Spring 2008 Course Descriptions
500-700 Level
500-level courses are for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Prerequisite for ALL 500-level courses: either the completion of six semester hours of 300-level History courses or the permission of the instructor.
SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE! Always check the University online schedule for the latest changes.
HIS 502 - African American History: Selected Topics
10436 M 6:30-9:20
Loren Schweninger
This course will examine African American history from the African Slave trade thorought the colonial and early national periods through the Civil War. It will look at the political, economic, social, and cultural changes that occurred over several centuries of time in various sections of British North America and what later became the United States.
HIS 511A - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Black �70s"
11862 W 3:30-6:20
Watson Jennison
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course.
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 clich�s and stereotypes connected with this period to investigate the ways in which blacks translated the legislative victories of the civil rights era into reality. Students will write a research paper exploring an aspect of the cultural, political, and economic transformations of the 1970s.
HIS 511B - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: Topic will be on Modern Germany
14510 T 3:30-6:20
Karl Schleunes
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course.
Locating and using historical source materials, written and oral, published and unpublished.
HIS 511C - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Transatlantic Slave Trade"
11866 M 3:30-6:20
Linda Rupert
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course.
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 534 - American Revolution: Selected Topics
11871 MW 2:00-3:15
Robert Calhoon
In an astounding example of imperial over-reach, British officialdom reversed decades of mild colonial administration with a new get-tough policy in the 1760s and early 1770s that incited fierce political opposition and then armed rebellion. Over seven years of indecisive military action, the revolutionary regime survived and endured with surprising agility. Students in this course will will view these events from the inside and learn to understand an international upheaval.
HIS 547 - History Museum Curatorship: Collections Management
12989 T 6:30-9:20
Jon Zachman (email dept.)
Professional practices in the care and management of historic site and history museum collections, including priniciples of collection development, object registration, cataloging, and preservation. Same as IAR 547. Prerequisite: Admission to a graduate program in history or interior architecture, or written permission of instructor.
HIS 548 - Architectural Conservation
11886 T 2:00-4:50
Jo Leimenstoll
Overview of contemporary architectural conservation principles, practice and technology. A series of field exercises, group projects and investigation of an individual research topic expand upon lectures and readings. Same as IAR 548. Prerequisite: IAR 301, IAR 332, or written permission of instructor.
HIS 581 - African History: "Images of Africa in Print Media and Film"
11894 TR 3:30-4:45
Colleen Kriger
In this course, students will examine the ways Africa and Africans have been portrayed in a variety of print and film media including newspapers, popular magazines, photography, and movies. We will be especially concerned with issues of content � that is, messages conveyed about Africa and Africans � and how that content is mediated through popular stereotypes and conventions of print journalism and camera work. In other words, this is a course primarily about Africa and African history, and it is an extended exercise in critical thinking. We will examine common stereotypes about Africa, where those stereotypes have come from, how and in what forms they persist over time, and responses to those stereotypes by politically aware and engaged activists and scholars.
HIS 588: Asian History: "The Viet Nam Wars"
14119 M 3:30-6:20
Jamie Anderson
In the eyes of many Americans, there is little separation between the image of "Vietnam" and the tragic outcome of US involvement in the Second Indochinese War. However, Viet Nam as a nation and the Vietnamese as a people have existed in the region for over two thousand years, fighting during much of this time for both political autonomy and cultural self-identity. During the course of its history, Viet Nam's military adversary and cultural ally has often been China. Conversely, Chinese leaders have long believed that their empire shared a special bond with Vietnam, which at times promoted the impulse to subjugate their smaller neighbor. This course will consider the history of wars fought on Vietnamese soil within the larger context of political, social and cultural change. The course themes include; resistance of foreign aggression as an integral part of the Vietnamese nationalist narrative, Vietnamese self-identity in the shadow of Chinese domination, the anti-colonial origins of the Vietnamese nationalist and Communist movements, and Vietnamese government's uneasy relations with border ethnic groups. It is my desire that, after the completion of this seminar course, we will have a larger historical context in which we can more clearly evaluate the events of the past 50 years.
Prerequisite for all 600- 700 level History courses: Admission to a graduate program in history or interior architecture, or written permission of instructor.
HIS 625 - Preservation, Planning, and Law
12008 W 3:00-5:50
Autumn Michael
An examination and analysis of the relationship of government programs and policies, community and regional planning strategies, and legal case precedents to the field of historic preservation. Same as IAR 625.
HIS 627 - Museum and Historic Site Interpretation: Principles and Practice
12009 T 3:30-6:20
Benjamin Filene
This seminar explores the relationship between history and public audiences, focusing on the theory and practice of telling stories through museums and historic sites. Topics include learning theory, audience evaluation, oral history, photography and material culture, living history, and exhibit planning and design. The course will culminate in a collaborative local history project that will be planned and produced by the students for a public venue. Same as IAR 627.
HIS 628 - ID and Eval. of the Hist. Built Environment
12011 R 2:00-4:50
Heather Fearnbach
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.
See the M.A. FAQ for more information about the following:
HIS 692 - Advanced Topics
HIS 697 - Independent Study
HIS 699 - Thesis
Written permission of the instructor, Director of Graduate Studies, and/or the department head is required.
HIS 702 - Colloquium in American History
12106 702-01 Charles Bolton M 6:30-9:20
12107 702-02 Justin Nystrom W 6:30-9:20
Issues of historical interpretation from Reconstruction to the present.
HIS 704 - Seminar in American History
12108 Staff
Research and writing on selected topics in American history.
HIS 706 - Colloquium in European History since 1789
12109 W 6:30-9:20
Jeff Jones
Interpretations of selected historical problems from the French Revolution to the present.
HIS 708 - Seminar in European History
12110 708-01 Staff
Research and writing on selected topics in European history.
HIS 709 - Introductory Research Seminar
12111 709-01 Phyllis Hunter T 6:30-9:20 (American)
RIOTS AND REVELS IN EARLY AMERICA, 1600-1860
Public gatherings and group rituals provide an important window into social relations and construction of unity or division within communities. In this research seminar, we will examine how other historians have explicated crowd actions, political protests, parades, and celebrations from 1630 to 1860 and use primary and secondary texts to explore how historians gather and process evidence, develop interpretations, and produce a finished piece of work that contributes to the field. Designed for graduate students, the course offers an opportunity to further develop the research and writing skills necessary for advanced work in history. Each student will produce a substantial final paper based on primary sources. Students will be encouraged to select a paper topic related to the theme of riots or revels in a class or community. Ideally the paper you complete for this course may be the beginning of a published article or book.
709-02 CANCELLED
HIS 714 - Varieties of Teaching
12114 714-01 Jeff Jones M 3:30-6:20
Prerequisite: M.A. in History.
This course will explore the theory and practice of teaching at the college level with an emphasis on the practical applications of teaching with technology. No knowledge of technology is assumed for students coming in to the course, but they will need to pick up the basics of web-page authoring, the Blackboard system, and Power Point. Students will construct a Teaching Portfolio complete with a Statement on Teaching, course syllabi, lectures, discussion plans, assignments, lists of relevant audio-visual material, and course web pages. Materials from courses previously taught should be included in the portfolios, but students are encouraged to develop a different course this semester. Activities for the course include developing a course syllabus, collaborating on web-based projects, writing brief description pieces of different aspects of teaching, observing lectures, evaluating each other�s work, and, in general, thinking and talking about teaching. (Graded on S-U basis)
HIS 715 - Atlantic World: "'Marvelous Possessions:' How Europeans 'Produced' the Americas"
12115 R 3:30-6:20
Phyllis Hunter
This readings course will examine how Europeans took possession of new lands and peoples and how 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 during the sixteenth through twentieth centuries.
HIS 723 - "Native American History During the Nineteenth Century"
12116 R 6:30-9:20
William Ryan
This course will explore the cultural, religious, and political history of Native Americans during the 1800s. Topics will include (but are not limited to) white expansion and Indian removal, Black Hawk's War, effects of the Civil War on Native Americans, the Battle of Little Big Horn, the Dawes Act and the forced isolation of Indian peoples on reservations.
HIS 740 - "Interpreting the Crusades"
12117 R 6:30-9:20
Richard Barton
This course examines the crusades as a historical phenomenon in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. We will spend our time reading major primary sources as well as selected works of modern scholarship devoted to the crusades. Among the possible medieval authors to be discussed are Fulcher of Chartres, William of Tyre, Robert the Monk, Walter the Chancellor, Ibn al-Athir, Beha al-Din, Usamah Ibn-Munqidh, Anna Comnena, Robert of Clari, the Song of Roland, and the Chanson de Antioch. We will also read letters, laws, and other primary sources produced during the period of the crusades. Our goal will be to explain the social and economic conditions that gave rise to the crusades, the motives and ideologies of the crusaders, and the structure of the society that they attempted to construct in the East; we will also spend some time looking at Muslim society in the Near East, at Islamic notions of Jihad, at the reactions of Muslims to the crusades, and at the impact of the crusades on Muslim political, social and religious affairs. No research paper will be required for the class.
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