Presentations
For your oral presentations, you will be offering your classmates information about an important historical context for the literary work that we are analyzing that day. Your job is to do some research and then report back on what you find in a clear and compelling manner. You can consult the web, but do your best to look at reliable websites, and make sure you also consult at least one or two books. Upon doing research, you will likely discover that the history you are responsible for is extremely complicated and made up of all kinds of obscure details. For your presentation you should aim to determine which ideas and facts are most important and focus on them. You are simply offering an introduction to the subject. Try to turn your subject into a compelling story organized around a few key points. Please include some images, sounds, and film clips (if they are available for the period you are covering) so as to give your classmates as a vivid a sense of the history as you can. Below are the dates and topics. You will have a maximum of five minutes in which to present your material.
February 6
Social customs and religious views in the Antebellum South:
The lives of poor white southerners in the age of slavery:
February 8
Slave conditions in Missouri:
Con artists in the Antebellum South: Ada Gorodetskiy
February 13
The treatment of recaptured slaves: Dana Peck
February 15
Opportunities for women writers in the 19th century United States: Mariam M.
Religious revivals in the mid 19th century: Christina Ramos
February 22
Gender roles in 19th century New England: Jane Ooi
Small town life in rural New England: Elaine Farah
February 27
Affluent African American communities in the late 19th Century: Edwin Jean-Baptiste
The debate between DuBois and Booker T. Washington over the best way forward for black people: Atiyana Ringling
March 1
Frontier life in Nebraska: Anastasia K.
The influence of Darwin’s theories over popular culture and views about humanity: Sabrina Rodriguez
March 6
“New money” in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America: Bridget Jandovitz
March 8
“Old money” in turn-of-the-century America: Laurel Labryn
March 13
Life in New York City in the early twentieth century: Kevin Rayzvikh, Anna Movchan
Divorce in early twentieth-century America: Raechel Mastroff
March 15
Fashion and etiquette in the turn-of-the-century leisure class: (Skyelar), Maxim Ibadov
Suicide in early twentieth-century America: Tiquan Ewell (Tre)
March 20
Child-rearing practices within the leisure class: Paul Marinos
March 22
The experience of American soldiers in WWI: Nicole Astudillo
March 27
The Modernist movement in literature and art: Eloïse Albaret
March 29
The Harlem Renaissance: Brittney Molloy
April 10
The Great Migration of African Americans from the south to the north: Filip Tabak
April 12
The Beat Movement in the 1950s: Jessica Horowitz
The Cold War during the 1950s and its influence on the general culture:
April 17
Experience of black people living in the north after the Civil War: Montip (Zena) Leesin
Reconstruction and its impact on southern blacks: Benjamin Leibowitz
April 19
The treatment of slaves on southern plantations before the Civil War: Heamant Dasrat
April 24
Black chain gangs under reconstruction: Carina Amann
April 26
The underground railroad: Sara Khan
The status of black civil rights movements in the 1970s and 1980s: Katherine Hernandez
May 3
The U.S. involvement in Vietnam (causes of the war and results): Weiming Chen, Peter Gambino
May 8
The experience of Vietnamese soldiers fighting under Ho Chi Minh: Khanh Ngo (Kelly).
May 10
The experience of Vietnamese refugees in the United States during and after the war: Karen Carino