8 points, due May 5, 11:59PM
WHAT: 500-800 words
HOW: Write as a Google doc, and submit on Canvas in this assignment.
WHY: The end of the semester is a good time to stop and reflect on how far you’ve come, but also on how you can use the knowledge you gathered here (about yourself and about the topic) and apply it outside the confines of this course.
The details
As we come to the end of the semester, and close in on the present, you get a third chance to reflect on your learning. This one is a bit different from previous reflections, because I invite you to think about the course as a whole, and how it makes you see the world around you a bit differently (rather than focusing on how you learn).
Pick one or more of the following prompts, and write a 500-800 word reflection, using concrete illustrations or examples from your work for or engagement with the course, to make those lofty thoughts concrete. In other words: “Show, don’t just tell”:
- What do you think is the most important thing you learned in this course, and why do you think so? Why do you think more people ought to know about this?
- This course carries a DE General Academic Requirement. Do you think you earned it? Why (not)?
- To help you answer that question, here’s the description from the Course Catalog: “HDGE courses across the curriculum aim to broaden and deepen students’ understanding of human difference and to develop the intellectual and civic skills students require for participation in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.”
- Remember our exploration of pre-industrial societies? Let’s go back there: some historians claim that by 1600 Japan is entering “modernity”, and some “premodern Japan” courses end at 1600. Looking through the long span of history we covered, does that seem a reasonable assessment, or does something fundamental change in the mid-nineteenth century with the intrusion of the West? (And: does that mean that modernization = Westernization?)
- Imagine you are interviewed five years from now for your dream job (which likely has nothing to do with Chinese history!); the interviewer sees on your transcript you took HST271: Modern China. “Oh, what did you learn in that course?” What is your answer? Why?
