DIGITAL HISTORY
50:509:290:01
T/TH 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Professor Baker
This experiential learning course introduces students to the practice of digital history. Students will practice gathering, preserving, analyzing, mapping, and presenting history using digital tools including TimelineJS, Omeka S, and ArcGIS, among others. This course emphasizes teamwork and aims to cultivate the communication and problem-solving skills necessary for success in a collaborative, creative, and fast-paced work environment.
PERSPECTIVES ON HISTORY:
CLEOPATRA: GENDER, POWER, RACE AND HISTORY
50:509:299:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Jewell
Gen Ed: GCM (Global Communities), USW (U.S. in the World)
This course will focus on the historical Cleopatra and her reception in later historical periods and in different types of media. A polarizing figure, Cleopatra has attracted the attention of ancient and modern historians alike since her death, as well as countless renditions by poets, playwrights, novelists, film directors, and even in more recent pop culture, such as music videos. Students will focus first on reading and analysis of the ancient sources detailing her life—themselves divided in their opinion—and death, and her place in the history of ancient Egypt. Students will then examine how Cleopatra’s image and legacy shifted under the pressure of later debates and cultural contexts from the Renaissance to the present day, especially in relation to the question of her gendered power as a female ruler, and more recently, the question of her racial identity. The Perspectives course involves the writing of one major paper, which students work on throughout the semester through multiple stages of drafting and workshopping. As a result, students will become familiar with the foundational research, writing, and analysis skills of an historian. The Perspectives course is required for all History Majors.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION II
50:512:102:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Medawar
Gen Ed: GCM (Global Communities)
This course traces Europe’s exciting transformation from a feudal system to a dominant force in the world. It will examine major developments such as medieval learning and architecture, the Crusades, the Plague, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Witch-hunt, rebellions against the state, and the Scientific Revolution.
THE HOLOCAUST
50:510:267:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Marker
This course introduces students to the history and memory of the Holocaust. We will explore the rise of antisemitism, scientific racism and ethnonationalism in nineteenth-century Europe, connections between imperialism and colonialism and the rise of Nazism, case studies of victims and perpetrators, debates among historians about how to interpret the Holocaust, processes of reparations and restitution after World War II, and cultural representations of the Holocaust in European and US culture today.
ROME OF FIRST CAESARS
50:510:304:01
M/W 3:45 pm – 5:05 pm
Professor Jewell
At the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, Gaius Octavius, better known as Augustus, the first emperor, finally conquered the last of the Greeks—and the Romans as well. This course explores the rise of Rome and its empire in the provinces on either side of this watershed moment. From the emergence of Rome as a Mediterranean power in the late 200s BCE with the defeat of the Carthaginian empire, down to the early principate of the Roman emperors, students will study the major political and military developments in Roman imperialism in this course. Depending on course enrolment numbers, the class may also feature a 3-week role-playing game focused on a political crisis during the Roman Republic. In addition to this, students will discuss the impact of Roman rule on social, religious, economic and legal developments throughout Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East, as well as interactions with regions beyond Roman control (e.g. India). Special consideration will be paid to how life differed for people in the empire according to their region and place (e.g. urban vs rural), local pre-Roman culture, social and legal status (e.g. slave, free or freed), religion, gender and other factors.
DEVELOPMENT OF UNITED STATES II
50:512:202:01
M/W 3:45 pm – 5:05 pm
Professor Bayker
Gen Ed: USW (U.S. in the World)
This course provides an introduction to American history from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the new millennium. We will examine key political, social, economic, and cultural developments of the period. The themes we will explore include the changing role and expansion of the federal government; industrialization and the growth of a mass consumer culture; the relationship of the United States to the rest of the world; social movements and the changing ideas about individual rights, equality, and freedom.
WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY
50:512:220:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 pm
Professor Bayker
Gen Ed: USW (U.S. in the World)
This course explores the history of women and gender in America from the colonial era to the twenty-first century with a focus on three key themes: labor, political participation, and the regulation of sexuality and reproductive rights. We will examine the everyday lives of women and trace the shifting cultural ideas about womanhood and manhood while paying special attention to the people who defied the gendered expectations of their era.
AGE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
50:512:305:01
Professor Finger
This course explores the tumultuous decades that transformed North America forever, from the periphery of a global empire into the seat of a new and distinct people who would create their own empire. But the story of the American Revolution is more than just the story of independence from England. The war of 1775-1783 was the intersection of several conflicts, of which the struggle between colonies and mother country was only one. In a sense, there were as many revolutions as there were participants in the revolution. It was also the story of Native Americans fighting to maintain their own independence, of backcountry settlers quarreling with the local colonial elites, and of African-Americans fighting for liberty in starker terms than most colonists could imagine.
BLACK CAMDEN: URBAN HISTORY
AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
50:512:307:01
T/Th 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Boyd
Gen Ed: HAC (Heritages and Civilizations)
This course examines the urban Black experience from a historical perspective, centering on Camden, New Jersey. The course begins by providing students with a brief overview of urban history in the United States and Camden, and then proceeds to examine several modules throughout the semester that relate to the urban Black experience. These modules include Migration and Movement; Activism; Decline and Revolt; Entrepreneurship; Displacement & Reclaiming Space; Creating Beauty; Health and Wellness. These topics will be explored from a historical perspective; however, we will also make connections to the present.
INTRODUCTORY TOPICS IN WORLD HISTORY:
U.S. LATIN AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
50:516:280:01
T/Th 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Professor Riley
Gen Ed: HAC (Heritages and Civilizations)
This course examines how the United States’grassroots social movements have continually mobilized to support and identified with Latin American revolutions throughout the twentieth century. By studying the Mexican, Cuban, and Nicaraguan Revolutions in a transnational perspective, students will learn how U.S. leftist activists of various backgrounds were ideologically shaped by and actively helped to shape revolutionary left politics across the Americas. In studying these three Latin American revolutions from the perspective of the U.S. Left, students will also learn about the role that U.S. economic investments and foreign policies played in shaping international events. Throughout the semester, the class will engage with bottom-up U.S.-Latin American relations from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including academic books and articles, activist memoirs and interviews, popular music, and films.