Secondary sources help historians compare the opinions of scholars in order guide their own work and that of others by using scholarly consensus.   When working with the public in a museum or similar institution, being able to guide others based on their interests would be helpful in an environment where a historian has the strongest research skills.  HIST 602: Modern Middle East was my first exposure to historiography at the graduate level. “World War I and the Beginning of Global Interests in Middle Eastern Oil” was my final paper for this course. Comparing the approaches of scholars to both World War I, and Middle Eastern oil, resulted in a comprehensive understanding of what has been covered and what could be examined more closely. 

 

HIST 602: Ethnohistory provided a similar opportunity to examine secondary sources but with a focus on specific methodologies.  Whereas my other graduate experiences involved the comparison of scholarly opinions, this course focused on the specific approaches scholars use in their research.  During this course, I noticed some methodologies I had used in previous courses and some that I had not considered.  One particular methodology I found interesting was "reanalysis" whereby a historian looks at seemingly biased or irrelevant sources to surmise information about an event or people.  Throughout this course, there were class discussions about scholarly articles and individual presentations on books and the methodologies used by the authors.  Eventually, the information discussed throughout the semester resulted in a historiography.

 

  HIST 532: Africa In/Out Hollywood was a challenging and unique approach to historiography. This Course involved watching several Hollywood films and comparing their portrayal of African culture and history to secondary sources. Class discussions and assignments prepared for completion of my historiography on the Anglo-Zulu War.  What I found to be especially interesting about this course was the examination of Hollywood films in addition to scholarly sources.  This added an additional dynamic to my examination of African cultures and histories.  Most of the assignments in this course including the historiography were intended to determine the accuracy of Africa's depictions in films.  By examining the Anglo-Zulu War, I felt that I could further decolonize my own Eurocentric understanding of Africa.