A Bird’s-Eye View of Delmarva

History 483:  Environmental History of Delmarva

Revised and Enhanced Syllabus for Fall 2008
Section 001: T/R 2:00-3:15

Library Lab: W: 4:30-5:30 and R: 3:15-4:15

Michael Lewis                                                                           Susan Brazer
389 Holloway Hall                                                                    128 Blackwell Library
mllewis@salisbury.edu                                                              sebrazer@salisbury.edu
(410) 677-5020                                                                       (410) 546-4370
Office Hours:  W 9-12; 1-3,                                                     Office Hours: As announced
and by appointment                                                                  and by appointment

Course Description and Objectives:  The members of this class will comprise a research team writing an environmental history of the relationships between people and birds in the Lower Eastern Shore.  Nobody has ever written such a history about this region before – you will be the first, and your work will be the authoritative history of this topic.  Birds – whether ducks, geese, shorebirds, neotropical migrants, upland game birds such as turkeys and bobwhite quail, or the ubiquitous chicken – are at the heart of Salisbury’s history and still play a key role in the economics of Delmarva. Birds are also central to how people understand what makes this region beautiful, and often have motivated conservation initiatives over the last hundred years.  From the Ward Museum to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to the City Zoo to the Perdue School of Business, birds circle in and around our consciousness. How have people understood, used, and shaped bird populations in Wicomico County?  How have birds shaped human history – have they? How does the history of human-bird interactions tell us something about the larger history of this region? This will be your assignment.

In focusing on this one aspect of the Environmental History of Delmarva, we will be able to address the historical roots of a number of contemporary U.S. debates surrounding wilderness, preservation, resource industries, resource depletion, urban sprawl, and development. Although the bumper-sticker urges you to "Think Globally and Act Locally," I would suggest that if you think locally, you will better understand the global. The issues that you will study and write about on the Eastern Shore are strikingly similar to those faced by other (thus far, more famous) regions throughout the world.

We are quite fortunate in having a reference librarian, Susan Brazer, participating in this course.  She will be available in and out of class to help you in the research process – whether finding databases, finding specific material, figuring out what you haven’t thought to look for yet, or how to navigate the maze of getting material from a citation to your hands. She will have a bookshelf in her office that will serve as a common reference shelf, which will enable us to share material as we find it.  This represents the third collaboration between Ms. Brazer and myself. We are also introducing a new element to this course in keeping with the Fulton School’s enhancement initiative. This semester, there will be a mandatory Library laboratory. Attendance is required, and Ms. Brazer and I will use that time to introduce you to various databases, discuss different sources, and provide hands-on assistance in your individual research projects. 

This class has an explicit applied focus. By the end of the semester, this class research project will be publicly dispersed on the SU website, as well as having been presented in a public presentation. As a class, you will decide how this report should be organized - what topics it should cover and what debates it should address. As a class, you will divide up the research responsibilities, and pool the results of your research. As individuals, you will be responsible for researching and writing different portions of this larger project, and participating fully in group discussions and activities.  This course is intense. It is also, I believe, the most important course that I teach, and the one most likely to give you skills that you can use for the rest of your life.

Course Requirements:  This course is an unusual one – there are no exams, no books to buy, and nothing to memorize.  Your grade is entirely derived from your writing and your participation in the research process.   The breakdown is as follows:

In-Class Participation: This includes your involvement in class activities, as well as your attendance in regular class sessions, and the library labs.  I expect for you to treat this course as a job – you should show up every day, and if for some reason you are unable to do so, you should inform me in advance. No designated percentage of the course grade is given for showing up – but unexcused absences from class OR labs will reduce your overall grade.

Local Newspaper Articles: 10% Everybody will be responsible for going through a section of the local newspaper on microfilm, and collecting any articles relevant to our course research topic (either the Salisbury Advertiser, or the Daily Times). You will be responsible for making printouts of these articles, and a cover-page that lists the article titles and bibliographic material. You will be graded on timeliness and thoroughness – everyone should receive 100% on this assignment.

Draft Feedback: 10%You will be placed in a writing group. You will be responsible for written comments on your colleagues’ drafts. Your comments will be graded for timeliness, completeness, clarity, and quality.

Research Reports: 10% You will make two research reports in which you share with your classmates (and me) what you have found.  The research report should be in the form of an annotated bibliography, to be shared with your classmates. When you make your research report, please also give me a summary of any dead-ends that you might have pursued. These weekly reports will allow me to give you credit for the work that you actually do, even if it never finds its way into our final written product.

First Draft: 20% Your first draft of your paper will be graded.  This first draft should be a complete paper, with complete citations and a formal argument. It is essential for the success of this course that your first draft be a true paper, not a partially realized outline. 

Drafts 2 and 3: 10%  These drafts will be graded on timeliness of posting and effort at improvement.  Your third draft will be sent off to a professional historian who is an expert on environmental history.  This third draft should be a polished piece of work.

Final Written Project: 40%   The largest portion of your grade will be derived from the quality of your final written contribution to our class project.  This final paper should represent a publishable piece of historical scholarship, and should reflect your careful consideration of the comments made by our reviewer.  

Course Schedule:

September 2:               Introduction; review syllabus, determine lab times

September 4:               Research methodology
                                    Reading Packet I Due

September 9:               Reading Packet II due

September 11:             Project design; Research assignments

September 16:             In-class Lecture

September 18:             Research Report I due
Research assignments

September 23:             In-class Lecture

September 25:             Newspaper Assignment Completed.
Discussion of findings in class; research assignments           

September 30:             In-class Lecture

October 2:                   Research Report II due
Assignment for planning group plan

POSSIBLE TRIP TO WESTERN SHORE ARCHIVES ON OCTOBER 4, TBD

October 7                    Putting together our group plan – Assigning research topics

October 9:                   Individual Student Research plans due - All students must submit individual written research plans, with a copy for every member of their research team. Research plans should include preliminary thesis, sources already located, and additional sources to investigate. In-class, schedule individual meetings with me for the next week

TO BE SCHEDULED AS A CLASS: Due dates for Drafts 1-3, with reading group reviews of drafts 1 and 2 due shortly thereafter.  Collective class discussion of Draft 3, spread over two class periods. One day for discussion of external reviewer’s comments.  Pieced around these due dates, I will give some lectures on national context, and we’ll hold discussions of your writing progress, research concerns, and findings.  Also to be scheduled: optional canoe trip, and birdwatching trip to Blackwater. Once we have set due dates, they cannot be changed. 

October 14:     Individual Meetings with Dr. Lewis in his office

October 16:

October 21

October 23

October 28:

October 30:                

November 4:

November 6:

November 11:

November 13:

November 18:

November 20:          

November 20: Optional Special lecture: 10:00 am, Nanticoke A: Gerald Winegrad - "Pollution and the Chesapeake Bay"

November 25:             NO CLASS – DR. LEWIS IN LONDON AT CONFERENCE

December 2:

December 4:  &nbs0001pt">December 11:

December 15:              Final Exam: 1:30-4:00 pm. Everyone will bring to class your final paper, in both a hard and electronic copy. We will spend the final exam period doing final editing of the electronic copy and compiling the MS FrontPage webpage for the final class publication, and creating the abstract for the final project. 

Writing Across the Curriculum: 
Writing across the Curriculum is a nationally recognized initiative that is designed to improve students’ learning through encouraging different types of writing in all university courses.  This course is committed to this program, and your final written paper (as well as the draft process) is designed to improve your writing skills.

Academic Integrity: 

The best learning environment is one based on mutual respect and trust.  However, the desire to achieve a good grade without doing the necessary work may tempt some students to represent the work of others as their own – plagiarism. There are no mitigating circumstances to justify academic dishonesty. IF you are unclear about what constitutes academic dishonesty or plagiarism, please ask – Ignorance is no excuse. Discovery of academic dishonesty will bring stiff penalties, including a failing grade for the assignment in question and possibly a grade of F for the course.  The maximum penalty at Salisbury University for plagiarism is possible expulsion from the entire USM system, so for your own sakes, do not plagiarize.

University Writing Center:
This course is potentially the most writing-intensive course that you will take at SU. We cannot, however, spend much time in class on the mechanics of writing (sentence structure, etc.). At the University Writing Center (directly above the Fireside Lounge in the Guerrieri University Center), trained consultants are ready to help you at any stage of the writing process. It is often helpful for writers to share their work with an attentive reader, and consultations allow writers to test and refine their ideas before having to hand papers in or to release documents to the public. In addition to the important writing instruction that occurs in the classroom and during teachers’ office hours, the center offers another site for learning about writing. All undergraduates are encouraged to make use of this important student service. For more information about the writing center’s hours and policies, visit the writing center or its website at www.salisbury.edu/uwc.