Fall 2013 Course Descriptions
500-700 Level
SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE! Always check the University online schedule for the latest changes.
HIS 502 - African American History: "The Black '70s"
85662 T 3:30-6:20
Watson Jennison
This class will investigate the decade following the peak of the civil rights movement, a period that has largely been overshadowed by the tumult and fame of the preceding years. The 1970s were a time of dramatic change for black Americans as they sought to capitalize on the hard-fought victories of the previous two decades. Popular depictions of black culture in the 1970s revolve around black power, dashikis, and afros. We will move beyond the clichés and stereotypes connected with this period to investigate the ways in which blacks translated the legislative victories of the civil rights era into reality.
HIS 510 - Historiography
85663 M 6:30-9:20
Mark Elliott
Development of the historical profession and perspectives on historical methodology. Selected reading by philosophers of history and practicing historians. Pr. Admission to a graduate program in history, or permission of instructor.
HIS 511A - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing, U.S. History: "Reconstruction in History and Memory"
80728 W 3:30-6:20
Mark Elliott
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course. Capstone course for History majors. Written permission required.
No period of American history has been as revised as thoroughly as the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Subject to highly-politicized interpretations, Reconstruction has been grossly distorted in both popular culture and professional history. From the films Birth of A Nation and Gone with the Wind to the scholarship of William Dunning and Claude Bowers, propaganda has often overshadowed historicism in the most influential accounts of Reconstruction. During the era of the Civil Rights movement, moreover, historical debates over Reconstruction often mirrored partisan debates over the politics of civil rights. This course will explore both the history and the historical memory of Reconstruction, using this period as an example to better understand the ideological stakes that can be involved in the recounting of history. The class will examine the evolution of historical writing on Reconstruction, and the portrayals of Reconstruction in popular culture, while weighing these portrayals against original primary sources from the era. Taking a “long” perspective on this era, the course will not restrict its focus to the years 1865-1877 but rather will follow the public debate over this historical period well into the 20th century. Student research projects may examine any aspect of the history or memory of Reconstruction.
HIS 511B - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Impact of the Norman Conquest of England"
86157 M 3:30-6:20
Rick Barton
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course. Capstone course for History majors. Written permission required.
The conquest of England by Duke William of Normandy in 1066 was one of the most significant watershed moments of the Middle Ages. William's dramatic victory earned him a new nickname ("the Conqueror") and ushered in changes in almost every aspect of English society. The first goal of the course will thus be to make sense of the events of the conquest and the changes wrought by it. Through careful reading of primary and secondary sources, the class will establish a common base of knowledge concerning many of these important changes, including changes in government, law and administration, changes in social organization, changes in religious administration and practice, changes in language and culture, and changes in social roles, including gender categories. In the pursuit of this goal we will evaluate both the nature of the genres, or categories, of primary source extant for this period, and the arguments and debates offered by modern historians concerning the period.
The second goal of this course is the production of a research paper (20 pages in length for undergraduates) on some aspect of Anglo-Norman England. Early assignments - including a bibliography, a critique of a modern historian, a thematic analysis, and an outline and thesis paragraph - are designed to develop research skills; these assignments will be tailored towards the research interests of the students who take the class, and should help to provide both the background and the skills necessary for producing a research paper. No prior knowledge of medieval history is required for this course.
HIS 511C - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Transatlantic Slave Trade"
80735 T 3:30-6:20
Linda Rupert
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course. Capstone course for History majors. Written permission required.
The transatlantic slave trade lasted for over four hundred years and was one of the largest and most disrupting movements of people in human history. This course introduces students to the broad economic, political, social, and cultural impact of the slave trade in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (the basic historical narrative); a range of documents and evidence which historians use to study the trade (primary sources); and a variety of ways in which historians have interpreted its significance (historiography).
Students will conceptualize, research, and write a major paper about a specific aspect of the slave trade in a particular time and place. The paper will based on the student's own careful reading of a selected collection of primary sources, as well as analysis of an appropriate sample of relevant historiography. All students are encouraged to choose a research topic which fits in with their wider historical interests.
HIS 543 - Historic Preservation: Principles and Practices
80737 T 2:00-4:50
Jo Leimenstoll (Interior Architecture)
Prerequisite of IAR 221, IAR 222, or permission of instructor.
Change in historic preservation theory and practice since the 1800s with emphasis on preservation of built environment and development of philosophical approach for designers to contemporary preservation projects. (Same as IAR 543)
HIS 544 - Early Modern European History Selected Topics: "Italy in the (Long) Renaissance: 1350-1700"
85664 M 3:30-6:20
Jodi Bilinkoff
The very words "Renaissance Italy" are capable of conjuring up images of an extraordinary cultural flourishing. One thinks of the sculptures of Michelangelo, the paintings of Botticelli, the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, the architectural splendors of Rome and Florence, the literate courtesans of Venice, the opening of Europe?s first opera houses. Italy during the Renaissance saw the emergence of modern forms of political theory, theatre, banking, scientific observation, diplomacy, and some would claim, the individual.
But what, exactly, do we mean when we speak of "The Renaissance" When did it begin and end? Did all regions and social groups experience the changes of the early modern period in the same ways? Did women have a Renaissance? Did peasants?
In this course we will investigate some of the historical realities and myths of the Italian Renaissance, attending to the experience of ordinary men and women as well as some of the more famous artists, intellectuals, popes, prophets and political leaders. We will look at the ways in which scholars have interpreted major issues in the history of Italy between roughly 1350 and 1700, including humanism and other intellectual currents, art and art patronage, political structures and conflicts, popular culture, religious life, and changing attitudes toward gender and sexuality.
HIS 546 - American Cultural History Topics: "Material Culture and Consumer Culture"
85665 R 6:30-9:20
Lisa Tolbert
Historian Lawrence Glickman asks, "When did the United States become a consumer society? Has it always been one? Were Americans born to shop? Did they learn to do so? Or were they coerced?" These questions could hardly be more relevant as the nation experiences the current crisis of consumer culture. This semester we will explore the new American consumer history, a history that has largely been written in the last decade.
Since the 1990s, studies of consumer history have revolutionized our understanding of American history. Once considered peripheral, consumption is now understood to be central to major aspects of American history from politics, economics, and religion, to the social history of gender and race. We will explore the evolution of consumer culture in the United States from the so-called "consumer revolution" of the eighteenth century through the development of a mass consumer society in the twentieth century.
This course is designed as an advanced reading seminar focusing on the arguments and methods of historians who study American consumer culture. We will pay particular attention to the contributions of material culture scholars for our understanding of the social, political and economic dynamics that have shaped consumer culture over time. Material culture methodology has been especially valuable for evaluating the following aspects of consumer history: the way material goods confer rank or status in a social hierarchy; the role of fashion and demand in spurring economic growth and changing manufactures; and the ways in which people can construct their own meanings for objects produced by themselves or others. Essay assignments will require you to evaluate different types of primary source evidence to interpret consumer experience in particular historical contexts.
HIS 547 - History Museum Curatorship: Collections Management
82755 M 6:30-9:20
Kyle Bryner
Professional practices in the care and management of historic site and history museum collections, including principles of collection development, object handling, object registration, cataloging, and preservation. Course will require a 20 hour hands-on project outside of class. Prerequisite: Admission to a graduate program in history or written permission of instructor. Same as IAR 547.
HIS 588 - East Asian History Topics: "Trade and State Formation in Southeast Asian History"
85668 M 3:30-6:20
Jamie Anderson
Most interested students in the West may only be familiar with the nations of contemporary Southeast Asia (Brunei Darussalam, Burma or Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) in the context of the modern trade opportunities or against the backdrop of the various wars and episodes of political violence that plagued Southeast Asia throughout the twentieth century. However, these countries are, in fact, heirs to long histories of cultural brilliance and diversity. This region has also sustained rich natural environments, on which much of the world has long depended. In this class we will explore the social and political conditions, particularly during the Age of Imperialism, from which the individual modern Southeast Asian nations emerged. Specifically, we will consider how a shared history of commodity exchange in this region has shaped the collective political character of these nation-states. This class begins with the premise that history is guided by interdependent influences of population, environment, economics, and culture. Following these themes, we will distinguish human enterprise from the natural history of Southeast Asia, and so gain some understanding of the manner with which political or economic change will occur in this region in the future.
Prerequisite for all 600-level History courses: Admission to a graduate program in history or interior architecture, or written permission of instructor.
HIS 627 - Museum and Historic Site Interpretation: Principles and Practice
80743 W 3:30-6:20
Anne Parsons
Who makes history and how? This seminar seeks to answer this question by exploring the relationship between history and the public, and the tools that public historians use to interpret the past. The class focuses on the theory and practice of telling stories through museums and historic sites, while examining issues of ownership and power in interpretation and community collaboration. Students will also study contemporary models of engaging with audiences and projects that make history more meaningful to people. Finally, the class will merge theory and practice with the creation of a local history project, produced by the students for a public venue. Same as IAR 627.
HIS 628 - ID and Evaluation of the Historic Built Environment
85962 M 3:30-6:20
Heather Wagner (Interior Architecture)
Methods, techniques, and theories of researching, analyzing, documenting, and evaluating the historic built environment. Includes architectural survey field methods, documentation techniques, archival research, and approaches to evaluating historic significance. Same as IAR 628.
HIS 629 - Museum Education
85676 M 6:30-9:20
Edith Brady
This course surveys the basic principles and practices of museum education, emphasizing facilitated experiences. Through reading works by researchers and practitioners in the field, students will explore the kinds of learning that occur in museums and how that learning takes place. As well, students themselves will practice the skills and techniques utilized by museum educators.
HIS 633 - Community History Practicum
84044 TR 2:00-3:15
Benjamin Filene
Prerequisite: HIS/IAR 626
In this hands-on course, students work collaboratively and engage community partners as they research, design, and complete public projects - previously planned in HIS/IAR 626 - that engage audiences in local/regional history. These projects involve original research in both primary and secondary printed sources and, as well, draw on a range of sources that drive public history work, including public records, oral interviews, images, and artifacts. Final products may involve exhibitions, public markers, web-based products, programs (tours, festivals), curricula or other formats that engage public audiences in issues and stories emerging from the past around us.
This course is restricted to graduate students in History and Interior Architecture who have completed HIS/IAR 626 (The Practice of Public History) unless permission is granted by instructor.
See the M.A. FAQ for more information about the following:
HIS 690 - Internship
HIS 692 - Advanced Topics
HIS 697 - Independent Study
HIS 699 - Thesis
Prerequisite for all 700-level History courses: Admission to a graduate program in history.
HIS 701 - Colloquium in US History to 1865
701-01 Greg O'Brien R 3:30-6:20
80763
701-02 Phyllis Hunter T 6:30-9:20
80764
This required graduate course exposes students to the major historiographical trends and debates on topics in US history before 1865. By the end, students should have mastered the principal historical interpretations of American history before 1865.
HIS 703 - Seminar in US History
see online schedule for correct section
Time/location arranged with student's mentor
Research and writing on selected topics in American history.
HIS 707 - Seminar in European History
see online schedule for correct section
Time/location arranged with student's mentor
Research and writing on selected topics in European history.
HIS 710 - Colloquium in the Atlantic World
80768 R 6:30-9:20
Linda Rupert
This course introduces graduate students to the variety of approaches and themes that comprise one of the newest and fastest-growing fields in our discipline. The Atlantic World provides a useful conceptual and methodological framework in which to analyze the development of European empires, the creation of American colonial societies, and the emergence of trans-imperial exchange networks in the early modern period (roughly 1400-1800) and beyond. We will read a selection of major works which have defined the field, identify different perspectives and approaches, and trace the development of the historiography. We will also consider the challenges involved in comparative, cross-cultural historical research, and the limits of an Atlantic approach. Students will critically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of an Atlantic perspective as it applies to their specific research and teaching interests.
HIS 714 - Varieties of Teaching
85822 M 6:30-9:20
Lisa Tolbert
It might be useful to start by saying what this course is not. This is not primarily a nuts and bolts course on how to teach a college-level class. We will not spend much time, for example, talking about how to lead a discussion or manage behavioral problems in the classroom. Rather, this course takes a big picture approach to epistemological issues of teaching and learning history in the twenty-first century. Why is history essential for the twenty-first century undergraduate curriculum? What distinctive challenges do students face in learning history compared to learning other subjects in the college curriculum? As Stéphane Lévesque asks in his analysis of historical thinking, if history is about critical inquiry, "what are the concepts and knowledge of the past that students should learn and master in order to think historically? What abilities do they need to practice history?" (Lévesque, p. 15) Coming to grips with these kinds of critical conceptual issues is essential for designing meaningful learning experiences for students.
Although this course does not focus on the nuts-and-bolts of teaching a college level class, we will not study the epistemology of historical thinking as an end in itself. We will make essential connections between theory and practice, historical thinking and pedagogy. You will encounter plenty of practical examples of how college teachers have operationalized disciplinary thinking in the classroom. This literature will also introduce you to research and publication opportunities offered by the scholarship of teaching and learning, with particular attention to research that illuminates the disciplinary role of history as an essential subject in the undergraduate curriculum. Rather than focusing on the content of history (what information do you want your history course to cover?), our focus will be on the learner. What do you want students (who are unlikely to become professional historians) to know and be able to DO with the content they encounter in any history courses you might teach? How do you know they have achieved the objectives you intended?
HIS 715 - Atlantic World Selected Topics: "'Marvelous Possessions:' How Europeans 'Produced' the Americas"
85823 W 3:30-6:20
Phyllis Hunter
This readings course will examine how Europeans took possession of new lands and peoples and how, on occasion, Americans resisted or adapted European culture for their own ends. For Europeans, enlightenment goals to catalogue uncharted lands and utopian aims to build new societies often collided with longings for riches and missionary crusades to convert souls. Each of these competing impulses generated different ways of possessing, producing, and consuming the idea and experience of America. In effect, this course will address the cultural production of imperialism and the multiple interactions between "old" and "new" worlds. Through reading secondary sources in history, literature, and anthropology this course will explore different motives and methods that shaped cultural encounters with and images of the new world and Africa during the sixteenth through twentieth centuries.
HIS 724 - Selected Topics in 20th Century US History: "The Twentieth Century South"
80772 M 3:30-6:20
Charles Bolton
This course will explore the South's social, economic, political, and cultural development in the twentieth century. Among the topics that will be addressed are the changing status of African Americans in the region; political developments during the period (from one-party rule by the Democratic party in the early twentieth century to the re-emergence of the Republican party during the second half of the twentieth century); and the transformation of the South from an overwhelmingly agricultural, rural society to a region identified in the years following World War II with the phenomena of Sunbelt urbanization and industrialization, as well as increasing globalization.
In addition to looking at how historians have interpreted this century of change in the South, this course will also examine how this period of southern history has been depicted in film and through the rich tradition of southern autobiography.
HIS 740 - Selected Topics in European History: "Transatlantic Centuries - Ideas, Culture, and Politics between Germany and America"
80773 T 6:30-9:20
Emily Levine
This course examines the recent "transatlantic" trend among both American and European historians to assess the German-American relationship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As "case studies" for transatlanticism we will consider the mutual adaptation of the research university in Germany and America, the transatlantic golden age in politics as typified by Kennedy, "cultural imperialism" after World War II, and 1968 as a transatlantic cultural crisis.
200-400 Level Courses, Fall 2013 | Advising Center | Courses
