Hello Draft

My name is Tony Perez and I joined this class to uncover how technology can be used to improve the way history is looked at. I’m a sixth year student with a major in history. I took classes on history before including two classes on Native American history with Cate Denial along with her reproductive justice class which touched upon history quite frequently. For one of her Native American classes we discussed the Powhatan, the Lakota, the inuit peoples (i.e, Greenlandic inuit and their relationship with the Norsemen. We also watched Disney’s Pocahontas and how even though the film had Native American actors in it, there were inaccuracies and tons of Native American stereotypes. What made this one of the worst examples of this offense was the fact that this was an actual historical figure and her birth name was Matoaka. We also discussed various stereotypes throughout cinema such as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars having associations with a negative stereotype about Jamaica.
I also took another class on the American Old West with Cate Denial, which discussed relationships with Native American peoples, stereotypes surrounding the Old West and even the concept of where the “frontier” originated. Cate pointed out that not only were there dozens of Native American peoples throughout the western United States prior to the arrival of the pioneers, but she also reminded the students in the class that the Spanish conquistadors came north from Mexico.
I also took two classes having to do with Mediterranean history, specifically Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, both of which were taught by Danielle Fatkin. We learned about how marriage worked in different ways between Rome and the Greek city-states. We also did mock senate meetings for both Rome and Athens, the latter of which had Danielle wear her spartan styled Athena helmet. I also took a few classes with Weihong Du. I took her class called Intro to Chinese Civilization where we started by discussing the Qin Dynasty and ended the term by discussing the Yuan Dynasty, the latter of which was ruled by the Mongols. We briefly touched upon the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty at certain points but didn’t go into much detail about those dynasties. The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty of China which was ruled by the Han Chinese and the Qing Dynasty, which was ruled by the Manchu people, was the last dynastic period of China before China became a republic.
I also took a class on the Viking Age, where I learned that the Norsemen are always associated with being a pure master race by white supremacist organizations. However, as Alexis Miller who was teaching the class pointed out, the Norsemen intermarried extensively with both Slavs and Celts. This caused me to theorize how frequeently the North Germanic peoples would intermarry with Greenlandic Inuit, the peoples of Iran, the Byzantine Empire, the Caucasus and so on. These are just some of the history classes I have taken so far.
I really hope to get a feel for how technology can be incorporated into history such as video games and examples of incorporating history into them. For instance, the video Far Cry Primal is set at the end of the last Ice Age somewhere in Central Europe. I’m not really sure as to what digital history is as I’m not that familiar with the term yet. However, I do believe it has to do in part with using technology to further our understanding of history along with incorporating history into video games, podcasts and discussing how well they do so. All in all, I’m eager to partake in this course.