Spring 2026

The History Department will offer the following 6000 and 7000/8000-level courses. The attached descriptions are designed to provide a clear conception of course content.  It should be noted that while 6000 courses also include undergraduate students (4000 level), a distinct set of reading, writing, and grading expectations is maintained for graduate students.

 

Spring 2026 - On Campus Course Descriptions

 

HIST 4102/6102
Modern Britain
Dr. Andrew Daily
MW 14:20-15:45

A history of modern Britain from the Act of Union (1707) to the present. Topics include: the British constitution; the Industrial Revolution; the British Empire; the formation of British identity; decolonization; the welfare state; devolution; immigration; and the postwar period. Particular attention will be placed on Britain’s imperial past and postcolonial present. - Back.

 

HIST 4325*/6325
Bronze Age Aegean
Dr. Amanda Gaggioli
TR 9:40-11:05  MI 305

This course spans the eastern Mediterranean from roughly 3000 to 800 BCE, focusing on interactions among the Aegean (Greece), Anatolia (Turkey), and Egypt. It traces the development and transformation of societies from the Early Bronze Age through the rise and fall of the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces to the Early Iron Age. Drawing on archaeology, art, and documentary evidence, the course explores the political, economic, and cultural interconnections among these communities.- Back. 

 

HIST 4630*/6630
North American Revolutions
Dr. Bradley Dixon
TR  9:40-11:05            MI 209

“This course introduces the political, economic, and social causes and outcomes of conflicts in North America from 1754-1815, learning what was revolutionary about the age of revolutions. Students will examine what it meant to be an American and a British subject and consider the motivations of a wide range of participants, including Native Americans, enslaved and free African Americans, and the fifth of the population who remained with Britain as Loyalists. The other great movements of the Age of Revolutions, notably the French, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions will place the American Revolution in larger context.
Throughout this course, students will read relevant primary and secondary sources, think about what these sources tell us about life in the 18th and early 19th centuries, write critical evaluations of the material presented, and discuss their assumptions, conclusions, and concerns about this era of revolution and republicanism as a topic of historical inquiry. As students complete this course, they will develop an awareness of the wide range of experiences and the diversity of viewpoints represented. ” - Back. 

 

HIST 7210/8210
Slave Societies in the Americas
Dr. Eron Ackerman
W  14:30-17:30           MI 223

“This course surveys the development of race-based slavery in Spanish America, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the U.S. South from a comparative perspective. Topics include the Atlantic Slave Trade, plantation life, religion, resistance, the Haitian Revolution, the abolition movement, and emancipation. Using a variety of sources, from slave narratives and planter journals to court transcripts and abolitionist broadsides, we will examine how the slave-based colonial plantation economy developed and how enslaved people persevered, resisted, and fought to liberate themselves with or without the help of white abolitionists.” - Back. 

 

HIST 7310/ 8310
Historiography of Ancient Egypt and Egyptology
Dr. Peter Brand
T 2:30-5:30pm                        MI 223

In the first part of this course we will examine the Ancient Egyptian’s understanding and use of the past. Over more than 3000 years of its existence, this civilization produced wide variety of archival documents, literary works and royal and private texts referring to historical. They built and inscribed monuments with texts and with pictorial scenes representing events both real and idealized. As these records accumulated over many centuries, the Egyptians became acutely cognizant of just how old their culture was. Yet until the Hellenized Egyptian priest Manetho created his famous account of Egypt’s dynastic past for the benefit of the country’s new Macedonian ruler, no Egyptian had ever produced a work of literature that we would recognize as a “history.” Yet the Egyptians carefully accumulated records of past events and used their own understanding of bygone days to legitimate their present actions.
In the second part of this course, we will examine how modern scholars have reconstructed and written about Ancient Egyptian history since the 19^th Century. Despite advanced training in language, art history and archaeology, however, few Egyptologists are grounded in sound historical methodology in their published works. The results are too often bizarre and outlandish theories that could fit the fragmentary evidence, but which probably do not. Moreover, “historical” debate in Egyptology is often framed– even held hostage– by earlier, long since outmoded theories that have taken on a life of their own through constant reiteration. We will examine works of Egyptian history from the perspective of historiography, dissecting a number of historical problems in Egyptology and the solutions offered by various scholars in order to determine how they dealt with the evidence. Having critiqued our predecessors and contemporary scholars, we will work towards a more sound historical methodology for reconstructing the history of Egyptian civilization. - Back.

 

HIST 7883/8883
Studies in African American History: Slavery and Freedom in Nineteenth-century American Society
Dr. Beverly Bond
R  14:30-17:30            MI 223

This course will examine foundational works and recent scholarship on African American slavery and freedom from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. The course will center the experiences of African American as we examine the ways in which enslavement and freedom affected and was affected by the nation’s social, political, and economic development. Topics include how African Americans created and sustained families, life within and relationships between enslaved and free black communities, the interactions and intersections between black, white, and Native American communities, and the multiple meanings of freedom and citizenship in post-emancipation America. We will also examine how and why slavery and freedom are memorialized and commemorated in public history and in public spaces.- Back.

 

Spring 2026 - Online Course Descriptions

Online courses are fully online and completely asynchronous unless otherwise specified.

 

HIST 4160/6160 M50
Russia to 1917
Dr. Andrei Znamenski
WEB-Online

“This course explores history of Russia from early medieval times (the period of so-called Kievan Rus) to 1917, when, because of the Bolshevik revolution, a 300 years-old monarchy was toppled down. We are going to examine Russia as a "middle ground" Eurasian country, whose history, national identity, and political culture had been forged during intensive interactions between Eastern European and Asian cultures and civilizations. We will examine the rise of Russian autocratic tradition and serfdom, which heavily affected modern history of that country. We will also discuss the formation of the Russian Empire, attempts to modernize its rural peasant society, and, finally, the rise of nationalities and the development of the Russian revolutionary tradition by the turn of 1900.” - Back.

 

HIST 4272/6272 M50
Modern Middle East
Dr. Beverly Tsacoyianis
WEB online

This online History course examines the major political, social, and religious developments in the Middle East and North Africa from the late 18th century to the present through weekly video lectures, discussion boards, and student presentations on course readings among other written assignments. Topics include: Orientalism, the Ottoman struggle to resist nationalist movements and Western imperial advances, WWI, the British and French Mandates, WWII, decolonization, the formation and political mobilization of new social classes, changing gender relations, the rise of secularist, socialist, and Islamist movements, and debates about modernity. Students will work with a general history of the region as well as sources on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, and the Syrian civil war. Interdisciplinary components will include a film and readings in trauma studies and disability studies. - Back. 

 

HIST 4292* / 6292 M50
Modern China
Dr. Yaowen Dong
WEB - Online

The course will explore the history of China from the start of the First Opium War in 1840 to the present day. It will examine political, economic, and intellectual transformations that contributed to the “rise of China” in the 21st century, with close attention to the relationship between wars, revolutions, and everyday life. - Back.

 

HIST 4330/6330 M50
Topics in Ancient History: A history of crafts in the ancient world
Dr. Suzanne Onstine
WEB online

In this class we will consider many aspects of crafting; the craftspeople, the materials, the technology, and the different contexts affected by crafts. I hope this will foster in you a deeper appreciation for material culture in the past, and will connect you with the human experience of creating things. - Back.

 

HIST 4851/6851-M50
History of Women in America
Dr. Christine Eisel
WEB – Online

In this course, we consider women’s experiences throughout American history, from the colonial period to modern times, with an emphasis on changes in women’s working, family, personal, and political lives. We will re-imagine US history by centering women’s stories, not as merely contributors to big events, but as historical agents whose fears, concerns, and desires shaped the past and how we understand it as scholars. Using a variety of selected primary and secondary sources, including monographs, essays, literature, and film, you will explore the ways in which women’s public and private lives intersected with, and were often defined by, changing ideals of gender, race, and class. - Back. 

 

HIST 7070 M50
Research Seminar
Dr. Aram Goudsouzian
WEB online

Students in this course will produce a scholarly article on a specific topic in their area of academic specialty. They will perform a series of scaffolded assignments that include a proposal, a review of the relevant historiography, and a presentation. Throughout the semester, they will perform in-depth primary source research, and their efforts should result in a polished essay suitable for publication in an academic journal. - Back.

 

HIST 7108 M50
Studies in Global History: Maritime History
Dr. Catherine Phipps
WEB online

 

 - Back.

 

HIST 7602 M50
US Historiography after 1877
Dr. Caroline Peyton
WEB online

This course will examine the major themes, historiographical debates, and developments in American history after 1877. We will consider both foundational texts and recent, innovative publications in US history broadly. Covering a wide range of fields, from American politics to the history of technology, students will analyze how historians have approached critical developments in US history from many different vantage points and methodologies. Thus, we will cover essential historiographical debates about topics such as the atomic bomb and the Vietnam War, in additional to considering significant changes in the American economy, environment, culture, and society post-1877.  - Back.