HISTORY 710: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE EUROPE

Medieval and Renaissance archives are filled with long paper trails of criminal activity.  As European states grew more powerful, centralized and bureaucratized so too did their ability to more closely control criminality, record the judicial process and dispense punishment.  It was through this criminal process that many individuals who would normally never appear in a medieval record emerge onto the historical stage.  Not surprisingly, historians have mined these criminal records to illuminate all aspects of Medieval and, later, Renaissance life as the criminal records reveal information that goes beyond crime and into aspects of social, religious, cultural, and gender history among others.  The goal of this class is twofold.  First, to introduce students to the history of Medieval and Renaissance crime, law, justice and punishment.  Second, to highlight the use of criminal records as highly valuable historical sources that allow us a window into a past too often silent.

Instructor: Prof. Jarbel Rodriguez

Time: Wednesday, 4:10-6:55 p.m.

Other fields for which you can use this Seminar: Depending on the research topic, Europe since 1500 (Hist. 730) and Gender in History (Hist.805)

HISTORY 780: ANTEBELLUM REFORM

Ralph Waldo Emerson characterized the proliferating reform movements of the antebellum era as organizations of “ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent.” Looking at the amazing array of causes, Emerson exclaimed: “What a fertility of projects for the salvation of the world!” This course will allow students to conduct their own research on the “fertility of projects” that flourished between 1820 and 1860, ranging from utopian communes to the invention of the penitentiary, from temperance to abolitionism and feminism.  Students will read a number of books and articles to analyze other historians’ accounts of the underlying causes and impact of antebellum reform; then each student will conduct primary research in the history of reform movements in the antebellum era. Two papers will be required: a 6-8 page historiographical essay and a 15-20 page research paper.

Instructor: Prof. Barbara Loomis

Time: Monday, 7:00-9:45 p.m.

Other fields for which you can use this Seminar: Depending on the research topic, Gender in History (Hist.805)

HISTORY 790: HISTORY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE 20 TH CENTURY U.S.

The history of race and ethnicity has become one of the most important fields in the history of the United States. Historians have produced some of the most important works on race in the last 25 years, as new theoretical perspectives from ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies has influenced the study of race and ethnicity in the United States. Students will read overviews and monographs focusing on race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration in the United States in the 20th century. Students will pay special attention to historiography, methodology, and the writing of history. We will devote the first 2/3 of the course to discussing important books and articles in the study of race and ethnicity.         In the last 1/3 of the course, students are required to write a 20-25 page research paper utilizing primary and secondary sources on any aspect of the history of race and ethnicity in the 20th century in the United States. To this end, students will meet with the professor, read and critique drafts of their classmates’ work, and present progress reports to their classmates.

Instructor: Prof. Dawn Mabalon

Time: Thursday, 4:10-6:55 p.m.

Other fields for which you can use this Seminar: Depending on the research topic, Gender in History (Hist.805)

HISTORY 850: HISTORY BEYOND NATION

Historians have always been aware of the collusion between history and nation. If so, as the calls for the end of nation-state sovereignty grow louder, what will be the future of history? How do we imagine our pasts beyond our national belonging? If the linkages between nation, culture, and history are no longer as firm as we once imagined, what exactly is the future of our cultural pasts? This seminar will ask these and other questions and examine how contemporary scholars are engaging such questions. In this seminar we will examine how the call for a future beyond the nation is influencing historical scholarship in different parts of the world. Our seminar will be facilitated by a critical examination of many recent scholarly writings that explore a future of history outside, beyond, and around the nation.

Instructor: Prof. Chris Chekuri

Time: Tuesday, 7:00-9:45 p.m.

SPRING 2007

HISTORY 701: THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF MODERN WORLD HISTORY

In this seminar, students will explore the field of Modern World History (from ca. 1400 to the present) as it has developed in recent decades. Students can expect to become familiar with the leading historians, theories, and interpretations associated with the interdisciplinary field of Modern World History. The literature of the field will be studied in the context of modern historiography generally. The seminar will feature intensive critical analysis of recent scholarship, as well as an interpretive essay synthesizing the literature on a particular issue or controversy central to the field. Prerequisite: History 700 or permission of the instructor.The course provides an opportunity to  utilize the skills associated  with the professional practice of History. Students can expect to gain experience in writing book review of recently published secondary sources, and writing original, analytical and interpretive historiography essays. Students can also expect to gain experience in preparing and delivering class presentations.

Instructor: Prof. Anthony D’Agostino

HISTORY 740: EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM

How did Europe come to dominate the world? What were the consequences? This graduate seminar will examine the theory and practice of European imperialism in the modern period. The historical literature on this phenomenon has exploded in the last two decades, as European history has been reconceived as including both metropole and colonies. For the first half of the course, we will read a selection of recent books that illuminate various aspects of the imperialism process from the perspective of Europeans (especially the French and the British), including works in cultural studies, gender, theory, and politics. For the second half of the course, students will write historiographical or research papers that examine the impact of European imperialism on one particular part of the world. They will also be responsible for recommending a common reading for the class and leading a discussion on that colonial experience.

Instructor: Prof. Sarah Curtis

Other fields for which you can use this Seminar: Depending on the research topic, Modern World History (Hist. 850) orGender in History (Hist.805)

HISTORY 780: REGIONALISM AND NATIONALISM IN EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY

In this graduate reading seminar we explore the tension between regionalism and nationalism in early America.  We examine how Americans of the colonial and early national periods understood the relationship between their locality and the larger polity they were part of.  We also discuss also how historians have understood and conceptualized American regions-New England, the Chesapeake, the South, the West, the backcountry, the frontier-and the (incipient) America nation from the colonial to the early national period. Is the story of America before the Civil War best understood in terms of national history or as a collection of regional histories?  Assignments include leading class discussions, writing several book reviews, and producing an historiographical essay related to the themes of the course.

Instructor: Prof. Eva Wolf

HISTORY 790:

This course is a readings class, looking at the impact of law and constitutionalism on American society from the colonial era to the present, but with a special emphasis on civil rights.  The course will examine the most sensational trials and legal proceedings in American history, reading the leading historical monographs on those trials.  We will look at the Salem witch trials, Nat Turner, Dred Scott, the Scopes trial, and Brown v. Board of Education, among others. Students will select one legal proceeding for their own short research project.

Instructor: Prof. Chris Waldrep

HISTORY 830: INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA

History 830 is a research seminar designed to examine the place of Latin America in the international economic and political system and its evolution from about 1820 to the present. The course explores how international trade and capital intersect with the processes of nation building in selected countries in the region. Students will focus on two lines of argument: first, identifying some of the texts and authors that have contributed to defining each country's identity and culture; and second, how relations between Latin American republics and other areas of the world (Europe, the US, and Africa) influenced the forging of national identities in each country. Intellectual movements, and the works of some of the most influential Latin American writers, will be discussed in the context of the republics’ integration into the world economy. The courses goals are the following:

Instructor: Prof. Abdiel Oñate

TWO OTHER COURSES DESIGNED FOR GRAD STUDENTS:

USING COMPUTERS IN DOING HISTORY

Two courses have been designed specifically to meet the needs of graduate students, HIST. 660: COMPUTER METHODOLOGY FOR HISTORIANS and HIST. 661: INTRODUCTION TO SPSS. These two courses are useful for all students who wish to acquire expertise in using computers and statistical packages for their work in history, and for those students doing United States History as their major who wish to satisfy their Auxiliary Skills requirement with something other than a language. Prof. Jules Tygiel teaches these courses.