Upper Division Courses
Spring 2027 - On Campus Course Descriptions
* = Honors section offered
HIST 3005 001
Asian American History
Dr. Yaowen Dong
TR, 13:00-14:25 pm, TBA
Asian immigration has greatly shaped the social, political, cultural, and economic development of the United States. This course will examine the Asian American experience from early 19th century to the present. We will begin by examining how industrialization and empire-building spurred the movement and dislocation of the Asian Americans. We will also explore issues of exclusion, assimilation, and belonging of Asian Americans and their relationship with capitalism and wars. Lastly, the course will investigate the intersection between Asian American experience with feminist movement, African American Movement, etc. and how they contribute to defining what it means to be an American. - Back.
HIST 3009 001
Modern Catastrophe: From the Little Ice Age to Godzilla
Dr. Catherine Phipps
TR, 9:40-11:05 am, TBA
The world has always been subject to catastrophic events. Whether analyzing natural disasters or human-made crises, this course frames catastrophe as a method of historical inquiry. We will delve into the origins and outcomes of events from around the globe while asking how crisis and response has helped shape the modern world. Our inquiries will consider technologies, politics, environments, information systems, and religions. Further, we will evaluate how different cultures have interpreted and responded to catastrophic moments and how they build resilience.
HIST 3323 001* (CRN 29433)
Ancient Greek World
Dr. James Macksoud
TR, 13:00-14:25 pm, PT 203
The legacy of ancient Greece permeates many aspects of our contemporary culture 鈥� our philosophy, science, literature, architecture, theater, visual arts, language, our very democracy (and more) has been shaped 鈥� or even owes its origins to 鈥� developments over 2,000 years ago among the ancient Greeks. In this class, we will survey more than 1,000 years of Greek civilization from the world of the Trojan War and the Odessey to the Roman conquest of Greece. Our narrative will include the emergence of the Greek city-states (poleis), the struggle of the Greeks against the Persians to maintain their freedom, the conflict between the great Greek cities of Sparta and Athens, and the conquest of the Persian Empire (and practically the whole 鈥榢nown world鈥�) by Alexander the Great. We will also spend our time examining the relationship of the famous Greek myths to the historical world in which they originated, studying the development and practice of ancient democracy, and reflecting upon the extremely influential philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek thinkers. - Back.
HIST 3881
African American History
003 (CRN 16259) Dr. Beverly Bond 鈥� TR, 2:40-4:05 pm, JN 110
005 (CRN 30201) Dr. James Conway 鈥� MWF, 11:20 am-12:25 pm, PT 201
301 Honors (CRN 28335) Dr. James Conway 鈥� MWF, 10:20-11:15 am, PT 201
This course examines African American history from the 17th century through the beginning of the 21st century. We will focus on the complex nature of race relations, on the development of African American culture, and on themes, issues, events, and personalities that have contributed to shaping the experiences of African Americans. We are living through some of the most confusing, turbulent times in African American History. I hope you'll be able to use what you learn from our textbook, the primary source documents, the videos, and some additional resources in the modules/units to better understand these events. -Back.
HIST 4900 001
Topics in Women's/Gender History: Gender and Popular Culture
Dr. Cookie Woolner
TR, 2:40-4:05 pm, TTBA
In this course, students will develop critical thinking skills by reading, writing, and participating in class discussions to understand the various ways that gender is produced by and depicted in American popular culture. Questions we will ask include, does popular culture reflect the values of its consumers鈥攐r does it shape them? What can pop culture tell us about conflicts over not just gender but also race, class, sexuality, and national identity? By exploring these questions across a range of texts, this class will develop the tools for integrating cultural and gender-based analysis into an understanding of history. We will examine topics in 19th and 20th century popular culture and their intersection with gender from blackface minstrelsy to burlesque and drag, bodybuilding/athletics, recorded music, amusement parks, vaudeville, film, advertising, popular literature, television, music videos, fandom, and social media, among other topics. Undergraduate students will carry out original research on a related topic of interest. - Back.
HIST 4074 001* (CRN 29448)
Morning in America: U.S. History in the 1980s
Dr. Aram Goudsouzian
MW, 12:40-14:05 pm, JN 105
鈥淚t鈥檚 morning again in America,鈥� proclaimed a famous television ad for Ronald Reagan鈥檚 presidential re-election campaign in 1984. If the message captured a sense of national renewal, it also smoothed over the convulsive debates that shaped the United States in that decade and beyond. In this class, we will take a kaleidoscopic look at the 1980s. We will examine how Reagan forged a 鈥淣ew Right鈥� coalition that defined the future of American politics, while simultaneously escalating and defusing the Cold War, but also trace the evolution of liberalism and the emergence of grassroots movements to combat nuclear weapons and AIDS funding. We will delve deep into the popular culture of the era, tackling topics such as musical icons Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen; Hollywood blockbusters and teen movies; and the 1984 Olympics and the rise of the NBA. Finally, we will consider how ordinary Americans, from Yuppies to hip-hop artists. Be prepared to read, watch, listen, discuss, and conduct independent research! - Back.
HIST 4331 001* (CRN 28081)
After Empire: Rome in the Dark Ages
Dr. Benjamin Graham
TR, 11:20 am - 12:45 pm, MN 202
In the fifth century CE, after more than a thousand years of hegemony in the Mediterranean, the city of Rome experienced a political and economic collapse. An urban megalopolis that was once home to more than a million people was reduced to a village comprising a few thousand souls. For many contemporary observers, it seemed like the world had come to an end. This class is about the effects of empire鈥檚 dissolution on a city鈥檚 urban fabric and its reinvention in the early Middle Ages as a Christian capital, center for pilgrimage, and headquarters for a new, powerful city-state in central Italy, born from the ashes of its imperial past. - Back.
HIST 4801 001 (CRN 29452)
Black 榴莲视频
Dr. Beverly Bond
TR, 11:20 am - 12:45 pm, JN 105
This course focuses on the social and cultural, political, and economic roles of African Americans in 榴莲视频 over the past 200+ years. We will place 榴莲视频 in the context of state, regional and national events, and explore intersections of race, class and gender both within African American communities and between African Americans and other populations in the city. Course evaluation includes quizzes and reflection papers on the assigned readings (榴莲视频 in Black and White; Remembering the 榴莲视频 Massacre, An American Story; and An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in 榴莲视频, Tennessee) and a research project that will allow you to delve deeply into some aspect of Black 榴莲视频 history and culture. I can suggest possible research topics, or you may choose your own topic. In addition to the requirements for undergraduate students, graduate students will complete at least three (3) additional readings and produce a historiography which may be included in your research paper/project. - Back.
HIST 4851 001 (CRN 24314)
US Women's History
Dr. Cristine Eisel
MW, 12:40-14:05 pm, MN 204
In this course, we consider women鈥檚 experiences throughout American history, from the colonial period to modern times, with an emphasis on changes in women鈥檚 working, family, personal, and political lives. We will re-imagine US history by centering women鈥檚 stories, not as merely contributors to big events, but as historical agents whose fears, concerns, and desires shaped the past and how we understand it as scholars. Using a variety of selected primary and secondary sources, including monographs, essays, literature, and film, you will explore the ways in which women鈥檚 public and private lives intersected with, and were often defined by, changing ideals of gender, race, and class. - Back.
HIST 4863 001* (CRN 16312)
History of Childhood in America
Dr. Sarah Potter
TR, 13:00-14:25 pm, PT 213
This course examines the history of children and youth from the colonial period to the present. In this course, we will outline changing ideas about children and childhood: who is a child? What role do children play in society? We will also consider this history from children鈥檚 point of view: how have children鈥檚 lives, experiences, games, and expectations changed? Finally, we will explore the changing politics of childhood: who speaks for children and has authority over them? What is the relationship between children/childhood and citizenship? - Back.
Spring 2027 - Online Course Descriptions
Online courses are fully online and completely asynchronous.
* = Honors section offered
HIST 3301 M50 (CRN 18072)
Early Modern Europe, 1450-1815
Dr. Eron Ackerman
WEB - online
If you traveled across Europe in 1350, you might be surprised that this continent would play a pivotal role in the making of the modern world. The fragmented feudal kingdoms of Medieval Europe, with over a third of its people reduced to serfdom and nearly half killed by bubonic plague, would not make it a strong candidate for establishing the foundational institutions of modernity. Europe was relatively insulated from the flourishing trade networks of Asia. Christian dogma held sway over its culture and politics. The Islamic Emirate of Granada still controlled southern Spain as the Ottoman Empire began encroaching from the East. In a few centuries, however, this scrappy, plague-ridden backwater would revive Classical humanist learning, discover and colonize a 鈥淣ew World鈥� across the Atlantic, dominate international trade, lead a revolution in science, establish constitutional forms of government, and lay the foundation of an international order rooted in principles of individual liberty and religious toleration. These achievements came with great costs too, from brutal wars of conquest and religion to the devastation of Native American populations and the enslavement of millions of Africans and their descendants. In this course, we will use primary and secondary sources to explore the tumultuous transformations of Early Modern Europe. Topics include the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Age of Discovery, the Scientific Revolution, and the rise of absolute and constitutional monarchies in the Age of Enlightenment. Assignments include online discussions, quizzes and courseware exercises, and a midterm and final essay. - Back.
HIST 3671 M50
Memory and the Civil War
Dr. Susan O'Donovan
WEB 鈥� Online
榴莲视频 native, Shelby Foote, once exclaimed that 鈥淭he Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad... It was the crossroads of our being.鈥� But was it? Did the war and its aftermath change the nation forever? Is that what the historical evidence says? Take this class and decide for yourself. - Back.
HIST 3863 M50-51 (CRN 19324 / 26347)
American Ideas and Culture
Dr. Christine Eisel; TBA
WEB 鈥� Online
Ideas have a history, too! In this course, we will investigate the ways Americans have thought about essential features of social, economic, and political order. We will pay particular attention to the development of and debate over central ideas of equality, freedom, and individualism that have defined the order of common life, and how they contributed to the notion of an "American" identity. - Back.
HIST 3881 M50-53 (CRN 19341, 20872, 22525, 28787)
African American History
Dr. Elton Weaver; Dr. James Conway
WEB 鈥� Online
This course examines African American history from the 17th century through the beginning of the 21st century. We will focus on the complex nature of race relations, on the development of African American culture, and on themes, issues, events, and personalities that have contributed to shaping the experiences of African Americans. We are living through some of the most confusing, turbulent times in African American History. I hope you'll be able to use what you learn from our textbook, the primary source documents, the videos, and some additional resources in the modules/units to better understand these events. - Back.
HIST 3999 M50 (CRN 31107)
Doing History: Historical Methods and Skills
Dr. Christine Eisel
WEB 鈥� Online
Historians are detectives: we dig through archives and examine artifacts. We use tools to help us analyze what we find. We present our findings in a multitude of ways, including in classrooms, books, presentations, museums, historical sites, and even digital spaces. This course will introduce you to the ways historians find and analyze sources, and present their findings to students, scholars, and the general public. In this course, you will learn about these methods and develop new skills as work as a historian, too. - Back.
HIST 4162 M50* (CRN 30326)
Russia After 1917
Dr. Andrei Znamenski
WEB 鈥� Online
This course will explore the history of Russia from the 1917 revolution to the present day, including the formation of the Soviet Union, its development, dissolution in 1991, and the current state of Russia. The major themes of the course include World War I and the ascent of Soviet communism in the 1920s, Stalin's rule (1930s-1950s), Cold War, Putin's regime policies, culture and everyday life in the Soviet Union and present-day Russia. Since the Soviet Union/Russia is a multiethnic society, we will also approach its history as the interaction of vastly different Eurasian nationalities and cultures. - Back.
HIST 4260 M50* (CRN 19342)
World since 1945
Dr. Beverly Tsacoyianis
WEB 鈥� Online
This course examines the recent history of the world through lectures, presentations, and discussions of topics including the end of WWII, the Cold War, decolonization, and globalization. We will consider conceptual problems of dealing with such a recent period as well as historiographic debates about historical narrative, perspective, and access to sources. In addition to a textbook, historical fiction, and academic articles in the field of history, the class has interdisciplinary components including analysis of film and social science research. This course does not include material on US history other than as necessary for understanding world history, since the History Department鈥檚 curriculum includes a separate course on the subject post-1945. - Back.
HIST 4701 M50 (CRN 18090)
US: 1914 to World War II
Dr. Caroline Peyton
WEB 鈥� Online
From the outbreak of World War I to World War II, this course examines one of the most turbulent, dynamic periods in American history. The class will consider America鈥檚 role in WWI, a fractious postwar period, the roaring 1920s, the Great Depression and New Deal, and the rich cultural and social history of the 1930s. Finally, we will devote considerable time to thinking about America鈥檚 interaction with the world as it descended, yet again, into another global conflagration: World War II. - Back.
HIST 4851 M50 (CRN 18363)
US Women's History
Dr. Cookie Woolner
WEB 鈥� Online
In this course, we consider women鈥檚 experiences throughout American history, from the colonial period to modern times, with an emphasis on changes in women鈥檚 working, family, personal, and political lives. We will re-imagine US history by centering women鈥檚 stories, not as merely contributors to big events, but as historical agents whose fears, concerns, and desires shaped the past and how we understand it as scholars. Using a variety of selected primary and secondary sources, including monographs, essays, literature, and film, you will explore the ways in which women鈥檚 public and private lives intersected with, and were often defined by, changing ideals of gender, race, and class. - Back.