History Seminars 2026–27 (Note: List is subject to change)
Fall 2026
HIS 314.01 The U.S. Civil War in 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 one 200-level U.S. History course. 4 credits. PURCELL
History 325.01 American Indian Reservations
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: HIS 100 course and one 200-level history course. 4 credits. LACSON
History 351.01 History of a Book: Said’s Orientalism
This seminar will examine Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (1978) as historical text and historical phenomenon of enduring significance. What are the main precepts of Orientalism—the intellectual tradition, scholarly discipline, and cultural discourse “by which European culture was able to manage [the Middle East] politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively”? How did it collude with political and imperial power? Within and against which historical contexts did the book emerge—i.e., an America grappling with economic adversity and a rising tide of anti-liberal politics, and a Middle East increasingly embroiled in civil and international conflict? Where does it fall within the larger intellectual history of decolonization in the second half of the twentieth century? How and why did the book redefine the study of the Middle East in the United States, for better and for worse? How was the book critically received by different thinkers? These are questions this seminar will explore, taking Said’s Orientalism as the centerpiece of a historical investigation spanning the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The aim is to encourage students to think critically about the materiality, exteriority, and sociality of books. Prerequisites: HIS 100 course and one 200-level History Course. 4 credits. ALMOHSEN
Spring 2027
History 309.01 Latin America and the United States
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. Prerequisites: HIS 100 and either HIS 201, 202 or 295 (Cold War Latin America). 4 credits. SILVA
HIS 33X Latin Christendom
Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the sixteenth century era of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, what we now know as Europe was instead best understood as Latin Christendom, a world in which a shared sense of religious identity, institutions, and practices created an “us” far more robust than any other marker of shared identity, at least for the majority of the population. But medieval Christianity was not a simple or a homogenous thing during these long centuries. Instead, it was complex, constantly evolving, and frequently contested. Students in this seminar will examine key themes in the historiography of this large and complex field of study and pursue research projects on any topic related to it. Such topics might include but are not limited to the medieval papacy, monasticism, women’s religious experiences, saints, heresy and the inquisition, crusading, or any of a range of medieval religious ideas and practices, as well as their innumerable intersections with other aspects of medieval life, for example politics and warfare, economic activity and the law, or sexuality and the family. Prerequisites: HIS 100 course and HIS 232, 233, 234, or 295 (taken with Prof. Palmer). 4 credits. PALMER
HIS 378.01 US-East Asian Relations
Civilizations do not clash; empires do. This seminar examines the history of U.S.–East Asian relations from the nineteenth century to the present, beginning with America’s entry into Asia as a colonial power and ending with the recent trade wars. It emphasizes the global dimensions of U.S.–Asian interactions: How did transnational and international forces between the United States and Asian societies shape the political, economic, and cultural dynamics of the modern world? How did the migration of peoples, goods, and ideas transform the attitudes of nations toward one another? Why was there such broad support for U.S. overseas expansion during this period? And how did activists, corporations, lobbyists, NGOs, and other non-state actors from both the U.S. and Asia influence diplomacy and global politics over the long twentieth century? Prerequisites: HIS 100 Course and any 200-level HIS course, and by permission. 4 credits. LUO