Winter 2022 Courses

Instructor: E. Seger
Format: Online, Asynchronous

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. 

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: E. Deutsch
Format: Online, Synchronous 

What made America modern? Was it the cigarette smoking, fun-loving Flapper elbowing aside the respectable Victorian matron? Was it leaving the farm for the assembly line or office skyscraper? Was it putting the overstuffed furniture on the patio and redecorating with the latest streamlined look? Or was it leaving the parlor piano behind for the movie palace and the television set? We examine the transformation of American culture between the Civil War and the Vietnam War, examining the way in which American values, attitudes, and ideas changed as the shape of our society did. We look at issues ranging from the impact of war on American culture to coping with changing race, class, and gender relations, to the rise of mass and consumer cultures.

Instructor: N. Mbah
Format: Online, Synchronous

Islam and Christianity entered African societies which were saturated with indigenous religions, belief systems, and ritual practices, and further connected to complex political and economic systems. Africans made Islam and Christianity their own through “translation,” “articulation,” “acculturation,” “adaptation,” “syncretism”, “conversion”, “revival,” and “revolution.” Muslim and Christian communities provide key avenues into the gendered social, political, and economic histories of Africa. This course examines Islam and Christianity in various contexts such as African state formation, international trading networks and diasporas, slavery, abolition and emancipation, European imperialism and colonial modernities, nationalism, social revolutions, and fundamentalist movements. The course begins with a survey of early Christian and Muslim communities in Africa, traces the expansion of Islam across North, East and West Africa, examines the indigenization of Christianity in Central and Southern Africa in the 16^th century, explores select African Christian and Muslim diasporas, and evaluates scholarly approaches to the study of African Islam and Christianity between the 19^th and 21^st centuries.

*This class is cross-listed with GGS 402/560