A special subject not otherwise offered in the history
curriculum. Topics, methodology, and instructors vary from
semester to semester. Representative topics include "Women in
the American South," "Religion in America's Public
Schools," "Food and Power," "Women, Private Property, & the
State," "Marx and Marxist History," and "Slave Religions."
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Additional research and paper(s) normally required for graduate level coursework.
Athena Title
Studies in American History
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about selected topics in U.S. history by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of the discipline of History shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward past and present, objectivity and bias, and ethics and ideology, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources, using such sources to support their own original analysis of selected historical topics and organizing their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
Will vary from instructor to instructor and from topic to topic.
Representative topics include:
Women in the American South
Religion in America's Public Schools
Food and Power
Women, Private Property, and the State
Marx and Marxist History
Slave Religions
A sample topical outline for the topic Women in the American South would be:
Looking for Southern Women
(Re-)defining Southern Womanhood
Representing Southern Womanhood
Women in the Antebellum South
Civil Wars
Divided Houses
Gendered Reconstructions
New Women for a New South?
Remarkable Achievements and Tentative Alliances
Backlash
Changes at the Turn of the Century
Fighting for (and against) the Vote
Organize!
Women's Work
Farming Women
Domestic Relations
Strange Fruit
Challenging Jim Crow I: The Great Migration
Challenging Jim Crow II: Black and White in the South, 1900-1940
Civil Rights
Battling Ghosts
Women's Movements
Launching the Civil Rights Movement
The Story of Little Rock
A World of Difference
White Women and Civil Rights
Women's Rights: For and Against
