Program & Courses

Summer I: May 28th – June 28th

HIS 500: Historical Methodology – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Monday/Wednesday 4:30-8:00pm
This course is a broad introduction to research methods and academic writing. Students will learn to think critically about, and participate in, the art of the professional historian. It will expose them to how the discipline developed professionally, to the many interpretations of the past developed by historians, as well as the many disagreements that emerge from these interpretations. Students will conduct research using primary and secondary sources that will culminate in an original research paper. In the process, students will learn new and easy-to-use research aids, such as bibliographic software. The class will work with archives and may use local research libraries. In the end, students will have been afforded the opportunity to work and think like a historian.

HIS 770: Early Black Biographies – Dr. Ted Andrews, Tuesday/Thursday 4:30-8:00pm
This course explores early American history through the lens of “black biographies,” narrative histories that focus on noteworthy people of color from the eighteenth century. In this class we’ll learn about Phillis Wheatley, the famous poet, as well as Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who ran away from George Washington. We’ll also explore how lesser known figures – like Charleston, South Carolina’s Thomas Jeremiah – can reveal some of the central issues related to race and slavery in early America.

Summer II: July 1st – August 2nd

HIS 770: The West in the American Imagination – Dr. Margaret Manchester, Monday/Wednesday 4:30-8:00pm
The history of the American West and its place in American culture and imagination will be examined. Some of the following themes will be covered: the significance of the frontier; the impact of conquest on Native American societies in the West; and the impact of race, gender, and ethnicity on one’s historical experience of the West. The class will also use Western films, literature, and art to analyze the ways in which the West has inspired the American imagination.

HIS 500: Historical Methodology – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Tuesdays 4:30-6:50pm
This course is a broad introduction to research methods and academic writing. Students will learn to think critically about, and participate in, the art of the professional historian. It will expose them to how the discipline developed professionally, to the many interpretations of the past developed by historians, as well as the many disagreements that emerge from these interpretations. Students will conduct research using primary and secondary sources that will culminate in an original research paper. In the process, students will learn new and easy-to-use research aids, such as bibliographic software. The class will work with archives and may use local research libraries. In the end, students will have been afforded the opportunity to work and think like a historian.

HIS 510: Colonial America – Dr. Ted Andrews, Thursdays 4:30-6:50pm
Examines the discovery, exploration, and settlement of North America up to the early 18th century. Particular attention given to those factors which contributed to the development of a distinctive American character.

HIS 581: Europe Since 1945 – Dr. Matthew Dowling, Tuesdays 7:00-9:30pm
Since the end of World War II, Europe has grown toward greater economic cooperation but still experiences the pains of ethnic struggle and warfare. Examines the seemingly contradictory forces of unity and fragmentation. Studies the political, social, artistic, and religious evolution of the continent in recent decades.

HIS 770: History of Islam in America – Dr. Vefa Erginbas, Mondays 4:30-6:50pm
Did the Americans develop meaningful ways of engagement with Islam and the Muslims? What did account for their special relationship with Islam? What do these questions tell us about American history? From the very early days of American history, Muslims and Islam have played a peculiar role. The American engagement with Islam began when the Muslim slaves were carried from Africa to the Atlantic shores. In the next century, the founding fathers engaged with the Muslim states of North Africa through Barbary Wars. Islam also played a significant role as a discursive tool to criticize and sometimes demonize specific practices associated with absolutist monarchy or defend certain interpretations of Christianity. Since the horrendous events of 9/11, Muslims in the US and abroad have been under constant scrutiny and suspicion. This course will survey the American engagement with Islam and the Muslims from colonial times to the present. No knowledge of Islam or Muslims is necessary to take this class.

HIS 523: The American West – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Wednesday 4:30-6:50pm
The History of the U.S. West spans much of our national experience. In fact, for some (notably Frederick Jackson Turner) expansion into the West defined the American character. This seminar will center on a number of themes, notably the mythology of the West, its historiographical traditions as well as the “New” Western History, the region’s “sense of place” and role in popular culture, the idea(s) of conquest, and the West’s important environmental, ethnic, gendered, and working class past.

HIS 573: The Reformation – Fr. John Vidmar, Tuesday 4:30-6:50pm
This course is designed to familiarize the student with the historical events leading up to the Reformation of the 16th century, the political and philosophical causes of the Reformation, and the theological issues which emerged during the Reformation, using lectures and original sources. The course will also examine the results of the Reformation: the Catholic response known as the Counter-Reformation; the effects of the Reformation and Counter- Reformation on art, architecture, literature, and music; denominationalism; and political, economic, and societal ramifications of the Reformation –the “unintended Reformation”. A research project will require the student to choose a character or event of the Reformation and examine how it has been treated over the last few centuries by a variety of authors, coming to conclusions about the authors’ veracity, bias, insight, etc., especially as opposed to the latest research.

HIS 770: Early American Republic – Dr. Steven Smith, Monday 4:30-6:50pm
This graduate seminar will introduce students to the early years of the United States, an important, formative period that is often misunderstood. We will take into consideration the prospects, successes, limitations, shortcomings, and outright contradictions of the Revolutionary era and how it informed the early presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. We will also think about the democratization of social, cultural, and spiritual life and the emergence of new forms of political expression that brought more people into the body politic while simultaneously excluding large segments of the population. Indeed, questions about the experiences of ordinary people in the cities and the countryside will be central to this seminar.