Graduate Courses

The department seeks to help students earn an M.A. in two years and complete the coursework for a Ph.D. in one additional year. The standard rotation of course offerings should be useful for planning purposes but is not a commitment by the department. The selection of topics courses (numbered Hist 700 and identified by suffix and title) and other advanced reading courses (700-level courses except 701-710, 720, and 783) available in any term will depend on the faculty teaching in the program, and the availability of all courses will depend on the fields elected by current students.

For example in Spring 2006, which is Spring of Year 2 in the schedule below, the department will offer topics courses Hist 700A (“Internationalizing American History”), Hist 700B (“Problems in Women’s and Gender History”), and Hist 700C (“Economic Growth and Development in Modern History”) as well as advanced reading courses Hist 712 (“Practicum in Public History”), Hist 748 (“The Middle East and North Africa, 1798-1962"), Hist 764 (“History of American Women”), and Hist 766 (“Readings in American Diplomatic History, 1914 - present”). The department will not offer Hist 706 or 807, which no students presently need.

As noted below, the department makes a particular effort to offer topic courses every semester that meet field requirements in Culture, Identity, and Economic Development (CIED). These courses also fit into various combinations of other fields.

The department expects students to meet field requirements primarily through the announced course offerings, but it recognizes that it recognizes that independent work can be an important element of some students’ programs. Students planning to count individualized arrangements toward field requirements should obtain the approval of the graduate committee prior to the semester in which the student would like to take the independent course.

A list of all graduate courses offered by the department since 2001-2002, with descriptions of topics courses, is available online. For descriptions of all department courses other than topics courses, consult the Graduate Bulletin.

History Department – Graduate Courses, 2008-2009

Fall, 2008

History 700N – K. Germany Th 5:00-7:30
“Oral History”

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a class about seeing and hearing, looking and listening. It is designed to introduce students to oral history, to issues of memory and history, and to their role in documentary studies. This course will address three major questions: 1) How do people tell their stories? 2) What are the meanings of those stories? 3) What are the best ways to document those stories and experiences about the past and present them in edited form to an interested general audience? Students will explore various methods, theories, and ethical concerns facing historians engaged in oral and documentary research and will read and write extensively about those issues. Students will also receive instruction in creating a digital archive of their research, in editing digital audio, and in producing work using new media. The major assignment for the course will be a significant research project using oral and documentary history. As part of that project, students will be expected to produce an audio/video archive of their work during the course and either a short audio documentary essay (or video or digital essay) on their topic or a paper intended for publication in a scholarly publication.

History 700R – SP Mackenzie W 2:30-5:00
“Warfare and Society in the Modern World”
(Meets requirements for fields in Modern Europe; “Culture, Identity, and Economic Development.”)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course aims to expose students to the varied interactions between societies and warfare from the fifteenth century down through the twentieth century. Western developments will receive due consideration, but events and processes in the non-Western world shall also receive a good deal of emphasis. Themes to be explored will include the connections between socio-cultural norms within various societies and their ‘ways of war’, civil-military relations, technological developments, and attempts at root-and branch military reform in the face of external threats. The place of War & Society as a sub-discipline within History will also be examined.

History 702 – L. Ford W 9:00-11:30

History 707B – E. Kerenji M 6:30-9:00

History 720 – WD Kinzley F 9:30-12:00

History 752 – D. Littlefield T 5:00-7:30

History 787 – A. Marsh W 5:30-8:00

History 792 – R. Weyeneth M 2:30-5:00

History 803 – L. Glickman Th 2:00-4:30

 

Spring, 2009 (Tentative)

History 700_ - V. Littlefield
“Women in Southern History, 1865-Present”

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Students will explore the role of gender, class, race, and region in understanding Southern women ’s experiences. Readings, films, music, guest speakers, and discussions will be used to illuminate the myths and realities of Southern women during the 19th and 20th centuries.

History 700 – Sklaroff
“US Cultural History”

History 700_ - G. Kuenzli
“Race and Ethnicity in Latin America”
COURSE DESCRIPTION

History 703 – Hendricks

History 706 – Edwards
“Religion and Society in Europe, 1400-1800”
(Meets requirements for fields Medieval and Early Modern Europe; “Culture, Identity, and Economic Development)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The religious revolutions of sixteenth-century Europe not only challenged theological truisms but undermined the premises upon which much of European society was built. Moving from a united Christendom to fragmented Christianities challenged the intellectual foundations for monarchical rule and paternal authority. The ability of Luther and other reformers to defy clerical authorities, and the beliefs that supported this defiance, provided later revolutionaries with powerful ideologies. Events stemming from this religious crisis, such as the French Wars of Religion and the imperial wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, would influence European politics and society well into the nineteenth century. This seminar will explore the social and cultural repercussions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and suggest ways in which they influenced later debates and policies in both Europe and those areas touched by European cultures. Among the topics to be covered are popular culture and spiritual life in pre-Reformation Europe, Christianity and revolution, the ideology of the early Reformation, technology and religious propaganda, religious reform and gender, the practical effects of doctrinal decisions, divisions within both Protestant and Catholic confessions (for example, the formation of Puritans, Presbyterians, Pietists, and Jansenists), "Christianizing" the European population, developing colonial missionary programs (here the emphasis will be on Latin America and Asia), spirituality and the Scientific Revolution, folkloric religion v. doctrinal orthodoxy, and the place of religion in the Enlightenment. Reading will be primarily in secondary sources designed to provide the student with the material for an examination field in Medieval Europe, Early Modern Europe, or CIED. Assignments will consist of book reviews, class presentations, and a historiographical essay.

History 712 – Weyeneth
“Public History Practicum”

History 802 – Ford

History 815 – Coenen Snyder