HIST 481 Topics

“Mexican American Generations in the 20th Century”

This course examines the leadership, goals, and strategies of Mexican American leaders using a paradigm of generations.  It discusses the issues that most affected the Mexican Americans, some multi-generation citizens and other recent immigrants, as they sought to become equal citizens in a pluralist society.  The key generations are the Immigrant, 1900-'29, the Mexican American, 1930-late 1960s, and the Chicano, late 1960s-early 1970s.  Instruction will include lectures, readings and films.  Two critical film reports and a semester research project are required.

“Salem Witch Trials”

The Salem Witch Trials: Taking as a case study the famous Salem Witch Trials, when hundreds of people in Massachusetts were accused of being witches and a number of them executed for what was then a capital crime, this course aims to develop students’ critical thinking, writing, reading, and researching skills through the drafting of an individual research paper on a topic of the student’s choice on a subject related to this matter. Through our close study of the trials, and historiographic debates about their origins, course, and consequences, students will see how studying a specific incident can open up avenues for understanding early American history more broadly. The Salem Witch Trials are an excellent place for honing one’s historical skills, for the incident has produced a vast amount of scholarship but also useful resources (like easily available primary sources) that make it easy to craft a research paper. Student research topics do not have to be about the Salem Witch Trials alone, however. Possible topics including the history of witchcraft in Europe, religion and popular culture in colonial New England, politics, war, gender, legal history, and more. This class fulfills the Writing Course (“W”) requirement.

“America’s World Fairs”

Over the course of the semester we will explore America’s World’s Fairs, with an emphasis on the fairs held in the United States. World’s Fairs enjoyed the height of their popularity from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, welcoming millions of visitors from around the world. We will examine how World’s Fairs reflected both the values and anxieties of their host cities and country. Potential themes for study include performance, architecture, exhibitions, labor, fair leadership, campaigns to secure the fairs, and participation by different groups of people. Students will identify and analyze primary and secondary materials to develop original research papers in this writing-intensive (W) course.

“From Royals to Romans: Ruling the Greek World from Alexander to Augustus”

When Alexander the Great died in Babylon he left his throne “to the strongest” of his entourage. What followed was one of the most dramatic dynastic struggles in human history. When the dust settled, the survivors carved up his vast empire into a mosaic of rival kingdoms. In this course, we will study the rulers of these realms by examining how they were able to establish and maintain power. What was the nature of this new form of monarchy? Did the kings conform to a single model of rulership? Why did the Romans maintain existing kingdoms, create new ones, and terminate others? How did Hellenistic kingship serve as a kind of pretext for the emergence of the Roman emperor? Could these kings “become" Roman? Our journey will take us far beyond the Greek heartland in the Aegean: from the Black Sea in the north to the Nile in the south, and from Atlantic north Africa in the west to the Hindu Kush in the east. Major topics include: the warrior king ideal, the role of queens, the royal court, local acceptance of or resistance to the regime, the deification of the ruler, and the kings’ adaption to Roman power. In doing so, we will draw upon a wide range of evidence, including literary sources, inscriptions, and material culture. No knowledge of Greek or Latin is required.

“History of Food in the Atlantic World”

Exploration of the history of Food and Foodways in The Atlantic World from the Middle Ages to the Present.  We will explore what studying food can tell us about the history of Atlantic cultures.

"The Vietnam War/The American War"

This is a writing-intensive course that introduces students majoring in history to the craft of the profession through a variety of strategies and techniques, such as lectures, discussions, work with primary and secondary sources, writing laboratories. All these will help students in their successful completion of a research project related to the subject of the course – the wars in Vietnam in the twentieth century. The course will cover history of the foreign involvements in Vietnam in the twentieth century as well as Vietnamese internal conflicts that contributed to these wars. It will consider origins and development of hostilities, wartime societies, culture, collaboration, resistance, colonialism, nationalism, and the outcomes of the wars. The course will also address effects of the war on the United States as one of the major players in the armed conflicts in Vietnam. The final product of the course will be a research paper that will bring together students’ skills developed in both parts of the course.