Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Self-Reflection and Course Feedback
In class today (Nov. 19) we'l spend the last part of class reflecting on the course and offering some constructive feedback in terms of class structure, assignments, etc.
Please write a comment that addresses the following two questions:
1. What have you learned from this class? What have been your areas of greatest challenge and intellectual growth during this trimester?
2. What constructive feedback/suggestions do you have for the class?
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In this class, I have learned a lot about historiography and the ways in which people interpret history. The topics covered by Davis challenged many of my previous perceptions about slavery, especially in regards to slavery outside of the US. The area in which I have grown the most from this class was in analyzing texts rather than summarizing them in discussions. I learned to have an opinion on the content rather than just think it is "interesting."
ReplyDelete1. I have learned about the progression of slavery and expanded my knowledge of the history of slavery from being limited to mostly America to learning about slavery worldwide.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest challenge was speaking up in class while having other people wanting to speak at the same time.
The most important aspect of slavery that I learned was the "evolution" of slavery, depending upon region and time frame. My greatest challenge was to move away from United States's forms of slavery and to simply analyze another region's forms, practices, and mentalities of slavery without constantly using the US as a reflection point on that region's slavery. In other words, I had difficulty pushing away from an American's understanding of slavery and instead look at the aspects of slavery from a neutral standpoint. This class helped me improve this mindset.
ReplyDeleteIn class I learned about slavery, not only in America, but in many different countries. After taking AP US last year, I had a lot of prior knowledge about the institution of slavery and the arguments and dependence that came with it, but I didn’t really know about how it reflected slavery that was seen in other parts of the world. I think one of my areas of greatest challenges in this class was being able to forget my prior knowledge of slavery from US and think of the institution of slavery as something that was created differently in different places.
ReplyDelete1. I have learned more about the origin of slavery and racism than I ever thought I could in a couple of months, and I've come to understand more about how slavery helped to shape both America as a country and the nature of the society we live in. My great challenge, in turn, was wrapping my mind around the fact that I had clear misconceptions about slavery prior to this class, and coming to realize the relative truth of the matter took some time.
ReplyDelete1. Within this class I have learned about the creation of slavery and what its motivations were. I've also learned to look at the intersection of different motivations and how they changed the attitude toward slaves and slavery over time. I have been forced to realize that if you take an approach that believes there is a singular cause to the institution of slavery, you're probably wrong because nothing as complex and as ingrained as slavery can stem from something that simple. My greatest area of challenge has been learning to question the texts we are given by analyzing their backgrounds and by comparing them to similar texts that take a different stance. That concept has challenged me because it has led me to question everything that I read, it also leads me to question modern day assumptions that might stem from flaws in the internal link chain of an event.
ReplyDeleteOver the course of the trimester, I feel my largest intellectual growth was regarding the motivations behind slavery and that in fact it wasn’t nearly as clear as I had originally thought. Through working with the earliest institutions of slavery, as we did in the first weeks, it quickly because clear that the slavery wasn’t necessarily about a single thing, but that slavery in North America seemed to be a conglomeration of many of the ideas and thoughts that were pervasive regarding slavery for the existence of the practice.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the stark contradictions that were explored in the class helped to prove that history on a whole can be seen through countless lenses and from many angles.
During the course of this class, I feel that my understanding of both slavery and the study of history have been greatly augmented. In addition to learning about the long history and multifaceted narrative of the institution which shaped development of North America and the Caribbean. I also feel that our class discussions helped me to form a better understanding of the interpretations of this history and helped highlight the complexity of studying such a prolific topic as slavery. The greatest challenge during the trimester has been simply interpreting the different and sometimes conflicting narratives that go along with the history. This area has also been where I have grown greatest intellectually, as the challenge helped me to grow.
ReplyDeleteBy taking this class, I have learned about the ways and motives which the atlantic-slave trade developed and passed in much more depth than covered last year in solely learning about United States slavery. I found the readings about foreign slave dynamics such as slavery in the Caribbean and Brazil to be the most interesting, especially with respect to the perspective they gave me into American slavery (in terms of numbers and treatment of slaves). I found the google hangout with Dr. Garrigus especially productive and provided insights for about St. Domingue slavery that could have been easily overlooked in a regular student led discussion.
ReplyDeleteI think the form the class was held in of class structure and assignment was a good format. I thought it was fun to have the opportunity to create my own ideas on a blog format post and then still have the opportunity to discuss them the next day in class. I enjoyed having the discussion based format because it became more of a debate as opposed to simply reflecting on a reading. Everyone was able to voice their opinion and as a class we were able to hash out the different or what we as a class determined to be the best interpretation of the assorted readings and subjects. I also enjoyed having the timeline entries, the two projects, and the Google doc because they allowed us to not just discuss what we learned, but rather apply it. It also provided us with an opportunity for research on our own and do personal writings about it in a larger context.
ReplyDeleteI personally learned that there are so many different interpretations, motifs, and justifications of slavery and that there is no one distinct answer. I though that we were always able to come up with different points of discussion and many of them often ended in more confusion that we began with.I think my biggest challenge has been trying to understand what other people's interpretations are and trying to understand what they are saying because although and idea or concept may make sense in his or her head it doesn't really make sense in mine.
Here is Simone's comment:
ReplyDeleteThe greatest thing I learned in this class was how to discuss chapters and articles in a thoughtful and intellectually stimulating way. The hardest thing for me was synthesizing ideas that pushed the envelop on the way we thought about the subjects we covered.