Final Project: (25%) You will be asked to demonstrate your knowledge of World History and how it connects to the world today in a 1000-1500 word research paper, website (min. 1000 words), OR 8-10 minute video/podcast. Your project must use citations (Chicago if you are a History major; MLA for all others).

You will be asked to recall information, summarize, and draw conclusions on what you believe to be the most important piece from history – it can be a person, an event in history, a work of art, or a piece of technology (to name a few). It can be as small as a single weapon or as large as a world-changing event like the Industrial Revolution. In using the past, you will argue, in some ways, why history continues to matter by connecting the past to the world today.

Remember to incorporate readings, videos, lectures, and activities from the semester into this project.

Rubric: Final Paper Rubric

Submission:

  • Final project due no later than 4 pm on December XX
    • The link for submission will open at Midnight on December XX

*Late projects coming after the December 11 deadline will lose 20 points a day regardless of the quality of work. The last day work is accepted is December XX, 2023 at 8am. 

Examples of what a research question for a topic could look like: Why has North Korea developed a nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States? Why are thousands of Hondurans camped out on the southern border of the United States? Why have many athletes decided to kneel during the national anthem? To answer any of these questions — or the myriad others posed by the news every day — you will need to understand what happened in the past.

This is an academic paper, so begin thinking about questions such as: What relevance does your historic event/object/activity/place/person/etc. have to our world today? What does it have to do with your life and the lives of those around you? What parallels do you see between it and something happening in our culture or the news? What lessons does it offer for us today? The paper should include at least one primary source, and at least one photographic illustration and a map, and all sources use Chicago or MLA citations.

Your topic for your final project must be approved by me no later than Week 9  (October 17-24). Once you have identified your piece of/topic from history, you will locate a news story/current event that you think connects to your chosen subject/artifact/event in some interesting, meaningful way. You will submit your choice here for me to approve.

Your Final Project is due no later than 4 pm on December XX. 

    • Submit your Word document or PDF on Blackboard

Here are some examples to help you think about how to make connections:

  • Connecting by Theme: Like essential questions, themes in the history classroom encourage you to make connections across time periods and places. They are also relatively easy to use to identify related current events.
    • Here is an example: U.S. | Immigration Whether it’s the the first colonists who arrived from England, the forced migration of millions of Africans as slaves, the waves of European immigrants from Europe in the 19th century or the new wave of immigrants from around the world today, one thing is clear: The study of United States history is the study of immigration.
  • Connecting by Event: Think about how past events relate to present-day events.
    • For example: Global | World War I.  Katrin Bennhold writes about the unsettling similarities between 1914 and today: “Now as then, Europe’s political center is weak and the fringes are radicalizing. Nationalism, laced with ethnic hatred, has been gaining momentum. Populists sit in several European governments.” She asks: Can Europe’s liberal order survive as the memory of war fades? You could research any signs of the main causes of World War I today: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. What can you find? In what ways are these parallels similar to 1914, and in what ways are they different?
  • Connecting by Place: Since history students spend a great deal of time exploring historic places, one easy way to make that study relevant to them is to have them discover what those places look like today, and how life there has either changed or stayed the same. What remnants of the past are still present? Why?
    • Global | China (Silk Road) The network of trade routes known as the Silk Road helped make ancient China powerful and wealthy. Today, China is creating what could be called a new Silk Road through its Belt and Road Initiative, promising more than $1 trillion in infrastructure and spanning more than 60 countries.
  • Connecting by Historical Text or Artifact: Historians’ understanding of the past is typically grounded in what they glean from analyzing texts and artifacts. How are these still relevant today?
    • When ISIS occupied Palmyra, the storied ancient city in Syria, in 2015, the group systematically demolished treasured ruins because it viewed the city’s artifacts as sacrilegious symbols. Rick Gladstone writes: “Islamic State propagandists considered Palmyra a bonanza for promoting their vision of a strictly religious caliphate devoid of homage to other cultures or religions. They publicized the work of their demolition teams with graphic photographs.” When the Russians reclaimed the city in 2016, before losing it again, they organized a televised concert from the amphitheater, the same one used for executions by Islamic State militants. The Kremlin actually painted the effort as a victory of civilization over barbarity.
      • If you’re researching an ancient empire, you can think of  ways ruins and artifacts from that empire still appear in sections across world today, either because of their symbolic power, their role as cherished cultural relics, or their continued functionality.
  • Connecting by People
    • Global | Fascist Leaders. Even though the rise of fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini pulled the world into the most destructive conflict in human history, World War II, the end of the war marked the end of fascism. Right? In many countries around the world, democracy has recently been dismantled or is being eroded by a strong elected leader and a ruling party. Is the rise of a new crop of leaders with authoritarian tendencies in existing democracies a sign that fascism is on the rise again?
      • You can focus your research to find evidence of authoritarian, or even fascist-leaning, behavior by democratically elected leaders around the world. You could define what authoritarianism and fascism look like. How do you recognize when a leader is acting undemocratically? You could compare what is going on in these countries now with how the country was governed in the past.