Fall 2020 — Term 1
History 314.01 “The U.S. Civil War: History and Memory”
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: HIS 100 course and any 200-level U.S. History course. 4 credits. Purcell
History 330.01 “The Politics of Food in Early Modern England”
Through an examination of the conflicts surrounding the purchase, consumption, and production of food, as well as the processes by which food became politicized, classed, and gendered, this class offers a chronological and thematic look at the ‘century of revolutions’ in England beginning with Elizabeth I’s ‘second reign’ in 1590 and ending with the Act of Union in 1707. Over the course of the semester, we will utilize case studies about food to explore how an early modern ‘moral economy’ and an ideology of governance centered on the person of the monarch gave way to a modern, commercialized economy and parliamentary politics. Prerequisites: HIS 100 and HIS 232, 233, 234, or 295 (Global Cultural Encounters). 4 credits. Chou
Fall 2020 — Term 2
History 336.01 “The European Metropolis”
This seminar takes as its starting point the explosion of large cities in Europe from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. We examine these new spaces, filled with unprecedented population density and diversity, by considering the ways in which denizens of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin (and occasionally elsewhere) grappled with the idea and the experience of the metropolis. Our analysis includes political developments, social theory, the visual and performing arts, film, literature, architecture, consumer culture, and music. Individual student research papers centered upon one or more metropolitan context(s) in Europe and/or elsewhere may draw upon course themes including community and alienation, the fluidity of the self, spectacle and entertainment, disease and criminality, gender, and class. Prerequisites: HIS 100 and HIS 236, 237, 238, 239, or 241. 4 credits. Maynard
History 342.01 “Stalinism”
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: HIS 100 and HIS 242 or 244. 4 credits. Cohn
Spring 2021 — Term 2
History 327.01 “The Civil Rights Movement”
This seminar offers students an opportunity to research and write about the Civil Rights era. Students will be introduced to recent scholarship that will compel them to re-think fundamental aspects of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States: when it took place, who participated, what it was over, and how the Civil Rights Movement continues to inform modern life in the United States. By the end of the semester, students will have produced a research paper based on a combination of primary and secondary sources (20-25 pages) Prerequisites: Any HIS 100 course and one 200-level history course. 4 credits. Lacson