One of the central goals of this class is to get you working as historians, developing skills of historical thinking, research, and analysis by creating your own projects. Influenced by the ideas of Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire about engaging students as active content creators in their own learning, this project give you the chance you come up with a (class-related) research project that is meaningful to you.  

Working over the course of the semester, you will design a research project to investigate any aspect of the history of modern Latin American history (any event between 1791 and 2005) that analyzes a range of primary sources as well as addressing how this topic has been studied by other scholars.

Your project might focus on topics like Bolivian activists’ responses to environmental contamination by U.S. mining companies; Caribbean migrant flows and the creation of reggaetón; the history of Chilean social protest music; indigenous activists during the civil war in Guatemala; or Afro-Brazilian political and social activism. We’ll work together to find something that is both meaningful to you and makes a positive contribution to digital public history. 

Students will:

• identify a significant research question about Latin American history
• demonstrate their skills of historical research in finding primary and secondary sources 
• emphasize the role of Latin American / Latino actors in shaping their histories
• use digital public history tools to communicate your knowledge about Latin America to a wider public audience.
• use sound, images, and narrative to craft a compelling, sophisticated piece of storytelling 

Your prospectus will serve as the basis for the research project. You’ll communicate your historical analysis two formats: improving a Wikipedia article’s coverage of your topic and through a 5 minute pre-recorded pecha kucha presentation.

Table of Contents

1. Prospectus
   1. Prospectus Learning Goals
   2. Prospectus Specifications
      1. Part 1: Abstract
      2. Part 2: Wikipedia Plans
      3. Part 3: Annotated Bibliography
   3. Prospectus Rubric
2. Wikipedia Entry
   1. Wikipedia learning goals:
   2. Wikipedia Specifications
      1. Training & Peer Review
      2. Wikipedia Article Specifications
      3. Wikipedia Project Memo
      4. Wikipedia Showcase
   3. Wikipedia Rubric
3. Pecha Kucha Presentation
   1. Pecha Kucha Learning Goals
   2. Pecha Kucha Specifications
      1. Submission
      2. Content Specifications
      3. Slideshow Creation Specifications
      4. Pecha Kucha Grading Note
      5. Class Q&A
   3. Pecha Kucha Rubric
   4. Pecha Kucha Discussion Questions
   5. Pecha Kucha Resources
      1. Dr. Marcus Weaver-Hightower How to Design and Deliver a Pecha Kucha
      2. How to Recored a Pecha Kucha on a Mac
      3. How to record a Pecha Kucha on a PC
      4. How to use Power Point Presenter Coach

Prospectus

Your prospectus is a key stage in defining your project, identifying high-quality primary and secondary sources to use as evidence, and explaining how your research relates to class themes.    

Your prospectus will have three parts: an abstract that serves as an “executive summary” of your project; a paragraph proposing a Wikipedia article you’d like to improve and expand; and an annotated bibliography with your analysis of primary and secondary sources. 

Prospectus Learning Goals

In your Prospectus, you will:  

1. Identify a focused research question about Latin American history. 
2. Identify and evaluate diverse sources about Latin American history.  
3. Develop a proposal for how your work will show your skills of historical analysis and demonstrate your achievement of our course learning goals, including contributing to a more representative and nuanced portrayal of Latin America.

Prospectus Specifications

Upload your prospectus to Moodle as a pdf by 4pm on Friday, February 24.

Part 1: Abstract

• Your abstract is a well-crafted paragraph that explains your project and why it is important. It should address (in about 1-2 sentences each):
  • Topic: What is the main topic around which your project is structured? Why is this topic interesting and worthwhile? (Ex.: “Jesuit missionaries played a prominent role in expanding Portuguese colonialism in southern Brazil.”
  • Gap: What part of your topic do you think is understudied or overlooked in existing scholarship? This sentence demonstrates that your project represents a piece of original research, rather than a rehashing of existing work. (Ex.: “Though a vast amount of research exists looking at men’s soccer and the construction of Brazilian national identity, few historians look at the growing prominence of women soccer starts both in Brazil and globally.”)
  • Argument: How does your project work to fill that gap? You will not be able to fit the full nuance of your argument into a single sentence, but you should aim to give the reader to Big Ideas. (Ex.: “A study of two recent Brazilian films shows that contemporary filmmakers are exploring more nuanced portrayals of working-class masculinity.”)
  • Methods/Sources: What primary sources will you use for your project? What approach will you use to analyze them? (Ex.: “My project draws on existing scholarship and my analysis of declassified State Department files to build an interactive digital timeline highlighting U.S. involvement during the Brazilian dictatorship .”)
  • Conclusion: Explain the larger significance of your project – the “so what?”

Part 2: Wikipedia Plans

• Your Wikipedia Plans are a paragraph that explains:
  • What Wikipedia entry related to your research that you’d like to improve (the exact article title).
  • The current state of the Wikipedia entry (both the strengths and the weaknesses). 
  • What you plan to improve, and why this is important to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of Latin American topics.

Part 3: Annotated Bibliography

• Your Annotated Bibliography presents your careful analysis of the most important sources for your research question.
• Your prospectus will include annotations for:
  •  a reference (encyclopedia) article on your topic. Note: do not pick Wikipedia for this part of your research. 
  • two scholarly research sources, 
  • and one primary source that represents the perspective of a participant in this history (so, not an outside observer’s perspective).
    • “A” Contracts must include a second primary source that provides a different perspective.
• These sources must all be high-quality, pertinent sources for your research question. 
• The sources cannot include book reviews. If you’re interested in the source, write the annotation for the book itself (not somebody else’s review of it.)
• Your annotation needs to make it obvious that you’ve READ this source by including specific information (not just info I could gather from reading the title).
• Each entry will include a full citation for the source, formatted in Chicago style (bibliography).
• Each annotation will:
  • Summarize the topic of the book/article 
  • Evaluate the authority or background of the author 
  • Explain the author’s main argument and use of evidence 
  • Compare or contrast this work with another author you have cited 
  • Explain how this research illuminates your research project

Prospectus Rubric

Wikipedia Entry

For this project, you’ll identify a missing or overlooked topic on Wikipedia that merits further coverage to expand the depth and breadth of articles on Wikipedia, and counter its systemic biases.  You can pick any under-developed Wikipedia article about Latin America or Latin Americans that demonstrates your understanding of the diversity of human experiences, and that has sufficient English-language resources available to demonstrate your skills of research and writing.

Wikipedia learning goals:

• clear communication: elegant writing following the conventions of Wikipedia, including tone, standards of proof, and digital communication.
• historical research: selection of useful and appropriate scholarly sources for your citations and outside links.
• historical knowledge: increasing Wikipedia’s coverage of the peoples and cultures of Latin America and explaining their significance.

Wikipedia Specifications

Training & Peer Review

• Complete all trainings & exercises on our class Wikipedia Portal.
• Forum Post evaluating Wikipedia’s coverage of a Latin American topic on Wednesday, 2/8.
• Full Draft of your Wikipedia Entry on Friday, 3/3.
• Peer Review of two classmates articles by Sunday, 3/5.

Wikipedia Article Specifications

• Complete all Wikipedia edits by 4pm on Friday, March 10.

C Contract: For your chosen article, you should:

• compose at least two new paragraphs with at least two internal wikilinks each (around 250 to 500 words total)
• incorporate at least two reference sources that meet Wikipedia’s criteria for evidence (footnoted in the “Sources” section)
• add at least one external links to reputable web sources (in the “External Links” section)
• Correct any factual errors, broken links, or inappropriate evidence
• Write with clarity and style, using the tone appropriate for the genre.

Wikipedia B Contract

• compose at least three new paragraphs with at least two internal wikilinks each (around 500 to 750 words total)
• incorporate at least two reference sources that meet Wikipedia’s criteria for evidence (footnoted in the “Sources” section)
• add at least one external links to reputable web sources (in the “External Links” section)
• Correct any factual errors, broken links, or inappropriate evidence
• Add an image from Wikimedia Commons (if appropriate). 
• Write with clarity and style, using the tone appropriate for the genre.

Wikipedia A Contract 

• compose at least four new paragraphs with at least three internal wikilinks each (around 750 to 1000 words total)
• incorporate at least three different reference sources that meet Wikipedia’s criteria for evidence (footnoted in the “Sources” section)
• add at least two external links to reputable web sources (in the “External Links” section)
• Add an image or other media from Wikipedia Commons (if appropriate)
• Correct any factual errors, broken links, or inappropriate evidence
• Write with clarity and style, using the tone appropriate for the genre.

Wikipedia Project Memo

• Upload as a pdf to Moodle by Friday, March 10 at 4pm.

This 2-page memo should devote a paragraph to each of the following seven questions:

1. Why did you select this article improve? What is the larger historical significance of this entry, and how does your work make it better?
2. What state was it in before your intervention? Why?
3. How did you improve this entry? Why did you choose to intervene in these ways?  How did you incorporate peer feedback? 
4. Discuss the specific content did you learn through completing this digital project?  For example, have you gone deeper into a topic and/or learned new material?  Give particular tasks you performed or examples of things you did in this digital project and discuss how they helped in your learning of the material.
5. Discuss the specific skills you have learned through the Wikipedia project. For example, have you further developed skills and/or learned new ones? Give particular tasks you performed or examples of things you did in this digital project and discuss how they helped in your development of old and/or new skills.
6. Discuss how you think you will use the specific content and skills you developed through this project in the future. Give examples of courses, projects, or other areas where you think they could be of use.
7. Did the fact that your Wikipedia contributions will be publicly available affect how you approached its design and execution? Give examples of discussions you had, considerations/decisions you made, or ways you anticipated others would use it.

Wikipedia Showcase

• All students are required to share their contributions to our class Google slide show before class on Friday, March 10 and come prepared to talk about what they’ve done to improve representation on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Rubric

Pecha Kucha Presentation

For this assignment, you’ll prepare a short (5-minute) oral presentation called a Pecha Kucha to  share your research project with our class during the final weeks of the semester.  

Pecha Kucha Learning Goals

1. Evaluate diverse interpretations of Latin America and its peoples.      
2. Use the skills of historians – including research, analysis, and interpretation – to create your own interpretations of Latin American history and culture.     
3. Analyze the historical construction and maintenance of Latin American systems of inequality as well as measures to counter them.  
4. Create an effective multimedia presentation that describes and analyzes the past to make a sophisticated interpretive argument.  

Effective oral communication requires a different approach than written communication. Pecha Kucha is a presentation style developed in Japan where you create a deck of visually engaging slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds as you give your talk. The careful preparation involved and the emphasis on the images in your slides means your presentations will be more engaging and informative for the entire class.

Pecha Kucha Specifications

Submission

• You will share a rough draft of your planned presentation for peer review by Sunday, April 2 @ 4pm (firm deadline – share whatever you have, even if rough!) 
• You will leave helpful, specific feedback on two peers’ projects before class on Wednesday, April 5.
• You will upload your completed project as a .mp4 file to our class Pecha Kucha Stream by the end of the day on Wednesday, April 12.
  • Exception: Folks in the Queen of Lapa group get until the end of the day Friday.
• A Contracts: upload a screenshot of your completed Power Point Presenter Coach report by Wednesday, April 12.

Content Specifications

• For your presentation, you task is to familiarize our class with the argument, approach, and evidence presented in your research. Be clear and concise.  
• Start your presentation with an overview of your topic, research question, the primary sources you’re analyzing , and your argument. (Basically, this is an oral version of your revised research abstract). This may seem repetitive, but I promise this will make it easier for your audience to follow your arguments when you analyze sources in the following slides.   
• The bulk of your presentation will focus on teaching the class about your topic (you don’t have to follow this exact order, but make sure to show all of these skills). 
• BRIEFLY, explain necessary historical context. 
• Citing them by name, introduce one historian who you draw on to inform your research. Provide a concise summary of their main argument and use of evidence.    
• Explain how your own interpretation engages with this secondary source. You can agree with a difference, disagree and explain why, or both agree and disagree: just make the reasons for your position clear.    
• Analyze your primary source (2 sources for “A” contracts). Make sure you discuss the point-of-view represented in the source and how that shapes the account presented.   
• Explain any limitations in your research. This is a focused project. Be honest about what  the sources you look at let you consider, and what they don’t.   
• Incorporate your analysis of the historical construction and maintenance of Latin American systems of inequality . 
• Tell us exactly how the examples you present relate back to your thesis.  
• Conclude by explaining what you see as the larger significance of your argument and its relationship to course themes.    
• Practice to make sure you are confident about the timing and content.   
• Students completing the “A” contract are required to use Power Point Presenter Coach to practice their work at least once before recording.  You’ll upload a screenshot of your final report to Moodle. 

Slideshow Creation Specifications

• Your slideshow will be 15 slides long. Each slide will be on the screen for exactly 20 seconds (so, 5 minutes for your total presentation). You will also include a 16th  slide – not counted in the specs below – where you can list your Works Cited (with more than 5 words, obvs!)  
• Each slide must have:
  • At least one image that helps communicate your ideas  
  • Each image can be used only once (although if it makes sense, you can zoom in on an image for another slide) 
  • No clip art or stock images.   
  • No more than five words per slide
    • Exceptions: Title Slide & your final/16th  Works Cited slide can have more than 5 words 
• Make sure your images are large enough for classroom projection.  The ideal size for projection is 1024 x 768. 
• Watch the videos below to learn how to record audio narration to accompany your 20 second slide transitions in PowerPoint. You can also work with a Student Technology Assistant for help! 
• Include a Works Cited slide that gives full citation information for your primary and secondary sources. (This does not count as one of your 15 timed content slides)
• Include citation information for all images you use using this format: Image Creator (if known), “Title”, Source, License.
• Upload your pecha kucha file to our class stream by Wednesday, April 12.

Pecha Kucha Grading Note

• If your submission has audio, image, or slide timing issues, I will accept this work but reduce your final contracted grade by one step (from an A to an A-, for example).
• If your submission does not fit the length requirements, I will return it to you for revision and resubmission (and you are not eligible for the A contract).

Class Q&A

In class during weeks 13 & 14, we’ll devote 5 minutes to discuss each student presentation.  You’ll give a 1-minute recap of your work, and then respond to questions from me and your peers.  

Pecha Kucha Rubric

Pecha Kucha Discussion Questions

• On each of the three days you are not presenting, you are responsible for watching your peers’ projects and submitting at least two discussion questions to a Moodle forum before our class session.

Pecha Kucha Resources

Dr. Marcus Weaver-Hightower How to Design and Deliver a Pecha Kucha

Note: we’re only doing 15 slides (5 minutes) + a works cited.

How to Recored a Pecha Kucha on a Mac

How to record a Pecha Kucha on a PC

How to use Power Point Presenter Coach