Lower Division Courses |  Upper Division Courses  |  ProSeminars |  Graduate Courses

GRADUATE COURSES-- Spring 2010--- see also MA Program web pages

CORE COURSES

HIST 700   History as a Field of Knowledge
Trevor Getz
This course is a survey of recent trends in the research and writing of professional historians, with particular focus on the changes in methods, concepts, and techniques since World War II. The seminar will feature intensive critical analysis of recently published books and articles in the fields of European, United States, Latin American, Asian and African history, as well as Gender in History. The course provides an opportunity to utilize the skills associated with the professional practice of History. Students can expect to gain experience in writing critical book reviews and analytical historiographic essays. Students can also expect to gain experience in preparing and delivering class presentations.

HIST 701   Seminar in the Historiography of World History
Anthony D'Agostino
This course investigates world history as a body of knowledge and a field of study. It is a required course for all graduate students with a world history emphasis. It centers on attempts to set the limits and divisions of the field and the ideological adventure implied by a history of everything. The texts look at the most imaginative efforts to define the field with their various inclusions and exclusions.

AREA SEMINARS

HIST 720   Land of Three Religions
Jarbel Rodriguez
This course offers an exploration on the history of medieval and early modern Spain through the lens of the relationship between its three religious communities as Muslims, Jews, and Christians were all active participants in the shaping of Spanish identity.  This course will focus on the period between the 11th and 16th centuries as the kingdoms of Christian Spain began their “reconquest” of the Muslim south and brought large numbers of Muslims and Jews under their control.  The land of three religions that this conquest forged was a study in contradictions.  On the one hand, some modern scholars have termed the atmosphere that developed here as “convivencia” (a happy coexistence), while on the other, there are too many episodes of expulsions, pogroms, and forced conversions to keep alive the notion that medieval Spain was an ideal multi-confessional society.

HIST 730  The French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon
Sarah Curtis
This reading seminar will explore the historiography of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.  It will not be a narrative history of the Revolution but an examination of key books and debates.  In addition to the “classic” questions regarding the origins of the Revolution, the role of popular revolution, and the meaning of the Terror, we will examine more recent debates in the history of the Revolution, such as its political culture, nationalism, warfare, the role of religion, and gender ideology.  Special attention will also be given to the Revolution in France’s colony of St-Domingue (Haiti), which has become a vibrant area of French revolutionary scholarship and to the French occupation of Egypt as an early episode in “Orientalism.”

HIST 780  American Revolutionary Ideology
Paul Longmore
The great historian Carl L. Becker argued that the American Revolution was a struggle for home rule that became a struggle over who should rule at home.  The Revolution was first a war of national independence, the struggle of thirteen North American colonies of Great Britain to separate from the British Empire.  That in itself involved a radical upheaval.  But the Revolution was also the moment when the new nation defined itself.  This required more than the framing of the national and state governments.  It entailed vigorous contests about the future political, economic, and social development of the United States.  In addition, various kinds of Americans sought to appropriate the ideas, opportunities, and dangers presented by that transforming era to enhance their individual and group prospects, to advance their claims to citizenship, or to defend themselves against newly emerging threats.  Thus the Revolution raised issues of class, culture, economics, gender, politics, race, region, religion, and the relationship of individuals to society.  The Revolution meant different things to different people.  As we examine the Revolutionary experience, we must keep in mind whose Revolution we are considering.

This seminar will examine not only the major themes of the history of the American Revolution, but also the ways in which historians have recently thought and written about those themes.  We will both study the Revolution and study how to study the Revolution, how to think historically.  The format will be discussion.

HIST 785  College Teaching of History
Laura Lisy-Wagner
The goal of this program is to provide basic training and hands-on experience for M. A. students who plan to go on to either community college teaching or Ph.D. programs. Teaching Trainees will have the opportunity both to watch and learn from an established instructor and to develop their own teaching personality and style. There will be two components to the experience: six pedagogical workshops which all Teaching Trainees will attend together, and a practicum in which students will assist in an undergraduate class.
To qualify for the program, you must have successfully completed Hist 700, have successfully completed 12 additional History units, and be carrying a 3.35 overall GPA.

HIST 790   Readings in US History 1900-
Charles Postel
This course is a graduate reading seminar in political history, from the Populist revolt at the end of the 1890s to rise of conservative power in the 1990s. It will explore politics in the broad sense of the term, examining the institutional, social, and cultural/intellectual frameworks of political developments, and taking into account social groups often acting outside of formal politics, including racial minorities, workers, and women. The readings include a variety of approaches to politics and have been selected because they are proven “classics” or provide fresh perspectives. Students will be expected to read a book (or a series of articles) each week, submit response papers to the readings, lead class discussions, and write a historiographical essay.

HIST  850  Sultan and Sufi in Pre-colonial India
Chris Chekuri
This seminar will trace the evolution of Islam in India with a special focus on the political insititutions during the period between 1000-1800 A.D. This includes interaction between Hinduism and Islam, Perso-Turkic courtly traditions, early modern economic and cultural transformations, Sufi mystics and their impact of South Asian Islam, and the changes in South Asian Islamic political and cultural institutions during British colonial expansion. We will also focus on how the period shaped the role of gender and family, language and religion, art and architecture, as well as the state and economy. The course will include primary sources (chronicles and biographies) and secondary scholarly writings. In this seminar, student participation will be assessed on their critical and constructive contributions to the discussion and a final research paper.

HIST 680/880  Archives/History Internship
Arranged, please contact Barbara Loomis
An internship represents an unusual opportunity to earn credit by working at some off-campus site dedicated to the preservation of historic artifacts or documents. Students might work in an archive, learning the various elements of the work there in organizing papers or photographs, preserving documents, and making such articles available to researchers. Students might choose instead to work with an agency for historical preservation, learning the various elements involved in preserving or restoring buildings or artifacts, researching their history, and using them to inform the public. Among the agencies where the student might work are the Labor Archives (on campus), the local branch of the National Archives, the Maritime Museum, or the Heritage Foundation. Each internship will be separately arranged and every effort will be made to match your interests with an appropriate site for the development of those interests. Students taking History 680/880 for the first time should register for four units. May be taken for 3 or 4 units.

HIST 690/890    Edit & Publish the History Journal (Ex Post Facto)
Arranged, please contact Chris Waldrep
Supervised experience in editing and production of an annual journal of research done by SFSU students. Not applicable to major or minor fields within history majors. No more than a combined total of eight units may be earned in History 690 and 890. Credit/no credit grades only. May be taken for 1 to 4 units.

CULMINATING EXPERIENCE

HIST 896- Directed Reading in History
Arranged, please contact Barbara Loomis
Master’s written examination. Students must consult with the Graduate Coordinator prior to enrolling for the exam. Students should consult with faculty members whose expertise is the subject area of the exam they are writing.

HIST 898- Master’s Thesis
Arranged, please contact Jessica Elkind
Master’s written thesis. Students must consult with the Graduate Coordinator and with instructors who will be on their graduate thesis committee. Students register for the Master’s thesis with the Graduate Office on campus.

HIST 699/899  Special Study in History
Arranged, please contact the faculty member with whom you want to work.
 Supervised study of a particular problem selected by the student. A petition for Special Study and an add form must be signed by the instructor and turned into the history department office before the student can register for the course. A petition for Special Study that clearly outlines learning objectives and methods as well as evaluation of learning objectives must be completed and signed by the course instructor, student’s faculty advisor, and the History Department Chair before a student may enroll in this course.  May be taken for 1 to 4 units.