American Explorers is an iteration of HIST395: Topics in Digital History. Its goal is to push the boundaries of how we think about and express historical knowledge. To do this, we’ll be learning about American explorers and then creating a historical product that demonstrates our knowledge.

We’ll be doing research in both primary and secondary sources; we’ll be writing; we’ll be speaking; we’ll be collaborating; we’ll be creating.

The basics

• Course: HIST395: Topics in Digital History (American Explorers)
• Times: MW 10:30-11:45am
• Location: Innovation Hall 131
• Instructor: Dr. Abby Mullen

What you need for this class

• There are no textbooks.
• You need a computer or computing device that you can bring to class.
• You need a website that you can post to. If you already have your own website, fantastic. If not, I’d recommend purchasing your own domain through Reclaim Hosting and setting up WordPress, but you can also get a WordPress-hosted site at WordPress.com.

Credits

This is an experimental class, maybe the first of its kind at GMU (that I’m aware of), but I’m deeply indebted to many people whose ideas I have either adapted or shamelessly borrowed whole-cloth. Special gratitude to Ryan Cordell and Mills Kelly for their syllabus and pedagogy ideas; to Chris Cantwell and a host of other people who gave me ideas for teaching about podcasts; and especially to Andrew Cote and the New Sound Collective.