GRADUATE SEMINAR OFFERINGS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, FALL 2012
Updated April 11, 2012
HISTORY 300A Introduction to History Methods and Research, Thursday, 9:10-noon in Benson 200.
Professor Joel Harrington
HISTORY 301 The Art and Craft of Teaching History, Tuesday, 4:10-7:00 pm, Buttrick 212,
Professor William Caferro
Introduction to the theory and practice of college-level teaching. Readings on pedagogical theory, current research on teaching and learning. Hands-on exercises in course design, preparing tests and assignments, grading, lecturing, leading discussion, cooperative learning, service-learning, and the use of technology to enhance teaching.
HISTORY 302a Readings in American History to the Civil War, Wednesday, 3:10-6:00 p.m., Buttrick 316. Professor Catherine Molineux
This course is the graduate level introduction to recent literature in early American history, from the era of colonization through the Civil war. Books have been selected to include a wide range of periods, regions, topics, and methods. Weekly discussions will focus on the historiographical and methodological significance of each book. Students will be expected to write four short papers (1-2pp), 1 historiographical paper (7-10pp) and lead one discussion with the aid of the instructor.
HIST 307 Studies in the History of Medicine, Science, and Technology: Environmental History, Tuesday, 9:10 – 12:00 noon, Benson Hall 200.
This seminar will examine environmental history as a set of methods and a body of scholarship, setting it into its own historical context and comparing it with other historiographical traditions. Readings will be drawn from scholars working across a wide range of time periods and geographical regions, and we will see that they have managed to incorporate the environment into histories of politics, economics and trade, national identity, conflict, empire, domestic life, social inequalities, technology, and health. Students whose primary interests lie in any of these fields are encouraged to join the seminar as we discuss whether and how to account for human societies' impact on the natural world, and vice versa, in our writing about the past.
Professor Alistair Sponsel
HIST 321 Studies in European History: Nations and Nationalism in Modern Europe, Wednesday, 12:10 – 3:00 pm, Buttrick 316.
Professor Celia Applegate
This seminar focuses on the theory and history of European nation-states. We will move from conceptual works on nations and nationalism to common themes and problems in the histories of particular nations, including England, France, Germany, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Yugoslavia. We consider both processes of national integration and challenges to nations posed by migration, political upheaval, ethnic minorities, and, war. Written assignments include two papers: one short (a book review) and one long (either historiographical or topical).
HIST 358 Comparative Slavery in the Colonial Americas. Monday, 12:10-3:00 pm, Benson 200.
Professor Jane Landers
This is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of comparative slavery in the Americas. It will introduce you to exemplary scholarship in what is an exciting and rapidly growing field of "Atlantic world" slave studies. You will read works examining slavery in Spanish, British, French, and Portuguese America. Topics covered will include labor and culture in slave communities; the legal and customary treatment of slaves; varieties and examples of slave resistance, and free African communities in the colonial Americas. Please note, this is not a course on the antebellum United States.
HISTORY 365 Research Seminar in Latin American History: Modern Brazil. Tuesday, 12:10 – 3:00 p.m., Furman 226.
Professor Marshall Eakin
This seminar offers students an introduction into the key themes, debates, and trends in the field of modern Brazilian history through readings that include historiographical essays, scholarly articles, and monographs.
HISTORY 375 Research Seminar in Recent American History: Religion and the Civil Rights Movement, Wednesday, 12:10-3:00 p.m., Benson 200.
Professor Dennis Dickerson
The civil rights movement, a sustained effort to attain full legal equality for African
Americans, grew from religious foundations in the 1930s and decelerated in the 1960s
Although principles and precepts drawn from the nation’s founding documents and important Legislative and judicial decrees provided the rhetoric and rationale for the civil rights struggle, the role of religion was equally influential in molding the movement. In this course we will discuss how religion shaped the civil rights crusade and how debates about issues of faith among and between blacks and whites spilled over into broader civil rights strategies and objectives.
HISTORY 381 Studies in American History: Antebellum African American History. Thursday, 1:10-4:00 p.m., Robert Penn Warren Center conference room.
Professor Richard Blackett
This is a reading seminar (or colloquium) that examines classic and contemporary studies of antebellum black life in both the “free” North and “slave” South.
HIST 397a Third Year Dissertation Seminar, Wednesday, 4:10-6:00 p.m., Buttrick 308.
Professor James Epstein
HIST 398 01 Dissertation Seminar, Tuesday, 4:10-6:00 p.m., Benson 200.
Professor Sarah Igo
