Overview
n this assignment, you will practice using a text-based primary source using materialsfrom
UCLA’s Digital Collections, the Online Archive of California, or the California Digital Newspaper Collection. From your chosen archive, spend time looking through the documents and choose one document to read in detail. Potential Archives at UCLA Include: Karl G. Yoneda Papers, 1892-1998 Nnamdi Azikiwe Papers (Nigeria) Religion and Politics in Modern Bengal Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) collection, 1964-1994 Think about your document as a historical source; how, why, and by and for whom was it created; and whether there are omissions that might impact its use in answering scholarly questions. In a memo, consider the following numbered questions (with the lettered questions guiding your answers) using between 800 and1000 words. Attach a copy of your chosen document at the beginning of your memo. 1. Who composed the document? And why? a. How reliable was the writer of the document? b. What kinds of constraints (institutional, cultural, legal, or otherwise) might they have been writing under? How might these have affected the document? c. Are there biases in the document? How might we check for them? 2. For whom was the document composed? a. What was the intended audience for the document? b. How does the intended audience impact how the composer of the document composed the document (writing, style, substance, biases)? 3. Why does this document still exist and why does exist digitally? a. Why do you think it has survived? What does this tell you about the priorities of the archivists who collected this material? b. Why was this digitized/included in UCLA Digital Collections (instead of other documents)? Think about how time intensive it is to digitize documents and why this specific document would be “worth” the effort. 4. What histories related to the document are not in the archive? a. Why did this particular history preserve and what histories does it hide? What story does this document tell us and what stories does it not tell us? 5. How can we as comparative and historical sociologists use this document? a. What are the possible uses of this kind of document? Does it tell us directly about the past? b. Does it provide a window into cultural norms or institutional activities? 6. What are some questions in the historical social sciences that this document might help answer? a. What questions can you think of that this document would (help) answer? What questions would use this document as data to analyze?
thttps://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/2119... (library cite to search up whatever article of choice for this assignment)