Looking Over Past Humanities Courses and Projects
Over the past six years as a UNE student, I have encountered numerous influential texts and media, and based off those, have had the opportunity to critique and expand upon them in various formats. As I look back, I recognize that the variety of projects has enriched me as a student. As a result, I have struggled to choose only a few. I find that my best loved projects are from my history classes or classes related to my Gender, Women, and Sexuality major.
From my “Women of the West” ENG 237 class, I fondly look back upon Willa Cather’s book, O Pioneers!. I had never read the book before and I instantly connected to Cather’s writing style and insights on gender. In response, I wrote an essay titled, “O Pioneers!- Gender and the New Woman Character”, where I discuss how Cather uses the character Alexandra Bergson to critique twentieth century views on feminism. As I review the paper, I wonder if there is room to expand upon my argument. I remember exhausting areas of the text, but I could look at other authors of the period and see how they present the “New Woman” character in literature.
I also took a Native New England class in 2021, where students were tasked with a historical research project. This was a semester long project, which I titled “Native American New England Female Sachems-Circumvented Authority”, in which I strove to argue that colonial documents downplayed Native New England American female sachems’ positions of leadership in order to seize Native lands. As I reviewed this paper recently, I remembered getting a good grade, but then wishing that I had more time to delve into the topic or could have found more historical resources to make my case. I still have questions on where I could expand with this idea. In my initial topic statement for the project, I had written, “I plan on writing a historical research paper based off the topic, but was also thinking about the possibility of creating a visual presentation or a podcast,”. This definitely seems like it could be a contender for my LIL project.
Another fascinating historical research paper I wrote was for a HIS 395 class, What Happened? Witch Hunts, Women, and Witches. In my paper entitled, “Warfare’s Influence on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692”, I made the argument that the French and Indian War fueled the conditions that led up to the Salem witch trials. Pieces of this theory included young women from Maine (which at the time was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony), which was of great interest to me. After reviewing this paper today, I noticed that I should have developed a more robust conclusion to drive my points. I would love to make this historical story come to life in another medium somehow. My advisor, Professor DeWolfe, taught this class. I was thinking that it would be wonderful to have her mentor me with the project if she had time. Perhaps she could also suggest local resources for the topic.
**Update**
I’ve chosen to focus on the young women from Maine from my “Warfare’s Influence on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692”. Rather than write another academic paper, my goal is to create an academic poster that will include visuals and information about how young women lived during that time, including specifics for the three that played a part in the witch trials. To develop my project, I’m going to tackle these questions (which ultimately will evolve over the project):
What’s My Project? What do I want to accomplish?-I am seeking to define what girlhood might have been like during the late 17th century in New England and at the same time, expand upon the Casco Bay girls’ influence on the Salem Witch Trials.
What Works? How can you build on the strengths of your draft?-I will use my original paper as a guide for the poster. I will also incorporate some of the same resources.
What Else Might Be Said? How might you acknowledge other views and possibilities?-Several historical authors have written on the topic. I will examine their views and see if I can incorporate them in my poster.
What’s Next? What are the implications of what you have to say? I would like to shed light on how Puritan customs/restrictions on young women led to the trials.
