Schedule of Classes

This course explores the social, political, and cultural history of violence, crime, criminal law, policing, and punishment in the United States from the Colonial period to the present.

Surveys the transnational history of the Americas and the United States to 1877. Emphasizes globally significant trends and systems such as colonialism, mercantilism, nationalism, and the slave trade. Investigates the relevance of systems and their supporting beliefs to the growth and limits of democracy.

Surveys the transnational history of the Americas and the United States since 1877. Emphasizes globally-significant trends and systems such as migration, imperialism, liberalism, progressivism, and consumption economies. Investigates the relevance of systems and their supporting beliefs to the growth and limits of democracy.

Overview of the history of Latin America from ancient cultures (2000 BCE) to the present. It explores the major institutions and forces that have shaped the region and common experiences in the Americas such as European colonization, African slavery, wars of independence, political exclusion of groups of color and women, regionalism vs. nationalism, neocolonialism, industrialization, and the ongoing fight for social justice.

Russian and Soviet history from its origins to the present. Major features of pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Russian civilization.

The course examines the history of the African continent from antiquity to modernity within an interregional and global context. Africa spans the northern and southern hemispheres, and includes a diversity of geographical zones that shaped associated varying political and economic organization. Focus will be on regional developments, interregional interactions across Africa, and global interactions in the Indian, Mediterranean, and Atlantic Worlds, culminating in European colonization and the challenges African nation states face post-independence in a post-colonial world.

History of the first Americans; Indian-White relations since 1492. Origins and varied cultures of American Indians.

Analyzes Japanese militarism and expansionism and examines the significance of Japan's World War II defeat and its impact on the Asian/Pacific world.

Investigates the historical development, change, and expression of gender ideals that Americans have labeled manhood, manliness, or masculinity. Incorporates methodologies from history, gender studies, literary studies, and the social sciences to explore how disparate gender ideals have articulated with distinctions of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation. Applies an interdisciplinary approach to provide students with an awareness of the historically and culturally contingent nature of masculinity and how notions of masculine ideality have reinforced or challenged structures of privilege and exclusion. Develops skills of interdisciplinary gender analysis in the study of historical documents and artifacts.

A reading and discussion-intensive exploration of German history in the modern era of unification, imperialism, war and revolution, Weimar democracy, Nazi racial dictatorship, World War II and genocide, Cold War division, reunification, and contemporary developments to the present.

Describes the rise and fall of Japan's warrior class and the bushido ethos. The long history of the samurai begins in the 8th century and continues to the present. Focus on two interrelated themes: the historical reality of the samurai and the construction of mythology in both Japanese popular culture and the Western imagination. Topics include warfare, training, values, literature, and family life. Visual sources, including film, are used extensively.

Analytical and comparative survey of the formative stages of early non-Western civilizations in five geographical regions. The basic cultural patterns and geographical patterns that emerged between approximately 3500 BCE and 1500 CE will be studied, compared, and related to present developments.

Public history takes place outside the traditional classroom intending to make history relevant and useful to the public. Explore the conventional and unconventional ways that the general public consumes history. Examine how public history creates narratives of identity and how to make these narratives meaningful, accessible, representative, equitable, and inclusive.

Introduction to the study of the history of human ecology, cultural traditions of ecological consciousness, and social contexts for understanding recurring conflicts. Discussion of grand narratives and microhistories with an emphasis on theoretical approaches, comparative examples, and timely issues (such as: climate change, colonialism, conservation, foodways, gender, inequality, invasive species, justice, nature, pollution, public health, race, rights, sustainability, and urban-rural connections).

An analysis of the interaction between science, technology, and society since the 1600s. The first part addresses the Scientific Revolution, the second the Industrial Revolution, and the third the contemporary scientific and industrial revolutions. In the third part of the course, the examples of the earlier scientific and industrial revolutions, insofar as they affected religious views, daily living conditions, and the meaning of philosophy and science, provide material for comparison as a means of understanding the contemporary situation. Particular attention is given to how social values and assumptions determine the direction of scientific and technological developments.

HIS 420 provides students with an opportunity to gain supervised work experience in digital humanities and public history (0-3 credit hours).

Research paper required employing primary sources in U.S. history. May be repeated under different topic for a maximum of 6 hours