COURSES
Spring 2016 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. 600-level and 700-level are only for graduate students.
SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE! Always check the University online schedule for the latest changes.
HIS 508 - Latin American History Selected Topics: "Blood, Skin, and Gossip: Ethnicity and Race in Colonial Latin America"
16084 R 3:30-6:20
Laurent Corbeil
This course will examine the history of ethnicity and race in Spanish America from the late fifteenth century through the early nineteenth century. Both of these concepts were important elements of social stratification in the colonial culture and were used to determine the place of individuals in society. Physical characteristics were important criteria to define the worth of peoples in the eyes of their neighbors, fellow citizens, and authorities. But other rules dictated the belonging of individuals to certain social strata, such as purity of blood, lineage, and kinship. In the context of colonial Latin America, where indigenous peoples, Africans, and Europeans interbred constantly, the identity of ones' ancestor could have a significant impact on one's possibilities to climb the social ladder. This, however, could be tempered by the private and public reputation. This course will thus examine how blood, skin, and gossip were central to an individual's life.
Field: Wider World
HIS 511A - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Black 70s"
10460 M 3:30-6:20
Watson Jennison
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course or HIS 391.
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 cliches 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: "Knowledge Projects, Plato to Newton"
16085 T 3:30-6:20
Stephen Ruzicka
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisite of one 300-level Research Intensive (RI) history course or HIS 391.
Each era in western history (Classical Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Early Christian, Medieval, and Modern) has had what might be called its "knowledge project", a formally organized quest for knowledge carried on collaboratively by a distinct group of individuals. This course moves from the 4th century BCE to the 18th century CE and from Athens, Alexandria, and Rome to Paris and London and examines the distinctive knowledge projects of each successive era. We will consider the different kinds of knowledge sought and the different kinds of quests as embodied in the Academy of Plato, the Museum of Alexandria, the encyclopedists and epitomizers of the Roman Empire, the Catechetical School of Alexandria, the theological faculty of the University of Paris, and the Royal Society of London. Students will write a research paper on some aspect of a particular knowledge project in its characteristic political, social, and cultural context. Field: European
HIS 524 - 20th Century American History Selected Topics: "Lives Crossing Lines: Biography and Social Change"
11718 W 6:30-9:20
Thomas Jackson
This course examines how individuals experienced and made dramatic social change in the United States since the Civil War, tracing the many lines they crossed in struggles for opportunity, justice, and survival. Color lines, fierce partisan and regional lines, gender proscriptions, boundaries etched by war and terrorism: in all these contexts, people challenged social lines that limited their identities or circumscribed their communities. How did people maintain individual dignity and community security in the face of massive social change, and how did they organize to shape change? We will be reading copiously researched, imaginatively written, award-winning history and literary non-fiction. We will explore how story-telling works as explanation, and how authors walk a fine line between rigorous historical method and imaginative non-fiction. Books and articles will mix biography, collective biography, and contextual writing that is crafted to honor both scholarship and a search for wide readership. Reading, discussion, short papers, and targeted research assignments make up the course. Biographies of John Brown, Victoria Woodhull, Ossian Sweet, Dorothea Lange, and Martin Luther King will be complemented by articles and studies that take a collective biography approach, such as recent prize-winners by Gilbert King, Beryl Satter, and George Packer.
Field: United States
HIS 551 - Gender and History: Selected Topics: "Transnational Feminist Politics"
16086 M 3:30-6:20
Lisa Levenstein
This course examines topics in the recent history of transnational feminist politics. We will pay particular attention to U.S. feminists’ participation in transnational advocacy work and consider ways they have contributed to and also undermined the efforts of activists in other countries. Topics include advocacy for women’s human rights; LGBT rights; reproductive health; domestic work; labor rights in sweatshops; environmental justice; and struggles against racism, imperialism, and violence. The course is interdisciplinary, including readings from outside of history that will help students achieve a greater understanding of diverse methodologies.
Markers: IGS.WGS. Field: United States.
HIS 567 - French History Selected Topics: "The Enlightenment and the French Revolution"
10462 MW 2:00-3:15
Paul Mazgaj
This course will focus, first, on that major eighteenth-century shift in intellectual and cultural perspectives known as the French Enlightenment. After an attempt to define the Enlightenment against the backdrop of traditionalist assumptions, we will consider various interpretations of the Enlightenment. Next, we will take on the French Revolution. Our first concern will be reconstructing a narrative account of the Revolution, from its liberal origins, through the radicalism and violence of its middle years, to its European expansion during the Napoleonic years. Finally, we will examine the great debates over the meaning of the Revolution that have engaged several generations of historians.
Field: Europe.
HIS 568 - African History and Cultures Through Film
16956 W 2:00-4:50
Colleen Kriger and Cybelle McFadden
Crosslisted with LLC 568.
Field: Wider World.
In this course we analyze the multiple mappings of race, gender, class, and sexuality in contemporary African cinema, with a focus on the interrelationships between Francophone African countries and France. We Will identify and discuss stereotypes about Africa in film, where those stereotypes have come from, in what forms they persist over time, and, most importantly, responses to them by politically aware and engaged African filmmakers. And we will confront the challenges of imagining Africa on its own terms and not in relation to the west, especially the former colonial power.
All 600-700 level History courses are for graduate students only. Prerequisite: Admission to a graduate program in history or interior architecture, or written permission of instructor if you are a graduate student in another department.
HIS 624 - History of the American Landscape and Architecture
15620 W 9:00-11:50
Heather Wagner (in IAR Department)
Examination of the social and cultural forces affecting the design and use of landscapes and buildings in North America from the colonial period through the mid-twentieth century. (Same as IAR 624.)
HIS 625 - Preservation Planning and Law
13695 M 2:00-4:50
Autumn Michael (in IAR Department)
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 626 - The Practice of Public History
10467 W 3:30-6:20
Christopher Graham
This course introduces students to the various ways people work and thrive within public history institutions. The course revolves around the theories and practices involved in building relationships with colleagues, audiences, and community partners. Students learn how to write a mission statement, create marketing strategies, and draft a budget. At the same time, the class engages with the broader issues that underpin these decisions, such as institutional purpose, infrastructural dynamics and funding sources. The course culminates in a collaborative class project to conceive of and plan for a public history project to go up in Fall 2016. (Same as IAR 626.)
HIS 631 - Digital History
13696 T 6:30-9:20
Christopher Graham
The digital age presents historians and public historians with a range of problems and opportunities as constructivist museums transform into participatory community centers. Digital natives, steeped in sensibilities of immediacy, visual enticement, fewer barriers to entry, and an abundance of publicly available information, will be the audience museums must reach. Digital technologies infuse a vast array of historical practices, including virtual exhibits, online collections, audio/visual components in museum spaces, approaches to learning, and traditional historical research and writing. In this class, students will become familiar with the ways that historians, museums, and other institutions can utilize digital technologies to create interpretations and collaborations that meet the needs of the audiences of the future.
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
Written permission is required to register for these courses.
HIS 702 - Colloquium in American History
Issues of historical interpretation from Reconstruction to the present.
10742 702-01 M 3:30-6:20 Charles Bolton
16144 702-02 M 6:30-9:20 Mark Elliott
HIS 704 - Seminar in History
Individual Graduate Faculty
Research and writing on selected topics in American history.
HIS 705 - Colloquium in European History before 1789
16088 T 6:30-9:20
Richard Barton
Topics in European social, economic, political and intellectual history from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Methodology and the diversity of historical approaches.
HIS 709 - Introductory Research Seminar:"The Nineteenth-Century British Empire"
10474 R 6:30-9:20
Jill Bender
Historians have acknowledged the nineteenth century to be Britain's "imperial century," when the island country emerged as the world's preeminent imperial power. This position of dominance was neither static nor assumed, however. In this introductory seminar, we will examine how other historians have explicated this expansion and its impact on both Britain and its colonies. In particular, we will explore questions of power and resistance as students prepare their own research projects based on primary source analysis.
HIS 716 - Graduate Colloquium in World History
13697 T 3:30-6:20
Linda Rupert, Jill Bender, Asa Eger, Greg O'Brien
Introduction to World history, the historiography of World studies, and comparative, cross-cultural approaches to historical research.
HIS 721 - Public History Capstone II
14792 M 6:30-9:20
Christopher Graham
In this two-semester sequence, students will create a public history project for a public audience. In 721, students will complete needed research for the project, create detailed development plans, and work with community partners in implementing the project. Prerequisite: HIS 720.
HIS 722 - Topics in Early American History: "Readings in American Indian History"
16089 R 3:30-6:20
Greg O'Brien
Graduate students will read, discuss, and write about recent historiographically-significant works on American Indian history in order to gain an understanding of this dynamic American history field. Readings and discussions about how to research and teach about Indian history are part of the course, as is the role of historical memory and the creation of narratives about Indian history and Native people.
