President Ronald Reagan and His Policies, Conservatism, and Reaganomics

This project might be a bit different than a regular research paper, but it carries the same ideology of an essay (research, thesis, exhibits, arguments, conclusion). The research project is done in the form of a virtual exhibit or museum. The project requires 10-15 primary sources as exhibits/artifacts(images, writings, films, sound, speeches, etc.) Detailed descriptions are below:
The Research Project represents the most substantial intellectual process and set of products that you will complete in HI 152. You will identify a significant historical problem, conduct research, create a substantial product and report your findings.
In addition, every research project will include the following components: a research proposal due February 26(finished), a literature review due March 26(finished), a bibliography due April 9(finished), a final product due April 30(this order).
Type of project:
Website or Virtual Exhibition. Imagine you are the curator of a museum. Your job is to create an exhibition about your topic. Like most museum exhibitions, yours should use artifacts and documents from the time in order to convey the meaning of the phenomenon you are addressing. In an introduction to the exhibition (250-500 words), you should provide some basic historical context and indicate what your particular argument about this issue is (your take on it). Your exhibition should contain a variety of artifacts, with each accompanied by one-paragraph “headnotes” explaining what the artifact is and why it is significant. You may include among your artifacts texts we have read or discussed in class, and/or the sources you wrote about for your first paper, but you must include artifacts sourced from outside of class as well. Be creative: you might include songs, posters, clothing, advertisements, TV shows, or many other types of artifacts. In addition, think carefully about how to structure your site. You should divide the exhibition into several sections or webpages in a way that both facilitates easy navigation and advances your argument. Be sure to include a Sources page (or Bibliography page) that lists the sources you consulted. For the Bibliography, please use Chicago style
An easy, accessible platform for building and sharing your exhibition is BU’s Digication software
You can find instructions here: https://bu(dot)digication(dot)com/portfolio_about_portfolios/Creating_an_E-Portfolio. Create an account using your regular BU Kerberos login info. However, if your team has the skills and inclination, you can build a site with WordPress, Wix, or any other software of your choosing.
Just to give you an idea here are links to sites students created for another class. They had a different assignment, but this gives you an idea about how you might use the digication software (the students gave me their permission to share these sites with you).
https://hi152actup(dot)weebly(dot)com/
https://bu(dot)digication(dot)com/hi152-world-war-ii-and-the-world-of-animated-propaganda/home-1
https://bu(dot)digication(dot)com/american-medical-advancements-and-the-world-wars/home-1
https://bu(dot)digication(dot)com/curatorial_project_boston_university_student_revolution/Welcome/published
Content of project:
In 1948, Columbia University Professor Richard Hofstadter published a landmark work in American historical scholarship: The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. In a dozen tightly connected essays Hofstadter profiled the Americans--the presidents, protesters, and political hacks--who defined the nation’s distinctive political legacy. The young scholar began his book with the founding fathers and concluded with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the four-term president who had dominated Hofstadter’s own coming-of-age.
Over the ensuing 70 years, American politics has morphed so violently that Hofstadter would hardly recognize it. Among the developments he could not have foreseen in 1948, and many would’ve still seemed remarkable even as recently as his death in 1970, contemporary Americans can point to: the rise of the right, the politics of identity, the ideological sorting of the two major parties, the potency of grassroots political organizations (most conspicuously in the Civil Rights Movement and its heirs, but also in the consumer, religious and environmental realms), and the rise of new media. Still, despite all the conflict and turmoil might it be possible to identify a set of actors who shaped American politics over past 75 years--the new American Political Tradition and the people who made it? To complete a new APT project, choose one of the following individuals or groups. Your final product must provide a basic biography/description of your subject’s career and/or accomplishments, and an argument as to how and why they shaped and/or reflected broader developments in American public life.
I chose President Ronald Reagan and his legacies (policies, conservatism, Reaganomics)
*Profesor's comment:
for the final project, there is not a specific minimum size that needs to be met. Your objective is to create an exhibit that effectively supports the argument/idea that you're trying to convey. However, in the past, successful projects have tended to consist of 10-15 artifacts spread across 3-5 pages. The exact numbers will vary based on your project.