Current and Recent Course Offerings
Course descriptions are available in the .
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Fall 2025 Course List
HIST 400: Contemporary Approaches to History
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 1023
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Edin Hajdarpasic
The course focuses on twentieth-century historical writing, emphasizing changing interpretive paradigms and innovative methodologies, and will introduce students to the range of topics and influences that now shape the discipline.
HIST 410: Topics - Borders and Migration in North America
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 6156
Tuesdays 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Benjamin Johnson
This course introduces students to the major concepts, developments, and problems in the history and historiography of modern North American borders and border-crossing. Out central theme is the process of border-making: the ways in which nation-states claiming exclusive territorial sovereignty re-drew the continent’s map, intersecting with other ways of organizing space, allowing some people and things to cross while barring others. The readings are equally concerned with the changing ways that diverse peoples challenged these projects or sought to use or alter them for their own purposes. Topics will include zones of contact between the young United States with Indian peoples and European empires, tariffs and regulations on importing goods across borders, efforts to exclude migrants, and the politicization of these issues in recent decades. We will encounter familiar figures like Donald Trump and border patrol agents, but also less familiar stories of fugitive slaves crossing to Mexico, Indians fleeing into the United States, and Americans crossing into Canada for alcohol. An overarching question of the seminar is how a consideration of these topics recasts our understanding of the national histories of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
HIST 461: Twentieth Century America
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 5630
Tuesdays 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Ellie Shermer
Reading and discussion seminar. Students will read monographs and articles in 20th century U.S. history, including social, cultural, intellectual, and other approaches. The final assignment will be a long historiographic paper.
HIST 479: Public History Media
Thursdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Christopher Cantwell
An introduction to the field of digital humanities and public media. Through a series of assignments and in-class labs centered around common Digital Humanities tools and platforms, the class will explore current and historical conversations in digital humanities and new media and address theoretical and practical problems involved in digital humanities-based methods and methodology. The final product of each assignment will be a collaborative digital public humanities project.
HIST 480: Public History: Method and Theory
Mondays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin
This course explores the field of public history with special emphasis on the theoretical and methodological challenges faced when preserving or presenting history outside of a formal classroom environment. Also under consideration will be the professional and ethical responsibilities of the historian both inside and outside of the university setting. Students will be able to understand the theoretical and methodological issues of importance to the field of public history, reflect upon ethical issues involved in the collection, curation, and presentation of history, and participate in applied projects drawing upon public history methodologies and presentation modes.
HIST 510: Research Seminar - Special Topics
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 5635
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Brad Hunt
Research seminar using primary sources in cultural, social, technological, intellectual, and institutional history. Topics vary according to the interest of the instructor. Students will learn how to local and analyze archival material to develop an original article-length research paper. Students will learn how to locate and analyze archival materials to develop an original article-length research paper.
Spring 2025 Course List
HIST 410: Topics - Religion, Politics, Modern America
Mondays 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Christopher Cantwell
This course will explore how religion and politics shaped the modern United States. In addition to exploring the political preferences of major religious communities or leaders, the course will also consider how politics has defined the contours of religion. To do this, students will read important works in the field of American religious history, as well as canonical pieces from the field of religious studies.
HIST 410: Topics - Writing as Public History
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Elliott Gorn
Historians are writers, yet many seem to be unaware of that fact. We'll break away from those staples of graduate school education--university press books and journal articles--to explore alternative forms of writing history, such as magazine articles, podcasts, and screenwriting. A recurring question—how to write good history and reach audiences beyond the academy?
HIST 464: Transnational Urban History
Tuesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Brad Hunt
This class exposes students to the history of cities across a broad spectrum of time and place. The level of analysis is both more global and more local than traditional narratives of the nation state. This course explores the recurring challenges and possibilities of urban life and urban governance across cultures and time. An emphasis on reading and writing will help students develop the skills of critical analysis.
HIST 481: Management of Historic 草莓社区
Thursdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Suzanne Germann
This class is an introduction to historic preservation. The class will review the way public historians work to protect the material culture of the built environment on a local, state, and national level. The class will consist of lectures on aspects of historic preservation, the discussion of weekly readings, and the execution of a preservation project. The project will be to prepare a National Register of Historic Places nomination on a single property or historic district.
HIST 487: Public History: Museums
Tuesdays - 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo
This course introduces graduate students to issues involved in the management of history museums while considering many questions about the role and function of museums in American society. What does it mean to say that museums serve the public? How can museums become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive institutions? How do museums tell stories and who gets to decide what stories to tell? How and why do museums collect, care for, and display some objects and not others? Why do people visit museums, what do they experience there, and what do those visits mean to them? What does "success" look like and how does one measure it? What financial, administrative, and ethical issues do museums face? How can museums critically address today's complex political, cultural, and social realities?
HIST 510: Research Seminar - Special Topics
Mondays 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Benjamin Johnson
Research seminar using primary sources in cultural, social, technological, intellectual, and institutional history. Topics vary according to the interest of the instructor. Students will learn how to local and analyze archival material to develop an original article-length research paper. Students will learn how to locate and analyze archival materials to develop an original article-length research paper
Course descriptions are available in the .
Course instructor and location information is available in .
Fall 2025 Course List
HIST 400: Contemporary Approaches to History
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 1023
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Edin Hajdarpasic
The course focuses on twentieth-century historical writing, emphasizing changing interpretive paradigms and innovative methodologies, and will introduce students to the range of topics and influences that now shape the discipline.
HIST 410: Topics - Borders and Migration in North America
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 6156
Tuesdays 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Benjamin Johnson
This course introduces students to the major concepts, developments, and problems in the history and historiography of modern North American borders and border-crossing. Out central theme is the process of border-making: the ways in which nation-states claiming exclusive territorial sovereignty re-drew the continent’s map, intersecting with other ways of organizing space, allowing some people and things to cross while barring others. The readings are equally concerned with the changing ways that diverse peoples challenged these projects or sought to use or alter them for their own purposes. Topics will include zones of contact between the young United States with Indian peoples and European empires, tariffs and regulations on importing goods across borders, efforts to exclude migrants, and the politicization of these issues in recent decades. We will encounter familiar figures like Donald Trump and border patrol agents, but also less familiar stories of fugitive slaves crossing to Mexico, Indians fleeing into the United States, and Americans crossing into Canada for alcohol. An overarching question of the seminar is how a consideration of these topics recasts our understanding of the national histories of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
HIST 461: Twentieth Century America
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 5630
Tuesdays 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Ellie Shermer
Reading and discussion seminar. Students will read monographs and articles in 20th century U.S. history, including social, cultural, intellectual, and other approaches. The final assignment will be a long historiographic paper.
HIST 479: Public History Media
Thursdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Christopher Cantwell
An introduction to the field of digital humanities and public media. Through a series of assignments and in-class labs centered around common Digital Humanities tools and platforms, the class will explore current and historical conversations in digital humanities and new media and address theoretical and practical problems involved in digital humanities-based methods and methodology. The final product of each assignment will be a collaborative digital public humanities project.
HIST 480: Public History: Method and Theory
Mondays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin
This course explores the field of public history with special emphasis on the theoretical and methodological challenges faced when preserving or presenting history outside of a formal classroom environment. Also under consideration will be the professional and ethical responsibilities of the historian both inside and outside of the university setting. Students will be able to understand the theoretical and methodological issues of importance to the field of public history, reflect upon ethical issues involved in the collection, curation, and presentation of history, and participate in applied projects drawing upon public history methodologies and presentation modes.
HIST 510: Research Seminar - Special Topics
Call number used to register for this course in LOCUS: 5635
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Brad Hunt
Research seminar using primary sources in cultural, social, technological, intellectual, and institutional history. Topics vary according to the interest of the instructor. Students will learn how to local and analyze archival material to develop an original article-length research paper. Students will learn how to locate and analyze archival materials to develop an original article-length research paper.
Spring 2025 Course List
HIST 410: Topics - Religion, Politics, Modern America
Mondays 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Christopher Cantwell
This course will explore how religion and politics shaped the modern United States. In addition to exploring the political preferences of major religious communities or leaders, the course will also consider how politics has defined the contours of religion. To do this, students will read important works in the field of American religious history, as well as canonical pieces from the field of religious studies.
HIST 410: Topics - Writing as Public History
Wednesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Elliott Gorn
Historians are writers, yet many seem to be unaware of that fact. We'll break away from those staples of graduate school education--university press books and journal articles--to explore alternative forms of writing history, such as magazine articles, podcasts, and screenwriting. A recurring question—how to write good history and reach audiences beyond the academy?
HIST 464: Transnational Urban History
Tuesdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Brad Hunt
This class exposes students to the history of cities across a broad spectrum of time and place. The level of analysis is both more global and more local than traditional narratives of the nation state. This course explores the recurring challenges and possibilities of urban life and urban governance across cultures and time. An emphasis on reading and writing will help students develop the skills of critical analysis.
HIST 481: Management of Historic 草莓社区
Thursdays 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Suzanne Germann
This class is an introduction to historic preservation. The class will review the way public historians work to protect the material culture of the built environment on a local, state, and national level. The class will consist of lectures on aspects of historic preservation, the discussion of weekly readings, and the execution of a preservation project. The project will be to prepare a National Register of Historic Places nomination on a single property or historic district.
HIST 487: Public History: Museums
Tuesdays - 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo
This course introduces graduate students to issues involved in the management of history museums while considering many questions about the role and function of museums in American society. What does it mean to say that museums serve the public? How can museums become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive institutions? How do museums tell stories and who gets to decide what stories to tell? How and why do museums collect, care for, and display some objects and not others? Why do people visit museums, what do they experience there, and what do those visits mean to them? What does "success" look like and how does one measure it? What financial, administrative, and ethical issues do museums face? How can museums critically address today's complex political, cultural, and social realities?
HIST 510: Research Seminar - Special Topics
Mondays 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Benjamin Johnson
Research seminar using primary sources in cultural, social, technological, intellectual, and institutional history. Topics vary according to the interest of the instructor. Students will learn how to local and analyze archival material to develop an original article-length research paper. Students will learn how to locate and analyze archival materials to develop an original article-length research paper