This course will offer greater understanding of the history of medicine and how the hospital has become a central institution to life. Beginning with a historic and scientific discussion of child-birth, the course will then focus on cancer as an example of one of the diseases to which the human body is susceptible and conclude with a discussion of death as part of life. Central to each of these themes will be the ethical questions and complexities that cannot be separated from the practical aspects of caring for life. Through case studies, lab work, and invited guests the class will offer students an understanding of the increasingly complex nature of the science of care.
Natural Science Core course.
Covering the years 1861 to the present, this course examines the Civil War and its legacy. The course has three distinct elements to it, the Civil War itself, the emergence to two distinct historiographies about the Civil War’s meaning, and finally, the manipulation of Civil War iconography in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Each of these areas continues to shape the American social, economic, and political discourse. In accomplishing our objective this course is going to take some detours and side roads. As historians know, there is no such thing as a straight line between events. Among the detours and side roads taken will be discussions on the Civil War in the movies, the creation of Civil War re-enacting, and musical fights between some well-respected musicians.
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Between the end of the First World War in 1919 and the Second World War in 1945, the United States became a modern nation. Signs of the "modernism" were everywhere: in the rise of cities and urban cultures; in the mass media and its obsession with celebrity; in new norms about consumption and pleasure; in the politics of government activism and the welfare state; in new ideas about gender roles and sexual freedoms; and in new conceptions of ethnic and racial pluralism. In this course, we will examine the tensions, fears, and dreams surrounding the American transition to modernism in the 1920s and 1930s.
The central political, legal, and moral issue for the United States after 1945 was equality: of class and race; gender and sexuality; and many related issues. This post-war "search for equality" poses important and challenging questions: What is equality? How is equality determined? Is legal equality sufficient, or are laws fairly toothless compared to opportunities for jobs, housing, health care, social respect, cultural authority, and individual autonomy? Do we seek an "equality of opportunity" or an "equality of outcomes"? This course will explore these and related questions as they have shaped American history over the last 70 years.
This course will begin with an in-depth analysis of the French Revolution and conclude by focusing on the First World War. Between these bookends, the course will touch upon those events that contribute to our understanding of the history of Europe during the modern era including discussion of the anti-slavery activism, colonization, political ideologies, the changes brought by the first and second industrial revolutions, the rise of unionism and the suffrage movement. Through lectures, discussion, required reading, film, examination, the use of technology and in-depth assignments, this course will seek to provide an understanding of how these many events transformed modern European society.
For American students, Mexico might be the best known and paradoxically the least understood foreign country. You will learn the major events, people, and cultural trends that have shaped the Mexican people of today. Our course will start with the major indigenous cultures (Aztecs of the title) and end with the current drug war (the Zetas cartel). We will emphasize four main themes: the cultural weight of Catholicism, the complicated role of indigenous peoples in the nation-state, the epic struggle to govern a vast country, and the love/hate relationship of Mexicans with the United States.
A foundational course for students majoring in history, it examines various intellectual approaches applied to the study of the past, the history of the discipline, and the methods of historical research and writing. It is designed to enhance student effectiveness in subsequent history courses. History majors only.
This course presents an historical analysis of Lakota/Dakota history from pre-European contact to the present. Examining the political, economic, familial, gender, and educational transformations of the Lakota/Dakota over the course of three centuries, students learn to identify both the continuities and discontinuities with Siouan culture. Such an examination introduces students to a group of people whose culture, and some would say priorities, sit outside that of the majority culture.
This course gives students the essential information to understand the people and forces that have shaped today's Latin America. We begin in the era of European exploration in the 1450s and end with the violence of the drug trade at the turn of the twenty-first century. Along the way, we show how Latin Americans grappled with conquest, Catholicism, and slavery. We will analyze the dynamics of revolutions and radical politics of the twentieth century in places like Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.
After the Civil War, America’s overwhelmingly Protestant culture was transformed by religious “others”: by Catholic and Jewish immigrants pouring into the country, but also by encounters with Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims within the country and around the world. Americans confronted vital questions of religious difference, tolerance, and pluralism. How do we live as equals with people who hold radically different beliefs? What did it mean to be “American” if it no longer meant “white Protestant’? And, how can a person defend “my” religion if there are multiple valid pathways to spiritual enlightenment? This class will give students a historical perspective on elemental questions of belief and identity.
An examination of the development of American journalism from colonial times to the present. Using primary source readings and films, in addition to textbooks, the course will examine changes within the journalism industry itself, the response of that industry to changes in American society and culture, and the effects journalism has had on American life.
Students on an F-1 visa are eligible to work off campus to provide additional experience so long as the employment relates directly to the student's major area of study. The practical experience gained outside the traditional classroom supplements the theoretical and/or applied knowledge as a part of the student's coursework. The registration process for this course must be completed every term (including summers), as students must have their work authorization reissued each term to ensure continued enrollment. Jobs must be approved and verified by the International Programs Office before work may begin.
Special Topics in History.