Author:
Jeff Newby, Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)
Subject:
Arts and Humanities, Art History, Religious Studies, Criminal Justice, History, Ancient History, U.S. History, World History, Anthropology, Sociology
Material Type:
Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Level:
High School, Community College / Lower Division, College / Upper Division
Tags:
  • Anthropology
  • Antiracism
  • History
  • OFAR
  • OFAR 2022
  • Open for Antiracism
  • Religious Studies
  • Sociology
  • anthropology
  • history
  • religious-studies
  • sociology
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial
    Language:
    English

    Marginalized Voices: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)

    Marginalized Voices: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)

    Overview

    This assignment is designed as a mini-research project with the purpose of having students engage with marginalized actors in history. The purpose is to help students find themselves in the archives by focusing on self-representation that is important to their own socio-economic and ethnic groups. By providing historical research in the form of primary and secondary documents on figures that have been historically "left out" of the historical narrative, the students will help fill the gaps in the archive, be active in the creation of new curriculum, and gain a better understanding of marginalization and the power of historical memory in the process.

    History B2: World History Since 1650

    Marginalized (adjective): (of a person, group, or concept) treated as insignificant or peripheral.

    Think about the vast majority of historical scholarship you have encountered up until you took this class. Chances are it was written from a Western European lens and didn’t feature an abundance of marginalized voices. Marginalized communities can include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), women, LGBTQIA+, low-income individuals, prisoners, the disabled, senior citizens, and many more. Many of these communities were ignored or misrepresented in traditional historical sources.

    So what? → this is where YOU come in. Your job this semester will be to represent these voices. Start thinking about groups that might be only briefly represented or entirely missing from our textbooks and sources.

    Take a Moment: Please read the definition above again. Think about this definition within the context of our Modern World History course (1500-present). Who might be a marginalized voice? Start broad and then narrow your focus.

    Keep in mind that people who are still alive, or marginalized people who are well established in the historical record (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for example) will not qualify as appropriate candidates for this assignment.

     

    Instructions

    You will create two Marginalized Voices submissions this semester that will be available to future World history students as a resource. This means that YOU will be creating the historical source, not just researching for one. In other words, you will be helping create the curriculum; you will literally be helping to fill in the historical gaps that so many past writers have left out - take this seriously.

    Step 1: For this assignment, please choose 1 marginalized voice and write a 1-2 page narrative answering the following:

    1. Who is the historical figure?
    2. Why are they marginalized? Be explicit and clear here.
    3. What is the figure’s historical context? In other words, where/when are they from, what is happening around them locally and globally/what world do they find themselves in, etc?
    4. Why is the figure significant to history? Speak to their immediate and lasting contributions.

    Step 2: For each narrative you must also have in-text citations and a works cited/bibliography page. For formally cited sources, no .coms will be accepted. These should be scholarly sources. Think of this as a mini-research project in which you will need to access scholarly sources to write your narrative. The Library databases, such as JSTOR and Ebscohost are perfect places to start. If using websites, make sure you are sticking with .edu and .gov. And of course, primary sources are your best sources if you can find them.

    Step 3: You will also be asked to link other helpful interesting sources either at the end of your narrative in an organized table, or in a standard bibliography format. These are sources that helped build your content knowledge, but that you did not necessarily cite in your paper and can include helpful primary/secondary sources by/about the focused person (poems, songs, speeches, articles, novels, scholarly research, youtube videos etc.) For these helpful links, .coms are acceptable.

    Important Info: As stated previously, this is your chance to help bring light to figures and groups left out of the historical record. As such, exemplary submissions will be featured in future classes and as open-sources material for other professors to use. This assignment is your chance to make change. Good luck!

    • Papers should be 1 - 2 pages (you may go slightly over this, but if you are getting to 4 pages, stop and cut down)
    • Paper should have a photo/picture/representation of the marginalized voice in the top left corner of the paper - see example.
    • Formatting: Times New Roman OR Garamond 12 point font, double spaced throughout, 1" margins.
    • At least 2 scholarly sources should be cited (Use the Bakersfield College Library Databases (Links to an external site.) as your research base).
    • Chicago Style (CMS) OR MLA in-text citations only
    • Essay Structure: Intro/Body/Conclusion 
    • Have a creative title that makes topic clear and hints at thesis - if struggling, at the very least the title should make it clear who your marginalized voice is.

     

    Marginalized Voices © 2021 by Jeff Newby is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0