Challenging Our Assumptions

October 23, 2009 at 8:17 AM | In Websites of Interest | Leave a Comment

If our discussion of gender as a constructed category was particularly interesting to you, go check out a great resource called Sociological Images.  It deals with how both men and women are depicted in the media (among other topics including racism, etc.); see their drop down menu of tags that appears on the right sidebar.  Topics that pertain to yesterday’s discussion are: 1) beauty, 2) bodies, 3) discourse/language, 4) feminism, 5) gender, and 6) politics.  Two particularly interesting examples are their posts titled “Make-Up and Beauty Regimes for Men” and “Oh, the Things Girls Can Be!” (both found under the tag “gender”).  Their posts, while not geared toward historians, never fail to continually remind me about my own perspectives/prejudice and how each of us can work to become more accepting of others.

Note that some of their posts are labeled NSFW.  That translates to “not safe for work” because there is nudity or something else that could get you into trouble if you looked at it while using company resources.  Just bear that in mind.

Resources for Digital Narrative Assignment

August 22, 2009 at 2:11 PM | In Assignments, Helpful Tips, Websites of Interest | Leave a Comment

As you think about potential topics for your digital narrative, here are some resources to consider as you research:

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains:  This scholarly journal, published quarterly, has a number of secondary source articles available online and those not available in a digital format can be found in the library.

Territorial Kansas Online:  This digital repository of primary sources includes correspondence, photographs, poetry, songs, speeches, diaries, reminiscences and many other documents relating to Kansas’ territorial period, 1854-1861.  The site is searchable and includes a browse A-Z feature.

Kansas Memory: This website created by the Kansas State Historical Society includes primary sources from all periods of Kansas history.  The sources are organized according to topical headings called “facets;” layer facets on top of each other to further refine your search.  Particularly useful are the “thematic time period” facets.  Other notable features are the search box, the bookbag to store sources, and links to the most recently added items.

Blue Skyways: A Service of the Kansas State Library:  This website includes information about each town and county in Kansas, local historical societies and museums, transcriptions of published histories of Kansas, the Kansas GenWeb project, and databases for further research (among many others).

Kansas History Online:  A website created in part by the Hall Center for the Humanities here at KU, Kansas History Online includes readable secondary sources relating to Kansas history.  There are also several other interesting features including a Kansas timeline, bibliographies of suggested readings, Kansas quotes, and a “This Day in Kansas History” feature.

Spencer Research Library: Although the entire catalog for this library (which is located behind Strong Hall) is not available online, some sources can be found through the online catalog by setting search limits.  Reference librarians are also happy to answer your questions.

Kansas Collection: The most useful part of this website is the secondary source material, which includes issues of the Kansas Historical Quarterly and a transcription of Cutler’s History of the State of Kansas.

KU History: This website includes short articles about key events, places, and personalities in the university’s past, as well as some photographs.

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