Spring 2011 History Department Offerings
HISTORY COURSES – SPRING 2011
HIST 10100-01 FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Matthew Klemm, Muller 405, Ext. 4-1306
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: This is a beginning level survey course. As such it is designed for first year students and sophomores. Not open to seniors except by permission of instructor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will provide an overview of "western" (i.e., primarily European) history from Ancient Greece to the Reformation. Topics covered will include Greek democracy, the Roman Empire, the medieval history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation, and the Age of Religious Wars.COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Primarily lecture, some discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Two examinations, several short essays, one longer essay, class attendance and discussion; grading based on class participation, examinations, and essays.
HIST 10200-01 MODERN WESTERN CIVILIZATION 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Karin Breuer, Muller 418, Ext. 4-1489
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: This is a beginning level survey course. As such it is open to all students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will provide an overview of European history from 1648 to the present. Topics covered will include the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, socio-political change in the nineteenth century, Marxism and the Russian Revolution, the causes and the courses of World Wars I and II, and the Holocaust.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Primarily lecture, some discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Three examinations, 3 mid-length (4 page) analytical essays, class attendance and discussion
HIST 10200-02, 03 MODERN WESTERN CIVILIZATION 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: STAFF
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: This is a beginning level survey course. Not open to seniors except by permission of instructor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Continuation of HIST 10100, extending from the early modern period to the present . Students may not receive credit for both HIST 10200 and HIST 18200.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Primarily lecture, some discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Based on class participation, examinations, and essays.
HIST 11100-01 UNITED STATES HISTORY TO 1865 1 H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: STAFF
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITE: None
STUDENTS: Primarily first and second year students from all majors; not open to seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course broadly explores the history of the United States from its colonial antecedents through the Civil War. It treats early settlement, the transition from colonies to states, the growth of democracy and a new political system, the impact of early urbanization and industrialization, and the expansion west. Within this chronological framework, it examines Native Americans, race and slavery, gender and the family, the class structure, and ethnicity. This course will acquaint you with the central concerns of early US history and it will begin to cultivate habits of critical understanding and analysis that allow you do draw significance from the past.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lectures, readings (primary and secondary sources), videos and discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings from a foundation text, a collection of essays that set up key points of debate, a collection of primary documents, and two additional books (one will be a novel). Also regular attendance, home assignments, 2 short papers, and 2 in-class exams; grading based on attendance, class participation and the above requirements
HIST 11200-01 UNITED STATES HISTORY SINCE 1865 1 H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Trotti, Muller 412, Ext. 4-1591
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: Any interested students of Junior standing or below; seniors should take our 200-level classes or above.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Survey of the important cultural, social, economic, and political developments in the U.S. from 1865 to the present. As a survey, this course will give you a sound knowledge of the most important moments of our recent past. Special emphasis will be placed upon: the emergence of the nation as an economic superpower, the growing engagement of the U.S. in world affairs, and the rich social history (race, class, and gender) of the nation in this period.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture and discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: 1. Three books. 2. One paper, 2 essay exams, and regular quizzes.
HIST 11200-02, 03 UNITED STATES HISTORY SINCE 1865 1 H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Smith, Muller 320, Ext. 4-1290
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITE: None.
STUDENTS: Primarily first and second year students from all majors. Open to students of all majors. This class is not open to seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: I assume that American history is not a fixed set of facts, figures, and events; it is a story, shaped by countless forces and varying according to perspective. People, places, motivation and circumstance are the content for rigorous historical thinking in this course. History was contested all along and continues to be contested. It is that complexity we will explore throughout the semester. To that end, this course broadly explores major themes and issues that led to the making of the modern United States. We will focus on social and intellectual currents, labor and business, farmer protest, immigration and ethnicity, race and gender, the development of reform and radical thought and activities, American involvement in war, civil liberties issues, Progressivism and the New Deal, and major changes in post-World War II America. Through few short lectures, readings (both primary and secondary), DVDS/videos, hands on work with primary sources, LOTS OF DISCUSSION, and creating your own digital narrative of history you will become acquainted with the central concerns of US history and you will begin to cultivate habits of critical understanding that allow you to draw significance from the past.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion of readings (primary and secondary sources), DVDs/videos and some interactive lectures.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings from a foundation text (Give Me Liberty! 3rd ed. by Eric Foner and supplemental other readings on-line and through handouts. Also regular attendance, regular writing assignments, and 2 exams (part take-home, part in-class; grading based on attendance, class participation and above requirements.
HIST 18200-01, 02 WORLD CIVILIZATION II 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jonathan Ablard, Muller 403, Ext. 4-3558
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: Primarily freshmen and sophomores. Not open to students who have completed HIST-10100: The Development of Western Civilization.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will provide students with an understanding of world history from 1492 through the present. Global interactions, whether peaceful or violent, have profoundly shaped the course of world history. The major focus of this course, then, is the examination of how different national, religious, ethnic and racial groups have shaped and influenced one another. The course will begin with an examination of the balance of economic and military power in the world before 1492. After examining European exploration and conquest and the variety of responses by Asians, Africans and Native Americans we will consider the growth of the nation-state, the development of trans-Atlantic slavery, and the subsequent rise of revolutionary ideologies, industrialization, and imperialism in the nineteenth century. We will conclude with an examination of the impacts of the First and Second World Wars on global history up to the First Gulf War.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: discussion, lecture, student presentations
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: quizzes, midterm, short paper, final exam.
HIST 18200-03, 04 WORLD CIVILIZATION II 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Lu Liu, Muller 416, Ext. 4-3035
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: Open to all students. Not open to students who have completed HIST-10200: Modern Western Civilization.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This class starts roughly at 1500 and moves through to the present day. Topics will include the rise of great empires in the Middle East and Asia (Ming, Ottoman, Mughal) and their relationship to the emerging European global powers. We will then examine the rise of European empires, beginning with the Spanish and Portuguese, and continuing through the Dutch, English and French imperial formations. Special consideration will be given to the encounters with indigenous populations in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and the rise of independence and nationalist movements across the globe. Finally, we will consider the post-colonial world, the Cold War, the process of "globalization" and the conflicts and relationships that shape our world today.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lectures, discussion of readings. Each class one student will be responsible for making a brief, thematic presentation of the day's readings.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings, response papers, class attendance and participation, comparative response paper, midterm and final; grading-based on performance on each of the above requirements
HIST 20100-01 Honors Intermediate Seminar: The Ocean of Stories: Sanskrit Literature in Translation
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jason Freitag, Muller 423, Ext. 4-5798
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: None
STUDENTS: Honors Students and others with permission of instructor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Titled after the Kathāsaritsāgara, one of the most important and popular works in the classical Sanskrit canon, this seminar will be an intensive introduction to the classic texts of the Sanskrit literary world. The seminar will consider works within a range of genres from fables and fairy tales to court poetry to princely didactic texts and ending with an extended consideration of the major epics of the Indian tradition, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. This seminar will take a fully multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of these texts. The works will be examined for what they are as individual expressive works, they will be placed in their contexts, both historically and as representatives of their genre within the history of Sanskrit literature, and students will explore the connections between these texts and larger currents in Indian society and culture. Further, the seminar will introduce students to aspects of the Sanskrit language and the distinctive features of Sanskrit that have made it one of the world’s premier literary languages. Finally, students in the seminar will consider the role of translation as both an historical and a literary process through an examination of selected excerpts from alternate translations of the texts under study.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Interactive lectures, discussion of assigned readings, student presentations.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings, response papers, class attendance and participation, critical essay (which will form the basis of an end-of-semester presentation); grading based on performance on each of the above requirements.
HIST 20300-01 INTRODUCTORY GEOGRAPHY 1 G LA SS
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jarett Powers
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences.
STUDENTS: Though designed with Social Studies majors in mind, the course is open to any who have an interest in geography or wish to view the interaction of humans with their environment from a different perspective.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Shakespeare tells us “All the world’s a stage,” and geography is the study of the stage upon which almost all human events have taken place. This course will focus on world regional geography and will use specific situations as examples of broader issues. Far from being devoted to memorization of place names and locations, the course will attempt to explain, for example, why a city is located where it is, how earlier mistakes might frustrate current development programs, why some long established states are threatened with disintegration, and numerous other problems which appear in the daily news.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture and discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: 2 exams, some map quizzes, and an 8 to 10 page research paper; A-F grading.
HIST 22300-01 Rise and Fall of the British Empire HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jason Freitag, Muller 423, Ext. 4-5798
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences; sophomore standing and above.
STUDENTS: Open to all students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: At its height, the British Empire encompassed one quarter of the earth, and was so geographically dispersed that the sun literally never set on a British possession. This course will examine how and why Great Britain (a country half the size of France) acquired such a vast empire. The class will look at the scope of the empire – settlements and colonies in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; dependencies and protectorates in Africa and the Middle East; and finally the jewel in the imperial crown, India – and how the populations in both Britain and the colonized regions responded when faced with this empire. The class will also examine the technologies of power that enabled Britain to administer such a large area, and the ways in which imperial power was implicated in the construction of knowledge that introduced many of these places to a European audience, and formed the original basis of modern scholarship on much of the world. Finally, the course will focus on the dissolution of the empire in the twentieth century and the post-colonial legacy that continues to shape these former imperial possessions, as well as the modern British state. Counts towards the global history requirement for history department majors.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Interactive lectures, discussion of assigned readings (historical texts and novels) and films, student presentations.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings, response papers, class attendance and participation, critical essay (which will form the basis of an end-of-semester presentation); grading based on performance on each of the above requirements.
HIST 26940-01 HONORS INTERMEDIATE SEMINAR: THE POWER AND FATE OF REPUBLICS IN EARLY AMERICA LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Vivian Bruce Conger, Muller 408, Ext. 4-3572
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: None
STUDENTS: Priority preference to honors students, but others welcome with instructor’s permission.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course (which is based on the Reacting to the Past pedagogy) you will examine the experience of Americans from the time of first permanent settlement by English colonists in 1607 to the American Revolution (1770s). You will learn not only the basic data of early American history but also to express that knowledge in written and oral argument that employs evidence to prove historical theses. Most importantly, you will immerse yourself in primary source documents and play historically accurate roles in order to comprehend the complexities of Puritan life and thought in Massachusetts through the trial of Anne Hutchinson and of revolutionary America in New York City, 1775-76. You will be assigned different roles derived from each historical setting. Your roles are defined largely by the "game objectives." However, you will write (literally) your own scripts, derived from important texts in the history of ideas. The heart of each game is persuasion. For nearly every role to which you're assigned, you must persuade others that "your" views make more sense than those of your opponents.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Oral presentations and discussions (in class and on line).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings (secondary and primary sources), active participation, and role playing involving reading, researching, writing and presenting. There will be a final reflective analysis due at the end of the semester.
HIST 27000-01 HISTORY OF AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHT 1 H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Smith, Muller 320, Ext. 4-1290
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences and sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Sophomore standing and up. Priority given to history and environmental studies majors and minors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course traces the evolution of American ideas about nature and the environment from the colonial period to the present. Although rooted in intellectual history, this course will also explore cultural and social history as they relate to environmental thought. Students will examine the changing definition of concepts such as wilderness, conservation, and nature itself. Over the course of the semester students should develop a solid understanding of the ways politics, economics, religion, gender, and race have shaped environmental thought in this country. Students can also expect to practice historical interpretation through short writing assignments and a local environmental history project undertaken in cooperation with The History Center of Tompkins County.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: A mix of interactive lecture, discussion, and media presentations.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Five books, regular attendance, several short papers and film critiques, final paper. A-F, Standard breakdown. Based on performance of each of the above requirements.
HIST 27500-01, 02 THE HISTORY OF UNITED STATES POPULAR CULTURE 1 H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Trotti, Muller 412, Ext. 4-1591
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences and sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Any interested students at the sophomore level or above.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Popular Culture has become synonymous with America – it is one of our chief exports and a defining part of what America is in the 21st century. This course explores the history of American popular culture from the earliest mass media and genres – minstrelsy, dime novels, photography, movies, baseball, vaudeville, radio, TV – that were the most popular pastimes of their respective eras. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the role of pop culture in a number of important historical themes: differences in the experience of popular culture according to race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, changes in technology and the business of pop culture, and how different media expressed the stereotypes of their times.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture and discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Several books, essay exams, participation, a short research project, and smaller assignments.
HIST 29105-01 ST: STUDIES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY: MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Matthew Klemm, Muller 405, Ext. 4-1306
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: None.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course offers a survey of political, religious, and cultural developments in the western world, c. 300-1400. The primary theme will be the formation of a distinct European culture from a blend of Classical, Christian, and Germanic elements. Thus we will explore each of these elements individually before looking at how they contributed to new medieval cultures. We will also devote considerable attention to the interactions between Europe and the wider Mediterranean world.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture and Discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Grading is based on participation, Essays, Exams
HIST 29204-01 ST: STUDIES IN GLOBAL HISTORY: FROM SUGAR TO OIL IN THE NEW WORLD 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jonathan Ablard, Muller 403, Ext. 4-3558
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities and/or social sciences; sophomore standing.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: From Sugar to Oil examines the ways in which commodities have shaped the Western Hemisphere from the arrival of Columbus to the BP oil spill. Students will gain an understanding of the way in which commodities fit into the larger fabric of world history since the 15th century. Our focus will not just be on what was produced and traded throughout history, but also on how historians, economists, and other social scientists have interpreted the social, political, environmental, and economic significance of particular commodities. Thus, while the course might appear to be about inanimate objects, it is in fact a course that focuses our attention on how these objects have shaped the human experience.
HIST 29304-01 ST: STUDIES IN U.S. HISTORY: THE ART AND CRAFT OF HISTORY HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Pearl Ponce, Muller 406, Ext. 4-3606
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities and/or social sciences; sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Geared toward freshmen (who will be overridden into the course), sophomores and transfer students, but open to anyone interested in the discipline of history and in improving their academic skills. This counts as a US distribution requirement in the department.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The Art and Craft of History will introduce students to the discipline of history and hone those analytical, writing, and presentation skills necessary to succeed as a major or minor in the department and throughout your career at IC. The focus will be on the nature of history; how historians interpret evidence; how they craft their interpretations; how those interpretations change over time; and how you can become a more persuasive and effective historian.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: colloquium (not lecture).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: attendance, active participation, module specific readings, and a number of short papers and their revision. Your grade will be determined by your performance in discussion and your grades on the various papers.
HIST 30200-01 THE OLD REGIME AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1 G H HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Karin Breuer, Muller 418, Ext. 4-1489
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISTIES: Three courses in the humanities and/or social sciences; sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Open to all students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will focus on the social, cultural, and political history of France from 1660 to 1815, from the absolutist monarchy of Louis XIV through the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era. After examining the structure of Old Regime society and government, we will explore the revolutionary challenge to that order. Particular themes will include absolutist monarchy vs. revolutionary republicanism; popular politics and the lives of ordinary men and women; the French colonial system and slavery; and the attempt by Enlightenment philosophies and then the French revolutionaries to rethink and transform their world; revolutionary politics, thought, and social reform; and Napoleon’s effort to create a massive European empire.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Primarily discussion, some lecture.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Two take-home examinations, 15-page research paper, and active participation in class.
HIST 30400-01 THE AGE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1 HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Vivian Bruce Conger, Muller 408, Ext. 4-3572, vconger@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITIES: Three courses in the humanities and/or social sciences and sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors of all majors
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will place the American Revolution within the context of colonial demographic, economic, social, political and cultural development during the latter half of the eighteenth century. In part it will focus on the tangible events of colonial resistance, forming a confederation, drafting and ratifying the Constitution, splitting into opposing political camps, and culminating in the War of 1812. It will also focus as well on the intangible impact of ideologies such as democracy, representation, liberty, republicanism, and nationalism. It will explore more specifically how women, Indians, blacks, the wealthy and poor affected and were affected by the American Revolution.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion of primary and secondary sources as well as visual materials, and some lectures; two take-home exams and a 15-page research paper.
HIST 37000-01 SLAVERY & THE OLD SOUTH
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Pearl Ponce, Muller 406, Ext. 4-3606
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: Three courses in the humanities or social sciences; sophomore standing
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course on the Old South will examine the rise and fall of the cotton kingdom with a focus on how the planter elite used slavery to dominate and shape southern society. While the South's colonial antecedents will be considered, the focus of this course will be on the development of the South as a conscious minority during the antebellum era and the death of the Old South as a result of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. This course counts toward the U.S. requirement for department majors and minors.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture and discussion
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Attendance; discussion of the assigned readings; short research paper; midterm and final. Grade will be based on performance of each of these requirements.
HIST 39205-01 ST: STUDIES IN GLOBAL HISTORY: ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Jason Freitag, Muller 423, Ext. 4-5798
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: Three courses in the humanities and/or social sciences; sophomore standing.
STUDENTS: Open to all students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will provide a survey of major aspects of the Ottoman Empire, including the history of the empire, Ottoman political and commercial culture and relations with other world powers, religious culture, art, architecture, literature and music of the Ottoman period. The course will treat the empire as a case study of a diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-religious state composed of aspects of the earlier Byzantine Christian and Jewish cultures with Turkic and Islamic cultural elements. This layering of histories allows students to address long-term issues of cultural interaction and diversity, and helps to shape a discussion on the encounters between peoples and the ways that diverse groups have negotiated their relationships over time. Finally, this course is designed to provide students the background history that will prepare them for a post-semester, short-term trip abroad to Istanbul. The study abroad component seeks to deepen the students’ classroom experience through visits to some of the major historical and cultural sites discussed during the semester. Additionally, the trip to Turkey would provide an introduction to modern Turkish culture and expose students to a dynamic and increasingly important player in the global community.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Interactive lectures, discussion of assigned readings (historical texts and novels) and films, student presentations.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings, response papers, class attendance and participation, critical essay (which will form the basis of an end-of-semester presentation); grading based on performance on each of the above requirements.
HIST 48105-01 HISTORY SEMINAR EUROPEAN: POLYTHEISM TO MONOTHEISM: THE CONVERSION OF ROME HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Matthew Klemm, Muller 405, Ext. 4-1306
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: Senior standing or equivalent; permission of instructor.
STUDENTS: Junior and senior history and social studies majors and minors
have preference; other majors welcome.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The main focus of this seminar will be to explore religious change in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity is certainly one of the most remarkable transformations in Western history. We will examine the cultural context for the success of Christianity, especially the ways that this new religion managed to appeal to all levels of society, from Roman intellectuals to Germanic "barbarians."
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Weekly discussion of readings.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings, active participation in class discussions, presentation of research, and two drafts of a 20-page research paper.
HIST 48106-01 HISTORY SEMINAR EUROPEAN: STALIN AND STALINISM HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Zenon Wasyliw, Muller 427, Ext. 4-1587
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: Junior or Senior standing.
STUDENTS: Junior and Senior history and social studies majors and minors have preference; others welcome.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The Stalinist legacy lives on in the former communist states of Eurasia and East Central Europe. Historians hotly debate and assess the impact of Stalinism on the evolution of the USSR and neighboring former Easter Bloc states. This seminar evaluates Stalin’s rise to power and the implementation and impact of his politics that define Stalinism. We will engage the historical debate by closely reading and discussing interdisciplinary-based historical works and sources and through student research papers.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Qualitative discussion of assigned readings and individual research projects.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Seminar discussion participation and the completion of a research paper.
HIST 48206-01 HISTORY SEMINAR GLOBAL: CHINA’S CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Lu Liu, Muller 416, Ext. 4-3035
ENROLLMENT: 10
PREREQUISITES: Senior standing or equivalent; permission of instructor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will be an in-depth investigation of China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The questions we are going to explore during the semester include, but not limit to: What motivated people, and particularly youth, to participate? What were the ideals the participants strove to realize? How has the Cultural Revolution been remembered in years since? A second goal of the course is to train students in a) close reading of such a variety of sources; and b) writing of well-organized and clearly written analyses of these primary sources, as well as selected secondary readings.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar with heavy reading load and discussion oriented class meetings. Short response papers and one long research paper.
HIST 49304-01 TUTORIAL: US HISTORY IN SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY: FORGING AN EMPIRE: AMERICAN 19TH C. DIPLOMACY HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Pearl Ponce, Muller 406, Ext. 4-3606
ENROLLMENT: 5
PREREQUISITES: Permission of instructor and senior standing (or advanced junior standing).
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This tutorial, on American diplomacy of the 19th century, focuses on the century when the United States forged an empire. It is a critical stage of development in which the country shed its past as a people on the fringe of powerful empire and moved toward the time when it would become a superpower. We will use the lens of foreign policy to investigate critical issues of race, religion, power, and identity. This tutorial will allow students to immerse themselves in the literature of this field, to engage in rigorous and intensive dialogue on the tutorial readings, and to write a significant research paper.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: weekly, one-on-one discussions of readings; reports on the writing process and the progress of the research paper.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: weekly attendance; discussion of assigned books; and a 20-25 page research paper as well as shorter papers designed to aid in the development of the final paper; grading based on performance of each of the above requirements.
HIST 49500-01 INTERNSHIP: HISTORY NLA
1/6 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Vivian Bruce Conger, Muller 408, Ext. 4-3572
ENROLLMENT: 5
PREREQUISITES: Four history courses; junior standing or above; permission of instructor and chair. Available for variable credit; only 6 credits may be counted toward the history major.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: An opportunity for practical experience in a variety of history-related activities in the United States, under the joint supervision of the sponsoring agency and a history department faculty member. Internships are arranged individually and must be approved by the chair of the history department.
HIST 49900-01 INDEPENDENT STUDY: HISTORY LA
1/3 CREDITS
ENROLLMENT: Vivian Bruce Conger, Muller 408, Ext. 4-3572
PREREQUISITES: Senior standing, or equivalent.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Special research on an individual project arranged by a student with a particular faculty member. The project may include reading books and/or writing papers under the guidance of the faculty member, with a performance expectation of senior-level work. Offered on demand only.