WEEK 1 · INQUIRY MODULE
Week 1: Where—and When—Is the West?
What changes when “the West” is treated as a relationship and a process rather than a fixed region?
Dates: August 24–28, 2026
Focus
- Competing maps and boundaries
- Turner, borderlands, New Western History, and Indigenous-centered frameworks
- Historical thinking and archive ethics
Before class
- Read: American Yawp introduction and relevant map materials.
- Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
- Scholarship lens: Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America (2023), introduction or library-reserve excerpt.
Primary-source portals
Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan
| Date | Status | Plan |
|---|
| Tuesday, August 25 | Class | Course launch; diagnostic boundary map; establish evidence, discussion, and Decision Record norms. |
| Thursday, August 27 | Class | Compare frontier, borderlands, regional, environmental, and Indigenous-centered frameworks; source clinic. |
First T/Th meeting is Tuesday, August 25.
After class
Deliverable: Diagnostic boundary map and exit ticket; completion evidence only.
- I can answer the weekly inquiry with a contestable claim.
- I can name at least two pieces of evidence and explain their limits.
- I can identify an interpretation that my evidence supports, complicates, or challenges.