Advanced Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Historical Approaches

This course surveys historical approaches to research in the social sciences.

The purpose is to teach the theory and application of historical research methods to help students create well-designed thesis or capstone projects.

It provides students a sound grounding in a broad range and variety of historical fields and approaches (that is, political, cultural, global, institutional, or gender) with special attention to archival research, document analysis, oral history, and the study of material culture.

The focus is on understanding how historians and other social scientists approach original historical research and developing the skills required for primary source analysis.

The course is ideally suited for Master of Liberal Arts candidates preparing to undertake historical thesis or capstone research as well as others interested in developing their methodological toolkit.