Unpublished Histories: Women's Lives in Search of an Author
Nancy Shawcross profile
W 4:30-7:10
This course will consider issues relating to the documentation and
interpretation of women's lives. Through research in the personal
papers of various women who lived in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, the class will focus on the following questions:
what documents survive and why (and what don't survive and why); how
do published texts on the subject compare to unpublished ones and why;
and to what extent, if any, did gender inhibit or facilitate the
fulfillment of aspirations or vocations of these women and why.
Course requirements comprise participation in weekly class sessions on
the progress of one's research and difficulties and discoveries
therein and a paper of journal-length size relating to a subject in
which primary source materials have been extensively consulted. The
paper should include a bibliography of published accounts and a
critical evaluation of surviving papers. A list of possible subjects
compiled by the professor will draw on resources available in several
Penn repositories, including the Department of Special Collections,
the University Archives and Records Center, and the Center for the
Study of the History of Nursing or in other special libraries in the
Philadelphia area.
updated 2006-10-24
