HIST 489: Senior Seminar

Welcome to HIST 489, taught by Professor Tom Isern. This is the Senior Seminar required of all History majors at NDSU. It is the History Department's designated capstone course for the major.

The theme of the seminar is monumental history, meaning documentary research and interpretive reflection on historical monuments of this region, the northern plains. Our proximity to the monuments in question allows us to do primary research, to get at the first-hand documents about the monuments and their historical circumstances. At the same time, the self-conscious commemoration invoked by the monuments themselves takes us deep into the realms of collective memory, provoking the sort of reflective inquiry that characterizes the best in historical writing in these early years of the 21st century.

If you check out Remembrance in Stone, a website created by the Center for Heritage Renewal using research from the senior seminar, you'll see that the CHR is striving to apply student research to the promotion of heritage consciousness and heritage tourism in the region.

Central Desktop is the online headquarters of the seminar. You have to be a subscribed to this online workspace to get in. Students in the seminar find in Central Desktop comprehensive guidlines for completion of the course.

Tom Isern, Professor of History
University Distinguished Professor

Bulletin description:	Capstone experience focused on understanding major concepts and applying knowledge of basic methods and problems. Students evaluate secondary literature, conduct primary research, and master standard forms of historical writing.
Accommodations for persons with disabilities:	Any students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course are encouraged to speak with Professor Isern as soon as possible to make appropriate arrangements.
History major:	Required of all History majors at NDSU

Tom Isern / NDSU History Department