Comprehensive List of Seminars

The culmination of the history major is a junior-senior level seminar that provides an in-depth examination of a period, theme, or issue of historical importance. This document is a comprehensive listing of all seminars that have been offered, have been considered, or will possibly be offered by members of the department faculty since the inception of these web pages. They are offered as a resource for those wishing to know more about advanced study in history within the department.

Links have been provided from these course descriptions to the faculty member who teaches the seminar.

American Indian Reservations

Mr. Lacson

This course examines the history of American Indian reservations from the late-nineteenth century to the present. The common readings will introduce students to the origins and major historical problems of reservation history, especially the tricky task of defining the relationship between American Indian reservations and the United States. Specifically, we will examine the end of treaty-making between the United States and Indian tribes, allotment of Indian land, federal assimilation programs, boarding schools, the meaning of U.S. citizenship for Native peoples, and the opportunities and challenges of casinos. Prerequisites: Any History 100 course and any 200-level history course.

American Women Since WWII

Ms. Lewis

Students in this seminar will explore the history of American women since the Second World War. The postwar decades and late twentieth century witnessed enormous changes in the lives of American women, including both expanding opportunities as well as rising expectations. We will consider how American women fomented and navigated these changes, paying careful attention to the significance of race, class, sexuality, and citizenship status in shaping their experiences. Students will begin the semester by engaging in a close reading of historical texts, both primary and secondary, to establish a shared foundation in the historiography of this period, in the theoretical basis of women’s history as a field, and in the special considerations of doing contemporary history. Students will conclude the semester by producing an article-length research paper and a 15-minute presentation of their historical research into this era. Students will be expected to mine digital archives as well as traditional collections in order to locate sufficient primary sources for their project. Prerequisites: History 100 and either History 222 or 295.01: American Sexual History, or permission of the instructor.

Decolonization

Ms. Prevost

In the decades following the Second World War, more than a quarter of the world’s land mass and population were converted from colonies into nation states with surprising speed. But did the end of empire constitute a meaningful transformation or merely the change of a flag? And was the transfer of power as orderly as the imperial powers liked to claim? In this seminar we will explore some of the debates surrounding the timing, causality, character, and consequences of decolonization and consider how historical actors impacted and were impacted by the changing relationship of metropolitan centers and colonial peripheries. Common texts and student research projects will focus on the political, social, intellectual, and cultural dimensions of decolonization in British Africa and South Asia, as well as in Britain itself; students with relevant background may also pursue a topic related to another national/geographic context. Prerequisites: History 100 and either History 235, 236, 261, 262, 266 or 295 (History of Modern India), or permission of instructor.

History of Nineteenth-Century American Popular Culture

Ms. Purcell

Students in this seminar will examine the creation and expansion of American popular culture in the nineteenth century as they focus on diverse cultural forms: dime novels, newspapers, music, sports, cartoons, material culture, theater, minstrel shows, magazines, etc. Transnational elements of U.S. popular culture will also be explored. The seminar will focus particularly on how ideas and structures of race, class, and gender were changed and reinforced by American popular culture. Research papers will analyze popular culture in a historical context to consider how popular culture created or changed power dynamics in American society. Students in this course will also work on methods and sources in digital history. Prerequisites: History 100 plus any 200-level American History course or permission of instructor.

Labor in Twentieth-Century Latin America

Mr. Silva

During the twentieth century, Labor Movements helped transform many Latin American countries socially, politically, and economically. Organized workers have played key roles in the Mexican Revolution, the rise of Peronism, and the recent political triumphs of Brazil's Worker's Party. The common readings for the seminar will include some of the classic works and then move to more recent studies. These readings raise questions about the effect of employer paternalism on workers; the impact of special privileges on workers; and the role of women in the home, in the shop and in the union. In the second half of the course students will then write a major research paper on labor in twentieth-century Latin America. A reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is helpful but not required. Prerequisite: History 201, 202, or 204.

Latin America and the United States

Mr. Silva

As the saying goes, Latin America lies too far from God and too close to the United States. This proximity has affected Latin American economics, demographics, culture, and politics. The seminar will begin with common readings. This year those common readings will focus on US attempts — both official and unofficial — to democratize and modernize the region. Students will then write a research paper using primary documents. These papers could focus on any one of a number of issues that were central to US-Latin American relations such as hemispheric security, economic affairs, democracy, and socialism. A reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is helpful but not required. Prerequisite: History 100 and either History 201, 202, or 204.

Nature and the New Deal

Mr. Guenther

This seminar examines the central role that environmental issues played in the era of the New Deal. Students will explore how a generation of policy-makers, intellectuals, and artists came to see a fundamental connection between the economic crisis of the “Great Depression” and the environmental crisis of the “Dirty Thirties” (manifest in a series of epic droughts, dust-storms, floods, forest fires, and collapsing farms). The course readings will focus on a variety of iconic programs that embodied the New Deal’s environmental vision of rebuilding society through innovative programs in conservation and public outreach: e.g. the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the “Greenbelt” program, Soil Conservation Districts, rural electrification, and the funding of environmentally conscious literature, photography, and film by the Works Progress Administration. Students will design their own research projects that examine in greater detail some aspect of environmental policy or thought during this era. Prerequisites: History 100 and History 220. With permission, students may substitute History 220 with relevant coursework in Environmental Studies or Policy Studies.

Politics in the Early American Republic

Ms. Purcell

Students in this seminar will discover and debate recent developments in the study of political history by focusing intensely on one of its most exciting periods, the early American republic. During the years 1789-1820, the American political system first took shape as federal and state governments established themselves, as the country experienced its first era of party conflict, and as philosophical ideas about the structures of American power and concepts such as "republicanism" and "democracy" were put to the test. The seminar will analyze traditional topics of political interest in this period such as political party formation and interaction among the "founding fathers," and it will also explore the many ways that recent historians have broadened their view of politics to include such factors as political culture, female involvement in politics, the politicization of everyday life, and the global context of U.S. politics. Students will write in-depth research papers on some aspect of politics in the period. Prerequisites: History 100 and any 200-level American History course, or permission of instructor.

Race in Early America

Mr. Lacson

Students in this seminar will discover and debate recent developments in the study of political history by focusing intensely on one of its most exciting periods, the early American republic. During the years 1789-1820, the American political system first took shape as federal and state governments established themselves, as the country experienced its first era of party conflict, and as philosophical ideas about the structures of American power and concepts such as "republicanism" and "democracy" were put to the test. The seminar will analyze traditional topics of political interest in this period such as political party formation and interaction among the "founding fathers," and it will also explore the many ways that recent historians have broadened their view of politics to include such factors as political culture, female involvement in politics, the politicization of everyday life, and the global context of U.S. politics. Students will write in-depth research papers on some aspect of politics in the period. Prerequisites: History 100 and any 200-level American History course, or permission of instructor.

Sex and Sexuality in American History

Ms. Lewis

This seminar investigates the history of sex and sexuality in the United States, from the colonial era through the twentieth century. We will identify changes, contradictions, and continuities in sexual ideals as well as the even more complicated realities of Americans’ sexual experiences. We will discuss the invention of heterosexualities and same-sex sexualities, as well as the laws, policies, and traditions that shape them. Students will write in-depth research papers on some aspect of American sexual history. Prerequisites: History 100 and either History 222 or Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies 111.

Stalinism

Mr. Cohn

This seminar will examine the political, social, and cultural history of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, with a particular focus on the 1930s. The first half of the course will feature a series of common readings on topics such as the rise of Stalin’s dictatorship, the Great Terror of the 1930s, and the drive to collectivize Soviet agriculture and industrialize the economy; we’ll discuss the nature of everyday life and social identity under Stalin, look at the impact of propaganda and revolutionary ideology on the values and mindset of the population, and debate whether Stalinism represented the continuation of the revolution or a divergence from its ideals. After looking at a set of representative primary sources (such as oral histories, memoirs, and diaries), students will then produce a research paper in the second half of the semester, delving into some aspect of Soviet society and politics under Stalin. Prerequisites: History 100 and History 242 or 244.

The European Metropolis

Ms. Maynard

This seminar takes as its starting point the explosion of large cities in Europe from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. As the narrative goes, parallel political and economic revolutions made possible–even inevitable–the blossoming of entirely new spaces characterized by unprecedented population density and diversity, radical shifts in architecture and infrastructure, and vertiginous social and cultural developments. We examine this phenomenon by concentrating upon the ways in which artists and intellectuals in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin (and occasionally elsewhere) grappled with the idea and the experience of the metropolis. Our investigations include political developments, social theory, the visual arts, film, literature, architecture, consumer culture, and music. Among the myriad of qualities and tensions inherent in the modern urban experience, we consider community and alienation, the fluidity of the self, spectacle and entertainment, disease and criminality, gender, and class. Prerequisites: History 100 and HIS 236, 237, 238, 239, or 241, or permission of the instructor.

The U.S. Civil War: History and Memory

Ms. Purcell

Students in this seminar will complete major research projects about the U.S. Civil War and/or its presence in public memory. The Civil War was a major watershed event, and students will study a number of important recent trends and debates in its historiography before defining their own topics of research. We will consider new approaches to analyzing the military, economic, social, gender, and racial dimensions of the war as well as topics such as popular culture, geography, immigration, and transnational history. In addition to studying the war itself, students will also consider how Civil War commemorations continued to shape U.S. history and culture during Reconstruction and beyond. Prerequisites: History 100 course and any 200-level U.S. History course.

Wagnerism

Ms. Maynard

The composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wore many hats. He was a musical and theatrical innovator, a prolific writer, an anti-Semite, a cosmopolitan, a staunch German nationalist, a radical leftist revolutionary, a vegetarian, a dabbler in Buddhism, an anti-vivisectionist, a utopian, and a forefather of modern cinema. Scholarly analysis of his legacy falls roughly into three periods: the hyperbolic construction of "genius" which seemed to follow in the composer’s wake during his lifetime, a generation of scathing indictment beginning in the 1930s in response to his posthumous embrace by the Nazis, and a more recent tempering of opinions in which scholars reconsider Wagner’s lasting contributions to aesthetics, modernism, medicine, and the politics of the left. In this seminar we examine some of Wagner’s extensive writings and creative works, familiarize ourselves with his most influential critics and their contexts, and develop individual research projects that illuminate some aspect of the Wagnerian legacy across the globe over the last century and a half. Wagnerism, then, serves as a lens through which to explore fundamental issues including the intersection of art and politics; cultural transfer; reception histories and aesthetic experience; the tensions inherent in nationalism, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism; and the politics of commemoration and revision. Prerequisites: History 100 course and either History 236, 237, 238, 239, 241, or permission of the instructor.

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