WHAT IS HISTORY?
50:509:101:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu
Professor Kapur
What is the past, and how is it remembered (or forgotten)? How have conceptions of “history” evolved over time? In what ways does history differ from other disciplines or modes of analysis? How have various notions of the past been used (or abused) to support specific policies or course of action? Why should we study the past at all? In pondering these and other questions about the nature of history and the past, we will draw upon examples from American, European, and nonwestern history. This class is designed to be both fun and informative and is open to both majors and non-majors alike.
GEN Education Code: Art, Aesthetics and Theories of Interpretation , AAI
PERSPECTIVES ON HISTORY
Joan of Arc Through The Ages
50:509:299:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu. Will also being using zoom.
Professor Mokhberi
This course is for history majors and should be taken in the sophomore year. It is designed to teach skills–critical reading, effective analysis of arguments, research using primary and secondary sources, persuasive writing, and the production of various forms of historical scholarship. The course will focus on the Great Depression. Students will read deeply in the subject, complete a variety of assignments, and take turns leading discussions of the readings and films presented in class.
This course will focus on the myth of Joan of Arc from the Middle Ages to the present. Students will analyze primary source materials, including her trial and retrial transcripts with a particular focus on her interrogation and confession, to discern whether these produced truth or alternative meanings and to determine how authority is both challenged and reasserted. Students will further examine representations of Joan of Arc using primary and secondary sources produced after her trial to question how she has been reinterpreted through the ages and used as a national, political, and religious symbol. Through the examination of Joan of Arc, students will sharpen their research and writing skills and learn how historians interpret and write history.
GEN Education Code: Writing Course (W)
PUBLIC HISTORY PRACTICE
50:509:300:01
By arrangement
Professor Mires
Get your hands on history: This is an individualized opportunity to gain knowledge of local and regional history while contributing to a public history project based at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. The options include historic house research and curatorship for the Cooper Street Historic District and research and digital publishing for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. In addition to readings in local and regional history, students will be provided with training and ongoing supervision and feedback while working approximately six hours per week on-site on their selected projects. This course is by arrangement, with permission of the instructor, and is open to juniors and seniors with a GPA of 3.0 and above.
UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIP
50:509:475:01
BY ARRANGEMENT
Professor Woloson
A supervised internship, usually unpaid, at a museum, historical society, archive, or library.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION I
Prehistory to Charlemagne
50:510:101:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu. Additional times by arrangement.
Professor Jewell
This course explores the emergence and development of what has been called “Western Civilization”, from the prehistoric period, down to the creation of the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. Students will journey through much historical and geographical terrain, including the Mesopotamian world of Gilgamesh, the matriarchy of Çatalhöyük, the Mediterranean of Homer, Pericles’ Athens, Alexander the Great in Afghanistan, down to the rise (and fall) of the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic empires. Within this timeline, the course focuses on key themes, such as how different forms of knowledge, imperialism, religion, intercultural exchange and material culture have all contributed to our definition of Western Civilization.
GEN Education Requirements: Logical and Quantitative Reasoning, LQR
INTRODUCTORY TOPICS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Growing Up in Ancient Greece and Rome
50:510:380:01
T/TH 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu.
Professor Jewell
How do we write the history of childhood and adolescence in the ancient world? This course examines a variety of possible answers to this question through the case studies of ancient Greece and Rome, from the Classical period in Greece down to the rise of Christianity in the Roman empire. Throughout the class and in the final essay project, students will assess the applicability of modern theoretical approaches to ageing, childhood and youth, drawn from disciplines such as cultural anthropology and performance studies, alongside previous social, political and cultural approaches in the field of ancient history.
Students will encounter the early stages of the ancient life-course through various media, from portraits of youths and the material culture of childhood (e.g. dolls, games) to comedies, graffiti, tombstones, and biographical texts. Equal emphasis will therefore be placed on analysis of the ancient textual sources, as well as material culture from archaeological contexts, including the use of local and online museum collections in an artefact-as-history digital assignment. Classes will revolve around weekly discussion of thematic topics, such as demography and premature death, gendered notions of childhood and youth, coming-of-age rites, intergenerational conflict, the historical development of a youthful aesthetic, and the differences between elite and non-elite experiences of growing up, among others. Even as we compare two ancient societies—Greece and Rome—we will also look to how changes at large within these societies might be reflected in, or even be the result of, changes in the experience of growing up within them.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES I
50:512:201:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu
Kim Martin
This course traces the path of American history from before European colonization through the colonial period, the Imperial Crisis, Revolution, Civil War, and Reconstruction. We will examine the most important political, economic, social, and cultural developments of the 17th – 19th centuries, and observe how different groups of people shaped and were affected by such developments. Learning about the past involves a careful effort to understand the ideas and beliefs that motivated people to act in certain specific ways, within particular historical circumstances. Development of the U.S. I is an introductory course, intended to acquaint students with various ideas, events, and people from this particular segment of America’s past, and to introduce students to some of the questions and debates that animate the study of early American history.
GEN Education Requirements: United States in the World , USW
DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES II
50:512:202:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://Sakai.rutgers.edu
Professor Demirjian
This course examines the political, economic, social, and military history of the United States from the 1860s through the 1970s. The course will also examine the roles played by ethnicity, race, gender, class, the development of a national market economy, and the emergence of a powerful national state in shaping ideas about American identity and its place in the world.
GEN Education Requirements: United States in the World , USW
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY I
50:512:203:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu
Professor Boyd
African American History I explores the history of black people from the time of ancient African origins up to the Civil War-Reconstruction period. It examines the cultural, economic and epidemiological factors that contributed to the rise of the Atlantic slave system and the use of Africans as slaves in the United States and the Atlantic world. The course will also examine the impact of slavery on gender roles and the black family, and resistance to slavery and the rise of the abolitionist movement. Finally, the course will look at the role of black activists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and the slave revolts and conspiracies.
GEN Education Requirements: United States in the World, USW
THE UNITES STATES IN THE GILDED AGE
AND PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1865-1918
50:512:325:01
T/TH 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://Sakai.rutgers.edu. Additional times by arrangement. Also will be using Big Blue Button.
Professor Epstein
Massive inequality. Racial divisions. Empire. The United States of today looks a lot like the United States between the Civil War to World War I, the period when modern US history really began. If you want to understand the forces that still shape Americans’ debates over income distribution, racism and sexism, and the armed forces, you need to understand the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. This class will provide students with a better informed perspective on today’s world, a firmer understanding of US history during a pivotal period, and a foundation for more advanced study. It will focus on the following events and themes: Reconstruction; the emergence of industrial capitalism; the labor movement; Populism; changes in the armed forces; the establishment of Jim Crow; gender relations; the transformation of the United States from a continental to a global power; Progressivism; and the experience of world war. As much as possible, students will learn about this period from the people who lived through it—ex-slaves, industrialists, farmers, factory workers, immigrants, presidents, Native Americans, Supreme Court justices, suffragettes, and others. In so doing, they will improve their ability to evaluate information, to write, and to think critically about issues of great historical and contemporary importance.
AMERICA IN THE AGE OF WORLD WARS
50:512:330:01
T/TH 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://Sakai.rutgers.edu
Professor Demirjian
This course examines the political, economic, diplomatic, military, and cultural history of the United States from 1910-1945. During these years, Americans witnessed two world wars, global revolutions, the Great Depression, women’s suffrage, Prohibition, “talking pictures” and more. We will examine how Americans experienced the changes brought on by these events and the debates they engaged in as a result. The major points of emphasis in the course will be the Great Depression, foreign policy, and the two world wars. We will also view several Hollywood films of the period as primary source documents to help us understand how Americans processed events through their popular culture. Students will be assessed on a series of papers of varying types and lengths and on informed class participation.
GEN Education Requirements: United States in the World, USW
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY
50:512:381:40
TH 6:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://Sakai.rutgers.edu
Professor Mires
This seminar-style course provides an opportunity explore the ways that history is studied and communicated in settings such as museums, historic sites, and archives, and in the digital realm. Readings and discussion will include controversies such as the display of the Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and the creation of the President’s House site exhibit in Philadelphia. The course also will examine how civic engagement techniques and the interpretation of diverse, multiple narratives of history have come to the forefront of public history practice. (This course meets concurrently with the graduate seminar Issues in Public History. Undergraduates will build familiarity with public history through independent field visits to area historic sites and exhibits. The course also will provide an introduction to public history career options and advice on additional training necessary to enter the field.) Interested students are invited to email the professor at cmires@camden.rutgers.edu to request a draft syllabus. A reading list will be posted during the summer at https://charlenemires.camden.rutgers.edu.
JAPAN IN THE ERA OF THE SAMURAI
50:516:341:01
M/W 3:45 pm – 5:05 pm
Course being taught as remote instructions, see https://scheduling.rutgers.edu/remote-instruction for details, go to http://canvas.rutgers.edu
Professor Kapur
In this course, we will examine the history of Japan from the earliest times up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, including the rise of the samurai class, the emergence of the imperial state, and the development of traditional Japanese culture, including religion, literature, and the arts. Along the way, we will consider the extent to which myths and legends about the samurai are true or false, as well as the role played by women in the making of Japanese culture. This course falls under the following History concentrations: Business, Finance, & Economics; Culture, Literature, & Art; Gender, Sexuality, & Society; Law, Politics, & Government; Religion, Philosophy, & Ideas; War, Peace, & Diplomacy; World Cultures & Civilizations; China, Japan, & Asia.
GEN Education Codes: Heritages and Civilizations, HAC