Historical Context Presentation
This presentation invites you to work with a classmate to do historical research in order gain a richer understanding of one of the cultures we are discussing in class. Besides learning about the particular culture, you will also get to do research in the fields of history, anthropology, and/or sociology.
Presentation
1. You will select a partner and work together to craft a 20-minute presentation in which you provide us with a sense of historical context for the topic we’ll be discussing in that section of the class. The choices are: Ancient Greece (9/13), Ancient Rome (9/27), The Enlightenment (10/4), Indigenous North America (10/18), Latin America (11/1), and Africa/African American History (11/22).
2. Just like it is hard to look at the rhetoric produced by a culture during a particular period in one class session, it is impossible to provide an in-depth sense of its history in 20 minutes. In other words, know that your presentation will have some significant holes in it and that’s OK.
3. I want you to have as much freedom as you need in order to craft your presentation in the way that best suits your vision and curiosity about the period you selected. However, here are some topics to consider in case you would like some guidance:
4. Make sure to draw from sources as you craft your presentation and use MLA to format your in-text citations. Please feel free to use images to bring the work to life but because the goal of the piece is for you to teach us what you’ve learned by presenting it and the time is limited, do not show more than two minutes of video if you decide to use moving images as you tell us about this culture.
5. You can use PowerPoint, Prezi, or something else that fits what you want to do.
6. It is up to you how you split up the time. You can each present one half of the presentation or divide it up by slides. You can do a more formal presentation where you talk to us, you can talk to each other conversation-style, or you can do a blend of both. Whatever you prefer.
7. We will have five minutes for questions and comments after you complete your presentation.
2. Just like it is hard to look at the rhetoric produced by a culture during a particular period in one class session, it is impossible to provide an in-depth sense of its history in 20 minutes. In other words, know that your presentation will have some significant holes in it and that’s OK.
3. I want you to have as much freedom as you need in order to craft your presentation in the way that best suits your vision and curiosity about the period you selected. However, here are some topics to consider in case you would like some guidance:
- What was life like at the time? How many people lived in this society? What did they eat and wear? Where did they live? How big were their towns? How did they make a living? What were gender roles like? Was there diversity in terms of race and ethnicity?
- What was education like? Who had access to education and who didn’t? In which ways was the kind of education people received affected by their gender, race, and social class? Did they know how to read and write, and if so, what percentage of the population could do so? Were there other ways in which knowledge was transferred besides reading and writing, and if so, what were they? What were learning institutions like?
- What was the political and social situation like? What government system was used? Was it monarchy? Democracy? A blend of both? How was political power and wealth distributed among the members of society in terms of gender, race, and social class? Was there slavery? If so, how did it function? Was this culture part of the colonial system, and if so, how did their role as colonizer or colonized influence how they lived and how they engaged with other cultures?
- Was war a significant part of this culture? In which ways did war shape how people lived? Were they in constant war or constantly preparing for war? Or did they live in a more peaceful period?
- What was the role of religion in this culture? Was there one religion or many? What kinds of things did they believe? How devout were they? How did religion shape the ways in which they understood themselves and their role in the world?
- What were their intellectual movements like? What kinds of ideas and discoveries did this culture have in terms of science, philosophy, technology, and the arts? What kinds of conversations were they having? How were those conversations and discoveries changing how that society was run and how people in general lived?
4. Make sure to draw from sources as you craft your presentation and use MLA to format your in-text citations. Please feel free to use images to bring the work to life but because the goal of the piece is for you to teach us what you’ve learned by presenting it and the time is limited, do not show more than two minutes of video if you decide to use moving images as you tell us about this culture.
5. You can use PowerPoint, Prezi, or something else that fits what you want to do.
6. It is up to you how you split up the time. You can each present one half of the presentation or divide it up by slides. You can do a more formal presentation where you talk to us, you can talk to each other conversation-style, or you can do a blend of both. Whatever you prefer.
7. We will have five minutes for questions and comments after you complete your presentation.
Delivery
You will deliver your 20-minute presentation during class the day you sign up to present. Please make sure to practice your presentation and to stick to the time limit. Besides allowing us to have enough time to discuss the assigned texts for that day, working on your ability to deliver your ideas within a given time limit will be great practice for conference presentations, for which you always need to be mindful of time.
Before class time on the day you present, please upload your presentation to the course’s Google Drive folder titled “Historical Context Presentations.” The name of your presentation should be Historical Context Presentation, followed by your topic, i.e. “Historical Context Presentation: Latin America.”
Before class time on the day you present, please upload your presentation to the course’s Google Drive folder titled “Historical Context Presentations.” The name of your presentation should be Historical Context Presentation, followed by your topic, i.e. “Historical Context Presentation: Latin America.”
Questions
If you have questions about this assignment, feel free to email me, stop by my office hours, or make an appointment.
