History 408/508 Deviants & Outcasts in European History

Course Requirements (408)
This is a reading-and-discussion course. Students will be evaluated (a) according to their comprehension of the weekly readings and (b) according to their contributions in classroom discussion. The course requirements are therefore simple: students must complete weekly readings before each session; students must attend every session; and students must participate in discussion. Writing assignments are simple and crafted to show reading comprehension: beginning in week 2, students must compose a 2-3 page reaction paper on the assigned readings. The character of reaction papers will vary according to the nature of a week's reading assignment. When the reading is a piece of historical scholarship (as opposed to a primary source), reaction papers should contain the following elements: (1) a concise summary of the argument; (2) an evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses; and (3) a series of questions or observations which the student would like to pose in classroom discussion. There is no midterm examination and no final examination.