with an Omeka.net or Scalar component). By the end of this week, you should have a site and the beginning of content for it. You can begin adding primary sources with the appropriate metadata to Omeka.net or Scalar.
• Weeks 7-8: During these weeks we will make visualizations in class.  If you have found some other quantitative information, use that too. By the end of these weeks, you should have created the visualizations mentioned above.
• Weeks 9-10: During this week we will focus on creating exhibits in Omeka/Scalar to tell a story or make an argument.
• Weeks 11-13: You should create an exhibit that ties together the materials on your site, and you should begin drafting the introductory essay. By the end of these weeks, all of the materials for your project should be on your WordPress site, and you should have begun to tie them together.
• Week 14: During these weeks you will give a brief presentation on your project, which need not be finished when you present. You should use the time to put the finishing touches on your project.

What do I do if I get stuck or feel like I’m falling behind?

Feel free to e-mail me with questions (gbeasle1@gmu.edu), or we can arrange a meeting to help you make progress. You can also ask me to look at your work in progress to see if it is going in the right direction.