Summer and Fall 2024
The History Department will offer the following 6000 and 7000/8000-level courses. The attached descriptions are designed to provide a clear conception of course content. It should be noted that while 6000 courses also include undergraduate students (4000 level), a distinct set of reading, writing, and grading expectations is maintained for graduate students.
Summer 2024 - Online Course Descriptions
Online courses are fully online and completely asynchronous unless otherwise specified
HIST 4299/6299 M50
Topics in Global History: Global Human Rights – Dr. Selina Makana
WEB - Online
The 1945 United Nations Charter and the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) were fundamental intellectual achievements, which set in motion the idea of universal, inalienable rights and freedoms for everyone, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The UDHR, in particular, has not only shaped the dominant moral language of our time, but it has also become a source of inspiration to oppressed individuals and groups across the globe. This course traces the development of human rights discourse from the Enlightenment period to the present-day human rights revolution. We will explore human rights not only as theories embodied in texts, but as practices rooted in specific historical contexts.- Back.
HIST 7650 M50
Studies in US History to 1877: Women in Colonial America – Dr. Christine Eisel
WEB - Online
Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote "history is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible." Historians of women in the colonial era have worked to unveil the barely audible while still giving notice to the shouting. In this seminar, students will explore significant themes on women in colonial America, with an emphasis on cultural ideals versus personal experiences. Colonial communities labeled women as goodwives and gossips, helpmeets and whores, submissive and scandalous. We will read and evaluate the work of scholars who interrogate often-conflicting cultural assumptions, examine women’s roles and experiences within their communities, and analyze the ways in which concepts of race, gender, and status shaped women’s public and private lives. - Back.
Fall 2024 - On Campus and Synchronous Online Course Descriptions
HIST 4074/6074-001*
Topics in US History: Gender and Pop Culture – Dr. Cookie Woolner
R 1-2:25 MI 203
In this course, students will develop critical thinking skills by reading, writing, and participating in class discussions to understand the various ways that gender is produced by and depicted in American popular culture. Questions we will ask include, does popular culture reflect the values of its consumers—or does it shape them? What can pop culture tell us about conflicts over not just gender but also race, class, sexuality, and national identity? By exploring these questions across a range of texts, this class will develop the tools for integrating cultural and gender-based analysis into an understanding of history. We will examine topics in 19th and 20th century popular culture and their intersection with gender from blackface minstrelsy to burlesque, bodybuilding/athletics, recorded music, amusement parks, vaudeville, film, advertising, popular literature, television, and music videos, among other topics. Graduate students will write historiographical papers on the subfield. - Back.
HIST 4161/6161-001
Socialism: A History – Dr. Andrei Znamenski
TR 2:40-4:05 MI 209
Historical overview of socialism as a modern political religion from its inception in the early 19th‐century to the present. Global history approach, focused on the diversity of socialist experiences: Marxism, Anarchism, British Fabians, German and Swedish Social Democracy, Soviet Communism, National Socialism in Germany, Maoism in China, the Israeli kibbutzim, Tanzanian ujamaa, and the Western New Left. - Back.
HIST 4702/6702-001*
US History since World War II – Dr. Aram Goudsouzian
MW 12:40-2:05 MI 203
How did we get here? How can we explain the identities of our major political parties, the impact of a mass-consumer culture, the American imprint on world affairs, or the profound and ongoing transformations in realms such as race, gender, and sexuality? This course looks to recent United States history for those answers. Students will read engaging narrative history, analyze key primary sources, drive classes with discussion, and do independent research. - Back.
HIST 7011/8011
Philosophy & Theory of History – Dr. Andrew Daily
T 2:30-5:30 MI 223
This course is a graduate level theories and historiography course designed to give students a working knowledge of the major epistemological and methodological issues in historical research and writing. It asks you to critically reflect on how historical discourse is possible, what are its assumptions, what it can accomplish in mediating the relationship between the past and the present, and what it is that we do, exactly, when we research and write history. It is designed, in part, to make you think about things that you don’t usually contemplate in your day-to-day work. It renders historical practice uncanny and is designed to discomfort you. - Back.
HIST 7290/8290 S50
Studies in Asian History: Maritime Asia – Dr. Catherine Phipps
Synchonous Online: W 2:30-5:30
Maritime Asia as Global History
In this seminar, we’ll use oceanic and global perspectives to examine Asian coastal
regions, shipping lanes, port cities, peoples, and their connections to others. Assigned
readings will cover historiography and methodologies while members of the class will
choose the specific places, populations, time frames, and themes for their independent
research. Since this is an online synchronous course, we’ll also be experimenting
with innovative digital tools to enhance how we communicate, learn, and share.
Note: this course is offered as a remote synchronous course. - Back.
HIST 7320/8320
Studies in Ancient History – Dr. Peter Brand
R 2:30-5:30 MI 223
The Ancient Egyptian Royal Family and Pharaonic Palaces during the New Kingdom (ca.
1550-1100 BCE)
This course will examine the historical and ideological role of the Egyptian royal
family—pharaoh’s wives and children—and the design and function of royal palaces during
the New Kingdom from the early Eighteenth through the early Twentieth Dynasties. Marshalling
textual sources (in translation), iconographic, and archaeological primary sources
and examining the Egyptological literature on its own merits as well as from a historiographical
perspective, the course will examine several key topics. These include: the prominence
of Queens in the late 17th and early 18th Dynasties and the office of God’s Wife of Amun; the religious/ideological role of
the king’s mother; the prominence of Queen Nefertiti and her six daughters in Akhenaten’s
religious revolution during the Amarna Period; the ideological role of Ramesses II’s
wives and children; diplomatic marriages between pharaoh’s and foreign princesses;
the structure of the royal household including debate concerning the so-called royal
“harem”; and the design of palaces from Malkata, Mi-Wer, Amarna, and ancient Memphis.
- Back.
Fall 2024 - Online Course Descriptions
Online courses are fully online and completely asynchronous unless otherwise specified
HIST 4276/6276-M50*
The Arab-Israeli Conflict – Dr. Beverly Tsacoyianis
WEB - Online
This course examines the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day with a focus on the region known today as Israel and Palestine. Topics covered include late Ottoman society, Zionism, WWI, the British Mandate in Palestine, the Holocaust and WWII, the creation of the Jewish state of Israel and of the Palestinian diaspora, the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, the First and Second Intifadas, the current war in Gaza, and related social, political, and cultural developments. While the main approach is historical, course material includes interdisciplinary methods informed by research in trauma studies, including from the social sciences, film and media studies, and the humanities. - Back.
HIST 4286/6286 M50
History of Nationalism in Africa – Dr. Selina Makana
WEB – Online
From late nineteenth century to the late-twentieth century, Africans in different regions of the continent staged protests and fiercely resisted European colonialism and imperialism. These anticolonial wars culminated in the formation of nationalist movements that agitated for the independence of African countries, albeit in an uneven manner. In 1957, Ghana became the first sovereign nation in Africa to declare independence from colonial rule, and dozens of other African nations would soon follow suit. While people across the continent and the world celebrated the end of empire, it was unclear what Africa’s new nations would look like. This course seeks to understand the emergence of nationalism in Africa. - Back.
HIST 4299/6299 M50*
Topics in Global History: Drugs – Dr. Eron Ackerman
WEB - Online
Drugs were instrumental in the making of the modern world. As global commodities,
stimulants and intoxicants like coffee, tobacco, and opium fueled international trade
and financed the building of empires. Physicians and psychiatrists saw great therapeutic
potential in newly discovered drugs like cocaine, heroin, and LSD, but the buzz they
generated soon gave way to moral panics. Concerns about the psychoactive effects and
habit-forming potential of certain drugs prompted the rise of local and international
prohibition laws. Prohibition aimed to curb consumption, but it had some severe side
effects. Organized crime, street violence, and incarceration rates skyrocketed in
the heyday of America’s “War on Drugs,” while consumption continued unabated. Taking
stock of the conspicuous failures of criminalization, policymakers are now reassessing
the punitive approach to drug control while psychiatrists are revisiting clinical
applications for prohibited entheogens like psilocybin and MDMA. Harm reduction models
are even beginning to replace prohibition in some localities, albeit with mixed results.
Thinking historically about our long love/hate relationship with drugs can offer a
more sober perspective on how we arrived in our present predicament and where we should
go from here.
This course explores the social and political history of stimulants, intoxicants,
and hallucinogens from 1500 to the present. Using analytical tools from the humanities
and social sciences, we will consider what drug history can teach us about the relationship
between culture and pharmacology, prohibition and organized crime, drug wars and geopolitics,
and racism and mass incarceration. Topics covered include the Opium Wars, alcohol
prohibition, psychedelic psychiatry, and the War on Drugs. Class meetings will consist
of a blend of lecture, discussion, and primary source analysis. Assignments will include
papers and exams, but there will be no Timothy Leary-style psilocybin experiments
or Ken Kesey-style “acid tests.” - Back.
HIST 4324/6324 M50
History and Archeology – Dr. Suzanne Onstine
WEB – Online
History and Archaeology in general ask the same kinds of questions about humanity but use different methods to answer those questions. For many ancient cultures, archaeology is the primary way that information is collected and provides the data from which history is written. In order to understand the relationship between these two disciplines and the narratives created by each, this class will introduce students of history to the history and practice of archaeology and how data is used in modern fieldwork. We will cover the basic concepts and contributions of sciences that go into archaeological investigation (like geology, botany, zoology, osteology). We can use these archaeological methodologies to augment traditional historical text-based inquiries, and also to investigate the history of non-textual cultures. An interdisciplinary approach or at least an awareness of material culture investigations and its possibilities will help history students find new ways to approach historical questions. - Back.
HIST 7101 M50
Studies in Global History: Environment and History – Dr. Amanda Gaggioli
WEB – Online
This course has two primary goals. The first is to introduce graduate students to
an overview of historiographical and methodological works in the field of environmental
history. Because environmental history has become an immense, global topic of inquiry,
this course is organized thematically. A range of geographies and time periods will
be covered. The second goal of the course is to discuss the different major theories/concepts
framing approaches to environmental history. We will also discuss the data sources
and methods involved in doing environmental history, using each week’s readings as
our foundation.- Back.
HIST 7290/8290 S50
Studies in Asian History: Maritime Asia – Dr. Catherine Phipps
Synchonous Online: W 2:30-5:30
Maritime Asia as Global History
In this seminar, we’ll use oceanic and global perspectives to examine Asian coastal
regions, shipping lanes, port cities, peoples, and their connections to others. Assigned
readings will cover historiography and methodologies while members of the class will
choose the specific places, populations, time frames, and themes for their independent
research. Since this is an online synchronous course, we’ll also be experimenting
with innovative digital tools to enhance how we communicate, learn, and share.
Note: this course is offered as a remote synchronous course. - Back.
HIST 7650 M50
Studies in US History: Labor History – Dr. Susan O’Donovan
WEB – Online
Please join me for an introduction to American Labor History. As we develop our understanding of how and why the field has developed as it has, we will also come to know the lives, labor, and politics of those, who in very literal ways, made America: farmers, fishermen, miners, factory hands, slave and free, young and old. We will consider the obstacles met by each generation, the steps they took to conquer them, and the costs they continue to incur in their struggle to create a more just world.- Back.
HIST 7881 M50
African American Historiography 19th century – Dr. Beverly Bond
WEB - Online
In this course, we will examine the nature of historiography, how historians tackle their subjects and sources, the question of objectivity in historical research and writing, and philosophical and methodological approaches in 19th century African American History. Course readings include seminal as well as recent scholarship organized around a range of topics including the nature of Historiography, Trends in Historical Research and Writing in African American history, Atlantic History, Slavery Studies, Civil War to Segregation, Late 19th Century Migration, Urban Experiences, and African American/Native American Interactions. - Back.