506:402:01
History Seminar: Reading and Writing Personal History
Fall 2015
Professor Ziva Galili
Tuesday, 9:50-12:50
Bishop House 211
Course site can be accessed via your page on the Sakai website.
Contact Professor Galili: [email protected]
Office Hours: 102 Van Dyck Hall, T hursday, 4:30-6:00 pm & by appointment
What to expect in this seminar:
What is “Personal History”? As defined in this seminar, it is a study undertaken by
professional historians and students of history, using the tools and methods of historians,
with the goal of exploring a topic of personal significance to the researcher/writer. Unlike
the better known genres of autobiography and memoir, the “personal history” discussed
and practiced in this seminar is not a history of oneself. The examples of personal history
we will consider through common seminar readings embody their authors’ search for
knowledge and understanding about people and events that lie beyond their own
individual life, yet are powerfully connected to their personal experiences and their sense
of identity.
This genre of “personal history” raises with particular clarity questions that all historians
ask themselves: What is history and what topics and approaches are appropriate for
historical study? What is the relative value of objectivity in historical studies? How can
historians represent the “subjectivity” of individuals and groups? The seminar will
consider these questions as well as some of the methodologies of studying personal
history, among them the method of oral history and the use of personal sources such as
letters, diaries, and memoirs.
Common seminar readings will include several examples of “personal history,”
representing a variety of subjects and approaches. Among them will be works by a NJ
youth of Armenian origin who discovered haphazardly the tragedy that befell his family
in Turkey; an aspiring African-American historian who uses the experience of slavery to
make sense of her own early life in an adoptive home in NJ; a film maker’s visual
biography of his grandfather; a Rutgers graduate’s interviews with three families who
made the passage from India to Central New Jersey; a British journalist who mixes
fiction and fact to tell the story of his mother’s childhood and youth in Stalin’s Russia; a
professional historian who confronts the complex issues of objectivity and subjectivity in
telling the story of his family’s escape from Nazi Austria to Bolivia.
Drawing on the methodologies and approaches discussed in the seminar, students will
write their own “personal history.” In consultation with the instructor, you will choose a
topic, conduct research in libraries, archives, newspapers, and personal collections (such
as family papers, letters, diaries, and oral interviews), and write and revise 2 or 3 drafts of
your Seminar papers (20 pages long). Finally, you will present to other seminar
participants the results of your work. The course is designed to help students hone their
skills in research and data collection, developing research strategies, outlining papers,
writing and editing, oral presentation, and critiquing the work of others.
Learning Goals:
1. Ability to locate, read, and use a variety of sources for the study of history, including
contemporary primary documents, memoirs, literature, and visual sources.
2. Ability to analyze and synthesize information and ideas from multiple sources to
generate new insights.
3. Ability to evaluate and critically assess sources and use the conventions of
attribution and citation correctly.
4. Ability to construct a research paper and to communicate information and ideas
effectively, both in orally and in standard written English.
5. Ability to respond effectively to editorial feedback from peers, instructors, and/or
supervisors through successive drafts and revisions.
Note: These goals correspond to the SAS Core "Cognitive Skills and Processes" goals.
Requirements and Grading:
ctive participation in discussions and other seminar activities (25%)
2. Short written assignments (10%)
Project proposal (15%)
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Rough draft (15%)
Class presentation of project (5%)

Final draft (30%)
 Failure to complete any requirement will result in a proportionally lower grade.
 All assignments are due at the time and date indicated and should be submitted
via the Assignment Area on the Sakai website.
Please remember that a seminar requires steady work throughout the semester.
Books ordered through Rugers Bookstore:
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Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate (2009)
Owen Matthews, Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and
Survival (2008)
Leo Spitzer, Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge from Nazism
(1999)
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (6th or 7th edition), Chapters
4 through 7.
All other readings will be posted on course web site, organized according to the
schedule below.
For guides to writing historical essays see: Sakai course site, Resources.
http://history.rutgers.edu/undergraduate/learning-goals/writing-historical-essays
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Schedule of seminar meetings, readings, and assignments:
Week 1
Tue. 1 Sep
Week 2
Tue. 8 Sep
Introduction: What is Personal History? Seminar protocol.
Becoming Historians
James Banner & John Gillis, eds., Becoming Historians (2009):
Read essays by David Hollinger, John Gillis, Temma Kaplan (65 pp.)
Assignment:
How does your own life connect with historical events of your time?
Detailed instructions are posted o the Assignments page of the Course site.
Week 3
Tue. 15 Sep
What Is History?
New readings:
Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (1997), pp. 13-20, 31-37.
Jeremy D. Popkin, History, Historians, & Autobiography (2005), pp. 1124, 33-36.
Assignment:
List two to four items from the history of your family, community, or
yourself that could be the subject of historical investigation.
Sign up for individual conferences to discuss your topic
(Remember that you need to choose a research topic by September)
Week 4
Tue. 22 Sep
Telling the stories of others: Oral history and life stories
Reading:
Lynn Abrams, Oral History Theory (2010), pp. 18-32 (“The Peculiarities
of Oral History”).
Theodore Rosengarten, “Introduction to All God’s Dangers: The Life of
Nate Shaw,” in Oral History. An Inerdisciplinary Anthology, eds. David
K. Dunaway, Willa K. Baum (1984), pp. 212-220.
S. Mitra Kalita, Suburban Sahibs. Three Immigrant Families and Their
Passage from India to America (2003), pp. 1-31
W.G. Sebald, “Dr. Henry Selwyn,” from The Emigrants (1992), p. 1-23
Submit a short statement about your research topic.
Deadline: 10 pm Friday, September 25
Week 5
Tue. 29 Sep
The seminar will meet in Room 413, Alexander Library, at 10:00 am.
I.
Introduction to the library
II.
Can we be our parents’ historians?
Reading:
Owen Matthews, Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and
Survival (2008), pp. 1-121.
Week 6
Tue. 6 Oct.
Historians on the uses of biography
Reading:
Selections from “Historians and Biography,” a Roundtable published in
the Amercian Historical Review, June 2009:
David Nasaw, “Introduction”, pp. 573-578.
Kate Brown, “A Place in Biography for Oneself,” pp. 596-605.
Jochen Hellbeck, “Galaxy of Black Stars: The Power of Soviet
Biography,” pp. 615-624.
Alice Kessler Harris, “Why Biography?” pp. 625-630
Film: Intimate Stranger (1991). Director Alan Berliner (60 minutes; will
be shown in class)
Week 7
Tue. 13 Oct
Impressions of History:
A NJ boy-turned-poet discovers the Armenian Holocaust
Reading:
Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate (2009), pp. 3-36, 73-95, 121-125, 146232, 305-332 (approximately 200 pp.)
Assignment:
Bring to class a written statement (2-3 pages) on responding to the
questions posted on Sakai (under Assignments) concerning The Black Dog
of Fate. Come prepared to present and discuss your points of view.
Submit your Project Proposal by 10 pm, Saturday, October 17
Week 8
Tue. 20 Oct
I. Objective/Subjective: A Historian’s approach to personal history
Reading:
Leo Spitzer, Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge from
Nazism (1999), pp. ix-xx & 3-73.
II. Discussion of Project Proposals
Seminar members will read the proposals submitted by members of their
working group and come ready to help them with comments.
Week 9
Tue. 27 Oct
A Historian’s approach to personal history (continued)
Reading:
Leo Spitzer, Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge from
Nazism (1999), pp. 75-106, 141-200.
Sign up for individual conferences to discuss progress on your prohject.
Week 10
Tue. 3 Nov
No Class. Seminar participants must attend individual conferences to
discuss projects.
Week 11
Tue. 10 Nov No Class. Seminar participants must attend individual conferences to
discuss projects.
Rough draft due on Sakai course site by 10 pm, Friday, November 13
Share your draft with members of your working group
Week 12
Tue. 17 Nov
Rough drafts – Editing & Proofreading Workshop
Seminar participants will work in small groups of up to 3. Every
participant will read the rough drafts of her/his group members and come
ready to offer critique and improvements. Groups will also practice
proofreading and editing short samples of each other’s writing.
Bring to class a 2-3-page sample of your draft in enough copies
to share with members of your group.
Second draft due on Sakai course site by 10 pm, Saturday, November 28
Week 13
Tue. 1 Dec
Project Presentations by Seminar Participants
Week 14
Tue. 8 Dec
Project Presentations by Seminar Participants
Papers due by 10 pm, Wednesday, December 9