Summer 2021

The History Department will offer the following 6000 and 7000/8000-level courses in the Summer 2021 semester. Graduate level classes are offered online only during the summer. 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.

HIST 6050 – M50
LIFE AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT – Dr. Chrystal Goudsouzian
WEB – Online
Traversing the realms of the living and the dead, this class investigates the lives and deaths of common people in ancient Egypt. We will read laundry lists, love songs, magical spells, and funerary texts; we’ll explore homes, tombs, sanctuaries, and temples. Through the careful study of primary textual and material sources, as well as relevant secondary sources, we will work to understand what it was like for ancient Egyptians to live, grow old, die, and be born again in this complex and fascinating society. 

HIST 6102 – M50
MODERN BRITIAN: 1815 TO PRESENT – Dr. Andrew Daily
WEB – Online
In this course we will explore Britain’s rise and fall as a global superpower between 1815 and the present day. We will consider the making and unmaking of the British empire; British humanitarianism at home and abroad; the expansion of the franchise and the development of democratic politics in Britain; the creation of the British welfare state; Britain’s role in the post-World War II order; and how Britain’s past as a great imperial power is being remembered now, in the era of Brexit.

HIST 7980 – M50
US WOMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS – Dr. Christine Eisel
WEB – Online
This graduate readings seminar focuses on women's involvement in social movements throughout US history. In this seminar, we will challenge traditional assumptions of what constitutes a social movement by exploring women’s activities in the 17th and 18th centuries; then, we will give particular attention to the scholarship on women and the variety movements of the 19th and 20th centuries that placed social activism at the center of political life and challenged existing notions of citizenship. Together, we will consider the intersectionalities that shaped women's lives as we seek to understand how hierarchies of power influenced women’s understanding of identity and compelled them to collectively seek change.

Fall 2021

The History Department will offer the following 6000 and 7000/8000-level courses in the Fall 2021 semester. 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.

On Campus Courses

HIST 6022 – 001
ORAL HISTORY – Dr. Charles W. Crawford
W – 2:30pm-5:30pm MI 211
This course is an example of both historical theory and applied history requiring personal learning and effort by each student.  Initial class sessions will deal with the questions of what Oral history is and how hit is done professionally. A textbook, class lectures and discussions will be completed during initial class sessions.  Following this, each student will select a person to be the subject of oral history interviewing. Each interview will be transcribed and both the audio recording and the transcript will be presented for critique and class discussion during the latter part of the semester. The objective will be to complete an oral history interview of sufficient quality and value to be placed as part of the permanent collection of the historical archives of the University Library.

HIST 6074 – 001
TOPICS IN US: POLITICAL HISTORY – Dr. Scott Marler
TR – 11:20am-12:45pm MI 309
Topical and episodic studies in US political history from the early republic through the late twentieth century, including party systems, critical elections, and suffrage rights; conservatism, populism, and nativism; reformism, socialism, and pluralism; economic and cultural influences; and race and gender—all framed by shifting understandings of ideology, legitimacy, and even politics itself.   

HIST 6160 – 001
RUSSIA TO 1917 – Dr. Andrei A. Znamenski
TR – 2:40pm-4:05pm MI 203
This course explores history of Russia from early medieval times (the period of so-called Kievan Rus) to 1917, when, because of the Bolshevik revolution, a 300 years-old monarchy was toppled down. We are going to examine Russia as a “middle ground” Eurasian country, whose history, national identity, and political culture had been forged during intensive interactions between Eastern European and Asian cultures and civilizations.  We will examine the rise of Russian autocratic tradition and serfdom, which heavily affected modern history of that country. We will also discuss the formation of the Russian Empire, attempts to modernize its rural peasant society, and, finally, the rise of nationalities and the development of the Russian revolutionary tradition by the turn of 1900. 

HIST 6801 – 001
BLACK MEMPHIS – Dr. Beverly G. Bond
MW – 12:40pm-2:05pm MI 200             
This course will focus on the social and cultural, political, and economic roles of African Americans in Memphis, Tennessee, from the early nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century, and place Memphis in the context of state, regional and national events. We will explore intersections of race, class, and gender both within African American communities and between African Americans and other populations in the city.  

HIST 6861 – 001
PARKS/PEOPLE/PUBLIC POLICY – Dr. James Fickle
TR – 9:40am-11:05am MI 319
This course will be built around several required books covering environmental history and preservation and focusing on various U.S.  national parks and wilderness areas, lectures, the viewing of related videos, and discussions.  Each student will maintain a notebook evaluating each of the videos and relating them to the assigned readings. The notebooks will be equal to one examination in determining the final course grade.  Graduate students will also write a term paper on a subject chosen in consultation with the instructor.  The remainder of the course grade will be determined by three essay examinations that will cover the lecture material, videos, discussions, and readings.

HIST 7011/8011 – 001
PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF HISTORY – Dr. Beverly Tsacoyianis
W – 2:30pm-5:30pm MI 223
This seminar explores the nature of history by tracing changing concepts of historical thought and practice from their origins to the present, with a focus on historical works written in the last 50 years about the early modern and modern world. We will engage in discussions on the speculative philosophy of history and recent problems in analytical philosophy of history and in interdisciplinary influences on historical research and writing. For Fall 2021 this course will be face-to-face for 33% of course content hours each week, 4:30-5:30pm, and 67% asynchronous each week with weekly deadlines for students to post on discussion boards and work with instructor- and student-posted audio, video, and pdf files in eCourseware.

HIST 7060/8060 – 001  
WOMEN/GENDER HISTORIOGRAPHY – Dr. Guiomar Duenas~Vargas
M – 2:30pm-5:30pm MI 223
This course will introduce the students to major developments in the field of women history and gender in transnational perspective. We will begin with a brief look at the different theoretical and methodological approaches and debates. Next, we will explore a range of issues related to women studies and gender including women and the national state; colonialism; migration, border and borderlands; manhood and masculinity; gay men and lesbians; and issues of race and class. A central objective of this course is to study the development of women’s history and gender studies in a comparative/global perspective. One task is to examine the historiography (the history of women and gender histories) of some major regions of the globe and to guide each student in the preparation of a historiographical research paper. 

HIST 7310/8310 – 001 
HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT EGYPT AND EGYPTOLOGY – Dr. Peter Brand
R – 2:30pm-5:30pm MI 223
In the first part of this course we will examine the Ancient Egyptian’s understanding and use of the past. Over more than 3000 years of its existence, this civilization produced wide variety of archival documents, literary works and royal and private texts referring to historical. They built and inscribed monuments with texts and with pictorial scenes representing events both real and idealized. As these records accumulated over many centuries, the Egyptians became acutely cognizant of just how old their culture was. Yet until the Hellenized Egyptian priest Manetho created his famous account of Egypt’s dynastic past for the benefit of the country’s new Macedonian ruler, no Egyptian had ever produced a work of literature that we would recognize as a “history.” Yet the Egyptians carefully accumulated records of past events and used their own understanding of bygone days to legitimate their present actions. 

In the second part of this course, we will examine how modern scholars have reconstructed and written about Ancient Egyptian history since the 19th Century. Despite advanced training in language, art history and archaeology, however, few Egyptologists are grounded in sound historical methodology in their published works. The results are too often bizarre and outlandish theories that could fit the fragmentary evidence, but which probably do not. Moreover, “historical” debate in Egyptology is often framed– even held hostage– by earlier, long since outmoded theories that have taken on a life of their own through constant reiteration. We will examine works of Egyptian history from the perspective of historiography, dissecting a number of historical problems in Egyptology and the solutions offered by various scholars in order to determine how they dealt with the evidence. Having critiqued our predecessors and contemporary scholars, we will work towards a more sound historical methodology for reconstructing the history of Egyptian civilization.

Online Courses

HIST 6260 – M50
WORLD SINCE 1945– Dr. Beverly A. Tsacoyianis
WEB – Online              
This course examines the recent history of the world through lectures and discussions of topics including the end of WWII, the Cold War, decolonization, and globalization. In addition to historical research and historical fiction, the class has interdisciplinary components including analysis of film and social science research. For Fall 2021 this course is M50, entirely asynchronous and online, but there are weekly deadlines with required discussion board posts by students, and instructor-posted audio, video, and pdf files in eCourseware. Two class presentations are required in addition to crafting discussion board questions for presentations.

HIST 6294 – M50
MODERN JAPAN – Dr. Catherine Phipps
WEB -- Online
This course is designed to help you learn about the history of modern Japan and its position in the world. We'll cover everything from Japan’s early modern era to current events. Rather than treat the past and the present as two static end points, however, we’ll explore their connections and consider how history informs the present and how the present shapes what questions we ask of the past. 

Using primary documents, novels, film, and websites, we’ll explore such themes as economic & technological development, foreign relations & imperialism, race & gender, the environment, and intercultural exchange. We’ll also develop skills in critical thinking, writing, and source analysis. 

HIST 6330 – M50
TOPICS IN ANCIENT: ANCIENT MYTHS AND MAGIC – Dr. Chrystal Goudsouzian
WEB – Online  
In ancient Egypt, magic was an integral part of religious thought and practice. Kings, priests, and commoners alike relied on magical objects and rituals to harness the power and favor of the gods. In this class we will survey the myths that informed magical texts and rituals and explore how magical practices were used to help, harm, cure, and coerce from the Old Kingdom through the Greco-Roman period. 

HIST 6440 – M50
FRENCH REVOLUTION – Dr. Andrew Daily
WEB – Online 
The French Revolution occupies a unique place in modern European and global history. Those that lived through and participated in it recognized that they were living through a pivotal moment in human history. The revolutionaries themselves recognized their achievement and its break with everything that they had known. And even as the Revolution was still unfolding, intellectuals and political leaders from Philadelphia to London to Berlin bitterly debated what it represented for their world and the world to come. Historians, too, have recognized the Revolution’s importance and debated its origins and outcome. In the classic interpretation, the Revolution marked a decisive break between the early modern period and modernity. Many of the phenomena that defined modern political and social history – citizenship, rights, nationalism, revolution, reaction, terrorism, and civic culture – were either born from or given shape by the events of the French Revolution. For example, the historian Eric Hobsbawm referred to what he called the “dual revolutions” of the 18th century that created modernity: the social revolution introduced by industrial capitalism and the political revolution of the French Revolution. As you will see in the class, the French Revolution has been – and remains today – a lively source of debate and disagreement among scholarly observers. As such, this course approaches the events of the late 18th century not a singular Revolution, but as a set of French Revolutions. By reading, thinking, and writing about the debates around the French Revolution, this course introduces students to the events and the interpretations of the French Revolution.

HIST 6640 – M50
NEW NATIONS, 1815-1850 – Dr. Christine L. Eisel
WEB – Online 
This course covers 1815 through 1850 and introduces students to the political, economic, and social processes involved in state formation in North America. Students will examine the relationship between nation-states and citizenship, with an emphasis on often-competing American identities. This course will cover important historical themes that include revolutions in market, transportation, and technology; the growth of the institution of slavery; shifting political factions and popular dissent; and contests for power and resources. 

Students in this course will engage with relevant primary and secondary sources and think about what these sources tell us about life in the first half of 19th century, a time that was rapidly changing and conflict-ridden. Students will write critical evaluations of the material presented, and discuss their assumptions, conclusions, and concerns of study as they develop an awareness of the wide range of experiences and the diversity of viewpoints represented.

HIST 6701 – M50
U. S. 1914 TO WORLD WAR II – Dr. Stephen K. Stein
WEB – Online  
This course focuses on the tumultuous years from 1914 to 1945. During the 1920s the United States became an urban nation, passing through a difficult and sometimes painful adjustment. Yet in the midst of racism, materialism, and fundamentalism, optimism flourished, and the stock market boomed. The Great Depression destroyed this upbeat mood. Socially, culturally, and economically, the decade of the 1930s proved a mirror image of its predecessor. The literature, art, and movies of the decade reflect its crises, and we will examine these along with the phenomenon of FDR and the New Deal. By the end of the 1930s, war loomed yet again, and we will explore how Americans adjusted to the greatest military mobilization in the history of their nation. 

HIST 6863 – M50
HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD IN AMERICA – TBA
WEB – Online 

HIST 7101 – M50
STUDIES IN GLOBAL: MEDITERRANEAN WORLD – Dr. Benjamin Graham
WEB – Online 
For Fernand Braudel, the Mediterranean was not a sea, but the interactions of a multiplicity of seas and landforms and people. In his seminal work, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Braudel articulated a framework for studying the entire region, and his ideas continue to shape the way scholars think not just about the Mediterranean, but about regional history generally. All serious students of the Mediterranean or Mediterranean-adjacent areas would be enriched by imbibing from Braudel’s well, and engaging with the important scholarship that followed his work. This graduate level class will do just that with a 14-week deep-dive into Mediterranean historiography, examining Mediterranean-centric works about the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. We aim here to compare and contrast different ideas about what makes the Mediterranean a coherent region of study. 

Foundational works include: F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, C. Broodbank, The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World, and P. Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History

HIST 7601 – M50
US HISTORIOGRAPHY TO 1877 – Dr. Bradley Dixon
WEB – Online 
This course will introduce you to the ongoing debates between historians about Early America (before 1877). We’ll explore how historians form their questions, the methods they use to answer them, and the categories with which they have analyzed the past. In short, we’ll trace the history of Early American historiography over the last few decades, with emphasis on recent developments in fields ranging from Native American history, the history of slavery and race, and environmental history.

HIST 7883 – M50
STUDIES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: SLAVERY AND FREEDOM – Dr. Susan O’Donovan
WEB-Online
This seminar will explore scholarly approaches to slavery and emancipation as experienced primarily in mainland North America. Drawing from a wide body of published literature as well as archival sources, we will explore the rise, spread, and demise of human bondage with special attention paid to the enslaved as agents of historical change.