The Capstone Project

This unit requires you to select a community or local organisation with whom you will engage as a historian during the semester, in which time you are expected to complete a historical task of value to someone else (eg compiling archival resources, locating historical information, conducting an oral history interview, translating non-English language sources into English). We will discuss your community engaged project in weekly tutorials, but you will need to work on the project in an ongoing way from week 1 until you submit your final project during the exam period. This is a major piece of work and should be treated such.

You will need to:

• Select a community organisation or group
• Liaise with that group, discussing historical work that would be of value to them
• Prepare a 750-word proposal and bibliography based on your engagement with the group
• Compose a diary in the form of weekly reflections on your progress and engagement with a community or local organisation
• Prepare a 4000-word major project (or equivalent in video, audio or multimedia) that:
• • is an independently framed/researched/presented work on a project arising from your engagement with community/local organisation;
  • if presented in a format other than an essay, it must include a short written rationale for the project explaining how/why it came about, the sources used (if not apparent in the presentation), how it drew on some of the theory/readings used in class and/or your engagement with an organisation.

This is an independent research task that require students to devise their own topic, locate and use primary and secondary sources, draw together historical techniques used in earlier units such as digital search techniques for online archives and/or digital newspaper databases or "hands on" historical methods such as oral history or material objects, and explore links between the present and the past/future (such as community engaged history) and/or major historiographical debates.

This assignment will involve you in authentic engagement with a community group to offer historical services of value to someone other than yourself. This is to assist you in thinking about the purpose of history, of its social justice value and to consider in a practical way your own opportunities to work as a historian after graduation.

Please note:

• All assessment tasks are compulsory and must be submitted in order for you to pass this unit.
• Attendance each week is required. If you miss more than half the classes you will receive an Absent Fail grade, regardless of whether or not you have submitted the written assignments. This is a separate issue to your participation grade.
• More detailed instructions on all written assessment tasks will be given during semester.

The first assignment is designed to show that you have a viable project and to pick up any potential problems in the topic you have selected. It should demonstrate: the research questions you intend to ask in your investigation, the primary sources you will use and the secondary sources to which your investigation relates. You must attach a list of primary and secondary sources to this assignment. This does not form part of the word count.

The project diary is an opportunity for you to reflect on your contact and interaction your chosen community or organisation and the growth of your ideas for your project. You should write it throughout the semester (ideally, about 100-150 words per week, minimum), and reflect on the opportunities and challenges of doing engaged fieldwork and research beyond the classroom.

The research project is the largest assessment of the semester, and is the culmination of all the previous work assessments. It should be a substantial original research endeavour based on primary sources and engaging extensively with relevant secondary literature. It need not take the form of a traditional essay,  but the same elements of an essay ought to be made clear. We will discuss alternative formats for presentation of work in class.

Participation is assessed on the value of your contributions to class discussion and your completion of any relevant class exercises. We look to see that you have completed the readings, made an effort to respond to classmates' contributions, asked thoughtful questions or added pertinent observations or arguments based on a close reading of the assigned texts or exercises. Note: you are assessed at a higher level of participation (15% rather than 10%) in 3000-level units.

3000-level units are designed to guide you through independent research projects. Our aim is to use lecture and seminar/tutorial time as a kind of laboratory in which to help you move forward on your major project. The importance of your weekly attendance for all required hours cannot be overstated. Advanced units have fewer contact hours than 2000-level units (2 hours rather than 3 per week) but this is offset by the time and energy you are expected to devote to your independent projects across the entire semester.

The first written assessment isn’t due until after the AVCC break. You may be tempted to put off your big project, but that would not be in your best interest. We have delayed the first assessment to give you time to think it through. A key component of this unit will be the groundwork you do in making contact and spending time with the organization or community of your choice ahead of choosing and constructing a research project. After week nine things will move very fast. You will need to work consistently across the semester to achieve a good result. If you are having trouble, don’t hesitate to discuss it with the coordinator or bring it up in class. Organising time across an extended project is a key challenge in academic research. As well as following the unit outline, here is a guide to managing your time across the semester.