History 402 - Prosem: Research/Writing

(Offered as HIST 402 [^c] and ENST 401.) The topic for this proseminar changes year to year. For 2012-13 the topic is wine. Through analysis of the production and consumption of wine in various regions of Europe, North Africa, and the Americas the course will introduce students to such issues as the environmental impact of wine; the politics of taste; the impact of global trade; the changing ways producers have dealt with blights (phylloxera); the development and impact of monocrop production; class conflict within both production and consumption; and the emergence of claims about terroir (the notion that each wine, like each culture, is unique to a particular place) and how such claims relate to regional and national identities. Course content will be student-driven, since members of the class will take responsibility for identifying many of the documents and secondary studies. Through class discussion, focused workshops, and close supervision each student will learn to design a research prospectus related to wine, and then expand it into a research paper.  Two meetings per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Preference given to history majors. (Note to History majors: you may take this course instead of HIST 301 “Writing the Past” which is ordinarily required for completion of the major.)

Fall semester.  Limited to 15 students.  Professor Hunt.  Spring semester.  Limited to 20 students. Professors López and Martini.