READINGS IN EARLY AMERICA, 1763 to 1820
56:512:505:01
TH 2:00 pm – 4:50 pm
Professor Shankman
Examines the principal political, social, economic, and cultural developments from the Seven Years War through the Missouri Crisis and Panic of 1819.
READINGS IN US HISTORY, 1898-1945
56:512:507:01
T 6:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Professor Epstein
The period from 1898 to 1945 was one of profound transformation for the United States. In the half century from the Spanish-American War through World War II, the United States became a great power, fought in two world wars, survived the Great Depression, established the modern welfare state, and experienced major changes in race relations and gender roles. While the unifying theme of the course is political economy, the readings will expose students to a variety of topics and approaches. The writing assignments consist of historiographical essays. The purpose of the course is to provide students with a firmer grounding in a pivotal period of US history, and to prepare them to write a research paper on a topic of their choosing in this era.
GENDER IN HISTORY AND THEORY
56:512:523:01 I
W 6:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Professor Jewell
The history of gender has come a long way since it first emerged as women’s history in the mid-twentieth century alongside the Second Wave Feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. From women’s history to the new frontier of trans* histories, this course traces the development of gender as a category of historical study, and how its direction was shaped by certain theoretical and methodological debates both within and outside the discipline of history. After initially examining the gendered nature of historical practice itself, in the first third of the course we will explore the emergence of women’s history—from ancient history to US history—and how this eventually transformed into gender history, including feminist histories, the history of masculinity, as well as the introduction of deconstructionist and performance theories, and the critiques of these new perspectives. The remainder of the course will then examine specific intersections between gender history and other categories of history, including race, labor and technology, health and medicine, the body, sexuality, colonialism, as well as both regionally specific and global histories. Students will complete in-depth readings (monographs and/or articles) for each weekly topic, actively contribute to class discussion, co-facilitate one discussion, and write book reviews and a short methodological review essay relevant to their own research interests.
THE CRAFT OF HISTORY
56:512:550:01
TH 6:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Professor Marker
The Craft of History is unique in the master’s program at Rutgers-Camden. Rather than a readings or research course in a particular area of history, this course is designed to familiarize students with major problems, questions, and methods that shape the discipline of history as a whole. In the first part of the course, we will explore how scholars have historicized the study of history itself. We’ll then consider a wide variety of competing methodological approaches to the study of the past and work through the major “historiographical turns” of the past few decades. The course will conclude with an examination of a few key historical debates, the boundaries between scholarship and fraud, and the politics of history-writing today.
READINGS IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE: THE RISE OF THE STATE
56:512:552:01
T 2:00 pm – 4:50 pm
Professor Mokhberi
The Early Modern Europe describes the period that ushered Europeans from the Middle Ages to the Modern period. This course will focus on Europe’s transformation from a weak backwater to a world power by investigating the birth of the modern state. Students will be introduced to the most influential historical arguments regarding the emergence of the state from a set of fragmented feudal kingdoms to the modern “information” state and colonial power. The course will move chronologically from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century and expose students to the historiography of early modern Europe from the Annales school to current methods of cultural and world history.
MUSEUMS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
56:512:586:01
M 6:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Professor Belolan
What is the “digital age,” and how has it affected the way museums operate and how we relate to them? How have changes to the way we use technology affected museums of various shapes and sizes? Why and to what extent do museums still matter in a time when many of us spend so much time in digital spaces? In this seminar, through readings, discussion, writing, independent site visits, and more, we will outline the history of museums and their role in culture and society. We will address themes ranging from the meaning and utility of objects in museums to how museum professionals and volunteers have used (or not used) digital tools to preserve their collection and provide access to it. This class will cover long-standing issues in museums in the US and abroad but also contemporary phenomena such as repatriation and decolonization, Black Lives Matter, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic inequality, and accessibility for disabled people, particularly in relation to the digital world.