Each week a student will introduce the discussion of the readings.
A research paper of at least 25 pages will be due at the end of the semester. A topic proposal will be due in class during Week #5 and a progress report will be due in class during Week #7. Students will schedule individual conferences with the instructor during Week #8 to discuss the paper. All stages will be presented orally as well as in writing.
As this course draws from various disciplines, topics may be chosen according to each student’s academic interests, as long as they also connect to the course material. Past paper topics include:
- Dioramas in Swedish museums
- Radio tracking of birds and animals
- Development of national parks in Costa Rica
- Attempts to control Indian reservations in the Pacific Northwest during the 19th century, both politically and environmentally
- Development of weather forecasting in the Caribbean at the end of the 19th century
- comparison of British and Japanese Antarctic exploration in the early 20th century
- imperial hydraulic engineering in Egypt
- colonial efforts to manage Nantucket Sound
- aquariums in Victorian Britain
- mining and environmentalism in Brazil
- the fetishization of man-eating lions
- 19th century American research on the Indian mounds of the Midwest
