DPI-730: The Past and the Present: Directed Research in History and Public Policy

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1 DPI-730: The Past and the Present: Directed Research in History and Public Policy Prof. Moshik Temkin Spring 2017 Monday 4:15-6 p.m. Taubman 401 Harvard Kennedy School Professor Moshik Temkin Harvard Kennedy School 124 Mount Auburn Suite 200-Room 250 Faculty Assistant: Elizabeth Steffen Taubman 413; Course Description: This course is intended for students who are interested in conducting high-level historical research related to contemporary public issues, both American and non- American. It will also introduce students to important policy-relevant literature in different fields of history, including social, political, gender, and race. The course is open to students in public policy, history, government, economics, law, education, urban studies, public health, sociology, and other related fields and disciplines, with the professor s permission. The course has three principal components: 1) reading signal works that connect historical scholarship to public policy; 2) developing individual research projects; and 3) presenting student work and commenting on the work of others. Students might develop a work of scholarship unique to the course or use the course as a workshop for a research project developed elsewhere, such as theses and dissertations. The course is designed to enhance students research skills and to provide a foundation for rigorous historical analysis of public issues. 1

2 The course is linked to the Initiative on History and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Based at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Initiative brings together scholars, practitioners, students, and policymakers with the goal of linking our interpretations of the past with our approach to contemporary policy issues. The Initiative draws on the expertise and leadership of faculty and practitioners at HKS who work and teach at the intersection of history and public policy. Students will be involved with the Initiative and will have the opportunity to interact both inside and outside of the classroom with affiliated fellows and faculty. Students interested in taking the class should write to (and copy with a brief description of their background and reasons for wanting to enroll. There is no requirement to have a specific research topic upon enrollment. Course Requirements: The course will consist of two main parts. The first meetings will be devoted to reading scholarship on the uses of history for understanding contemporary policy and public issues, as well as signal monographs that make use of history to analyze policy issues in the present or analyze the past from the starting point of a contemporary issue or public problem. During the rest of the semester, as they continue reading and discussing historical scholarship, students will conceive and complete an article- or chapter-length piece of scholarly writing, based on original research. The final paper can be either a stand-alone piece of scholarship or part of a larger work (i.e., dissertation, thesis, etc.). It can also be an article- or chapter-length version of a broader project. All work for the course must be original, i.e., this course is not meant to help with revisions or reediting of existing work, but it can help add or develop a historical scholarly component to a work already in progress. It can also help produce an article-length version of a larger work-in-progress. Throughout the semester, students are expected to attend and be active participants in every class meeting, and to meet deadlines. All readings are mandatory. Students are expected to develop and present their research over the course of the semester. The following timeline should be observed. A 1-2-page proposal outlining the topic (can be tentative), its importance, as well as the proposed paper s methodological approach and research strategy, is due on February 13. A 4-5-page expanded proposal, this time including a list of secondary readings as well as primary sources (if relevant), is due March 20. The final draft of the paper will be due May 8. 2

3 PLEASE NOTE: all written work should conform to the following technicalities: single-sided, numbered, 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. Leave a oneinch margin on both sides of the page. Turn off automatic hyphenation and do not justify text; ragged right margins are preferred. Use minimal formatting. Include your name and a title for all papers, including the weekly reports. The final paper should employ footnotes and include a bibliography. The midterm and final papers should conform to the stylistic guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style, available online via the Harvard libraries website at Course Schedule: NOTE: Some topic dates are subject to change. January 23: Introduction No Reading. Please bring to class a 1-page bio of yourself and an explanation of why you would like to take the course. January 30: How should we think about history and public policy? Paul Pierson, The Study of Policy Development, Journal of Policy History (January 2005) John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past (2002), pp E. H. Carr, What is History? (Recommended) Margaret MacMillan, Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History (2009) February 6: Historical Approaches to Public Issues (I): Race, Gender, Ethnicity 3

4 Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth Century America (Norton, 2005) Joan Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton, 2010) C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (Oxford, 2002 edition) Fields, Barbara J. Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America, New Left Review (May-June 1990) Feb. 13: Historical Approaches to Public Issues (II): Decision-Making in U.S. Foreign Policy (Guest Speaker: Prof. Fredrik Logevall) Readings: TBA Feb 27: Reading Session (First proposal outline is due) Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Harvard, 2008) March 6: Presenting projects March 20: Second Proposal Due (Group discussion) March 27: How to Deal with the Present: Trump and History (Guest Speaker Timothy Snyder, Yale) Readings: TBA April 3: Religion, Politics, and Public Policy (Guest Speaker: Daniel Hummel, Postdoctoral fellow in History and Public Policy, Ash Center) 4

5 April 10: Student Presentations April 12: Last Class 5