In this seminar you will learn a lot about modern Japanese history, and you will do this mainly by engaging with Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. You first choose a topic of modern Japanese history that interests you, collect/read scholarly works on your topic, and write/edit a few Wikipedia page on your topic. Afterwards, someone in the Wikipedia community may dispute or make suggestions on your contributions, to which you are expected to respond responsibly and constructively. Your contributions may not get much attention from other Wiki editors, but that is totally ok and will not affect your final grade negatively. You will be graded based on your own commitment to learning.

Feeling nervous about this learning method rather uncommon to college classes? Please don’t worry! While you will make your own unique contributions to Wikipedia, you are not going to do all this alone. Wikipedia offers great resources to help you oriented in the world of Wiki editing, and we will also work closely with the staff of our University library. What’s more, you and your classmates will help each other. And, of course, I will help you every step of the way.

By editing Wikipedia, we will deepen our own knowledge of modern Japanese history. We will also think deeply about different processes of production of historical knowledge. Anyone who wants to do these things are welcome to this course.

This course is the first half of your yearlong research project. In this course ("Seminar I"), you will learn about a topic of your choice via Wikipedia editing. Next semester ("Seminar II"), you will do your own research and write an original paper.