Kagame Interview (by Amanpour)

As I mentioned in class, this interview with Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a slightly different perspective than shown in the Philip Gourevitch article you read, "The Life After," from The New Yorker (May 4, 2009 issue). In this interview, Kagame discusses his thoughts on foreign aid and the role of colonialism in the problems that the Democratic Republic of Congo faces today.

Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Despite the harsh title of this Slideshare, it is a helpful reminder of effective techniques for creating interesting PowerPoint presentations. Flip through the slides here to get an idea of design tips.

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE.

Long-term solitary confinement: a violation of human rights?

Hellhole: The United States holds tends of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? by Atul Gawande
The New Yorker (March 30, 2009)

• Gawande shows the negative ramifications of long-term solitary confinement on prisoners, and argues that it is torture to prohibit humans from vital social contacts with other humans.
• Interesting fact from the piece: In 1890, the Supreme Court of the United States nearly deemed long-term solitary confinement unconstitutional. The heavy reliance on solitary confinement within the U.S. is a product of the last couple decades.
• This could lead to fascinating human rights research topics on practices within the United States prison system and comparative work between the U.S. system and other countries' prison practices.
  

The Next Empire

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-next-empire/8018/

Please read "The Next Empire" by Howard French, which the Atlantic published in May 2010 (click on the blog post title or the above link). As you read, please prepare to discuss the article by doing the following:

1. Note the author's key arguments. Make an outline of his points.
2. Record what you do not understand. It is always good to bring up what you were unclear on in a discussion, as your classmates will be able to help you clarify your thinking.
3. Identify two or three areas of potential disagreement or debate.
4. Develop a critique of the article.

The Ways We Write History

Thanks to Mr. Edson for sending me the following link on Wikipedia Historiography. How fascinating to see the range of edits that were included on Wikipedia about the Iraq War:

"This particular book—or rather, set of books—is every edit made to a single Wikipedia article, The Iraq War, during the five years between the article’s inception in December 2004 and November 2009, a total of 12,000 changes and almost 7,000 pages. "

James Bridle decided to make a book of all those edits and ultimately created a 12-volume encyclopedia. Fascinating to see the many perspectives on history and how challenging it can be to write history; this project is a good way to see how many versions of history were written in just under five years.

In-Class Writing Prompts

Questions for King Leopold's Ghost:

Select two of the following questions to which you will respond using a thesis statement and support from the text, which can be quoted or paraphrased. Use pages 1-60 as your support. Write at least a long paragraph for each response using multiple pieces of evidence from the text.

If you have another question that you would like to consider further based on this reading, please write down your question and then answer it. Follow your curiosity. You may do this for one of the questions you answer.

To what extent were Leopold and Stanley similar?

How effective was King Leopold II as a leader?

How did Leopold's colonial desires compare to colonial pursuits by others during this time period?

Was it a good decision for Stanley to explore with men who had no experience as travelers? Why or why not?

What role do women seem to play in this history?

White Man's Burden - Pears' Soap Ad

The above ad for Pears’ Soap reads:

The first step towards lightening The White Man’s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness. Pears’ Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place — it is the ideal toilet soap.

Class Activity: Current Events Reporting

These questions will be used during an in-class activity on August 27 or August 30, depending on when your section meets:

1. What's being discussed in this article?
2. When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)
3. What questions do you have that would help make this article make more sense to you? What more do you need to learn about to be able to report on this event?

Welcome to Advanced Seminar in Modern World History

Dear Seniors,

I am excited to work with you this year. This is my first year using blogs with students from the beginning of the year, and I hope that my blog will be a record for me of the work we do together and that the blog you create will similarly provide you with a place to complete some class assignments that you can look back at in the future.

During the year, I will let you know when I want you to update your blog in class or for homework. In addition to those assignments, you may independently add to your blog when you choose.

I will occasionally update my blog with prompts or articles that I would like you to read and respond to; please add my blog as a link on yours to make it readily accessible.

You may choose to keep your blog private. If you do, please add me as your sole invited reader, so I can read your writings and see your responses to various assignments.

Looking forward to this year and to reading your writing!
Ms. Knechel