Course Requirements

1. Attendance and Participation [25%]
   

Attendance at lectures and weekly discussion sections is required. In addition, you are expected to participate actively in section meetings, and to engage in group work and discussions of primary sources during lecture. Occasionally, we will collect written feedback to course material at the end of lectures. Of course, we understand that not everybody will be able to participate during every lecture. You will have a free pass to miss one section meeting, for any reason. Beyond that, please inform your TF in advance if you need to miss section due to illness or a personal emergency. Unexcused absences will lower your participation grade. Remember that the quality of your contributions to discussions is as important as the quantity, and that asking a well-informed question also counts as participation. We are happy to meet during office hours to discuss strategies for participating in class.

2. Four Posts to the Canvas Discussion Board [5%]
   

Each student will also be expected to post four responses to the Canvas discussion board, at least twice before Spring Break. Posts should be approximately 250-300 words, addressing a question related to that week’s readings. (Questions to consider will be available on Canvas each week.) Posts are due by Thursday at 9 a.m. the weeks the readings will be discussed.

3. Two Primary Source Analyses (due Mon. Feb. 24 and Wed. March 11 at 5 p.m.) [10% and 15%]
   

You will be asked to create two primary source analyses using Omeka to gain practice with the site before beginning the final project. For the first, you will choose one piece of Nazi visual propaganda from a set of online archives, and post it to Omeka along with an annotation of 750-800 words. For the second, you will create a one-page Omeka exhibit analyzing a video testimony of a survivor of Nazi persecution, selected from the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. Your exhibit should incorporate a text of approximately 1200 words and at least two images representing the survivor’s story. For both assignments, you may wish to draw on course readings to support your analysis. We will discuss these assignments in more detail during the first weeks of class.

4. Final Project: Biography of a Site of Persecution [10% for preliminary assignments and presentation, 35% for final exhibit]
   

For the final project, each student will create “biography” of a site of Nazi persecution or genocide using Omeka. Researchers at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) have identified over 44,000 camps, ghettoes, and detention centers created by the Nazi regime across Europe, of which major killing centers such as Auschwitz are only the best known. Your exhibit and text (approx. 3500-4000 words) will focus on one of these sites, analyzing its place in the Holocaust as well as the experiences of its victims.