Course Wrap-up Assignment 

What did you learn? 

This assignment is designed as an appraisal of what you have learned over the course: as a consideration of the complex relationships between natural and human environments (geography/landscape, chronology/history, cultural and personal memory, and visual communication/art history), and as a self-reflective analysis of what you have gained from pursuing these studies. 

For your write up, provide a discussion of the materials and approaches you’ve been introduced to through the course lectures, discussions and assignment practices with reference to visual culture and associated concerns. 

Lecture material can often seem somewhat abstract – does ‘seeing’ how the concepts are picked up for individual research help illuminate how it might be more broadly applicable? Refer specifically to Alexa Heenan’s presentation on the American West.

NOTE: This paper is not intended as a response to your course project and/or the other course assignments specifically, but rather as an evaluation of course issues and considerations more generally (i.e. don’t just summarize what we/you did, but elaborate on the kinds of directions and insights that might have been opened up for you). Nor is it a course evaluation – there are other venues for such. This is for you to reflect and consider your own developments in knowledge and/or skill. 

One of the following questions might help get you started: 

Does this information and/or approaches raise other questions for you? 

What points of interest or directions of study were brought to your attention? 

What struck you as most interesting/informative/valuable? Why? 

Has course content helped you in your personal/historical understanding? How? 

What did you learn about visual culture and ways to study it? 

Suggested length 3-4 pages (around 750-1000 words)