Undergraduate Level Assignments

 

Here are some undergraduate-level assignments that you can adapt for your own courses. You can also send us your own assignments to complete our collection.

Digital Archive exhibit Project

by Terrence Peterson

As part of our effort to put history and popular memory in dialogue in this course, we explore digital archives on the war and use them to build a digital exhibit aimed at the public. Through this project, you will learn how read and interpret archival collections, as well as how to use the information you find to construct a story about the documents for the public. This is a group project, which you will complete in groups of four. To create these digital displays, we will use a piece of software called ArcGIS StoryMaps. The program is fairly intuitive, and students will get training and assistance from the FIU GIS Center. The project involves multiple distinct steps – researching sources, designing, and then building your StoryMap – so we will work on it throughout the semester in the form of several smaller assignments that build on one another.

 

 Oral History Assignments

  • by David Kieran

    One of the virtues of studying recent U.S. history is that many of the participants are still alive and available as sources for our research. In the context of this course, that means that many veterans are available to share their experiences, and by listening to them we can quickly learn that there is no was no single experience of or attitude about the war. Interviewing veterans can thus add richness and depth to our analysis of the past, often providing information and perspectives that are otherwise absent from the historical record. However, the presence of these actors is also a challenge – they may have perspectives that are at odds with other sources, they may have inaccurate or incomplete remembrances of events, and – unlike a document – they can (and will!) read what you write about them. Oral history is thus a method of historical research that hold tremendous potential and some peril. To be successful, then, the interviewer must be well-prepared, thoughtful, and ethical.

    Full Assignment

  • by William Hitchcock

    What was it really like to be a soldier in World War II? That is a question we can only answer by gathering evidence from those who experienced the war. But even when they tell us their personal stories, we as historians have to sift the material they give us and place it into a broader context.

    This assignment gives you an opportunity to delve into the personal accounts of American WWII veterans as they tell their personal stories about what they saw and lived through during the war. The assignment, however, is not simply to gather up stories but to interpret them. That is the hard part.

    Full Assignment

  • by Terrence Peterson

    Over the course of the semester, we will study oral history as a tool for recording and understanding the experiences of wartime. Each Thursday, we will meet for ‘Oral History Lab,’ where we will learn about and practice the methods of oral history. We will learn how to prepare and conduct interviews, and how to operate technologies such as recording and transcription equipment. We will also learn to see oral interviews as a collaborative relationship between interviewer and interviewee. We will also discuss the legal and ethical issues tied to interviewing human subjects as well as the impact of memory on oral histories.

    Full Assignment

Fictional Autobiography

by Andrew Denning

“When students play with history through the eyes of first-person avatars and interact with virtual historical worlds, they build knowledge through experience and share their creations with one another and the world. Recognizing the potential of historical play, let’s join in the fun.”

“Deep Play? Video Games and the Historical Imaginary,” The American Historical Review, Volume 126, Issue 1, March 2021.

 

Compose an autobiography of your life between January 1933 and the Summer of 1939. Narrate the events important to your life and the lives of your family/friends, while maintaining historical accuracy in relation to the sketch above. The best autobiographies will create a believable cast of characters in your life, as family/friends of both sexes, various political leanings, and diverse ethnic origins, class backgrounds, and religious beliefs, will have very different experiences. You will also need to think through how your goals, ideals, and actions will change over these years, and how your own life will interact with the big historical changes roiling Germany in this time period. This said, your character MAY NOT alter the fundamental course of history (by assassinating Hitler, for example).

 

Essay Assignment on Graham Greene’s Quiet American

by James Sandy

Graham Greene’s Quiet American is an excellent secondary source showcasing the French period and escalating American involvement and commitment in the Vietnam War. This book highlights American attitudes and perceptions to the conflict they would soon join as witnessed by a semi-impartial & western observer. This work showcases the difficulties, both martial and political, in the growing conflict in Southeast Asia. This assignment is designed for students to take an in-depth look at the characters and moments within historical novels and use them to better understand the real moments that inspired them.

VWMeme_2021_MM.jpg
 

Vietnam War Meme Assignment

by Marjorie Galelli

This assignment is designed to encourage students to reflect upon conveying historical information to a layman audience in a creative way, by designing a meme and explaining it.

Research Essay

by Brian Linn

 

This assignment is a 900 to 1,300 word essay (minimum and maximum) that requires students to use Company Commander and Platoon Leader as primary sources to answer a historical question.  Students must upload their essays on Canvas—essays submitted via email or some other form will not be accepted.  Students will have one opportunity to check their essays for plagiarism through the Turnitin option on Canvas. A student who fails to complete the research essay will fail the course regardless of the totals of his/her other assignments.  No outside sources (Wikipedia, books, etc.) are required nor should they be referenced or used.

 

Data Visualization Assignment

by Charles Hannon

This assignment is designed to empower students to use tools of data analysis to better understand the lives of veterans and tell their stories. Data Science is not the enemy of historians or of the humanities generally, is not “a return to the age of mystery,” as this recent mini-controversy posited. Understanding how to locate, understand, and visualize data can help students discover important issues affecting veterans lives today and lead to new areas of research in the future.

Time Homefront Paper

by Stephen Ortiz

 

Read each of your month’s Time issues—the articles, the ads, the photos, the letters to the editor, etc. (A scan of the sign up sheet is in Blackboard.) Find three topics about American life on the homefront that are discussed or depicted in multiple issues (at least twice in the given month but the more, the better). Some topics to consider: the experiences of the servicemen and servicewomen in stateside training camps, life on “the homefront” for women and children, propaganda efforts t mobilizing popular support, the politics of war and war preparation, the economic developments sparked by war mobilization, discussion of American political ideology and citizenship, geographic mobility and the movement of peoples, and the impact of war on both race (understood broadly) and gender relations. If you have problems doing this for your month or in choosing topics, talk to either of the course instructors during their office hours well in advance of the deadline.

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Paper Assignment on Guy Sajer’s Forgotten Soldier (1965)

by Angela Riotto

Full Assignment