Teaching

"More than anything else, being an educated person means being able to see connections that allow one to make sense of the world and act within it in creative ways. . . .  listening, reading, talking, writing, puzzle solving, truth seeking, seeing through other people’s eyes, leading, working in a community—is finally about connecting.  A liberal education is about gaining the power and the wisdom, the generosity and the freedom to connect."

—William Cronon

LILH 201_H: Human Traditions (To 1500) [2008 .PDF] [2009 .PDF]

Humans first started to domesticate plants and animals about 10,000 years ago.  From that point on, they engaged in the creation of evermore complex and interconnected societies.  Along the way humans sought answers to intractable questions, undertook impressive technological and scientific innovations, and endeavored to develop more efficient and effective ways to get along with each other.  In short, they attempted to make connections.  This course traces some of those efforts, using both primary and secondary readings to delve into the past.  

LILH 202_H: Human Traditions (From 1500) [2009 .PDF]

This course will address the theme of "human traditions" through a series of thematic discussions including the nature of religion and secularization, the origins of inequality, various efforts to establish a ideal government, the nature of imperialism and empire, changing ideas about aesthetics, the development of consumer culture, the impacts of World War I and World War II, the nature of just and unjust wars, the Holocaust and Holocaust memory, the cyclical nature of drug scares, the politics of music, and the collapse of Communism.

HIST 150: Telling Tales of the Past [2009 .PDF]

Humans are obsessed with the past.  We study it in schools, reference it in speeches, trace family genealogies, and make movies about pivotal events and heroic people.  Courts of law rigorously deconstruct events to find “truth” as a means of determining guilt or innocence.  Slogans demand that we “never forget” and people routinely dress up in period outfits to reenact battles or to show us how people lived “back then.”  This course examines the various ways that we think about the past by exploring documentary and blockbuster film, “scholarly” and “popular” history, heritage tourism, memory, and genealogy.  Over the course of the semester we will focus on the myriad ways that people tell tales about important historical moments, events, and personalities.  Several possible topics include: the Jack the Ripper case, the Holocaust and World War II, a brutal massacre at Hautefaye, France in 1870, the American Revolution, the story of China’s First Emperor (of Terra Cotta soldiers fame), the nature of British colonial rule in India, and the rise and fall of William Wallace (a.k.a. Braveheart).

HIST 230: Europe before the Renaissance [2008 .PDF]

Now that the European Union is a major player on the world stage, the idea of "Europe" is hotly debated.  Does a European culture exist?  A European identity? Should historians seek to explore Europe as a single unit or should we examine history using a more regional approach?

This course traces the rise of "Europe," while keeping in mind contemporary debates about what that means.  Starting with the rise of poleis following the Greek dark ages and extending through the Northern Renaissance, we will address the intellectual, cultural, political, social, and economic developments that shaped what is generally referred to as "European history."  Topics will include Greek society and culture, the Roman Republic and Empire, the rise of kingdoms in the West, the Carolingian Renaissance, and life in the High Middle Ages among others.

HIST 231: Modern European History: 1500-present [2009 .PDF] [UPDATE 3/8/09]

European history from the Renaissance to the present, addressing the intellectual, cultural, political, social, and economic developments that have shaped the modern age. Emphasis is on the intellectual responses to science, the evolution of the nation-state, and industrialization, along with their impact on society and politics. What has changed over time and what has remained the same will be two of the principal questions asked throughout the course.

HIST 326: History of the British Isles to 1688 [2009 .PDF]

From quasi-mythical kings to marital strife, the history of Britain between the construction of Stonehenge and the Glorious Revolution is one of excitement, warfare, intrigue, and perpetual, though often gradual, change.  This course explores English history from earliest times to roughly 1688—a period when England developed from a region of disparate tribes and divided kingdoms into a single unified and powerful state with global aspirations.  The course pays particular attention to the development of parliament, the changing nature of religious faith, and the everyday lives of nobles and peasants alike.

HIST 327: British History from 1688 [2009 .PDF] [UPDATE 3/8/09]

This course examines the development of Britain from the Glorious Revolution in 1688 through to Tony Blair's "New Labour" governments of the 1990s. Always paying particular attention to the interactions between the various national communities found in the North Atlantic Archipelago, we trace significant developments that took place in Britain during the past three hundred years. Important topics include the emergence of political parties, the rise of parliament, the development of social and cultural life from the late-Stuarts to the punk movement (and beyond), the impact of world wars, and the rise of separatist nationalist movements

HIST 400: Modern Tourism [2008 .PDF]

Just as tourism puts people from different social and ethnic backgrounds into contact with one another, so the study of tourism forces scholars to utilize a variety of approaches and methodologies. As a result, this class is highly interdisciplinary and will make use of literary, sociological, anthropological, and historical approaches in order to trace the history of mass tourism from the Grand Tour to the present; in so doing the class also explores changing attitudes toward aesthetics, the environment, technology, gender, and social class.

Planned Courses

Irish History: From Plantation to Tiger [Spring 2010]

During the 1990s, Ireland emerged as a self-confident, upwardly mobile, even wealthy country.  It was a radical departure from the nation’s past.  Nationalists tell a story of English domination and imperialism, starting in the twelfth century and expanding dramatically under the Tudors, the Stuarts, and especially Oliver Cromwell.  The resultant sense of grievance spawned a series of violent uprisings and revolts; it dominates the narrative of the Irish past.  This course will pursue two objectives. First, it will provide students with an overview of Irish history, tracing the evolution of Irish nationalism, paying particular attention to the development of Irish social, political, and economic life.  Topics will include the Penal Laws, the United Irishmen uprising, Daniel O’Connell and Catholic Emancipation, the Young Irelanders and their attempted revolution in 1848, the Famine, the rise of the Fenian Brotherhood, the Gaelic Revival, the Home Rule Movement, the development of Sinn Fein and the IRA, partition, post-partition efforts to rebuild the country and to expand the economy, and finally the Celtic Tiger—a period of unprecedented economic growth that turned Ireland into an affluent country for the first time in its history.  Second, students will examine how the Irish tourist industry, a large player in the country's recent economic boom, represents these stories in tourist literature and at various tourist sites. The course will conclude with a two-week tour of Ireland in order to explore some of the sites/sights mentioned in class.

Holocaust in History and Memory [Spring 2010]

In the midst of World War II, the Nazi state engaged in a program of systematic mass murder, killing some eleven million people: Jews, homosexuals, the variously challenged, gypsies, Poles, political prisoners, and others. A survivor once described the Holocaust as “a world beyond human understanding.”  Can we comprehend such widespread horror?  How does the historians’ toolbox contribute to the beginnings of an explanation?  Yet the story of the Holocaust does not end with the defeat of the Nazis and the questions raised by this horrible period of European history do not stop in 1945.  Once the war was over and the slaughter complete, the Holocaust assumed a new role as a political tool and as a symbol of all-consuming evil.  Can historical methods offer any explanation for the uses and misuses of Holocaust memory?  This class examines these questions, moving from the roots of racial anti-Semitism to the development of Nazi racial policy, and from the killing to memory of destruction.  Beyond exploring the history, we will also examine historical methods and approaches.  How do scholars use sources?  Why?  What issues are involved when writing about an event such as the Holocaust?  Are there special challenges? 

"We're Not Here to Behave Well": The British Empire [Spring 2011]

In the course of E.M. Forster’s brilliant novel, A Passage to India, one of the English characters notes of the British in India: We’re not here to behave well.  And, very often, they did not.  By 1870, the British Empire was so large that the sun literally never set on some corner of its territory.  It extended from Canada to Australia, India to South Africa.  Despite the fact that the British government exercised control in all of these places, authorities utilized power in myriad ways.  The legacy of this experience remains a painful reality in the Middle East, in many places in Africa, and on the Indian sub-continent.  This course traces the development of the British Empire (focusing primarily on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries), the evolution of colonial rule, and ends with discussion of a recent debate about the merits of empire.