I am obviously still at the beginning stages of my conceptualization for my final project, however I think I am understanding more of what is possible versus realistic. What I was originally thinking of creating a resource for students to learn more about emotions and how they were discussed in Early Modern England. However, after some debate, I didn’t think this made sense because one could find a lot of these listed resources for research and I don’t know how to expand this yet. What I ended up deciding on is to make a lesson plan for college students. I am still working out the details, but here is what I know;
I would like to organize the short time from 1600-1800 when the most medical advancements happened, focusing on how socially and medically, each mental illness was discussed. I think this could create great discussion for the students about how it was viewed then and now. The lesson plan will include the basic PDFs of the most influential books that I mentioned in my last post, and critical thinking discussion, and some type of interactive activity.
I think that digital tools will create a creative space for students to express these emotions and social reactions better than a simple presentation or written paper. There is still a decision on what those tools will be, but the new shape of this project will allow me to push DH into the classroom while keeping the same learning objectives. I want students to walk away from this lesson understanding that, even with none of the modern technology, there was a massive undertaking to research and learn about emotions as a medicine in the Early Modern era. In my next puzzle piece post, I should have a more fleshed out idea of what these digital tools will be as an outlet for the assignment. However, I believe that this will have a most better impact than the previous plan!