School of Humanities
School of Humanities
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HIS 101
World Civilization I
Online
Dr. Courtney Luckhardt
In this course, we trace the story of civilization from prehistory through the fifteenth
century. Through a kaleidoscope of kings and slaves, warriors and philosophers, farmers
and merchants, we will focus on certain themes. Four themes intersect in all the societies
we study this semester.
1) religious development and syncretism
2) elite power and political organization
3) technological innovations
4) trade and economic development
To focus on these themes and questions, we will be close reading primary sources (that
is, texts produced by the societies we are studying, not by modern scholars) from
many different civilizations. We will learn history by doing it – this means that
students will learn to read and interpret primary evidence and come to their own conclusions
about pre-modern societies.
HIS 102
World Civilization II
T/TH 1:00-2:15
Dr. John Winters
In this class, we will touch on nearly five hundred years of global history since
the year 1500. This includes big and often familiar issues of economics, politics,
empires, war, and religion. But we will also spend time on things that are less abstract
and are, indeed, more human, like how art and culture reflect societal norms, and
the many ways that individuals and local communities can shape those larger stories.
HIS 201
U.S. History To 1877
M/W 9:30-10:45
Dr. Max Grivno
HIS 204
Exploring History
T/TH 9:30-10:45
Dr. Rebecca Tuuri
Do you love hearing stories about or solving mysteries from the past? Have you ever wondered what professional historians do for a living? Do you want to learn more about the topic of your favorite historical drama series? If the answer to any or all of these questions is yes, then this course is for you.
Exploring History is a sophomore-level course to teach students how to research, analyze, and write like a historian. We will be exploring a variety of types of work that historians do, including in public history, oral history, digital history, teaching, and beyond. We will delve into the types of questions that historians ask. We will talk about research methods from social history, cultural history, economic history, political history, and beyond. We will hear from many of your favorite Southern Miss history professors about the ways that they read, write, and present their work.
Most assignments will be short, engaging, and “out of the box” to help you gradually learn and appreciate the methods for conducting historical research, analyzing that research, and compiling your work into a compelling narrative.
This course counts as an elective towards the BA in History degree.
HIS 300
Research Seminar
T/TH 1:00-2:15
Dr. Brian LaPierre
HIS 309
Premodern Asian History
M/W 1:00-2:15
Dr. Kenneth Swope
This course offers a survey of the history, cultures, religions, and philosophies
of Asia from the origins of civilization to ca. 1500. The class will cover the creation
of states and social structures and practices, as well as examine the relationships
of Asian societies with the rest of the world, stressing their dynamism and creativity.
Students will read a variety of primary sources in translation and have the chance
to do a project on a topic of their choice. This course satisfies the Non-Western
requirements for students pursuing education degrees.
HIS 323
The Vikings
T/TH 2:30-3:45
Dr. Courtney Luckhardt
The image of the Vikings in modern popular culture has been as berserker warriors
or as opera-singing women wearing horned helmets. Another common view of Vikings is
that of the blood-thirsty pagan barbarians who descended upon peaceful monks or settlements.
This view is based on the sources written by the early medieval victims of Norse raids.
The later medieval Scandinavian saga literature painted their warrior ancestors as
noble savages, and historians have examined the Vikings as one of these two extremes.
However, Viking raids were merely one part of a complex adaptation by the Norse to
the marginal lands of Scandinavia. Raids were certainly a portion of that adaptation,
but so too were explorations, foreign settlement, trade, and farming at home in Scandinavia.
The Norse were also savvy merchants, gifted craftsmen, hardworking farmers, and cunning
political players who built kingdoms in Europe, established relations with the Muslim
world, and even made it to the shores of North America. This course will explore the
culture, history, arts and worldviews of the Old Norse, including their mythology,
the saga literature, and their conversion to Christianity.
We will also investigate how the Vikings have been understood and represented through
the centuries between their days and ours.
HIS 333
Europe in the 19th Century
T/TH 9:30-10:45
Dr. Joe Peterson
Napoleon, Jane Austen, and Beethoven… Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sherlock Holmes... Mary Shelley, Frederic Chopin, and Sigmund Freud… Harry Houdini, Helena Blavatsky, and Jack the Ripper... steamships, railroads, and Women’s Suffrage… “Human Rights,” World Fairs, the Eiffel Tower, and the scramble for Africa… Impressionism, germ theory, dynamite, and the Boy Scouts… the first bicycles, the first department stores, the first machine guns… the first hipsters, the first human zoos and concentration camps, and the first science fiction… The first age of mass literacy, mass advertising, and mass politics… The first recorded use of the word “socialism,” of the word “antisemitism,” of “feminism,” “nationalism,” “dystopia,” “agnosticism,” and “homosexual.” Why are so many of the issues and questions raised by nineteenth-century Europeans still with us today? Why does an age so seemingly distant and innocent—so “Victorian”—still feel so modern? What makes us modern, for that matter? We cannot begin to understand our present without understanding its origins in the nineteenth century.
HIS 350
Public History
T/TH 11:00-12:15
Dr. John Winters
Do you like museums, memorials, or history tours? Have you ever been curious about
the history of Southern Miss? Have you ever wanted to add your voice to that story?
If so, enroll in HIS 350! You will not only learn about the theory and methods of
various public history spaces from traditional museums to new-age digital history,
but you will also apply that knowledge and your talents to an ever-growing digital
history exhibition on the history of USM. Bring your creative side, your research
skills, and let's make a museum!
HIS 360
Modern Military History
M/W 4:00-5:15
Dr. Andrew Wiest
This course takes an in-depth look at the development of modern warfare from the growth
of national warfare under Napoleon to today’s war on terror. Paying close attention
to both societal and tactical developments, the course endeavors to understand military
history in the broadest sense. The fist portion of the course investigates the growth
of total, industrialized war – focusing on Napoleon and the US Civil War. The course
then moves on to a detailed investigation of total war at its height – in World War
I and World War II. Next the course investigates the birth of modern limited war in
the Cold War era, highlighted by Vietnam. Finally, the course investigates warfare
since Vietnam with special focus on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Students will read three books related to the broad scope of military history. The
books include: Lloyd Clark, Battle of the Tanks: Kursk 1943 and Andrew Wiest, The
Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam. Since the history of modern warfare
is so vast students will choose a third book in consultation with the instructor.
Students will produce a book report on each reading. The reports will form 33% of
the final grade. Students will take one midterm and a final – each counting for 33%
of the final grade.
HIS 370
Mississippi History
M/W 11:00-12:15
Dr. Max Grivno
HIS 400
Senior History Seminar (Capstone)
Survival of the Fittest: Social Darwinism and Scientific Racism in the United States
M/W 9:30-10:45
Dr. Andrew Haley
“We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless
devouring of the weak by the strong.” Hebert Spencer, First Principles, 1862
In the late nineteenth century, wealthy Americans justified their extravagant lifestyles
with a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap philosophy derived from a misreading of Charles
Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Wealth, status, and success, these Americans argued,
was evidence of hereditary racial superiority. Embraced by American scientists, social
Darwinism created a hierarchy of human evolution that justified racism, sexism and
ethnic discrimination. In this course, we will study and discuss the founding ideas
of social Darwinism and its consequences: scientific racism, the eugenics movement,
the celebration of rugged individualism, immigration restrictions, and the racial
stereotyping that took place during the World Wars.
History 400 is a capstone course required for graduation as a History major. During
the first half of the course, we will examine the science and culture of social Darwinism
in a discussion-based seminar class. Students will read selections from nineteenth
century works by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer as well as the examples of social
Darwinism and scientific racism found in novels, children’s literature, the popular
press, comics, and film.
During the second half of the course, with ample support from the instructor, students
will write an original research paper that examines one historical instance of social
Darwinism or science-justified racism. Students are required to prepare and submit
a research proposal, detailed outline, and a final research paper. Students are also
required to present their research to the class in an oral presentation.
HIS 423 / WGS 423
Out: A Queer History of America
M/W 2:30-3:45
Dr. Andrew Haley
Out: A Queer History of America is a reading and discussion course that examines how
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer Americans have constructed identities
and fostered communities and how American attitudes toward LGBTQ+ peoples have changed
since the nineteenth century.
The course is divided into five segments. In the first section, we will explore LGBTQ+
relationships in the nineteenth century before science and society labeled these bonds
and identities. In the second period, we look at how science defined gay and lesbian
romance, the elusiveness of concepts of gender and sexuality, and the earliest American
gay communities. In the third segment, we will study the development of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and trans subcultures in the United States and the Cold War-era repression
that queer Americans suffered. In the fourth, we examine LGBTQ+ activism, focusing
special attention on the Stonewall riots and the backlash that followed. Finally,
at the close of the semester, we look at the effects of AIDS on the gay community,
the historic roots of same sex marriage, and the rise of trans visibility and the
backlash of transphobic violence.
By the end of the class, you should have a better understanding of how sexual and
gender minority groups have shaped American values and rights, how attitudes towards
sexuality and gender have changed (and not changed) over the course of the past hundred
and fifty years, and how efforts to exclude LGBTQ+ Americans from public life have
played a decisive role in shaping the history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Throughout the course, we will also discuss the challenges of documenting the history
of queer America. Students in the course will have the opportunity to explore historical
(primary source) documents and do hands-on research.
HIS 452
History of Russia 1440-1894
T/TH 11:00-12:15
Dr. Brian LaPierre
HIS 472
American Environmental History
T/TH 1:00-2:15
Dr. Andrew Gutowski
HIS 487
Social Studies Methods
M/W 2:30-3:45
Dr. Brad Phillis
HIS 488
Social Studies Practicum
M/W 8:00-9:15
Dr. Brad Phillis