Summer 2023 Courses

Instructor: E. Seger
Format: Online Asynchronous
Session: Summer III

This is not your high school history class. We won't ignore presidents and generals, but we will push beyond them to look at ordinary people, popular culture, and the ideas that shaped American history from the end of the Civil War to the present. From Robber Barons and Captains of Industry; to radical unionists and free-lovers; from the rise of Jim Crow to civil rights activism; from Victorian bustles to flappers and feminists; from the New Deal to the Tea Party; we cannot understand the present without understanding how these stories have transformed America over the last century and a half. We will use film, music, and compelling stories about men and women living through the issues of their day to show that history is not just a list of names and dates. USH **NOTE: HIS 161 is not a prerequisite for HIS 162. Students may register for one, both, and in any order.

Instructor: P. McDevitt
Format: Online Asynchronous
Session: Summer I

This first-year seminar probes the recent history of soccer to analyze larger social, political, cultural, and economic processes. The main concerns of the course are wide-ranging, and include exploring the relationships between sports and politics, popular culture and national identity, gender and equality. We will explore the following questions: How and why did soccer become the world’s most popular sport? How has the growth and professionalization of the sport influenced the construction of race, gender, and national identities? How has soccer reshaped debates about human rights, equality, and citizenship? And, how do debates over the team composition, designation of home locales, and even playing styles of the U.S.'s men's and women's national squads reflect, and potentially recast, larger conversations about citizenship and national identity?

These questions signal the need to think broadly and historically about the ties between sport and society. They are intended as starting points, and will be complemented by new questions and concerns that students will raise in discussions and individual assignments, group presentations, and research papers. The aims for this course are threefold. First, students will strengthen critical reading and writing skills through weekly assignments designed to sharpen written and oral communication. Second, students will acquire first-hand historical research experience through the production of an original research paper. This process immerses you in the thick of scholarship, and will enhance awareness about methodology and historiography. And, finally, in framing this course in an Americas perspective, I invite students to think about the interconnected and transnational arenas through which ostensibly local (and national) histories of soccer play out.

Instructor: J. Labbie
Format: Online Asynchronous
Session: Summer III

This course explores the intertwined histories of Latin America and the United States from the Age of Revolutions forward through history, literature, and film. The course has three concrete goals. First, it aims to introduce students to critical themes in Latin American history. Second, this course challenges traditional narratives of U.S. History by asking students to take a second look at key topics in U.S. History that appear different when seen from a Latin American vantage point. Third, this course will expose students to the rich literary and visual culture that is a product of North-South, cross-border relations in the Americas. Equipped with proficiency in the history of 200 years of political, economic, social, and cultural exchanges between Latin America and the United States, students in HIS 219 will be able to understand and contextualize contemporary issues in the Americas such as migration and immigration, Americanism and Anti-Americanism, cultural and economic imperialism, environmental issues, and cross-border, social justice, and anti-globalization movements. AAL

Instructor: A. Morin
Format: Online Asynchronous
Session: Summer I

This course is an introduction to the history and historiography of Ireland from the seventeenth century to the present, with an emphasis on Ireland's social, cultural and political history from the Cromwellian invasion to the Good Friday Peace accords. While the past is important to most modern cultures, it is particularly central to modern Irish society. The past (or various interpretations of the past) is so often used as ammunition in the on-going battle over the relationship between the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The goal of the class will be to untangle the intertwined threads of history, legend, propaganda, and folklore which comprise the Irish vision of the past. Topics covered include: the 1798 United Irishmen's Rebellion, the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Catholic Emancipation, the Great Famine/An Gorta Mor, the Gaelic Renaissance, the Home Rule movement, the Troubles, the Irish Diaspora, and the roles of the religion, sport, music, drama and literature in the creation of the Irish nation. EUR

Instructor: S. Wan
Format: Online Real Time
Session: Summer III

Survey of Chinese views of the world order, exchanges in material culture across China's borders, and the ways in which Chinese governments and people have interacted with the world from the imperial era to the present era of the rise of China. This course is the same as AS 391, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements. AAL, PRE

Instructor: S. Handley-Cousins
Format: Online Asynchronous
Session: Summer I

This research seminar explores the many ways Americans have remembered and commemorated war in their history. From colonial wars of settlement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to our current "war on terror," we will examine the formal and informal ways Americans have memorialized their martial experiences, and how those memorial strategies have shaped American society. And we will debate the profound ways that the experience of war, both for soldiers and civilians, have transformed lives for better and for worse. Students will engage with the topic though a variety of primary and secondary sources, including works of literature, visual images, and film. Students will conduct primary source research on a topic of their choosing in relation to the themes and questions of the course. USH