Assignment Instructions from Dr. Ulrich (please see the full details in the attached Research Paper Assignment below):

The topic for your research paper in this course must involve the history of Saudi Arabia or the territories which became Saudi Arabia from 1700 to the death of King Abdullah in 2015. Transnational topics are definitely acceptable.

Undergraduate Students

Students taking the course for undergraduate credit only have the option of doing the graduate student assignment. However, the undergraduate expectations are to write a research paper of at least 15 pages on a defined topic developed in consultation with the professor. You must use a minimum of 10 scholarly secondary sources, probably including both materials found from Lehman Library in either physical or electronic format and materials obtained from other libraries via interlibrary loan. Your paper must be coherent, with a clear internal structure designed for fulfill a purpose laid out in the introduction. This purpose may be analytic, narrative, or descriptive

Graduate Students

Graduate students have three options:

1. A 15-page research paper based on primary sources, with the topic and type/amount of sources determined in consultation with the professor. Find primary sources in English (or another language you can read) is possible, given travel accounts, British and American foreign affairs documents, historical photo collections, certain types of Saudi Arabian sources in translation. However, the range of topics may be limited. It is also possible for what originates as a primary source based research paper to shift into a source criticism paper.
2. A 15-page source criticism paper. As a medievalist, I am used to having to establish background on every source I use, considering who created it, why, its original context, what went into the source, how it might have changed since it was created, and different features of the source that might impact on how we use it. This can and sometimes should be done even with many modern sources: archival collections, photo collections, edited and published diaries, and so on. A paper would involve becoming familiar with the contents of the source, the issues mentioned above, and comparison between it and other sources. Graduate students might find this particularly useful with photo collections.
3. A 15-page research paper that is a comparative study, where you identify and account for similarities and differences between two comparable phenomena. This will require a minimum of 15 scholarly secondary sources balanced as much as possible between the two areas being compared and including existing global or transnational studies, if available.