Honors Course Review

The Honors Seminar; Fall, 2000:

Creating "American" Communities In a Mobile, Global Society

Interdisciplinary Learning in a KSU Honors Seminar
By: Sarah Robbins

Students in the honors seminar for fall 2000 learned about interdisciplinary research by doing it. Taking the ongoing processes that form American communities as their subject, students drew from a variety of disciplines to learn about the past, present, and future of northwest Georgia. For example, readings for the course drew from literature (e.g., Diane Glancy's Pushing the Bear account of the Cherokee removal), sociology (e.g., Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier), journalism (e.g., film documentaries like "Displaced in the New South" and print news media), and history (e.g., primary historical documents from archival collections in print and on the web).

Perhaps more importantly, students worked individually and in groups to create their own interdisciplinary projects drawing on a range of research methods and presentation tools. Whether gathering oral histories from members of farm communities or taking photographs to record the changes going on in today's suburbs, seminar members integrated their readings for the course with primary research activities. Student projects created for the class also used a variety of technologies, including PowerPoint presentations, word processing programs with illustrations and/or other graphics added, and web pages designed with Dreamweaver.

Projects for an assignment aimed at recovering stories from the region's rural heritage included an account of life today and in the past at a centennial farm, as well as a story based on interviewing the longtime manager of a small-town museum. Projects exploring issues associated with suburban sprawl ranged from before/after stories and pictures of local landmarks being encroached upon by new building to photographs and interviews documenting the construction processes dominating Georgia's subdivision designs. Urban life projects included a history of Atlanta's downtown Varsity restaurant, a close look at volunteerism in the city, and a review of websites on urban neighborhoods. Final projects for the course offered a particularly rich range of work. For instance, one project offered a performance and PowerPoint display detailing the history and culture of Rich's department stores, with special emphasis on its influence on multiple generations of local families who worked and shopped at the downtown store. One team of students created a multimedia presentation recovering stories associated with one of the region's dying mill communities—both the neighborhood surrounding the now-closed workplace and the mill itself.

For more information:
Dr. Liza Davis, Director of the Honors Program
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road #1802
Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591
Office: LB 423
Phone: 678-797-2364
Fax: 770-423-6748
E-mail: honors@kennesaw.edu

Send emails regarding this web site to: fbrantle@kennesaw.edu
This page last modified June 18, 2007
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