American Christian Heritage – HIUS 530
CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 02/01/2024
Course Description
The course will explore American Christianity, emphasize its impact on American political, social, and cultural history, and evaluate the role of Christianity in influencing the American character.
For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog
Rationale
The course charts the development of American Christianity, emphasizes the American evangelical tradition, and shows the impact of Christianity on American history, culture, and politics. The course emphasizes biblical worldview themes and is an important component of the M.A. and Ph.D. in History programs. The course serves students who are particularly interested in Christian themes of history, and it satisfies a graduation requirement of the programs.
Course Assignment
Textbook readings, presentations, videos, articles, and websites
Course Requirements Checklist
After reading the Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview
Discussions (4)
There will be 4 Video Discussion Assignments throughout this course. The student is required to create a video in response to the provided topic or scholarly article for each forum. Each video is to be 3 – 4.5 minutes long. Students post an abstract (5-6 sentences), a list of three academic sources, and the video link. In addition to initial post, the student will give written responses to the video posts of three classmates. Each response must be a minimum of 100 words.
Research Topic Assignment
The student will write a brief 2-page paper on a subject of proposed research. The submission will have a title page, a two page narrative and a separate bibliography. The paper must have footnotes to five different academic sources (in Turabian citation format) and a bibliography with five primary or scholarly sources (in Turabian citation format). The paper is about the topic and the student’s interest.
Research Prospectus Assignment
The research prospectus describes the research paper/project. The assignment is 2 pages in length, requiring the student to describe the proposed project, explain a research methodology, describe key academic sources and how they will be used in project research and include an operating thesis. The assignment requires a bibliography of a minimum of 10 academic sources. The prospectus describes how the student will research a special question or problem within the topic of interest.
Annotated Bibliography Assignment
The Annotated Bibliography opens with a paragraph providing an overview of the research, methodology and an anticipated thesis or hypothesis. The student will submit a bibliography of 10 sources: primary sources, scholarly sources, and required databases of the Jerry Falwell Library. Sources must be listed in appropriate Turabian format. Each annotation must be a minimum of 200 words. For each entry, the student will give a description of the value of the source and how it will be used in research. The Bibliography reviews sources used in the final Research Project Assignment.
Research Project Assignment
The student will write a 10-15 page research paper in current Turabian format that focuses on an approved topic in the area of American Christian Heritage. The paper must include a bibliography of at least 15 scholarly and primary sources. The student may submit a research project in another format, such as a PowerPoint with a transcription, a multimedia presentation, or an on-site video. (A “talking head” video, acceptable for weekly Discussion video assignments, is not sufficient for this project.) There is a target of 15 slides for PowerPoint presentations and 10 minutes for video projects. All projects must demonstrate graduate standards of research methodology, historical analysis, and documentary citation.
Professional Application Assignment
The project requires the creation a formal academic c.v. and a letter of interest (1 page) for an advertised history opening.
Quizzes (7)
Quizzes will cover the Reading & Study material for the assigned week. Tests will be open-book/open-notes, contain 30 multiple-choice questions and two essay questions, and have a 60-minute time limit.
