Registration for next semester courses starts the week of October 26th. Here’s a quick preview of what the History Department will be offering!
HIST 130 – Intro to Ancient Civilization – Maggie Burr
Online Synchronous, TR 1:30 pm – 2:50
This course will focus on significant developments in history from its Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greek origins through the Renaissance. It is designed to introduce the student to the discipline of history.
HIST 140 – Disability History – Wayne Tan
Online Synchronous, MWF 1 – 1:50 pm – First half of the semester
In view of current debates about racial and gender identities, the discussion of disability is more urgent than ever. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to answer this overarching question: Why does disability matter to us? Each week, we will survey major themes in disability studies and the history of medicine that push the boundaries of disability as we know it—by drawing upon a range of historical, literary, and medical sources, as well as digital media archives. By comparing disability cultures in a broad global historical context, from the 19th century to the present, we will uncover the roots of the stereotypes and representations of disability in today’s popular media, and make sense of disability as “difference” in productive and constructive ways. The course is flagged for Global Learning International (GLI).
HIST 161 – U.S. History Since 1877 – Jeanne Petit
Hybrid, MWF 11-11:50 am
This course surveys U.S. history from Reconstruction to the present. It examines the major social, cultural, political, and economic events that shaped the U.S. after the Civil War, focusing especially on industrialization, Progressivism, WW I, the Great Depression, the New Deal, WW II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Sixties and Reagan Republicanism.
HIST 175 – Michigan History – Jeanne Petit
Hybrid (Fri) MWF 2-2:50 pm
This course is a survey of Michigan History to the present and is primarily designed for students majoring in education. The main objective of History 175 is for students to demonstrate an understanding of the chronology, narratives, perspectives, and interpretations of Michigan history from its beginnings to the present. To this end, students will: examine relationships, including cause and effect, among important events from the era; identify the sequence of these events and describe the setting and the people affected; analyze and compare interpretations of events from a variety of perspectives; and assess the implications and long-term consequences of key decisions made at critical turning points in Michigan history.
HIST 200 – History of Global Pandemics – Wayne Tan
Online Synchronous, MWF 1:00 pm – 1:50 pm – Second half of the semester
In this course, we will look at various sources for studying the history of pandemics. We will begin with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and survey national and global responses to it. In our work, we will use data and make sense of the contexts of history and data, e.g. how do we use social media like Twitter to track real-time reactions? How do we write historical narratives about public health with statistical information? How do national and global responses to pandemics show the inequities of global systems of health? We will also look at other new initiatives in digital humanities (e.g. digital mapping) for studying pandemics in previous eras, e.g. the 1918 flu and the Black Death. For hands-on experiences with databases, the course will involve planned digital workshops. The course is flagged for Global Learning International (GLI).
HIST 207 – Intro to World History to 1500 – Wayne Tan
Online Synchronous, MWF 9:30 am – 10:20 am
We will study major themes in world history from the ancient times until around 1500—from the foundations of the ancient civilizations through the rise of medieval empires and the early modern maritime global order. Who were the Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, and Chinese? Who were “barbarians”? How did various foreign cultures interact with one another? How were ancient empires built and why did they go to war? What lessons can we draw from victory and defeat? These are examples of some of the questions related to the themes we will regularly consider throughout this course. By the end of this course, we will learn to appreciate how the world that we live in today is (and continues to be) shaped by events from the distant past and how texts, art, and digital media can help us tell our shared histories. The course is flagged for Global Learning International (GLI).
HIST 208 – Intro to World History Since 1500 – Lauren Janes
Online Asynchronous
An asynchronous online course that uses a digital textbook, social annotation, videos, podcasts, and weekly small group tutorials to examine the events that have shaped world history since 1500. How did Europe and America come to dominate the global economy and colonize much of the world by the beginning of the twentieth century? What are the impacts of trans-Atlantic slvavery? What is nationalism, and why is our world organized into nation-states? Did potatoes really change world history? We will examine these questions and more. (GLI, CHII History)
HIST 210 – The Greek World – Bram ten Berge
Online Synchronous, MWF 12-12:50 pm
This course surveys the major cultural and historical developments of ancient Greece from preclassical times to the end of the Hellenistic period, starting with the Bronze Age and Homer’s Trojan War and ending with the incorporation of Greece and Hellenistic Egypt into the Roman Empire. This interdisciplinary course analyzes ancient Greece on the basis of a combination of literary, historical, archaeological, and art historical materials, looking at, among other things, the Bronze Age Collapse, the establishment of democracy in Athens, the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, the revolutionary advances in Classical art and philosophy, and the conquests of Philip II and Alexander the Great.
HIST 221 – African Perspective Colonialism – Lauren Janes
Traditional, TR 12-1:20 PM
This course explores the colonial experiences of Africans as well as the legacies of European colonial rule in Africa. We will examine the different ways Africans responded to European military conquest and political domination from the mid -1850s to the 1960s and the ways Africans struggled for independence. We will take an especially close look at Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The course is flagged for cultural diversity and Global Learning International (GLI).
HIST 344 – Genocide in the Modern World – Janis Gibbs
Hybrid, TR 1:20 – 2:50 pm
The 20th century has been called “The Century of Genocide.” This course will examine case studies of 20th-century genocide, selected from the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and other less-famous examples. We will analyze different definitions of genocide, examine the international legal structures dealing with genocide and crimes against humanity, and investigate the historical context of the varied genocides in the modern world. The course is flagged for Global Learning International (GLI).
HIST 357 – U.S. Cultural History – Jeanne Petit
Hybrid – MWF 9:30-10:20 am
In this course, students will consider cultural history on two levels. First, we will explore changes in the ways American men and women of different classes, races, and regions expressed themselves through popular and high culture—including forms like vaudeville, world’s fairs, movies, television, and literary movements like the Harlem Renaissance. Second, we will analyze the influence of cultural ideas on political, economic and social changes, such as fights for African-American and women’s rights, the emergence of consumer culture, class struggles during the Great Depression, participation in World War II, protesting in the 1960s, and the rise of conservatism in the 1980s. Students will learn the various ways historians interpret cultural phenomena and then do their own interpretations in a research paper. Flagged for Global Learning Domestic (GLD).