In HIS-217, students explore the construction of historical narratives through the examination of different types of historical sources and interpretations. Students examine how culture and diversity can play a role in the interpretation of historical knowledge, engaging with race, gender, class, and culture through case studies, oral histories, and digital humanities tools.
Historical narratives as genuinely constructed, not neutral
The course's central premise is that historical narratives are actively constructed through choices about which sources and interpretations to foreground, and that this construction process is genuinely shaped by factors including race, gender, class, and culture.
Oral histories and digital humanities as genuine methodological tools
HIS-217 incorporates oral histories and digital humanities tools specifically because these methods surface perspectives and evidence that traditional archival sources alone often miss, broadening whose historical experience gets documented and analyzed.
Key topics in HIS217
- Construction of historical narratives
- Race, gender, class, and culture in historical interpretation
- Case study analysis
- Oral history methods
- Digital humanities tools
- Diverse perspectives in historical knowledge
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Worked example: whose story gets told
- Traditional archive-only approach: Relying solely on official documents that may exclude marginalized voices
- HIS-217's approach: Incorporating oral histories to surface perspectives absent from the traditional archival record
- Lesson: HIS-217 teaches that genuinely diverse historical narratives require deliberately seeking out sources beyond the traditional archive, not treating official documents as the whole story
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SNHU HIS-217 diverse historical narratives assignments.
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Frequently asked questions
Every historical narrative involves choices about which sources to prioritize, which voices to include, and which interpretive framework to apply, and these choices are genuinely shaped by the perspective and social position of whoever is constructing the narrative — meaning no historical account is a purely neutral mirror of the past. HIS-217 teaches this constructed nature explicitly because recognizing it is essential to critically evaluating any historical narrative, including narratives that present themselves as objective.
Traditional archival sources often systematically underrepresent the experiences of marginalized groups, whose perspectives were less likely to be recorded in official documents, while oral histories and digital humanities tools can surface and analyze evidence that fills these genuine historical gaps. HIS-217 uses these methods because achieving a genuinely diverse historical narrative requires actively seeking out sources beyond the traditional archive, not merely reinterpreting the same limited set of official documents.