History Undergraduate Course Descriptions

HIS 202: US History Since 1877 
M/W 1:00 – 2:15  
Dr. Andrew Pace 
 
 
 
HIS 300: Research Seminar 
M/W 11:00 – 12:15  
Dr. Laura Mammina 
 
This course is a semester-long apprenticeship in the craft of history.  We will examine the nature of history, why it is important, and how it is practiced.  When you successfully complete this course, you will have the basic skills necessary for beginning historians.  The class will also prepare you for advanced study in upper division history courses.   
  
The goal of this course is to develop students’ intellectual skills to analyze and interpret history.  This development will enable the student to excel in a number of areas, including: reading comprehension, persuasive writing, oral presentation skills, and critical thinking.  This is one of three Writing Intensive (WI) courses history majors are required to complete (with a C or better) in order to graduate.  As such, students must write “a minimum of 5000 computer-generated words in a multiparagraph research paper” and also demonstrate oral presentation skills.   
 
Please note: Research paper topics must focus on an aspect of United States History, broadly conceived, between 1609-2020. Students are highly encouraged to make use of primary sources in the McCain Library & Archives. 
 

 
HIS 306: History in the Digital Age 
T/Th 9:30 – 10:45 Online Chat 
Dr. Jennifer Andrella 

 

This course explores how digital methods, tools, and publications can help us ask and answer questions about the past. Digital history is a branch of practice under digital humanities, a community of disciplines that integrates digital methods into collaborative, data-driven, and publicly engaged scholarship. At the most basic level, digital history has two goals: to include digital methods within the historian’s craft, and secondly, to engage how digital methods challenge or transform our understanding of the past. Throughout the course, we will build a versatile skillset in areas such as data visualization, digital archiving and exhibit design, content management, text analysis, digital mapping, video gaming, web publishing, and audio/visual production. 
Recognizing the breadth of digital history, this course focused on applying digital methods to the study of trans-Atlantic and U.S. slavery. Students will engage with data, material culture, texts, audiovisual media, oral histories, architecture, memorialization, and traditions to examine the implications of digital access, communication, and storytelling in the preservation and presentation of this history. 
 
Please note that although this is an upper-level course, students are not expected to have a strong background in computational and digital skills. Additionally, we will pair discussions of historical context with the application of digital tools.  
 
 
 
HIS 307: Africa 1500-Present 
T/Th 9:30 – 10:45  
Dr. Bafumiki Mocheregwa  

 

This course introduces students to the extensive history of Africa from the 1500s to the present. It employs various teaching methods, including film and documentary analysis, alongside a wide range of short and long texts to examine key themes in Africa's development. Designed with the understanding that most students have limited prior knowledge about Africa, the course aims to help them develop both general and specific ideas through extensive lectures and class discussions. Key topics covered include precolonial warfare and resistance to colonial conquest, African agency in the Atlantic Slave Trade, socio-economic changes in colonial Africa, and decolonization. The course also addresses contemporary issues on the continent, including pertinent case studies from across Africa. By taking this class, students will sharpen their critical thinking, analytical skills, reading, comprehension, and writing abilities. Engaging with the assigned materials through reading, viewing, and analysis before class will be vital for their success. 
 
 
 
HIS 310: Survey of Latin America 
T/Th 4:00 – 5:15 (IVN available for GP campus) 
Dr. Matthew Casey  
 
 
 
HIS 334: 20th Century Europe 
M/W 1:00 – 2:15  
Dr. Katya Maslakowski  
 
At the dawn of the 20th century events in Europe determined the course of world history. European empires touched all parts of the globe, providing the Great Powers with all the comforts of raw materials, underpaid labor, and global power. Yet, everything would change when the Great War broke out in 1914. In this class we will explore what happened when Europe fell from its self-appointed grace and indulged in the horrors of civil war, revolution, total war, political violence, fascism, and genocide. We will then explore how in the aftermath of the Second World War, Europe sought to reorder itself in the wake of this exceptional violence. During this class we will not just concern ourselves with the countries of Europe, but also with the millions of people ruled by distant leaders in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Brussels and Amsterdam. We will follow along as anti-imperialists undermined the certainty of empire and carved out new nations from under European hegemony. 
 
 
 
HIS 374: African American History 1890-Present  
M/W 2:30 – 3:45 
Dr. Laura Mammina  
 
This course will delve deeply into African American History from Reconstruction (about 1877) to the present day. While there will be some lectures, discussion of primary and secondary sources will be prioritized, including historical monographs on African Americans in Alabama’s Communist Party during the Great Depression and women in the Black Panther Party. Students will display their creativity by participating in a Black History Month Showcase in February and an Unessay Project focused on the desegregation of the University of Southern Mississippi.  

 
 
HIS 375: Economic History of the US 
T/Th 11:00 – 12:15  
Dr. Max Grivno  
 
This course offers a broad overview of American economic history from the Early Republic through the present.  It begins with a discussion of the competing political economies or Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and then proceeds to a discussion of the Market Revolution and the intertwined economic histories of the northern and southern states.  From there, the course looks at how the challenge of financing the Civil War transformed the federal government’s relationship with the economy and paved the way for the Second Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth century.  As the course moves through the twentieth century, it explores the lives of industrial workers and traces the evolution of consumer culture, culminating in a discussion of how Wal-Mart embodies many elements of  modern American capitalism.  Along the way, the course looks at the economic crises that have rocked the country from the Panic of 1819 to the Great Depression to the 2008 financial crisis.   
 

 

HIS 400: Senior Capstone 
T/Th 2:30 – 3:45  
Dr. Kyle Zelner  

Communities throughout history have had to deal with different crises, be they natural disasters, pandemics, crime waves, wars, civil unrest, or countless other catastrophes.   
  
HIS 400 is the required senior capstone class for all history majors and as such, the class will include a mixture of discussion seminars and considerable independent research/writing time.  Along with a refresher on primary document research, citations, and historical writing, the first several weeks of the class will have students read a number of articles about communities in crisis and discuss them in a seminar setting.   
  
For the remainder of the semester, students will research and write an original history of a community in crisis.  The research paper (18-20 pages) must make extensive use of primary documents (such as newspapers, oral histories, diaries, letters, and other accounts) as well as the secondary sources written on their topic.  The first draft of the paper will be evaluated by the professor and then redrafted by the student to create a final manuscript.  In addition to the major research paper, students will be required to give two oral presentations in the class. 
  
Some possible research paper topics might include: 
  
•How did the population of London cope with the Blitz in World War II? 
•What happened to the community in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina? 
•How did the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 change life in Chicago? 
•What happened to New York City during the American Revolutionary War? 
•How did the community in Birmingham, Alabama experience the Civil Rights movement? 
  
The possibilities are almost endless . . . 
 

 
HIS 401: Non-Western World 
M/W 9:30 – 10:45 
Dr. Katya Maslakowski 

Science in the British Empire

Interested in how science developed? This class explores the edges of the British Empire and helps us see how indigenous knowledge systems played an essential and unacknowledged role in the production of modern science and technology. We will be tracing the work of British and indigenous scientists and piecing together how the modern world developed new ideas about the production of truth.

 
 
 
HIS 416/516: World War II 
T/Th 11:00 – 12:15  
Dr. Andrew Wiest 
 
World War II raged across the planet from the Far East to Africa, laying waste to an entire generation and redefining the nature of the modern world.  This course will take an in-depth look at the series of interlocking events that made up the most pivotal event of the twentieth-century.  Students will learn about the origins of the conflict, its prosecution, and its troubled aftermath.  From the flawed Treaty of Versailles, to the failure of Appeasement, to the German onslaught in France, to Britain standing alone, to the horrors of the Eastern Front, to the miasma of the Holocaust, to the strike at Pearl Harbor, to Midway and island-hopping, to D Day and the bomb – this course has it all from the home front to the battlefront.  Students will read and report on four books (one of their own choosing from the vast historiography of World War II) and take a mid term and a final exam. 
 

 
HIS 423/523: Gay & Lesbian History 
M/W 11:00 – 12:15  
Dr. Andrew Haley 
 
Out: A Queer History of America  
History 423/523 (9460/9461) or WGS 423 (9621) 

Out: A Queer History of America is a reading and discussion course that examines how LGBTQ+ Americans have constructed identities and communities and how attitudes toward queer lives have changed since the nineteenth century. 
The course is divided into five segments.  In the first section, we look at same-sex relationships in the nineteenth century before society labeled these bonds. In the second period, we look at how science helped defined gay and lesbian relationships at the turn of the century, the ambiguity of popular ideas of sexuality, and the earliest American gay communities.  In the third segment, we will examine the development of gay, lesbian, and trans subcultures in the United States in the post-World War II period, the Cold War-era repression of LGBTQ+ Americans, and the portrayal of queer lives in mass culture.  In the fourth section, the class will examine gay and lesbian activism, focusing special attention on the Stonewall riots. Finally, at the close of the semester, we look at the backlash that followed Stonewall, public and government responses to the AIDS epidemic, and more recent debates about same-sex marriage and trans rights. 
By the end of the class, you should have a better understanding of how sexual and gender minority groups have shaped American culture and law, 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 United States. 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 479: American History 
T/TH 1:00 – 2:15  
Dr. Heather Stur 

What were the roots of 9/11? What did the OJ Simpson trial reveal about race in America? Why did President Bill Clinton and Justice Clarence Thomas find themselves testifying before Senate committees regarding allegations of sexual misconduct? What happened to U.S. troops in Somalia? Who was the Unabomber? Why did government agents raid a cult leader’s compound in Waco, Texas? Why did Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait? Why did Sarah McLachlan create Lilith Fair? Were the 1990s the end of the 20th century or the beginning of the 21st? 
  
To answer these questions and many more, we must take a trip through the 1990s, one of the most pivotal decades in U.S. and world history. It started with the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new world order, which quickly descended into chaos and violence despite the promise of peace. War in the Balkans and in the Middle East, terrorism in Northern Ireland, genocide in Rwanda, and the bombings of U.S. embassies all marked the post-Cold War global landscape. In the U.S., Americans continued to argue over issues of racial and gender equality. Magic Johnson and Ryan White drew broad attention to the AIDS crisis. The internet began to transform communication and information sharing. We will spend the semester learning about and discussing these issues and more as we try to decide: Did the 1990s end the previous era or begin the era in which we currently live?   
 
 
 
HUM 402/502: Digital Humanities Practicum 
T/TH 2:30 – 3:45 
Dr. Jennifer Andrella 

 

In this course, students will work collaboratively on a Digital Humanities project while learning digital methods, community-engaged best practices, and archival research. We will engage in the entire process of constructing a digital project, from idea to public launch. Through this course, students will gain valuable skills in web authoring, team-based learning, and project management. By working closely with local archives, special collections, and/or community partners, students will explore how the digital humanities can connect scholarship with public audiences in meaningful ways. 

 

HIS 331: Later Medieval Europe 
W 6:00 – 9:00 
Dr. Westley Follett 
 
 
 
HIS 375: Economic History of the US 
T/Th 2:30 – 3:45 
Dr. Douglas Bristol  
 

 

HIS 416/516: World War II 
T/Th 1:00 – 2:15  
Dr. Douglas Bristol 

An in-depth study of the causes, conduct, and aftermath of World War II.  In this class, you will see the development of authoritarian governments and mobile warfare (Blitzkrieg) threaten liberal democracies, which were slow to respond and almost lost the war.  You will understand how the Allies won, what the experience of ordinary soldiers was like, and what impact the war had on American society and the post-war world order. 
Students will take a midterm and final examination, write a persuasive essay that engages Christopher Browning’s argument in his book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, and write a research paper on an instructor approved topic.   
 
 
 
HIS 477/577: Women in American Society 
T/Th 11:00 – 12:15  
Dr. Deanne Stephens