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Fall 2023 CLASSES
Department of History
100 Level | 200 Level | 300-400 Level | AFRI | 500-600 Level
Undergraduate Courses
All classes are on-campus unless otherwise noted.
HIST 101 – Studies in World Civilization to 1500
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Taylor Easum
Meets: MWF 10:00-10:50am
Description:
Studies in selected world civilizations from the beginnings to the early modern age. Those themes which have a direct bearing upon contemporary culture and society will be stressed.
Foundational Studies Credit
Global Perspectives and Cultural Diversity
HIST 102 – Studies in World Civilization since 1500
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Andrea Arrington
Meets: MWF 12:00-12:50 pm
Description:
Studies in world history dealing with the modern era and contemporary world problems.
Foundational Studies Credit
Global Perspectives and Cultural Diversity
HIST 200 – How Historians Ask and Answer Questions
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Isaac Land
Meets: MWF 11:00-11:50 am
Description:
This course introduces current and prospective History majors and minors to how historians analyze the past. The course thus explores the different ways in which historians have asked questions about the past (methodology) and how these questions have evolved over time (historiography). Students in the course will learn to interpret primary documents, grapple with how historians construct arguments, and engage in the basics of historical research.
HIST 213 – Topics in History
3 credits
Topics vary by instructor
Instructors:
Dr. Taylor Easum
Dr. Isaac Land
Dr. Dan Clark
Dr. Anne Foster
Dr. James Gustafson
Dr. Barbara Skinner
Dr. Lisa Phillips
Dr. Timothy Hawkins
General Description:
“Topics in History” helps students explore the discipline of history through focused study of particular topics. Each section provides students with an introduction to reading, writing, and research in history, as well as to the ways in which study of the past helps in better understanding society today. Students learn to analyze and evaluate evidence, make and assess persuasive arguments, and understand multiple causation and the importance of context, continuity, and change over time. History majors may count this course for credit in the major.
Prerequisites
Completion of ENG 105, ENG 107, or ENG 108
Foundational Studies Credit
Historical Perspectives
Gaming History
Instructor: Dr. Taylor Easum
Meets: MWF 9:00-9:50am & 12:00-12:50pm
Description:
You've heard of Homo Sapiens, but what about Homo Ludens? Games have always been a part of human history, from the Royal Game of Ur to Dungeons & Dragons. The marriage of gaming and computers in the mid-20th Century produced the modern video game industry, which is today larger than movies and music combined. Moreover, whether on the tabletop or the console, history sells. The promise of experiencing the past can be a powerful selling point, such as exploring Renaissance Italy or ancient Egypt in Assassin's Creed, or building and commanding Mongol armies in Age of Empires IV. In this course, we'll explore the relationship between games and history in two key ways. First, we'll examine history through games using a variety of methods, perspectives, and case studies. What's the relationship between board games and colonialism? What can a study of card games tell us about migration and culture? What's the original message of Monopoly? Second, we'll examine the power, potential, and many problems in the way games represent and reflect history. Games like Oregon Trail have been used to teach history, but are games an effective way to learn about the past? Outside the classroom, can popular games be developed in a way that does justice to the different voices and perspectives from history? We'll hear from experts in the industry, explore game design as a way to do history, and, of course, we'll examine several games, old and new, through the critical lens of history.
Genocide & Post-Genocide Societies
Instructor: Dr. Isaac Land
Meets: MWF 10:00am-10:50am
Description:
This course takes a historical and comparative approach to genocide, including the Holocaust but extending well beyond it. This subject matter will test your intellectual and emotional limits, again and again. Why do people behave in these ways, and what does that say about us as human beings? Is there any way for a traumatized society to move beyond the pain and make a serious attempt at peace, justice, and—if not forgiveness—then at least coexistence? How can we respond to people who seek to add insult to injury, and pretend that a genocide simply did not happen? As an international community, why do we repeatedly say “never again,” and then continue to allow genocides to happen in the world? Is there a way to spot the warning signs of a genocide before it happens and intervene before much harm has been done? There will be no easy answers to any of these questions, and yet "we will never know" seems like an unacceptable response. This is a course about human nature at its worst, but surprisingly, along the way, we will see examples of human nature at its best as we examine the struggle to understand, the struggle to cope, and the struggle to respond in intelligent and constructive ways to the most destructive things that one group of people could do to another.
US in Crisis: WWI to WWII
Instructor: Dr. Dan Clark
Meets: MWF 11:00 am-11:50am & 1:00 pm-1:50pm
Description:
From 1917 through 1945 the nation endured two catastrophic world wars, confronted a wrenching economic depression, all while dealing with the growth of modern corporate-consumer capitalism, forcing Americans to make hard choices involving their values and beliefs on politics, race, gender and notions of individualism. This class will explore a period of profound change in American life covering World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and finally World War II.
Food in History
Instructor: Dr. Anne Foster
Meets: MW 2:00- 3:15pm
Description:
This course explores how food and the history of the modern world are intertwined. Particularly we will explore how major world developments both shaped and were shaped by the food people sought, wanted and needed. Some of the important questions we explore: How did the spread of people around the globe, prompted by European exploration and colonization after 1500, change the foods which people ate? How did that new food lead to differences in cuisine, economics and politics? How did industrialization, including of agriculture, change what people ate? Is access to food a human right or a matter of social justice? How is food related to people’s identity? What happens to food identities when people live under a foreign government or migrate to a new country?
Environmental History
Instructor: Dr. James Gustafson
Meets: TR 9:30am-10:45am & 11:00am-12:15pm
Description:
Environmental History is the study of change over time through humanity's interaction with the rest of nature. This course is designed as an introduction to the study of modern world history through an environmental lens, exploring different societies’ relationships with the natural world with an emphasis on how we reshape nature for our own purposes. We will explore the rise of systems of global exchange; the impact of climate change; disease and famine; and the management of land, water and natural resources. Although the course is global in nature, there will be a special focus on local and regional issues.
The Cold War
Instructor: Dr. Barbara Skinner
Meets: TR 11:00am-12:15pm
Description:
In the second half of the 20th century, the world divided into two opposing camps, armed for nuclear Armageddon. Centered on the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, this was a battle between the ideologies of Communism and democratic capitalism that affect every region of the globe. This course will consider how the bipolar division of the world affected political, cultural, technological, and social trends from the aftermath of World War II through the collapse of Communism in 1991 and it legacies in the post-Cold War world. We will not only investigate the major events such as the arms race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the “hot” and “proxy” war in the decolonized Third World, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we will also discuss the impact of the Cold War in the everyday lives of people behind the “Iron Curtain,” the role of Hollywood and film in promoting the position of each side, the advanced spy-craft of the KGB and CIA, and the human cost behind the building of powerful nuclear arsenals of the US and the USSR. We will assess the nature of superpower conflict, question and critique the political behavior behind key events, discuss the psychological and cultural responses, and ask whether we are entering a new Cold War today.
Castro to Chavez: Latin American Revolutions
Instructor: Dr. Timothy Hawkins
Meets: TR 9:30 am-10:45 am & 2:00 pm-3:15 pm Description:
The twentieth century witnessed an explosion of social unrest in Latin America, beginning with the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. By the 1950s, the Cuban Revolution demonstrated the appeal, potential, and limitations of leftist politics across the region. Over the next four decades, similar movements, with varying degrees of success, spread into Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Central America, and Venezuela, among other nations. Through them arose some of the most charismatic and compelling figures in modern Latin American history, a list that includes Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Daniel Ortega, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Salvador Allende, Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva, Evo Morales, and Hugo Chávez. This course traces the history and legacy of leftist revolution in Latin America from Castro to Chávez. We will begin by exploring precursor movements, such as those led by Emiliano Zapata and Francisco “Pancho” Villa in 1910s Mexico. Special focus will be given to the Cuban Revolution, the Sandinista Revolution, and the Pink Tide movement of the early 2000s. In addition, the course will address the right-wing reactions, encouraged by the United States, which turned much of Latin America into battlefields of the Cold War. We will review the topic with help from primary documents, music, film, and literature from the period.
History through Disney
Instructor: Dr. Lisa Phillips
Meets: TR 12:30 pm-1:45pm & 2:00 pm-3:15 pm Description:
This class is designed to encourage students think about “big” topics in history through the lens of our beloved “Disney,” both Walt, the man who started the Disney empire, of course, and the Disney Studios and Corporation. Populism, The Age of Invention, Business Growth and Monopoly, Labor Unions and Labor Controversy, the Great Depression, the Cold War, the Rise of American Conservatism, Gender Roles and the Nuclear Family, American Imperialism: Disney was and is at the center of them all. Some argue that Disney has, for most of the twentieth and now into the 21st century, provided the very cultural framework through which we understand everything from sports, to gender, race, ideas about what constitutes “entertainment,” work, even our understanding of history. Throughout the semester, we will examine the extent to which this is the case and, if so, how it happened!
HIST 313 – Topics in History
3 credits
Topics vary by instructor
Instructors:
Dr. Donald Maxwell
Dr. Barbara Skinner
Dr. Andrea Arrington-Sirois
General Description
Topics in History allows students to explore the discipline of history through focused study of a particular topic. Students learn to analyze and evaluate evidence, make and assess persuasive arguments, and understand multiple causation and the importance of context, continuity, and change over time.
Prerequisites: Completion of ENG 105, ENG 107, or ENG 108
Foundational Studies Credit: Historical Perspectives
Jim Crow and Apartheid
Instructor: Dr. Andrea Arrington
Meets: Online Asynchronous
Description:
This section of HIST 313 examines segregation policies and experiences in two contexts, the American South and South Africa. Students will learn more about “Jim Crow” segregation in the U.S. and the apartheid system in South Africa. By studying both of these examples of 20th century segregation, students will be able to compare and contrast the policies and experiences of people living under these policies. In addition to exploring the history of segregation in these two places, students will also consider the legacies of Jim Crow and apartheid in the American South and South Africa today
Colonial North America
Instructor: Dr. Donald Maxwell
Meets: Online Asynchronous
Description:
The history of Colonial North is more than a story of English-speaking people preparing themselves to create the United States. When Christopher Columbus arrived in North America in 1492, five million natives were already there, banded into dozens of nations. Soon, Spain, England, France, Holland, Sweden, and Russia had plans for the continent. By 1800, nearly a million people of African descent were held in slave labor in North America. This course will demonstrate the work of historians of colonial North America: reading recently written histories and reading and interpreting writings and other expressions of people of North America from 1500 to 1800 to try to create a story that is meaningful to us in the 21st Century.
The Cold War
Instructor: Dr. Barbara Skinner
Meets: Online Asynchronous
Description:
In the second half of the 20th century, the world divided into two opposing camps, armed for nuclear Armageddon. Centered on the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, this was a battle between the ideologies of Communism and democratic capitalism that affect every region of the globe. This course will consider how the bipolar division of the world affected political, cultural, technological, and social trends from the aftermath of World War II through the collapse of Communism in 1991 and it legacies in the post-Cold War world. We will not only investigate the major events such as the arms race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the “hot” and “proxy” war in the decolonized Third World, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we will also discuss the impact of the Cold War in the everyday lives of people behind the “Iron Curtain,” the role of Hollywood and film in promoting the position of each side, the advanced spy-craft of the KGB and CIA, and the human cost behind the building of powerful nuclear arsenals of the US and the USSR. We will assess the nature of superpower conflict, question and critique the political behavior behind key events, discuss the psychological and cultural responses, and ask whether we are entering a new Cold War today.
HIST 345 - Introduction to Latin-American Studies
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Timothy Hawkins
Meets: TR 11:00-12:15pm
Description:
This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Latin America and its diaspora, which is designed to provide students with an understanding of the primary forces that have shaped the history of this complex region: the colonial experience and nation-building, economic development and dependence; social inequality and political revolution; cultural and ethnic diversity; immigration and the Latino experience; and the role the United States plays in the region. Foundational Studies Credit: Upper Division Integrative Elective
HIST 353 - Medieval Europe
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Steven Stofferahn
Meets: MW 2:00 pm-3:15 pm
Description:
A study of the development of medieval Europe from the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire to the dawn of the early modern era. Topics dealt with include the formation of a new European civilization that was a synthesis of the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Germanic traditions, the varieties of Christianity in the West and East, the revival of commerce and growth of capitalism, and the cultural institutions that determined the European character.
HIST 404 - Internship in Public History
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Donald Maxwell
Meets: TR 3:30pm-4:45 pm
Description:
Introduces the major issues and careers available in public history, including museums, archives, national parks, historic preservation, and oral history. Includes an on-site internship experience. Foundational Studies Credit: High Impact Practices
HIST 413 - Revolutionary America
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Donald Maxwell
Meets: TR 12:30pm-1:45 pm
Description:
Introduces the major themes and trends in the history of Revolutionary America from about 1750 to 1815. Surveys a variety of interpretations of the Revolution and the early national period. Topics include the Seven Years' War, the Revolution, and the formation of the new nation and its political, economic, social, cultural, and institutional development through the War of 1812.
HIST 447 - Contested Heritage
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Isaac Land
Meets: MWF 1:00pm-1:50 pm
Description:
The past—the received wisdom, values, and experiences that define a society’s heritage—takes a wide array of forms. Museums and museum exhibits, debates over the nature and placement of monuments, controversies surrounding school textbooks, the role of history in the entertainment industry (including theme parks, film, historical re-enactment, and video games), and historical symbols all form part of the tapestry of public history. This course seeks to explore how these different forms of history writ large shape our collective understanding of the past by celebrating, contesting, and exploiting elements of history, playing on a sense of nostalgia, and by connecting to a sense of collective identity.
HIST 470 – Tsarist Russia
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Barbara Skinner
Meets: TR 2:00pm-3:15pm
Description:
Russia's historical development from Varangian beginnings to the end of tsarist rule emphasizes those characteristics of historic Russia which contribute to an understanding of contemporary Russia.
AFRI 113 — Foundations of African and African American Studies
3 credits
Instructor: Rev. Terry Clark
Meets: MWF 12:00-12:50pm & 1:00-1:50pm
Foundational Studies Credit:
Global Perspectives and Cultural Diversity
Description:
An exploration of the philosophical, political, historical, and sociological components that form the basis of African and African American studies.
AFRI 212 — African American Cultural Traditions
3 credits
Instructor: Rev. Terry Clark
Meets: TR 9:30-10:45am
Foundational Studies Credit:
Global Perspectives and Cultural Diversity
Description:
A focused and analytical examination of Black thought, ideology, and culture, as well as the institutional aspects of Black American life.
AFRI 312 – The African Diaspora
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Colleen Haas
Meets: Online Asynchronous
Foundational Studies Credit:
Upper Division Integrative Elective
Description:
An overview of African cultural thought and practices. Emphasis on understanding specific aspects of African cultural life, such as religion, aesthetics, political organization, and social institutions, and how these cultural areas relate to the struggle of liberation.
AFRI 329 - Music in Africa
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Colleen Haas
Meets: TR 2:00 - 3:15pm
Foundational Studies Credit:
Upper Division Integrative Elective
Description:
An examination of music making in African cultures. Topics will include a general survey of major principles of African music, and case studies of specific national and ethnic traditions. An underlying theme will be the relation of musical structures and practices to African social and cultural systems and institution.
AFRI 399 - The Black Church
3 credits
Instructor: Rev. Terry Clark
Meets: TR 9:30 - 10:45am
Description:
This course describes the Christian church from the African-American perspective. It covers the Christian religious experience on the African continent prior to the transatlantic slave trade. It examines the origin of the Black church experience in the United States from the period of African enslavement in America through the Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th century. It focuses on the contributions of the Black church to not only African-American society but also society as a whole. It traces the Black church experience from a historical, sociological, economic, and psychological framework. It helps students understand both spiritual and secular concerns the Black church was obliged to address, and it critically analyzes the Black church’s relevance in the present day.
HIST 513 – Revolutionary America
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Donald Maxwell
Meets: TR 12:30-1:45pm
Description:
Introduces the major themes and trends in the history of Revolutionary America from about 1750 to 1815. Surveys a variety of interpretations of the Revolution and the early national period. Topics include the Seven Years' War, the Revolution, and the formation of the new nation and its political, economic, social, cultural, and institutional development through the War of 1812
HIST 570 – Tsarist Russia
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Barbara Skinner
Meet: TR 2:00-3:15pm
Description:
Russia's historical development from Varangian beginnings to the end of tsarist rule emphasizes those characteristics of historic Russia which contribute to an understanding of contemporary Russia.
HIST 598 - Medieval Islamic Societies
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. James Gustafson
Meet: Wednesdays 6:30-9:00 pm (Online Synchronous)
Description:
The medieval Islamic world (ca. 622-1258) saw the emergence of a new social order in the Near East and North Africa out of the crises of Late Antiquity. This period saw one of the greatest flowerings of the arts and sciences in world history, the growth of cross- cultural interactions throughout Eurasia, and the maturity of Islamic traditions of law, thought, and practice. This course looks at this transformative period with a focus on exploring the rich diversity of social forms in the Islamic world and their legacy in modern times. This includes the substantial contributions of non-Muslim communities and the systems in place for managing religious and ethnic diversity. We will cover a set of major themes in this course, including the nature of early communities of “believers,” the development of Islamic legal traditions, the institutions of the Caliphate (and the practical limitations of their power), scientific and literary traditions in the “House of Wisdom,” patterns of migration and exchange, and eventually the transformations brought by the incorporation of the Islamic world into the Mongol Empire.
HIST 600 - Historical Research and Methods
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Anne Foster
Meet: R 6:30-9:00 pm (Online Synchronous)
Description:
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the methodology and theory used by professional historians, with more emphasis on methodology. We will explore how historians read both primary and secondary sources, research methods for both primary and secondary sources, historiography, and the theories that historians use to inform their thinking and writing. This course is intended as an introductory course in the program.
HIST 622 - Popular Movements in U.S. History
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Lisa Phillips
Meet: T 6:30-9:00 pm (Online Synchronous)
Description:
Popular Movements in U.S. History asks students to analyze how our understanding of key movements in US history has changed based upon the newest scholarship. Suffrage, immigration, labor, the free enterprise “movement,” civil rights, Vietnam, and the rise of the religious right. We may think we know the causes, consequences, and the historical debate surrounding each, but recent scholarship forces us to reevaluate: e.g., suffrage as a story about US imperialism; immigration as creating the free world; laborers as more “thinking” than their capitalist bosses; women as the leaders of the black nationalist movement; Vietnam forging a new American national identity; and Jimmy Carter as the impetus behind the rise of the religious right. Not typical stories and not exhaustive, by any means, this course is as much about content as it is about how historical knowledge is produced.