HIS 243: Latinx Histories: Course Guide

Write a three to five page essay analyzing two sources from the braceroarchive.org, Apoyo KY, or a newspaper database listed on the Latinx Histories course guide.

Guidance:

1. I urge you to share your thoughts, and to receive feedback, in advance via email or during office hours.
2. Choose a topic that interests you. You can explore any theme, place, or time period related to Latinx History.
3. Develop an argument or observation.
4. This paper must (obviously) be entirely your own -- no borrowing from others' research or writing, and be careful of plagiarism.
5. Write strong prose. Make sure that your introductory paragraph(s) and concluding paragraph(s) do justice to your work.
6. Use at least two primary sources.  You're welcome to use more.
7. I encourage you to use sources from just ONE online database, although you are welcome to use more than one (for example, both a newspaper site and braceroarchive.org) if you wish.
8. Use Chicago style footnotes or endnotes. (Chicago is most common in fields like History, American Studies, and Ethnic Studies.) You should consult online resources at the Writing Center for help with formatting.
9. Consider using this research assignment to begin developing your final project for the class. You might, for example, develop a small 3-5 page project on a topic that could be related to your exhibition project due in December.
10. Upload your final paper by the due date:  11:59pm on October 15^th.

Questions you might consider:

• What kind of source is it? Where/when was it produced? Who is its intended audience?
• What are the historical and social contexts for the source?
• How does the author represent his/her/their relationship to time and place, or historical events?
• How would you describe the “voice” of these source? What motivates this work? Is there an argument here? What conflict or issue underlies this work?
• What is significant about this text or this author?

Newspaper Databases

Oral History Resources

Additional Resources at UK

When searching in databases, use keywords that best represent your topic and separate those terms with the word OR in the search box. Use different search boxes for distinct concepts. See below for an example of a properly formatted database search. 

Be sure to put quotation marks around any search term with more than one word (e.g. "United States"). You can also insert an asterisk in a search term to see all variations of the word in the results list (e.g. latin* = Latin Americans, latinos, latinx, latinity, etc.).

Use the limiters on the left-hand side of the search results screen to narrow your results. Usually, limiting by date and source type are good places to start. See image below. 

Cite your sources using the Chicago Manual of Style. Use the resources below to properly format your citations. Also, be aware that you can often copy citations when searching in databases (see image below) by clicking the quotations mark icon. While this is a quick and convenient trick, you will need to double-check the accuracy of the format because there will often be errors.

I am here to help you. You can always email me (taylor.c.leigh@uky.edu) with questions. You can also request a individual or group consultation. That is a opportunity for us to discuss whatever issue you are having with your research process. Consultations can be done on Zoom, in-person, or even on the phone. You can email me or schedule a consultation by clicking the buttons under my profile picture at the top-right of this page. 

For definitions and information about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, please see the following guide: Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources