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A special subject not otherwise offered in the history curriculum. Topics, methodology, and instructors vary from semester to semester. Representative topics include "Women in the American South," "Religion in America's Public Schools," "Food and Power," "Women, Private Property…
The social, political, and environmental history of food production and consumption in America since the colonial era. Topics include the "beef trust," class/gender/race in rural landscapes, hunters and poachers, the "chicken of tomorrow," convenience and fast foods, the Green…
Exploration of the role of visual culture in American history. How Americans' understanding of historical events has been influenced by visual culture and how images have helped to shape national identity. Both fine art and more popular imagery will be considered.
American material culture from 1650 to 1950. Explores manmade objects and their relationship to United States history. Topics include architecture, gardens, decorative arts, textiles, metalwork, cemeteries, jewelry, painting, sculpture, photographs, and prints.
An examination of the history and practices of public history in the nation’s capital. Students will study the history of major cultural institutions in Washington, D.C., and interact with public history professionals to review contemporary issues in the field. Course meets in…
This experiential course offers an examination of the history and practices of museums, parks, and public monuments in the United States. Making use of the campus and its collections students will investigate the presentation of history at UGA. Students will also create a temporary…
Survey of the economic, social, and cultural history of capitalism from 1877 to the present. Topics include class formation, industrialization, the currency debates, railroads, mass production, labor unrest and unions, the Great Depression, New Deal, World War II,…
Examination of the history of African Americans’ relationship to both art and natural history museums. Topics will include protest, institution building, and art collecting. Through a combination of museum sociology, art history, and Black history, students will gain a clearer…
Historic house museums transform private homes into public history. They range from opulent mansions to tenement quarters, reflecting specific time periods, events, notable individuals, or cultural values. This seminar explores the preservation and interpretation of historic house museums,…
Analyzes racial and gender ideologies in American expansion, 1607-1989: race-based slavery; narratives of captivity among American Indian tribes; literature of the frontier; turn-of-the-century segregation and imperial conquest; Cold War sex panic; understandings of Asia from…
Using fiction and film as well as traditional texts, the history of working-class women and men in the United States. The emphasis will be on the everyday lives of the laborers--what they did at work and at home, in the union hall, and on the picket line.
An examination of representative works of such nineteenth- and twentieth-century social, cultural, and political thinkers as Frederick Douglass, Cornel West, Anna J. Cooper, and Angela Davis, among other outstanding women and men who have contributed significantly to the intellectual life of the…
American legal thought, institutions, and education, focusing on the impact of social, political, and economic forces on the legal system. The English background, colonial period, legal foundations of the new nation, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Medicine in America from the late 1400s to the end of the Civil War. Topics include the exchange of diseases between the Old and New Worlds, medical theories and therapies, medical education and institutions, epidemics and public health, women as patients and practitioners, and medicine on…
Major transformation in American medicine from the late nineteenth century to the present. Topics include the role of psychiatry in criminal trials, public reactions to epidemic diseases, medical experimentation on human subjects, alternative medical approaches, the economics of health…
Social and cultural histories of technology in the United States from the pre-colonial era to the present. Topics include mass communications and entertainment, industrialization, modernism, food production and consumption, national identity, and the environment.
Analysis of the political, military, social, and economic history of British North America and the United States between 1765 and 1815. Emphasis on the origins of the Revolution, the destructive civil war that ensued, and the controversies over the Confederation and the Constitution.
History of the U.S. from the early republic through the antebellum period, with emphasis on territorial expansion, industrialization, the first and second political systems, and the emergence of the sectional crisis.
A chronological and thematic history of the South from Spanish exploration and Jamestown's settlement through the secession crisis of l860-1861, with an emphasis on the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of southern life in the colonial and antebellum periods.
The origin, conduct, and legacy of the war and the impact of the conflict upon peoples and institutions.
An examination of the history of racial disparities within the United States criminal justice system, especially as applied to African Americans, how these disparities have evolved historically, and why they persist into the 21st century.
From early film to twenty-first century gaming, innovators have turned to history for inspiration even as historians have looked to harness new media for their interpretive power. This course explores the interplay between spaces of the past and technologies used to present them.…
This course goes beyond the history of territorial disputes and diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States to analyze the multiple ways in which the peoples, cultures, and events in each country have been shaping each other for the last two centuries.
Focuses on mobility in the early modern world (1500-1800), including the circulation of people, knowledge, and capital. Looking at the edges of empire demonstrates the limits of empire building and state authority. As circulation increased, cosmopolitanism emerged. At least one-half of the…
Examination of the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. The class will analyze the great books of the period, and assess the social, cultural, and political context in which new ideas emerged. Themes will include the book trade, gender and sociability, the luxury debate, the construction of…
The critical and creative relationship between European history (sources, methods, and modes of storytelling) and film. Examination of film’s potential to inspire new visions of the past, and new ways of representing the past.
In HIST6362, graduate students will do in-depth, advanced…
On European imperialism in the nineteenth century in relationship to capitalism, industrialization, and the nation- state. Themes include the “scramble for Africa,” race, gender, violence, metropolitan politics and popular culture, and key concepts like “orientalism” and “informal empire…
This course explores food and drug delivery systems and the rise of empire. Topics include slave trade goods (cocoa, sugar, coffee, tobacco) and the European scientific renaissance, modern European states, French Revolution, World War I, and the Arab Spring.
Examination of how the public memory of World War II changed in different countries in Asia, Europe, and North America from the immediate aftermath of the war to the present.
The historical interaction of science and religion in Western Society from antiquity to the present. Key historical episodes include the rise of Greek natural philosophy, science in medieval Christendom and Islam, the Galileo affair, religion in the Enlightenment, the Darwinian challenge,…
Introduction to the history of modern physics and its underlying philosophy for both science and non-science majors. Basic concepts of classical physics, relativity, and quantum mechanics are explained through their history, which combines intellectual, biographical, and cultural…
Course traces the history of the political, economic, and social history of oil in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It details the impact of oil on the rise and fall of empires and nations, the social ramifications of the oil industry on local cultures and societies, the role of…
Exploration of drugs and medicines as commodities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How different cultures and societies across the world have shaped the meanings of drugs and medicine, and how drugs and medicines have conversely influenced peoples' habits and social relationships…
An exploration of the role of nuclear energy and weapons in the history of the twentieth century, from the humble origins of the science of radioactivity and atomic nucleus, through the drama of World War II's race for the atomic bomb, to the nuclear-centered world politics and diplomacy of the…
The history and historiography of African slavery and how the institution changed over the centuries. An examination of the trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic slave trades, as well as themes such as economics, state formation, religion, race and ethnicity, gender, and kinship.…
Images and symbolism used by Europeans and Americans to define the Islamic Middle East. The history of the Middle East through representation--stereotypes, myths, fairy tales, novels, films, and news coverage--particularly the ramifications of these images on Western foreign policy towards…
Fifteenth- to nineteenth-century political, social, economic connections between North, Central, South America and Caribbean and west, west-central Africa.
A special issue or topic not otherwise offered in the history curriculum. Topics, methodology, and instructors will vary from semester to semester. Representative topics include: "Modern Shi'ism," "War and Society in the Modern Middle East," and "The Ottomans and Europe."
The origins and development of the Crusades from 1095 until the fall of Acre in 1291. The origins of Crusading, the concepts of just war and Jihad, and the Byzantine and Islamic responses to the Crusades.
Exploration of the origins and development of the struggle for land between Jews and Palestinians, and how that struggle spread throughout the Arab Middle East. We will begin by exploring the growth of Zionism among Russian and European Jews in the nineteenth century as well as the beginnings of…
Ancient and medieval Japan, focusing on the institutional and cultural foundations of the Japanese state.
Early modern and modern Japan: the transformation of Japan from an isolationist, agrarian country to a military giant, to a broken and defeated nation, to an economic superpower.
What were the Middle Ages like after they ended? Examination of how modern cultures have imagined the medieval past — from the Victorians and their Viking heroes to Monty Python, Derrida, Game of Thrones, and white nationalism — and how the Middle Ages are still shaping the present as a…
Exploration of the methods and theory of oral history. Students will learn about the discipline’s rise in the 1960s and 1970s (in tandem with social history) and engage ethical and theoretical debates within the discipline. They then will conduct, process, and analyze an oral history…
This experiential introductory course offers students opportunities to research and develop public history projects using primary and secondary sources. Students may create or contribute to digital projects, documentaries, exhibitions, walking tours and present their work in a public forum…
The course will review the history and methods of museum registration and collections management.
Through workshops and lectures, students will prepare for the museum job market. In addition, students will be required to submit an example of their professional work in the field. This will typically be drawn from program course work or the program internship.
This course supports M.A. students through the thesis-writing process, combining historical research and writing with project management skills. Through sequenced assignments and collaborative activities, students refine their scholarship, time management, and revision strategies, culminating in…
This professionalization seminar offers graduate students hands-on preparation for launching careers as historians in the academy and other settings. The course covers the trajectory of career development from conference paper submissions to job application dossiers.
GIS is a technology that allows users to store and analyze information spatially. Exploration of its usefulness to historians and how to employ it in our own work. Over the length of the semester, students will work on a mapping project related to their own interests and…
Museums can be powerful spaces of learning. This course examines the role of museum educators in connecting collections to diverse audiences. Students engage with scholarship on object-based pedagogies and apply methodologies into practice, critiquing and developing educational content for…
This course will explore ethical issues pertaining to museums, including practices relating to collecting and exhibiting artifacts, institutional governance and funding, and education and public programs. Students will interpret, assess, and critique current professional standards for museum…
Exploration of practices used in the development, research, and design of museum exhibitions. The course will also consider the history of object display in the United States and examine major turning points in the development of museum exhibitions.
This course explores curatorial issues and practices in contemporary museums. Students will learn about the theory and methods adopted by curators in their stewardship, exhibition, and interpretation of museum collections.
Graduate students will complete more rigorous and extensive…
Provides graduate teaching assistants with knowledge of pedagogical approaches and available support systems. Special sections are reserved for international students, with focus on use of language, pedagogy, and cultural aspects of teaching in this country.
Methods of research and fundamental theoretical issues pertaining to practicing the science of history, with emphasis on the development of writing skills.
Museum Studies M.A. students will prepare and present a final professional portfolio demonstrating evidence of skills learned and projects completed in the Museum Studies M.A. program.
Development and scope of American higher education.
The variety of methods appropriate to instruction in college-level survey history courses. Students will develop syllabi and course materials in preparation for teaching their own surveys.
Exploration of the rich and varied scholarship constituting the field of African American History. Examination of both the historical content of the assigned books and articles and the historiography. Possible topics include the Civil Rights Movement, United States Slavery, Black Feminism,…
A research seminar in early American history. Native Americans, Spanish and French borderlands, British settlement, elaboration of colonial institutions, colonial wars, the American Revolution, and the rise of the new nation.
A research seminar in which students should produce a potentially publishable paper upon some topic relating to the American South, the American Civil War, or Reconstruction.
This interdisciplinary course investigates reform and the changing meaning of gender from the Colonial to Post Modern period. An emphasis upon real rather than ideological politics is the focus of discussions of change and continuity. Other major themes include the meaning of politics and the…
Social, intellectual, cultural, and political developments in United States history since 1900.
Focuses on historiographical analyses of key events and circumstances in southern history from slavery to the Sunbelt. Heavy emphasis on critical reading of secondary texts and historiographical writing.
Major themes, historiographical debates, and methods in United States sociopolitical history since 1865.
Offers an in-depth examination of the major themes and debates in, as well as theories and methods of, American cultural history of the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries.
We have for generations conflated the British colonies with all of early America. This course instead explores the entire continent, from Sitka to St. Augustine, and all the people living there, including native peoples, Russians, Spanish, French, and British. Students will emerge with a clearer…
Major themes and current historiography in North American and United States history to 1865.
Major themes and current historiography in United States history from 1865 to the present.
Major themes and historiography in Latin American and Caribbean history from pre-Columbian times to the present.
Research seminar that will allow graduate students to work extensively on a particular theme in early modern European history, 1350-1815.
The gradual discovery of the individual in premodern Europe. The areas of religion, politics, law, art, and literature. Readings will range from Plato and Thomas Aquinas to Dante and Leonardo da Vinci.
Major themes and current historiography of Europe from 1500-1800.
Major themes and current historiography of Europe from 1800 to the present.
Graduate research seminar, focused on the development and writing of a significant work of original historical research touching, in some way, on the Cold War. The topic can be interpreted broadly in theme and geography.
Research in twentieth-century European history. Topics will vary according to the interests of the students and instructors.
Readings on and discussion of major issues in the history and historiography of Asia. Countries and periods of focus will vary from semester to semester.
This graduate colloquium introduces students to the historiography of the Pacific World, loosely defined. We will examine transnational connections among Asia and the Americas, emphasizing the modern period. Major topics include capitalism and labor, colonialism and resistance, global migration…
Readings and discussion of major topics in the theory and practice of comparative history.
Methods, traditions, concepts, and literature of world history.
Recent scholarship on gender in a geographic area. The time period of the subject matter will vary with the instructor.
Examination of the shared history of Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the period of colonization and globalization. Between the era of exploration and the age of revolutions, these civilizations interacted through conquest, trade, emigration, and cultural exchange, giving rise to a…
Exploration of the historiography of the world-making exchanges between Europe, Africa, and the Americas since colonization. From the era of exploration to the age of revolutions and nation- building, the civilizations of these continents interacted through conquest, trade…
This graduate colloquium focuses on the feedback loop between “societies” and “economies.” It asks how particular ideas and social arrangements have shaped the forms that economies have taken and how economies have impacted conceptual categories and human relationships.
The history of warfare in the context of the warring societies from ancient to modern times. Topics depend on interest of the instructor.
This graduate colloquium explores food and drug delivery systems and the rise of empire. Topics include slave trade goods (cocoa, sugar, coffee, tobacco) and the European scientific renaissance, modern European states, French Revolution, World War I, and the Arab Spring.
Introduction to the discipline of environmental history. Readings will seek to expose students to the variety of methodological approaches employed by environmental historians. Though much of the reading will focus on the United States environmental history, there will also be a significant…
An introduction to the theory and practice of sensory history in a global context, employing an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach.
Introduction to the Social and Cultural History of Science. Study of the role and practice of science in ancient and modern societies, interaction with religion, politics, and culture, and social consequences of the development of scientific knowledge. Readings reflect the variety of…
An in-depth examination of the history, issues, methods, and debates in museum studies, including the ethics of collecting.
Examination of the role of public history in the historical profession. In addition to exploring the historiography of the field of public history, the course introduces students to methods used in the discipline. Students will examine major issues of past decades that have shaped the…
Seminar in historical or historiographical subjects for masters and doctoral students.
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