Historical Sociology, Autumn 2022

Review guidance for the final exam

This written exam will cover the whole course, including the discussion session, through
evaluating analytical and research design skills taught in this course. The exam is worth 35%
of your course grade. You will be allowed one notecard back and front, size 2 (75x125mm).
Exam paper will be provided. Bring something to write with.

The exam is planned to take 90 minutes. There are three opportunities for you to complete the
exam:
Thursday, December 15/2022, 14:30-16:00, Room 17.0.02
Thursday, December 15/2022 16:15-17:45, Room 17.0.02
Thursday, January 12,/2023 14:30-16:00, Room 17.0.02

During the discussion sessions, you have been introduced to several sources for evidence on
topics similar to those introduced in the course readings:
• Asociación para la recuperación de la memoria histórica
https://memoriahistorica.org.es/
• Nodegoat Geography of Violence
https://battles.nodegoat.net/viewer.p/23/385/scenario/3/geo/
• V-Dem - Varieties of Democracy Dataset https://www.v-dem.net/en/data/data/v-dem-
dataset-v111/
• EPR - Ethnic Power Relations Dataset https://icr.ethz.ch/data/epr/
• UCDP - Uppsala Conflict Data Program https://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/
• Newspaper archives
• Marriage Strategy Among the European Nobility
https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/111802/version/V1/view
• Comparative Manifestos Project https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/
• Pamphlets and periodicals from the French Revolution of 1848 held by the Center for
Research Libraries https://www.crl.edu/electronic-resources/collections
• Twitter

Choosing at least one of these evidence sources, develop a research proposal. Your
research proposal should identify how your proposed research topic, logic, design,
and evidence are similar to (or different from) those modeled in course readings. The
essay should do the following:
• Identify a research topic
• Identify the temporal and geographic subject/scope of your proposed study
• Identify (1) historical motivation and (2) sociological motivation for your study
o It would likely be helpful to reference a course reading or two as a model or
starting point
• Using course readings to support your arguments, describe how you would design an
empirical study in terms of
o Temporality: how would you treat time? Continuous? Episodic? Before and
after an event? A snapshot at one time period? What would the advantages or
disadvantages be for your choice?
o Cases: What would it/they be? How many? What would the advantages or
disadvantages be for your choice?
 • Describe what kind of evidence you would use and why this would be a suitable
choice (this is where you specifically identify which evidence source you have
chosen)
o You are welcome to mention or include additional evidence types/sources
beyond the one(s) you chose from the list above
o Compare your choice with approaches modeled in course readings
• Generally, identify how your proposed research topic, logic, design, and evidence are
similar to (or different from) those modeled in course readings – describe how this
study would compare with prior research

Each essay will be evaluated on how effective it is in arguing for its particular approach to a
research topic. Overall, a highly effective essay will use about 7-10 course readings to make
its arguments and will deal with each reading thoroughly, not merely mentioning one in
passing. Composition and grammar will not be graded, though these indirectly factor into the
clarity of an essay. Thorough essays will probably be 600-800 words, or 3-4 handwritten
pages. No reference list is necessary; in-text citations (e.g., “(Braun 2016)”) are sufficient.