Course Offerings

Winter 2025▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

European History, 1789 to the Present

HIST 102 - Holland, Alana

The goal of this course is to familiarize ourselves with the major political, social, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped modern Europe. We will follow a chronological framework, covering key events such as the French and Industrial Revolutions, imperialism, communism, fascism, the world wars, the Cold War, and the development of the European Union. Our focus will be on themes like Nation, Class, Gender, Religion, and Race in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the often-tragic fate of questions of identity and belonging in this period. Through this exploration, we will gain a deeper understanding of Europe today and the key categories and values that shape how we structure our society and define ourselves.

European History, 1789 to the Present

HIST 102 - Fernandez-Fontecha, Leticia

The goal of this course is to familiarize ourselves with the major political, social, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped modern Europe. We will follow a chronological framework, covering key events such as the French and Industrial Revolutions, imperialism, communism, fascism, the world wars, the Cold War, and the development of the European Union. Our focus will be on themes like Nation, Class, Gender, Religion, and Race in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the often-tragic fate of questions of identity and belonging in this period. Through this exploration, we will gain a deeper understanding of Europe today and the key categories and values that shape how we structure our society and define ourselves.

History of the United States Since 1876

HIST 108 - Michelmore, Molly

A survey of United States History from Reconstruction to the present with emphasis on industrialization, urbanization, domestic and international developments, wars, and social and cultural movements.

Modern Latin America: Independence to Today

HIST 131 - Green, Romina

This course surveys Latin American history from the 1791 Haitian Revolution to the present. It covers important cultural, political, economic, and social developments in conversation with topics such as class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and governance. We will examine an array of secondary and primary sources including podcasts, documentaries, and poetry/music lyrics to understand localized experiences within the context of regional historical developments such as the Cold War.

The World of Islam: 1500 to the Present

HIST 171 - Atanasova, Kameliya

This course surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the Islamic World from the 16th to 21st centuries, with particular attention paid to the diverse experiences of the various regions that make up the Islamic world. Topics include the emergence of the early modern centralizing states in Iran, Turkey, India, and elsewhere; the spread of Islamic religious and political practices in Africa and Asia; the colonial and post-colonial confrontation between the Islamic World and Europe; and the evolution of new political, cultural, and intellectual movements as Muslim nations in the context of globalization.

Topics in History: Introduction to Eastern Europe

HIST 195H - Holland, Alana

This course surveys the history of modern Eastern Europe from the late 18th century through the present. We will explore this history through the lens of the peoples, states, empires, cultures, ideologies, and wars that have defined and redefined the region over time. When did “Eastern Europe” come to exist as such, and how do events in the past affect the current realities of the diverse individuals living in countries such as Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Romania, and many others? This course covers the history behind the ongoing debates about the geography and culture of Eastern Europe and its broader relationship with the world. 

Topics in History: Gender and Sexuality in U.S. History

HIST 195I - Rosenthal, Samantha

From the Salem witch trials to the Pink Pony Club, this is the story of Queer America. An examination of sexual practices and attitudes towards sexuality over the past five hundred years, this course will cover topics such as Black and indigenous sexualities; queer, trans, and intersex communities; and the impacts and influences of law, medicine, culture, and politics. In this course, students will learn to analyze primary sources, including court and police records, diaries, historical photographs, music, and films, and so much more. We will use theater and role play as a means of exploring historical narratives and their connections to the present day. Students will also conduct their own independent research into topics in the history of sexuality.

Topics in History: Reading and Readers in the Premodern World

HIST 195J - Chalmers, Matthew

We’re familiar with books as printed objects and digital ones, but people were learning from the written word long before the printing press. This course dives headfirst into the premodern history of books and reading. Books, sacred and secular, serious and frivolous, dangerous and orthodox, could communicate, symbolize, and inspire – but they could also threaten, destabilize, and teach sorcery or violence. As well as their meanings for the past, we explore the discovery of ancient books in the present, the technologies by which they become readable, and their consequences for understanding ancient religion. Throughout, we’ll encounter and ask questions of our modern fantasies and fears about books; blasphemy, censorship, book-burning, secrecy, suppression, and the social power of the written word.

Topics in European History: What is a Child? Introduction to the History of Childhood

HIST 229H - Fernandez-Fontecha, Leticia

Childhood is often seen as “natural” and unchanging, yet historical studies reveal that the meaning and experience of childhood have varied significantly over time and place, shaped by factors such as class, race, gender, and religion. Through historical analyses and firsthand accounts, this course explores questions like: Did childhood exist in the past, or is it a modern concept? Is childhood a biological stage, or is it the product of society, culture, and history? How different was growing up in the past compared to today, and how do class, race, gender, and other social factors affect these experiences? We will also look at the role of the child “expert”—pediatricians, psychologists, and educators—in defining “normal” childhood and examine the evolution of children's rights. Themes of inequality, victimization, discrimination, education, reform, activism, resilience, rights, and difference will be central to our discussions. Our focus will be on European history, using primary sources such as memoirs, diaries, laws, and medical publications, as well as secondary sources from the growing literature on the history of childhood.

American Experience with Guerrilla Warfare and Insurgency

HIST 246 - Myers, Barton

This course dives headlong into the chaotic, destructive, and brutally violent world that has been American Involvement with irregular warfare. Over the past 400 years, Americans have trained guerrillas, fought as irregulars, and sparked armed insurrections. This course looks at the broad typology of violence known as irregular warfare, including insurrections, violent revolutions, partisan and guerrilla warfare, U.S. Army/Native American conflict, and 20th-century insurgency and low-intensity conflict.

Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: Borderlands, Empires, and Encounter in Colonial North America

HIST 269G - Sammons, Franklin

It is easy to imagine colonial North America as little more than a prelude to the creation of the United States, its trajectory foreordained by the establishment of thirteen British colonies. Though the American Revolution will remain our endpoint, this course is not about the “pre-history” of the United States. Instead, it adopts a more expansive geographic approach to compare several different regions where Indigenous people, Europeans, and Africans encountered each other and forged different types of relationships across three centuries. Together we will explore the various kinds of conflict and cooperation that occurred across the continent, and consider how things like gender, empire, environment, disease, violence, and trade affected these relations. We will also grapple with the rise of colonialism, capitalism, racial slavery, and ecological transformation, some of the most transformative developments in human history whose legacies continue to shape our world. Our weekly readings will introduce you to a variety of historical approaches and methodologies used to recover the history of colonial North America, especially the perspectives and experiences of its Indigenous inhabitants. But we will read these historical accounts alongside a wide range of primary source materials to develop your own ability to make historical arguments and to interpret the past.

Introduction to Black Women's History

HIST 269L - Dennie, Nneka

What happens when American history is narrated by Black women and through Black women's experiences? How might we understand US history if we locate Black women at the center rather than the peripheries? These questions provide the guiding framework for this course. This course will trace African American women's history from slavery to the present. Particular attention will be devoted to Black women's labor, activism, intellectual thought, and cultural productions. We will also consider how race, gender, class, and sexuality have functioned in Black women's lives.

Topics in Asian, African, or Islamic History: Liberia and the American South: The Making of a Black Settlers' Colony, 1816-1900

HIST 289C - Ballah, Henryatta / Dennie, Nneka

In 1822, the first group of emancipated slaves from the United States arrived on the Malaquette Coast, which they renamed Liberia in 1824.  Between 1822 and 1892, over sixteen thousand predominantly emancipated slaves from the U.S and some from the Caribbean settled in Liberia.  Their settlement was orchestrated by the American Colonization Society—A Christian based organization whose membership included many slave –owners, including senators, congressmen, and other prominent government officials such as Thomas Jefferson.  Confederate General and former Washington and Lee University president, Robert E. Lee also supported colonization and his wife sold paintings to raise funds for the ACS.  Although freed slaves and free blacks who settled in Liberia came from across the United States, most came from the American South.  While the course will examine ACS initiatives, it will allow for more specificity—focusing primarily on the southern states of VA, NC, and GA.  For example, over half of the emigrants who settled in Liberia came from the state of Georgia.  And settlers from various parts of Virginia, including Rockbridge County and Loudon County, also settled there.  Thus, the course begins with the following questions: Why was the ACS founded? What were the goals and objectives of the organization in removing blacks from the U.S. to Liberia?  What views did settlers and blacks in general have about emigration to Liberia?  To address these questions and others, the course will analyze primary sources, including newspapers, the annual reports of the ACS from 1817 to 1892, personal correspondence between missionaries, as well as personal correspondence between formerly enslaved persons residing in Liberia to their former owners, friends, and families in the U.S.  The Mars and Jesse Lucas Letters from Liberia, 1820-1836, which contains eight letters between formerly enslaved Mars and Jesse with the Heaton Family in Loudon County, VA and The Hugh Adams Papers 1857-1860 about the Adams estate and the forced emigration of nineteen enslaved individuals from Rockbridge County, VA to Liberia are few of the sources we will examine.

Topics in History: Science & the Supernatural

HIST 295D - Rupke, Nicolaas

In modern – especially late-modern – times, science has become the adjudicator of truth – truth in terms of fact and law-like rationality. The result has been a retreat of the occult, of many superstitions, and the uncovering of fallacies and frauds. Yet large sectors of modern society have remained enamored of the paranormal. Even scientific practitioners themselves, including Nobel Laureates, have kept alive a belief in telepathy, precognition and such-like phenomena. Equally persistent, especially in religious circles, has been the conviction that miracles do happen; and, again, great scientists and medical practitioners have supported these and similar notions. More recently, the study of “wonders” has emerged as a separate field of inquiry: anomalistics. This course explores the fascinating history of the uneasy relationship between science and its contested boundaries where fact and fiction overlap. The recent outbreak of conspiracy theories, facilitated by social media, adds to our topic’s current affairs significance.

Topics in History: Gender, Technology, and Medicine in 20th century

HIST 295O - Rosenthal, Samantha

From piercings and tattoos to butt lifts, psychiatric meds, and “the pill,” body-changing technologies have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. In this course, we examine the history of technological inventions and medical practices that were developed in the twentieth century for the purpose of altering men’s and women’s bodies. How have the concepts of “man” and “woman” changed over time as scientists and clinicians have applied new medical technologies for the “improvement” of the body? We will address topics such as abortion, contraception, plastic surgery, psychiatry, and hormone therapy; subject matter will range from Nazi Germany to mid-century U.S. gender clinics to the current controversies over transgender healthcare. Students will ultimately conduct their own independent research on a twentieth-century topic of their own choosing at the intersections of gender, medicine, and technology. 

Topics in History: The Crusades

HIST 295P - Chalmers, Matthew

In 1095, armies from north-western Europe began to march east and south, propelled by a call to defend the holy places in Palestine from the “Turks and Arabs” in accordance with the will of God. This course tracks the history of this initial conflict and the capture of Jerusalem. It also surveys the next three hundred years as an ideology and identity of “crusader” emerged and as the so-called Crusader States anchored Latin Christian power in the Middle East. We ask questions of causality and definition. Were these wars of aggression? Of territorial control? Of religious fervour? And we also ask questions of perspective. What different views did medieval people have of these conflicts? What did they look like from the perspective of people in the lands invaded?

Topics in History: Darwin & Co.

HIST 295Q - Rupke, Nicolaas

Seminar: The French Revolution

HIST 309 - Horowitz, Sarah

Reconstruction America, 1865-1877

HIST 346 - Myers, Barton

Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and the restoration of the Union. Congressional Reconstruction and the crusade for black equality. Impeachment of the President. Reconstruction in the South. The politics and violence of military occupation. Collapse of Republican governments and restoration of conservative control. Implications for the future.

Advanced Seminar: Educating Otherness

HIST 395E - Green, Romina

This seminar will examine how the modern school constructed Indianness or indigeneity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The course takes a comparative approach to identify education policy patterns and shared perspectives across nations, placing nation-state territorial consolidation influenced by the globalization of colonial ideology. The first part of the course offers background on native mission schools in the Spanish and British colonial empires and the pedagogical questions that formed the modern school. The second part scrutinizes case studies of state and religious mission/residential schools in North America, Latin America, Australia, Sweden, and Japan. The last part of the course examines recent reconciliation moves by state and church institutions in response to Indigenous activism demanding apologies and reparations in addition to civil and land rights as material compensation.

Directed Individual Study

HIST 403 - Sammons, Franklin

A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered in other courses.

Honors Thesis

HIST 493 - Green, Romina

Honors Thesis. Additional information is available at www.wlu.edu/history-department/about-the-program/honors-in-history .

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Fall 2024▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

European History, 325-1517

HIST 100 - Chalmers, Matthew

An introductory survey, featuring lectures and discussions of European culture, politics, religion and social life, and of Europe's relations with neighboring societies, from the rise of Christianity in Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance, to the beginnings of the 16th-century Protestant and Catholic Reformations.

European History, 1500-1789

HIST 101 - Fernandez-Fontecha, Leticia

An individual who died in 1500 would have been surprised, if not bewildered, by many aspects of European life and thought in 1800. What changed over these three centuries? What stayed the same? Why should we in the 21st century, care? This course examines the history of Europe from the Renaissance through the beginning of the French Revolution. It explores the interplay of religion, politics, society, culture, and economy at a time when Europe underwent great turmoil and change: the Reformation, the consolidation of state power, the rise of constitutionalism, global expansion and encounters with others," perpetual warfare, the rise of the market economy, the spread of the slave trade, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. This course discusses how these processes transformed Europe into the Western world of today, while also challenging ideas about what "Western," "European," and "Civilization" actually mean.

History of the United States to 1876

HIST 107 - Sammons, Franklin

A survey of United States history from the colonial period through Reconstruction with emphasis on the American Revolution, the formation of the Constitution, the rise of parties, western expansion, the slavery controversy, sectionalism, secession, Civil War and Reconstruction.

History of the United States to 1876

HIST 107 - Myers, Barton

A survey of United States history from the colonial period through Reconstruction with emphasis on the American Revolution, the formation of the Constitution, the rise of parties, western expansion, the slavery controversy, sectionalism, secession, Civil War and Reconstruction.

The World of Islam: Origins to 1500

HIST 170 - Atanasova, Kameliya

This course surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the Islamic World from the 7th to 15th centuries, with particular attention paid to the diverse geographical and cultural contexts in which pre-modern Islamic civilization flourished. Topics include the origins of Islam in late Antiquity; the development of Islamic religious, political, and cultural institutions; the flourishing of medieval Islamic education, science, and literature; the tension among state, ethnic, sectarian, and global Muslim identities; and the emergence of a distinctly Muslim approach to historiography.

African History Since 1800

HIST 176 - Ballah, Henryatta

Examination of the history and historiography of Africa from the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the present. Topics include precolonial states and societies, European colonial intrusions and African responses, development of modern political and social movements, decolonization, and the history of independent African nation-states during the Cold War and into the 21st century.

First-Year Seminar: Youth and Social Movements in Africa

HIST 180D - Ballah, Henryatta

First-Year seminar. While Africa is always represented as a place of “backwardness” and “barbarity,” rarely do media reports focus on the life and lived experiences of African youth.  When the youth are discussed, they are often presented from the dominant trope of victimhood, thus neglecting the complexities and diversity of their lived experience, as well as their contribution to democratization efforts on the continent.  Thus, the aim of this course is to provide a critical analysis and discussion of Sub-Saharan African youth activism and social movements in the context of globalization and the crisis of “post” colonial authoritarianism, from the 1960s into the twenty-first century.

FS: First-Year Seminar: The Fall of Rome

HIST 180E - Chalmers, Matthew

How many times a day do you think about the Roman Empire? And, more importantly, how many times a day do you think about the Roman Empire’s fall? This course examines the multiple falls of Rome as well as the failures of Rome to fall. It addresses the basic questions – did Rome fall? What would that even mean? – as well as the more complex – who claimed Rome fell? Why do people talk about this at all? Finally, it tackles the legacy of Rome. Popes, priests, emperors, lawyers, bankers, and kings have all presented themselves as the rightful successors of the Romans. What does that legacy mean, and how should we understand it today?

Introduction to Russian History

HIST 195E - Holland, Alana

Survey of Russian history from its 9th century beginnings in early Rus to the present, focusing on the role of empire in shaping Russia’s ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural diversity and the intersection of these identities with class, gender, sexuality, and national belonging. This course contextualizes the geopolitics of Russia’s place between Europe and Asia within the broader social, cultural, economic, and political trends of European and global history. Students are introduced to major historical events in Russia, including the development and changing nature of the Russian state, the consequences of its expansion, and the impact of revolutionary movements and utopian ideologies in and beyond Russia.  

Gender Outlaws: An Introduction to Trans History

HIST 195F - Rosenthal, Samantha

This course introduces the historical method by using transness as the central lens through which we investigate the past, with a focus on the twentieth century. Students will analyze works by transgender and intersex authors, as well as research, write, and present on topics related to twentieth-century U.S. history. 

Scandal, Crime, and Spectacle in the 19th Century

HIST 211 - Horowitz, Sarah

This course examines the intersection between scandal, crime, and spectacle in 19th-century France and Britain. We discuss the nature of scandals, the connection between scandals and political change, and how scandals and ideas about crime were used to articulate new ideas about class, gender, and sexuality. In addition, this class covers the rise of new theories of criminality in the 19th century and the popular fascination with crime and violence. Crime and scandal also became interwoven into the fabric of the city as sources of urban spectacle. Students are introduced to text analysis and data mining for the humanities.

History of the Holocaust

HIST 229G - Holland, Alana

The Holocaust was the persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators from 1933-1945. The deep social, cultural, legal, and political legacies of the Holocaust remain with us, and it continues to inform the politics of memory in the world today. This course examines the history of the Holocaust from its premodern religious origins to its modern race-based legacies. Topics include the history of Jewish life in Europe, the relationship between antisemitism and racism, the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the implementation and aftermath of the Holocaust in different settings. We also examine the fate of non-Jewish victims and minorities persecuted by the Third Reich, the role of Germans and non-Germans in the murder of Jews, and the place of the Holocaust in the context of the First and Second World Wars to gain a deeper understanding of the event that defined the concept of genocide.

The American Civil War

HIST 245 - Myers, Barton

The sectional crisis. The election of 1860 and the secession of the southern states. Military strategy and tactics. Weapons, battles, leaders. Life of the common soldier. The politics of war. The economics of growth and destruction. Emancipation. Life behind the lines. Victory and defeat.

The Scientist as National Hero

HIST 249 - Rupke, Nicolaas

In this course we discuss the place of scientists in Western society, from the time of the Victorian professionalization of science till today, and we pay attention to the formation of a twentieth-century elite of Nobel Laureates and their role in national politics as well as, to a lesser extent, in international affairs. The course begins by discussing issues of historiography, giving special attention to scientific biography and metabiography. We thus "locate" science by looking at it as an embodied phenomenon, not just as a set of ideas and theories. The practitioners of science are dealt with, their institutions, their image in society and their role in contributing to politics and the public good. How/why have some scientists gained extraordinary leadership status in our culture; how/why have some become national heroes, a few even international ones? Can scientists provide the moral and political leadership to deal with the challenges in society that their very successes have created?

Building a Suburban Nation: Race, Class, and Politics in Postwar America

HIST 268 - Michelmore, Molly

Together, the overdevelopment of the suburbs and the underdevelopment of urban centers have profoundly shaped American culture, politics and society in the post-WWII period. This course examines the origins and consequences of suburbanization after 1945. Topics include the growth of the national state, the origins and consequences of suburbanization, the making of the white middle class, the War on Poverty, welfare and taxpayers rights" movements, "black power," and how popular culture has engaged with questions about race and class. In the process of understanding the historical roots of contemporary racial and class advantage and disadvantage, this course will shed new light on contemporary public policy dilemmas.

Introduction to Public History

HIST 269K - Rosenthal, Samantha

This course offers an introduction to the field of public history, including museum studies, historic preservation, oral history, and community organizing. Students will explore what the past means to different publics, as well as how to work ethically alongside community members and stakeholders in telling diverse stories.

African Women in Comparative Perspective

HIST 275 - Ballah, Henryatta

In this course, we will widen our appreciation of African Women's experiences, including history, legal and socio-economic status, religious and political roles, productive and reproductive roles, and the impact of colonialism and post-independence development and representation issues. The course will move across time and space to examine the aforementioned in pre-colonial, colonial and 'post'-colonial Africa. We will begin with the question: What common beliefs/images about African women did/do Euro-Americans share?

Topics in History: Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient World

HIST 295C - Chalmers, Matthew

What was it like to see through an ancient person’s eyes? What energized them? How did they understand themselves and others? This course explores the history of race and ethnicity with special attention to ancient Greece and Rome. It examines ancient claims about ancestry, appearance, culture, and physiology, as well as the uses of the classical past in more recent history. In addition to familiarity with the most relevant premodern evidence and the methods used in its study, we think through what it means to responsibly tackle concepts of race and ethnicity in what is ancient history. How can comparison with times that are not our own clarify our understanding of bodily and cultural difference?

Science & Anti-Racism, 1750-Today

HIST 295L - Rupke, Nicolaas

The topic of “science, race and racism” has been, and continues to be, extensively covered in scholarly monographs, collected volumes, and professional articles. Oddly, the history of scientific anti-racism has received little coverage. In this course, we will explore why this is so by focusing on Stephen Jay Gould’s popular yet partly misconceived The Mismeasure of Man and similar treatises. Among the forgotten heroes of scientific anti-racism to whom special attention will be paid are Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Friedrich Tiedemann, and Richard Owen. Also, we shall locate the origins of scientific racism in the efforts by Charles Darwin’s “Rottweilers,” T.H. Huxley and Ernst Haeckel, to apply Darwinian natural selection to the phenomenon of human variety.

Introduction to the History of Medicine

HIST 295M - Fernandez-Fontecha, Leticia

Injury, disease, and bodily decay predate modern medicine and have interested individuals other than medical doctors for centuries. This course deals with how knowledge about disease has been represented, and how it has changed us as it circulates worldwide. It is about the variety of ways people have thought about pain and the relief of pain. We will discuss the origins and evolution of major medical theories (e.g. humors, germs) and forms of intervention (e.g. vaccination, anesthesia) in relation to their historical context (e.g. colonialism, the Cold War). Along the way, students will be exposed to the wide array of groups and individuals who have played a role in our contemporary knowledge of illness and pain, including unlicensed practitioners, the military, ministers and nuns, device manufacturers, and, especially, the patients themselves. Focusing on the sick and the ways they have confronted disease, bodily decay, and physical discomfort enriches our understanding of modern medicine and helps explain why modern medicine co-exists with other self-care practices, including diet, alternative medicine, and prayer.

Slavery & Capitalism

HIST 369D - Sammons, Franklin

This course surveys American economic history from colonization to emancipation by focusing on the entangled relationship between slavery and capitalism. Although slavery existed across ancient societies, the expansion of commerce and colonialism in the early modern Atlantic world helped transform the institution into the race-based chattel form with which it is now associated. Together we will explore how and why this transformation occurred, the development of slavery and capitalism in the British colonies and the early United States, and the legal and economic dimensions of emancipation. We will also examine some of the theoretical and historiographical debates surrounding slavery’s relationship to capitalism. Weekly readings will introduce students to a variety of approaches used by historians to understand economic change, as well as the lived experiences of those who labored, traded, and profited amidst this transforming world. 

Directed Individual Study

HIST 403 - Myers, Barton

A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered in other courses.

Directed Individual Research

HIST 422 - Green, Romina

Students design and carry out at least 100 hours of research (archival, digital, historiographical) in areas related to History Department faculty’s research projects. Students complete at least two graded assignments (e.g., literature review, annotated bibliography, digital document archive) developed in consultation with a faculty supervisor. Because of staff limitations, the department may give preference to history majors. See department head for details. May be repeated with permission for degree credit up to a total of six credits. May be carried out during the summer. 

Honors Thesis

HIST 493 - Michelmore, Molly

Honors Thesis. Additional information is available at www.wlu.edu/history-department/about-the-program/honors-in-history .

Honors Thesis

HIST 493 - Green, Romina

Honors Thesis. Additional information is available at www.wlu.edu/history-department/about-the-program/honors-in-history .

Honors Thesis

HIST 493 - Holland, Alana

Honors Thesis. Additional information is available at www.wlu.edu/history-department/about-the-program/honors-in-history .

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Spring 2024▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

Scenes from Chinese History

HIST 105 - Bello, David

Film is one of the 20th century's most influential forms of mass communication and, consequently, has been one medium for the creation and maintenance of nation-states. In this sense, no film can be considered as mere entertainment entirely divorced from the social, political, economic and, ultimately, historical context in which it was produced. This is particularly true of modern nation-states invented during the 20th century like the People's Republic of China (PRC). This course is intended to explore how contemporary PRC cinema has interpreted Chinese history, as represented by some of that history's pre-PRC milestones of conflict in the Qin and Qing dynasties as well as the Republican period. Students evaluate the films critically as historical products of their own times as well as current historical narratives of the past by examining each event through a pair of films produced at different times in PRC history. Students also examine post-1949 changes in China and its interpretation of its pre-1949 history, and so, by seeing how a country interprets its history at a given time.

HIST172-01/REL172-01 Muslims in the Movies

HIST 172 - Atanasova, Kameliya

An examination of the history of visual representation of Islam and Muslims in classical and modern cinema. We approach movies produced by both Muslims and non-Muslims over the last century as historical sources: visual monuments that have captured the specific cultural and political context in which they were produced. We examine a selection of these movies through the lens of critical theory and the study of religion in order to pay attention to how questions surrounding identity and representation, race and gender, Orientalism and perceptions of difference have historically influenced and continue to influence cinematic images of Islam.

Topics in European History: Illegal Republics: Self-governance in the Middle Ages

HIST 229F - Vise, Melissa

It’s the eleventh century and Europe’s political imagination is dominated by single leaders: popes and bishops, monarchs and local rulers. But you’re a city in the north of Italy where a vacuum of power, a memory of Rome, and a vibrant mercantile community conspire to form something not seen in centuries: the republic. How do you do it? Max Weber famously termed these cities “illegal republics” as they stood completely outside the scope of extant medieval jurisprudence. Church officials and emperors were inclined to agree with him. But that did not stop the political reimagining that these cities effected. In this Spring Term course, students will encounter the history of these first Western republics since Rome turned imperial. They will construct a final group project that imagines something that the cities themselves never experienced: a medieval constitutional convention.

HIST238-01/SOAN238-01 Anthropology of American History

HIST 238 - Bell, Alison

This course explores issues within historic American communities that ethnographers often investigate among living groups, including cultural values, religious ideologies, class structures, kinship networks, gender roles, and interethnic relations. Although the communities of interest in this course ceased to exist generations ago, many of their characteristic dynamics are accessible through such means as archaeology, architectural history, and the study of documents. Case studies include early English settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the 18th-century plantation world of Virginia and South Carolina; the post-Revolutionary Maine frontier; and 19th-century California.

The Art of Command during the American Civil War

HIST 244 - Myers, Barton

This seminar examines the role of military decision-making, the factors that shape it and determine its successes and failures, by focusing on four Civil War battles: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Wilderness. Extensive reading and writing. Battlefield tours. Most appropriate for students who have completed HIST 245 or HIST 269. Additional course fee required, for which the student is responsible after Friday of the 7th week of winter term.

Topics in Asian, African, or Islamic History: History of West African Food

HIST 289D - Ballah, Henryatta

Across the continent of Africa, food serves a greater purpose than simply providing nutritional needs.  This course explores the socio-economic, religious and political significance of various West African dishes in their specific locales.  Some of the countries under study include, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.  Employing an interdisciplinary approach including culinary arts, students will learn first hand how to cook dishes for naming ceremonies, community festivals, birthdays, weddings and much more.

Topics in Asian, African, or Islamic History: Blasphemy

HIST 289I - Chalmers, Matthew

Can a divine being be offended? If so, what sort of god is that? If not, who does blasphemy hurt? This course explores blasphemy as a concept, a fear, and a practice. We examine its cultural and legal history, its social functions, as well as some key instances of blasphemy, law, and violence in (allegedly) “secular” societies. Far from being a relic of the premodern world, blasphemy takes on its sharpest and most coercive forms in modernity. And through modern ideas about blasphemy, we’ll grapple with the place of religious speech in society and the limits of our ideas about secularization. 

Seminar: Topics in History: Animal Experimentation & Animal Rights Since 1750

HIST 295K - Rupke, Nicolaas

The place of animals in Western society is our focus in this course. More particularly, we trace the history of the use of animals as living objects of laboratory experimentation, and explore the controversies that vivisectional practices have engendered. To what extent has animal experimentation been essential to the progress of science, especially medical science? And, assuming it has been essential, does this justify the mistreatment of sentient creatures? Do animals have rights? What to think of animal liberation activism? We will look at these questions in the wider context of humane movements, and of organisations/societies that have been established for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Also, we link up with today’s activist issues over the treatment of animals by the food industry, and discuss vegetarian and vegan alternatives.

Directed Individual Study

HIST 403 - Bello, David

A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered in other courses.

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