Program Overview

Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive (HIST*3480)

Details

The Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive (HIST*3480) course is offered in the Fall 2020 term, instructed by Catharine Wilson.

Course Synopsis

This course provides an experiential learning opportunity for students to immerse themselves in daily life in the past. The Rural Diary Archive website showcases over 180 diarists and is a crowdsourcing site. Students will conduct independent work with scheduled meetings, transcribing diaries online, and contributing to the development of content for the website.

Learning Outcomes

By the successful completion of this course, students will have learned to:

• Identify and critically assess diary writing and keeping practices
• Read and understand 19th-century handwriting and vocabulary
• Transcribe
• Research
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as sources
• Communicate compelling history for use in a social media platform
• Identify and explain daily life in 19th-century rural Ontario
• Know the value of public engagement
• Reflect upon their own work in a critical manner

Methods of Evaluation and Weights

The methods of evaluation and their respective weights are:

1. Transcriptions (30%)
2. Weekly Critical Reflections (15%)
3. Contributions to the glossary and Tweets (20%)
4. Final Essay/Document Analysis (35%)

Texts and/or Resources Required

There is no required textbook for this course.

Project Timeline

The project timeline is as follows:

• Week 1: Pre-arranged group meeting with Professor Wilson to view the diaries and establish instructions
• Week 3: Meeting to review transcription work
• Week 6: Meeting and submission of the first collection of weekly Reflections
• Week 10: Meeting to discuss progress on the final essay
• Week 11: Submission of complete sets of tweets and glossary items
• Week 12: Submission of complete set of transcriptions
• Week 13: Submission of the final essay and the second collection of weekly Reflections

College of Arts

The College of Arts is located in the MacKinnon Building, Trent Lane, Guelph, Ontario.

Departments and Schools

The College of Arts comprises several departments and schools, including:

• School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing
• School of Fine Art and Music
• School of Languages and Literatures
• Department of History
• Department of Philosophy
• Interdisciplinary Programs

Centres, Institutes and Labs

The College of Arts is also home to several centres, institutes, and labs, including:

• Centre for Scottish Studies
• Grounded and Engaged Theory Lab (GET)
• Interdisciplinary Design Lab
• The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
• The Humanities Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lab (THINC)
• The School of Fine Art & Music Print Study Collection