HIST 481 Topics

"Nature, Empire, and the Scramble for Africa"

This seminar examines the intersections of nature and empire in Africa. It focuses on the conquest and transformation of the continent in the age of New Imperialism. Together, we will explore the commodification of nature driven by global markets, interactions between human and non-human agents, the enduring myth of "wild Africa," and the rise of safari tourism. Highlighting the various roles of Africans in navigating, mediating, and subverting these processes will be essential. The course prioritizes methodology, inviting students to interrogate colonial archives, interpret oral histories, and engage critically with academic texts. The final project is an original research paper.

“Inventing America: Imagined Landscapes in American History”

Over the course of the semester, we will explore a range of imagined landscapes in early American history. By examining places and ideas such as the Seven Cities of Cíbola, the Northwest Passage, and the Nahua homelands of Aztlan-Chicōmōztōc, students will learn how long-lasting debates over North American history and geography have shaped the development of societies on the continent. Working through these places and concepts, students will probe the boundaries between categories like “myth” and “fact,” “rumor” and “knowledge,” while strengthening their skills as historians and critical thinkers. In this writing-intensive (W) course, students will be asked to analyze primary and secondary sources to produce original research papers.

“History of Social Media”

Conversations today are replete with concern for our ravenous use of social media. Subtle yet powerful technologies deliver endless streams of content, which generate ad clicks and mine our intimate data for profit. In doing so, they blur the boundaries between what is “content” or “advertising; what is ”real” or “engineered"; and who is “the consumer” or “the consumed.” This course explores the deeper historical roots of social media and surprisingly old (very old!) debates about technology, consumption, surveillance, and autonomy. Students are encouraged to develop research projects on today’s platforms that shed historical light in original, creative ways.

“Becoming American (on their own terms): U.S. Immigration and Ethnicity”

This seminar presents an opportunity to explore a variety of topics, among them the sources and persistence of ethnic identity across two centuries; its interaction with issues of race, religion, wars and politics, language, education, and social mobility; immigrants’ images of America and Americans or vice versa; various nativist and anti-immigrant movements; contrasts and continuities between contemporary immigration patterns and those of earlier eras. Students can take the opportunity to explore their own ethnic heritage, but this is merely an option.

“Feminist Movements in United States History”

This course examines the history of feminist social movements during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Students will explore how women of different backgrounds participated in the creation and redefinition of feminist politics and feminist thought across three centuries. Those in the course can expect to analyze how histories of law, politics, and economy intersect with histories of civil rights, human rights, economic equality, environmentalism, anti-war, immigrant rights, and more. As an advanced writing and research seminar, this course asks students to critically discuss academic texts, interpret primary documents, and produce a research paper using historical methods.