Check out some of our popular courses below and view all courses here. 

brazillian musicians

Black Music

HIST 104

What is black music, and how do we know what we think we know about it? Together, we will examine musical creations pioneered by Africans and individuals of African descent over several centuries and across hemispheres. Doing so will allow us to consider the unity of the African Diaspora and its music, and also examine internal differences and diversity. Special focus is given to Latin America and the U.S., but we will also read about, listen to, and talk about music and musicians in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Gen Eds: Cultural Studies - US Minority; Humanities – Hist & Phil

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19th Century Sanitorium

Madness and Modern Society

HIST 236

What is insanity? How do we define the normal and the pathological? Who is best suited to determine what kinds of behaviors, thoughts, and emotional experiences count as health and illness? How do class, race, religion, gender, and sexuality influence our views of human mental functioning? This course provides a broad overview of the historical development of scientific efforts to identify and understand mental abnormality in modern Europe from the beginning of state-regulated asylums to the advent of current policies of psycho-pharmaceutical treatment and care in the community. Using a mixture of primary sources and secondary texts, we will examine how the diagnosis and treatment of “madness” has been shaped through the rich interaction of social, political, economic, and cultural factors over a period spanning roughly from 1750 to the 1990s.

Gen Eds: Humanities - Hist & Phil; Western Cultural Studies 

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Black Lives matter protest

Constructing Race in America

HIST 281

This introductory survey course on the social construction of race in the United States examines how various conceptions and interpretations of racial difference have changed over time in U.S. history and the ways these differences meshed with social inequalities. Specifically, we explore the ways the color line had a profound impact on everyday life. Through readings, lectures, discussion, and writing assignments, we will engage the construction of race through the realm of the law, culture, and immigration policy. We will interrogate how race was made real (and continues to be) in immigration policy, determining who was/is permitted to enter the United States as an immigrant at various historical moments, whether they were permitted to naturalize as “free white persons,” and their treatment once in U.S. society. Indeed, although it is socially constructed, race remains a very real lived experience then as now.


Gen Eds: Humanities - Hist & Phil; US Minority Cultural Studies

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image of the earth

A History of Everything: The Big Bang to Big Data

HIST 103

This introductory survey in "Big History" explores different scales of time as it places human history in larger geological, ecological, and cosmic contexts. Topics include the big bang, planet formation, the origin and development of life, mass extinctions, the emergence of Homo sapiens, the development of agriculture and cities, wars, plagues, and natural disasters, the advent of religion and science, political revolutions, industrialization and globalization, and human impact on the environment. This introductory survey in "Big History" explores different scales of time as it places human history in larger geological, ecological, and cosmic contexts. Topics include the big bang, planet formation, the origin and development of life, mass extinctions, the emergence of Homo sapiens, the development of agriculture and cities, wars, plagues, and natural disasters, the advent of religion and science, political revolutions, industrialization and globalization, and human impact on the environment.

Gen Eds: Cultural Studies - Western; Humanities – Hist & Phil

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image of JFK in crowd

The President and the People

HIST 293

A chronological survey of the US presidency that examines individual presidents and the times in which they lived. Major themes include: The creation and development of the office of the president; the nature of presidential power; Americans' evolving relationship with presidents; and the impact of political parties, campaigning, and the media. You will come away with a greater understanding of how individual presidents and the process in which we choose them have transformed the office of the presidency and political culture more broadly.

Gen Eds: Cultural Studies - Western; Humanities – Hist & Phil

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