Senior Comprehensive for History Majors

A senior comprehensive is required for every major. History majors can elect from the following three options to fulfill their comprehensive requirement.

1. Public Presentation

a) Format: The public presentation should be a speech that presents the major findings and methods of the research project to a non-specialized audience in a coherent and concise format. Students will need to revise their seminar papers for this format, taking into account comments made about the original paper as well as the clarity and brevity necessary for an effective public presentation. A presentation may - but does not have to – include visual enhancements such as slides and charts. Students participating in the undergraduate research conference or presenting to a class or other audience should be prepared to speak for 15 minutes and to entertain questions from audience members. Students who present papers at the spring History Forum shall organize panels along a common theme.  Each panel will consist of a chair, three to five paper presenters, and a discussant. The organizer of the panel can double up as the chair. The discussant has to be a faculty member, but not necessarily in History. Senior thesis presentations will require a longer speech (about 30 minutes) and audience discussion of work. This option is well-suited for students writing two-semester theses and for students writing fall semester seminar papers.

b) Venues: DePauw classes or some other scheduled meeting or set of meetings that suit the nature of the project.

c) Assessment: A panel of two members of the department will evaluate the student’s performance and certify the completion of comprehensive requirement.

2. Portfolio

a) Format: Students will submit a portfolio of approximately thirty pages that includes four to six representative samples of papers from history courses. This representative sample should include work done at the introductory and at the advanced level (i.e. 100/200-level courses and 300-level). This would exclude the seminar paper, but would include at least one research paper. The papers and other written work should be chosen to document the student’s growth in the major. In addition, students should submit a five-page self-assessment explaining the intellectual development reflected in the submitted items and the thematic and/or methodological connections amongst the submitted material. This option might be particularly desirable for students writing a second semester seminar paper.

b) Guidelines: 1) Papers included in the portfolio should include the instructors’ comments (that is, they should not be clean copies) and should be chosen as examples of common topics that have been a focus of your work in the major and your development as a historian. Reference your portfolio essays to support reflections in the essay. 2) The self-reflective essay should respond to the following questions: What connects the courses you have taken in your history major? Are their common themes or issues that have served as the focus of your work as a historian? 3) The reflective essay should be well crafted, polished and meet the same standards of writing and analysis expected of papers in history courses. c) Assessment: A panel of three members of the department will evaluate the student’s performance and certify the completion of comprehensive requirement. Portfolios deemed unacceptable will be returned for resubmission.

3. Individual/Group Project

a) Format: Students may design a group or an individual project that engages the department and university community in some significant problem of historical interpretation. A group project might entail a seminar series run by group members and based on readings selected by the group; a film series accompanied by appropriate readings and discussions; or some other format approved by the History Department. This option is well-suited to any group of majors willing to take the initiative to design and implement an effective public project. All comprehensive projects should be developed in consultation with the students’ advisor and/or the thesis/seminar paper director. For the either the group or individual project--assessment depends on the nature of the project, but a public presentation describing or displaying the results of the project is also required. (see Public Presentation section for format)

b) Venues: DePauw classes or some other scheduled meeting or set of meetings that suit the nature of the project.

c) Assessment: A panel of two members of the department will evaluate the student’s performance and certify the completion of comprehensive requirement.

Important deadlines

1) February 29, 2008: History Senior majors notify the History Department secretary of their choice of the senior comprehensive option.

2) March 21, 2008: Senior History majors who chose the portfolio senior comprehensive option turn them into the History Department office (Harrison Hall 210).

2) Public Presentations must take place before April 30, 2008.