Current Courses
Courses by Level
Introductory Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
-
This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 20999 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 11:00-11:50)
- 21000 / White / Online Asynchronous
- 20998 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 12:00-12:50)
- 21909 / Guilfoyle / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- 23050 / Choudhury / Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- 21538 / Googe / Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- 21009 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- 21008 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 1120 - World History from 1400 to the Present *
-
This course will focus on the evolution of multiple, autonomous cultural centers within Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas prior to 1400 to an interconnected global system in the present. Topics covered include exploration, colonialism, responses to industrialization, the spread of the nation-state, the rise of modern science, the impact of a global economy, ethnicity and nationalism, migration, and mass culture.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21010 / Seagle / Online Asynchronous
- 23428 / McCormack / Online Asynchronous
- 21001 / Brudney / Online Asynchronous
- 21002 / McCormack / Online Asynchronous
- 23563 / Hu / Online Asynchronous
- 21540 / Manion / Online Asynchronous
- 23562 / Hu / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 20145 / Johnson / Online Asynchronous
- 21245 / Johnson / Online Asynchronous
- 21522 / Taylor / Face-to-Face (MWF 8:00-8:50)
- 22540 / Erskine / Online Asynchronous
- 23646 / Adkins / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- HIST 2020 - United States since 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21003 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21523 / Kuby / Online Asynchronous
- 20902 / Brown / Online Asynchronous
- 21011 / Goldmon / Online Synchronous (W 2:00-4:30)
- 23430 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
2000-Level Courses
- HIST 2100 - Rhetoric and Writing in History *
-
Introduction to principles and practices of historical research and writing. Emphasizes research methods and techniques, analysis of source material, construction of historical arguments, and effective written presentation of material in multiple contexts.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Rhetoric & Writing/Composition II
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21004 / Cummiskey / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21005 / Cummiskey / Online Synchronous (TR 1:40-2:55)
- 21246 / Wheeler / Online Synchronous (MWF 10:00-10:50
- HIST 2030 - History of Tennessee *
-
A study of the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the state from the days of the Indians to the present.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Sections and modalities:
- 21524 / Online Asynchronous
- 22542 / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2210 - Medieval Europe, c. 300-1500 *
-
This course covers the history of the medieval period from the transformation of the Roman era through the end of the fifteenth century. This class will focus on themes like religious growth and change, the development of medieval social structures and institutions, and cultural interactions between Europe and its neighbors.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23432
Modality: Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2880 - History of the Modern Middle East *
-
Background and setting of the modern Middle East; factors influencing Great Power strategy; Islam; rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire; imperialism and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Instructor: Annie Tracy Samuel
Section: 23433
Modality: Online Asynchronous
3000-Level Courses
- HIST 3120 - Ancient Rome
-
This course provides a broad survey of the political, cultural, and social history of Ancient Rome from its founding to its transformation in the fifth century C.E. Topics covered include art, philosophy, and literature; the rise of bureaucratic government; the Roman economy; and life under the emperors. May be registered as CLAS 3120. Credit not allowed in both HIST 3120 and CLAS 3120.
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23434
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3280 - The Holocaust: Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders
-
This course is about the genocide of the Second World War known as the Holocaust. The focus will be on the people involved: the perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. We will look at the origins of the tragedy and try to understand how it came about. The course will also include discussions concerning how people involved and affected by what happened have come to terms with the mass murder of Jews, Roma, and others during the war.
Instructor: John Swanson
Section: 23423
Modality: Face-to-Face (T 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: Urban Slavery and Antislavery
-
The institution of racial slavery is widely regarded as America’s greatest national sin and paradox. How could an independent republic forged in principles of virtue, freedom, liberty, and the self-evident truth “that all men are created equal” also be established on a foundation of inhuman bondage? How could early national leaders Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both write in the 1780s of creating an “empire of liberty” even as the transatlantic slave trade flourished and the enslaved population in the United States surpassed half a million? Then in the first half of the nineteenth century, why did the “peculiar institution” grow and spread westward across the American landscape at the same time an invigorated antislavery movement emerged? And how, within the deliberately violent and destructive crucible of bondage, did enslaved persons create such vibrant and lasting cultural traditions? This course will examine major topics and themes in the history of slavery and antislavery in its various times, places, forms, perspectives, and interpretation, and consider—through reading, discussion, research, and writing—the persisting legacies and consequences of American greatness, prosperity, and exceptionalism being built upon nearly 250 years of Black bondage. Special emphasis, however, will be placed on urban enslavement, and the core questions of how slavery in American cities was both similar to and different from the more common rural plantation environment, and whether slavery and cities were compatible
Instructor: Michael Thompson
Section: 21530
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: American Public History
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on the United States.
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Section: 21531
Modality: Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: History of White Rage
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on the United States.
Instructor: Susan Eckelmann Berghel
Section: 22536
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 1:40-2:55)
- HIST 3930R - Topics: Civilization and Capitalism, 1500-1800
-
A close reading and discussion of three great classic texts in the social sciences that focus on the history of the early modern West—Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (Books i, iii-iv), Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and Norbert Elias’s Civilizing Process. Topics likely to be discussed in this interdisciplinary class include the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe, state formation, mercantilism, and colonialism, the division of labor, the “civilizing” of manners and personality in the West and the long-term decline of violence, secularization and disenchantment, the rise of the bourgeois values, and the economic ethics of the world religions.
Instructor: James Guilfoyle
Section: 22537
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 3940R - Topics: Global Environmental History
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on a global area in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia, or Africa.
Instructor: Carey McCormack
Section: 22535
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 3:05-4:20)
- HIST 3940R - Topics: The Life and Postlife of Eva Peron
-
This class explores the history of twentieth-century Argentina by examining the life of one of its most famous (or infamous) characters, Eva Perón. From her origins as an illegitimate child of a wealthy provincial landowner to her career as a radio star and through her meteoric rise as one of the most savvy and charismatic female politicians of the 1900s, Evita inspired both enduring loyalty and vehement hatred. In this class, we will use historical analysis, fiction, and film to make sense of her complex and contradictory life and legacy.
Instructor: Eddie Brudney
Section: 21534
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3950R - History of Epidemics and Society
-
A course on the history of epidemics in world history, from the ancient world to the present. The course will explore the ways different epidemic diseases reflected social, political, and cultural aspects of human society; how different knowledge, values, and belief systems shaped human responses to epidemic disease; and how epidemic diseases reshaped human society. Topics will include the plague, smallpox, yellow fever, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, HIV, Zika forest virus, Ebola, and COVID-19.
Instructor: Julia Cummiskey
Section: 23435
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 2:00-3:15)
4000-Level Courses
- HIST 4020 - The Historian’s Craft: Capstone in History
-
A seminar primarily intended for advanced majors in history or a related field. Focusing on specific topics in American, European, or World history, the course will help students master topics such as historiographical debate, analysis of historical evidence, and current historical methodologies.
Topic for Spring 2021: The Struggle for Racial Justice and Equity
Instructor: Mark Johnson
Section: 21007
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 10:50-12:05)
- HIST 4150 - European Women's History to 1800
-
A survey of the history of European women in the medieval and early modern eras. Topics covered will include pre-modern ideas about gender and women; women's role in and relationship to religion; women's work; women's position within the household; the effect of class, marital status, and urban vs. rural residence on women; the emergence of women's rights; and the effect of historical changes such as the Reformation and capitalism on the condition of women.
Instructor: Michelle White
Section: 23436
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 3:05-4:20)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Sexuality in the Age of Jim Crow
-
This course will explore public anxieties over race and sexuality in the United States during the Jim Crow Era, or the long period of legal segregation following Reconstruction. Focusing primarily on the 1890s-1940s, we will study a variety of topics to investigate how these two identity categories have historically intersected. Themes will include interracial intimacy, eugenics, the lynching epidemic, “white slavery” panics, prostitution reform, Black respectability politics, racial passing, and queer cultures in the early twentieth century.
Instructor: William Kuby
Section: 21536
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Gender in the Japanese Empire
-
This course examines the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in the Japanese empire from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It seeks to understand how constructions of race/ethnicity and gender were essential to the creation and maintenance of the Japanese empire. The course will begin with the origins of Japanese nationalism in the metropole in the early Meiji period (1868-1912) as Japan faced Western encroachment. This course will explore how Japanese leaders viewed, represented, and treated, the people of Ezo (Hokkaido), Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa), Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, and Manchuria/Manchukuo, internal and external colonies of Japan from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This course seeks to answer the following questions: How did Japan’s vision of itself and other people it encountered shaped its conceptualizations of race/ethnicity and gender? How did Euro-American imperialism influence Japanese leadership? How did Japan’s vision of the colonized populations shaped how the colonized people viewed themselves? How did race/ethnicity and gender become essential tools for Japanese colonists to control their colonies?
Instructor: Fang Yu Hu
Section: 22539
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 4920R - Internships in History
-
Designed to provide practical experience with the materials and problems encountered by history professionals outside the traditional academic setting. Placements will be arranged on an individual basis.
Faculty Supervisor: Michael Thompson
Section: 42194
Modality: Hybrid
Courses by Subject/Region
U.S. History Courses
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2020 - United States since 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21003 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21523 / Kuby / Online Asynchronous
- 20902 / Brown / Online Asynchronous
- 21011 / Goldmon / Online Synchronous (W 2:00-4:30)
- 23430 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- HIST 2030 - History of Tennessee *
-
A study of the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the state from the days of the Indians to the present.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Sections and modalities:
- 21524 / Online Asynchronous
- 22542 / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 3920R - Topics: Urban Slavery and Antislavery
-
The institution of racial slavery is widely regarded as America’s greatest national sin and paradox. How could an independent republic forged in principles of virtue, freedom, liberty, and the self-evident truth “that all men are created equal” also be established on a foundation of inhuman bondage? How could early national leaders Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both write in the 1780s of creating an “empire of liberty” even as the transatlantic slave trade flourished and the enslaved population in the United States surpassed half a million? Then in the first half of the nineteenth century, why did the “peculiar institution” grow and spread westward across the American landscape at the same time an invigorated antislavery movement emerged? And how, within the deliberately violent and destructive crucible of bondage, did enslaved persons create such vibrant and lasting cultural traditions? This course will examine major topics and themes in the history of slavery and antislavery in its various times, places, forms, perspectives, and interpretation, and consider—through reading, discussion, research, and writing—the persisting legacies and consequences of American greatness, prosperity, and exceptionalism being built upon nearly 250 years of Black bondage. Special emphasis, however, will be placed on urban enslavement, and the core questions of how slavery in American cities was both similar to and different from the more common rural plantation environment, and whether slavery and cities were compatible.
Instructor: Michael Thompson
Section: 21530
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: American Public History
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on the United States.
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Section: 21531
Modality: Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: History of White Rage
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on the United States.
Instructor: Susan Eckelmann Berghel
Section: 22536
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 1:40-2:55)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Sexuality in the Age of Jim Crow
-
This course will explore public anxieties over race and sexuality in the United States during the Jim Crow Era, or the long period of legal segregation following Reconstruction. Focusing primarily on the 1890s-1940s, we will study a variety of topics to investigate how these two identity categories have historically intersected. Themes will include interracial intimacy, eugenics, the lynching epidemic, “white slavery” panics, prostitution reform, Black respectability politics, racial passing, and queer cultures in the early twentieth century.
Instructor: William Kuby
Section: 21536
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
European History Courses
- HIST 2210 - Medieval Europe, c. 300-1500 *
-
This course covers the history of the medieval period from the transformation of the Roman era through the end of the fifteenth century. This class will focus on themes like religious growth and change, the development of medieval social structures and institutions, and cultural interactions between Europe and its neighbors.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23432
Modality: Online Asynchronous
- HIST 3120 - Ancient Rome
-
This course provides a broad survey of the political, cultural, and social history of Ancient Rome from its founding to its transformation in the fifth century C.E. Topics covered include art, philosophy, and literature; the rise of bureaucratic government; the Roman economy; and life under the emperors. May be registered as CLAS 3120. Credit not allowed in both HIST 3120 and CLAS 3120.
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23434
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3280 - The Holocaust: Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders
-
This course is about the genocide of the Second World War known as the Holocaust. The focus will be on the people involved: the perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. We will look at the origins of the tragedy and try to understand how it came about. The course will also include discussions concerning how people involved and affected by what happened have come to terms with the mass murder of Jews, Roma, and others during the war.
Instructor: John Swanson
Section: 23423
Modality: Face-to-Face (T 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3930R - Topics: Civilization and Capitalism, 1500-1800
-
A close reading and discussion of three great classic texts in the social sciences that focus on the history of the early modern West—Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (Books i, iii-iv), Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and Norbert Elias’s Civilizing Process. Topics likely to be discussed in this interdisciplinary class include the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe, state formation, mercantilism, and colonialism, the division of labor, the “civilizing” of manners and personality in the West and the long-term decline of violence, secularization and disenchantment, the rise of the bourgeois values, and the economic ethics of the world religions.
Instructor: James Guilfoyle
Section: 22537
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 4150 - European Women's History to 1800
-
A survey of the history of European women in the medieval and early modern eras. Topics covered will include pre-modern ideas about gender and women; women's role in and relationship to religion; women's work; women's position within the household; the effect of class, marital status, and urban vs. rural residence on women; the emergence of women's rights; and the effect of historical changes such as the Reformation and capitalism on the condition of women.
Instructor: Michelle White
Section: 23436
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 3:05-4:20)
World History Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
-
This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21008 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- 21909 / Guilfoyle / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- 23050 / Choudhury / Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- 21538 / Googe / Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- 21009 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- 20999 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 11:00-11:50)
- 21000 / White / Online Asynchronous
- 20998 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 12:00-12:50)
- HIST 1120 - World History from 1400 to the Present *
-
This course will focus on the evolution of multiple, autonomous cultural centers within Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas prior to 1400 to an interconnected global system in the present. Topics covered include exploration, colonialism, responses to industrialization, the spread of the nation-state, the rise of modern science, the impact of a global economy, ethnicity and nationalism, migration, and mass culture.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2880 - History of the Modern Middle East *
-
Background and setting of the modern Middle East; factors influencing Great Power strategy; Islam; rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire; imperialism and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Instructor: Annie Tracy Samuel
Section: 23433
Modality: Online Asynchronous
- HIST 3940R - Topics: Global Environmental History
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on a global area in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia, or Africa.
Instructor: Carey McCormack
Section: 22535
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 3:05-4:20)
- HIST 3940R - Topics: The Life and Postlife of Eva Peron
-
This class explores the history of twentieth-century Argentina by examining the life of one of its most famous (or infamous) characters, Eva Perón. From her origins as an illegitimate child of a wealthy provincial landowner to her career as a radio star and through her meteoric rise as one of the most savvy and charismatic female politicians of the 1900s, Evita inspired both enduring loyalty and vehement hatred. In this class, we will use historical analysis, fiction, and film to make sense of her complex and contradictory life and legacy.
Instructor: Eddie Brudney
Section: 21534
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3950R - History of Epidemics and Society
-
A course on the history of epidemics in world history, from the ancient world to the present. The course will explore the ways different epidemic diseases reflected social, political, and cultural aspects of human society; how different knowledge, values, and belief systems shaped human responses to epidemic disease; and how epidemic diseases reshaped human society. Topics will include the plague, smallpox, yellow fever, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, HIV, Zika forest virus, Ebola, and COVID-19.
Instructor: Julia Cummiskey
Section: 23435
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 2:00-3:15)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Gender in the Japanese Empire
-
This course examines the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in the Japanese empire from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It seeks to understand how constructions of race/ethnicity and gender were essential to the creation and maintenance of the Japanese empire. The course will begin with the origins of Japanese nationalism in the metropole in the early Meiji period (1868-1912) as Japan faced Western encroachment. This course will explore how Japanese leaders viewed, represented, and treated, the people of Ezo (Hokkaido), Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa), Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, and Manchuria/Manchukuo, internal and external colonies of Japan from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This course seeks to answer the following questions: How did Japan’s vision of itself and other people it encountered shaped its conceptualizations of race/ethnicity and gender? How did Euro-American imperialism influence Japanese leadership? How did Japan’s vision of the colonized populations shaped how the colonized people viewed themselves? How did race/ethnicity and gender become essential tools for Japanese colonists to control their colonies?
Instructor: Fang Yu Hu
Section: 22539
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
Core & Departmental Courses
- HIST 2100 - Rhetoric and Writing in History *
-
Introduction to principles and practices of historical research and writing. Emphasizes research methods and techniques, analysis of source material, construction of historical arguments, and effective written presentation of material in multiple contexts.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Rhetoric & Writing/Composition II
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 4020 - The Historian’s Craft: Capstone in History
-
A seminar primarily intended for advanced majors in history or a related field. Focusing on specific topics in American, European, or World history, the course will help students master topics such as historiographical debate, analysis of historical evidence, and current historical methodologies.
Topic for Spring 2021: The Struggle for Racial Justice and Equity
Instructor: Mark Johnson
Section: 21007
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 10:50-12:05)
- HIST 4920R - Internships in History
-
Designed to provide practical experience with the materials and problems encountered by history professionals outside the traditional academic setting. Placements will be arranged on an individual basis.
Faculty Supervisor: Michael Thompson
Section: 42194
Modality: Hybrid
Courses by Modality
Face-to-Face & Hybrid Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
-
This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Taylor
Section: 21522
Modality: Face-to-Face (MWF 8:00-8:50)
- HIST 3280 - The Holocaust: Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders
-
This course is about the genocide of the Second World War known as the Holocaust. The focus will be on the people involved: the perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. We will look at the origins of the tragedy and try to understand how it came about. The course will also include discussions concerning how people involved and affected by what happened have come to terms with the mass murder of Jews, Roma, and others during the war.
Instructor: John Swanson
Section: 23423
Modality: Face-to-Face (T 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: Urban Slavery and Antislavery
-
The institution of racial slavery is widely regarded as America’s greatest national sin and paradox. How could an independent republic forged in principles of virtue, freedom, liberty, and the self-evident truth “that all men are created equal” also be established on a foundation of inhuman bondage? How could early national leaders Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both write in the 1780s of creating an “empire of liberty” even as the transatlantic slave trade flourished and the enslaved population in the United States surpassed half a million? Then in the first half of the nineteenth century, why did the “peculiar institution” grow and spread westward across the American landscape at the same time an invigorated antislavery movement emerged? And how, within the deliberately violent and destructive crucible of bondage, did enslaved persons create such vibrant and lasting cultural traditions? This course will examine major topics and themes in the history of slavery and antislavery in its various times, places, forms, perspectives, and interpretation, and consider—through reading, discussion, research, and writing—the persisting legacies and consequences of American greatness, prosperity, and exceptionalism being built upon nearly 250 years of Black bondage. Special emphasis, however, will be placed on urban enslavement, and the core questions of how slavery in American cities was both similar to and different from the more common rural plantation environment, and whether slavery and cities were compatible.
Instructor: Michael Thompson
Section: 21530
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 3940R - Topics: Global Environmental History
-
A thematic or comparative course that centers on a global area in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia, or Africa.
Instructor: Carey McCormack
Section: 22535
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 3:05-4:20)
- HIST 4020 - The Historian’s Craft: Capstone in History
-
A seminar primarily intended for advanced majors in history or a related field. Focusing on specific topics in American, European, or World history, the course will help students master topics such as historiographical debate, analysis of historical evidence, and current historical methodologies.
Topic for Spring 2021: The Struggle for Racial Justice and Equity
Instructor: Mark Johnson
Section: 21007
Modality: Face-to-Face (TR 10:50-12:05)
- HIST 4920R - Internships in History
-
Designed to provide practical experience with the materials and problems encountered by history professionals outside the traditional academic setting. Placements will be arranged on an individual basis.
Faculty Supervisor: Michael Thompson
Section: 42194
Modality: Hybrid
Online Synchronous Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
-
This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21909 / Guilfoyle / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- 23050 / Choudhury / Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- 21538 / Googe / Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Section, instructor, and modality:
- 23646 / Adkins / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- HIST 2020 - United States since 1865 *
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A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21003 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21011 / Goldmon / Online Synchronous (W 2:00-4:30)
- 23430 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- HIST 2100 - Rhetoric and Writing in History *
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Introduction to principles and practices of historical research and writing. Emphasizes research methods and techniques, analysis of source material, construction of historical arguments, and effective written presentation of material in multiple contexts.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Rhetoric & Writing/Composition II
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21246 / Wheeler / Online Synchronous (MWF 10:00-10:50)
- 21004 / Cummiskey / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21005 / Cummiskey / Online Synchronous (TR 1:40-2:55)
- HIST 3120 - Ancient Rome
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This course provides a broad survey of the political, cultural, and social history of Ancient Rome from its founding to its transformation in the fifth century C.E. Topics covered include art, philosophy, and literature; the rise of bureaucratic government; the Roman economy; and life under the emperors. May be registered as CLAS 3120. Credit not allowed in both HIST 3120 and CLAS 3120.
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23434
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3920R - Topics: American Public History
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A thematic or comparative course that centers on the United States.
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Section: 21531
Modality: Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- HIST 3930R - Topics: Civilization and Capitalism, 1500-1800
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A close reading and discussion of three great classic texts in the social sciences that focus on the history of the early modern West—Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (Books i, iii-iv), Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and Norbert Elias’s Civilizing Process. Topics likely to be discussed in this interdisciplinary class include the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe, state formation, mercantilism, and colonialism, the division of labor, the “civilizing” of manners and personality in the West and the long-term decline of violence, secularization and disenchantment, the rise of the bourgeois values, and the economic ethics of the world religions.
Instructor: James Guilfoyle
Section: 22537
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
- HIST 3940R - Topics: The Life and Postlife of Eva Peron
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This class explores the history of twentieth-century Argentina by examining the life of one of its most famous (or infamous) characters, Eva Perón. From her origins as an illegitimate child of a wealthy provincial landowner to her career as a radio star and through her meteoric rise as one of the most savvy and charismatic female politicians of the 1900s, Evita inspired both enduring loyalty and vehement hatred. In this class, we will use historical analysis, fiction, and film to make sense of her complex and contradictory life and legacy.
Instructor: Eddie Brudney
Section: 21534
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 3:25-4:40)
- HIST 3950R - History of Epidemics and Society
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A course on the history of epidemics in world history, from the ancient world to the present. The course will explore the ways different epidemic diseases reflected social, political, and cultural aspects of human society; how different knowledge, values, and belief systems shaped human responses to epidemic disease; and how epidemic diseases reshaped human society. Topics will include the plague, smallpox, yellow fever, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, HIV, Zika forest virus, Ebola, and COVID-19.
Instructor: Julia Cummiskey
Section: 23435
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 2:00-3:15)
- HIST 4150 - European Women's History to 1800
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A survey of the history of European women in the medieval and early modern eras. Topics covered will include pre-modern ideas about gender and women; women's role in and relationship to religion; women's work; women's position within the household; the effect of class, marital status, and urban vs. rural residence on women; the emergence of women's rights; and the effect of historical changes such as the Reformation and capitalism on the condition of women.
Instructor: Michelle White
Section: 23436
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 3:05-4:20)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Sexuality in the Age of Jim Crow
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This course will explore public anxieties over race and sexuality in the United States during the Jim Crow Era, or the long period of legal segregation following Reconstruction. Focusing primarily on the 1890s-1940s, we will study a variety of topics to investigate how these two identity categories have historically intersected. Themes will include interracial intimacy, eugenics, the lynching epidemic, “white slavery” panics, prostitution reform, Black respectability politics, racial passing, and queer cultures in the early twentieth century.
Instructor: William Kuby
Section: 21536
Modality: Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- HIST 4500R - Race and Gender in the Japanese Empire
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This course examines the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in the Japanese empire from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It seeks to understand how constructions of race/ethnicity and gender were essential to the creation and maintenance of the Japanese empire. The course will begin with the origins of Japanese nationalism in the metropole in the early Meiji period (1868-1912) as Japan faced Western encroachment. This course will explore how Japanese leaders viewed, represented, and treated, the people of Ezo (Hokkaido), Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa), Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, and Manchuria/Manchukuo, internal and external colonies of Japan from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This course seeks to answer the following questions: How did Japan’s vision of itself and other people it encountered shaped its conceptualizations of race/ethnicity and gender? How did Euro-American imperialism influence Japanese leadership? How did Japan’s vision of the colonized populations shaped how the colonized people viewed themselves? How did race/ethnicity and gender become essential tools for Japanese colonists to control their colonies?
Instructor: Fang Yu Hu
Section: 22539
Modality: Online Synchronous (TR 12:15-1:30)
Online Asynchronous Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
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This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 1120 - World History from 1400 to the Present *
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This course will focus on the evolution of multiple, autonomous cultural centers within Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas prior to 1400 to an interconnected global system in the present. Topics covered include exploration, colonialism, responses to industrialization, the spread of the nation-state, the rise of modern science, the impact of a global economy, ethnicity and nationalism, migration, and mass culture.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
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A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 20145 / Johnson / Online Asynchronous
- 21245 / Johnson / Online Asynchronous
- 22540 / Erskine / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2020 - United States since 1865 *
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A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21523 / Kuby / Online Asynchronous
- 20902 / Brown / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2030 - History of Tennessee *
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A study of the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the state from the days of the Indians to the present.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Sections and modalities:
- 21524 / Online Asynchronous
- 22542 / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2210 - Medieval Europe, c. 300-1500 *
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This course covers the history of the medieval period from the transformation of the Roman era through the end of the fifteenth century. This class will focus on themes like religious growth and change, the development of medieval social structures and institutions, and cultural interactions between Europe and its neighbors.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23432
Modality: Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2880 - History of the Modern Middle East *
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Background and setting of the modern Middle East; factors influencing Great Power strategy; Islam; rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire; imperialism and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Instructor: Annie Tracy Samuel
Section: 23433
Modality: Online Asynchronous
General Education Courses
- HIST 1110 - World History from Origins to 1400 *
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This course will introduce students to human achievements in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the origins of civilization to about the year 1400. Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to civilizations and cultures, it will emphasize emerging cultures, traditions, and religions both as expressions of their time and place and as meaningful in our modern world.
Satisfies the following General Education requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western; and Thoughts, Values, and Beliefs
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21008 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- 21909 / Guilfoyle / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- 23050 / Choudhury / Online Synchronous (MW 5:00-6:15)
- 21538 / Googe / Online Synchronous (M 2:00-4:30)
- 21009 / Guilfoyle / Online Asynchronous
- 20999 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 11:00-11:50)
- 21000 / White / Online Asynchronous
- 20998 / Doyle / Face-to-Face (MWF 12:00-12:50)
- HIST 1120 - World History from 1400 to the Present *
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This course will focus on the evolution of multiple, autonomous cultural centers within Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas prior to 1400 to an interconnected global system in the present. Topics covered include exploration, colonialism, responses to industrialization, the spread of the nation-state, the rise of modern science, the impact of a global economy, ethnicity and nationalism, migration, and mass culture.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2010 - United States to 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2020 - United States since 1865 *
-
A survey of American History from the age of discovery to the present, with special attention to the peoples, ideas, and cultures that created the United States.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- 21003 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 10:50-12:05)
- 21523 / Kuby / Online Asynchronous
- 20902 / Brown / Online Asynchronous
- 21011 / Goldmon / Online Synchronous (W 2:00-4:30)
- 23430 / Eckelmann Berghel / Online Synchronous (TR 9:25-10:40)
- HIST 2100 - Rhetoric and Writing in History *
-
Introduction to principles and practices of historical research and writing. Emphasizes research methods and techniques, analysis of source material, construction of historical arguments, and effective written presentation of material in multiple contexts.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Rhetoric & Writing/Composition II
Sections, instructors, and modalities:
- HIST 2030 - History of Tennessee *
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A study of the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the state from the days of the Indians to the present.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kelli Nelson
Sections and modalities:
- 21524 / Online Asynchronous
- 22542 / Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2210 - Medieval Europe, c. 300-1500 *
-
This course covers the history of the medieval period from the transformation of the Roman era through the end of the fifteenth century. This class will focus on themes like religious growth and change, the development of medieval social structures and institutions, and cultural interactions between Europe and its neighbors.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement: Historical Understanding
Instructor: Kira Robison
Section: 23432
Modality: Online Asynchronous
- HIST 2880 - History of the Modern Middle East *
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Background and setting of the modern Middle East; factors influencing Great Power strategy; Islam; rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire; imperialism and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirements: Historical Understanding; Non-Western Cultures
Instructor: Annie Tracy Samuel
Section: 43374
Modality: Asynchronous