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History Courses
hist 597 Special Topics +
hist 600 Research and Methods +
Description:
This introductory course in historical research methods is required for all tracks in the History MA program. The course will focus on archival research skills, analysis of primary sources, and the development of critical writing skills. Among the assignments, all students will complete a 20-25 page research paper in which students will utilize primary sources in order to develop an historical argument. Specific topics will vary from semester to semester based on the expertise and interests of the instructor. More Info
Offered in:hist 602L American Society and Political Culture: 1600-1865 +
Description:
This course will examine major historical events and processes that have impacted the development of American political culture, including settler colonialism, revolution, slavery, sectionalism, and territorial expansion, from the perspective of different social groups, such as leaders, artists, writers, women, indigenous peoples, free laborers, and enslaved people. Central themes include the interplay between regional divergences and national convergences; constructions of racial, gender, class, ethnic, and national identities; the rise of early cultural forms, like the novel, newspaper, and photograph; and the politics of resistance and reform. More Info
Offered in:hist 605 Introduction to Historiography +
Description:
This introductory course in historiography is required for all tracks in the History MA. It is designated as a reading course in which students will explore critical theoretical approaches in history. The study of historiography involves both the study of the methodologies used by historians, as well as the study of the development of the discipline of history over time. Students will learn how a field of historical study is defined, study dominant historical approaches and themes over time, and understand how to position research within a larger historiographical debate. More Info
Offered in:hist 620 Introduction to Public History and Popular Memory +
Description:
This course will introduce students to the historical origins of the public history field, the historiography and major paradigms in the field, and the debates that have emerged surrounding the public role of historians. Students will be required to engage in seminar discussions, evaluate two current public history artifacts (i.e. exhibitions, walking tours, oral history program, digital project, etc.), and complete a project proposal where students discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of public history work and locate themselves in the larger paradigms of the field. By the end of the course, students are expected to understand the following: the evolution of the public history field; historians' engagement with various publics, and more specifically historians' involvement in the public constructions of history; major theoretical constructs such as memory, heritage, community, commemoration; and current issues, trends, and theories that continue to change within the public history field. More Info
Offered in:hist 625 Interpreting History in Public Approaches to Public History Practice +
Description:
This course gives students an overview of the history, best practices, and cultural debates that provide the context for museum and historic site interpretation in the United States. Students will learn how versions of the past are created, communicated and institutionalized as history at historic sites, museums, historic houses, landscapes, and the web. They will explore successful models of interpretation in public venues and examine dilemmas in community collaboration and interpretation for and with the public. Students examine the roles of evidence, history and politics in interpretation; venues, cultures and histories that shape interpretation; interpretive methods and practices in using historical evidence in public history venues; and issues and practices that challenge the practice of public history now and into the future. The course offers students several opportunities to engage in this exploration through readings, assignments, class discussion, guest speakers, case studies, visits to actual and virtual sites, written and oral assignments, and practicum experiences with a community partner. More Info
Offered in:hist 626 Introduction to Archives and Information Management +
Description:
This seminar provides an introduction overview to managing archival resources, the essential principles of the profession, and the core work archivists do, including appraisal, acquisitions, preservation, arrangement, description, providing access, research services, and outreach. The course explores the history of manuscript collection in the United States; discusses current issues and new technologies int he field; explores trends in archival processing and access; and discusses theories that shape the nature of archival management. Students may gain some hands-on experience with manuscript processing, open source collection management software, and digital methodologies. More Info
Offered in:hist 627 Archival Methods and Practices +
Description:
This course explores the fundamental principles of archival practice and methodology, focusing largely on basic preservation, arrangement, description and access standards. Issues, topics, and technologies explored include the development of descriptive standards for traditional materials and for special formats. The course may include some hands-on work: curating manuscripts, audiovisual materials, and/or digital collections; learning and applying preservation techniques; and creating a finding aid. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 630 Transforming Archives and History in the Digital Era +
Description:
In a rapidly changing electronic age, archivists must learn to preserve and provide long-term access to materials and also learn to create, present, and archive history online. This seminar explores digitization as a means of preserving traditional archival materials; students may also create a digital archive and learn preservation techniques for various types of digital media (textual, image sound, moving images, and web sites); and examine the unique challenges posed by electronic records, including copyright issues, and digital asset management. More Info
Offered in:hist 635 Internship in Archives and Information Management +
Description:
The internship provides students with an opportunity to acquire direct practical experience. Students enrolled in this course will complete 120 hours of work at an approved institution (either a traditional archive, special collections library, or museum, or a repository specializing in electronic records), under the supervision of a professional archivist or information manager. Enrolled students will complete an approved project and meet regularly with the Program Director, periodically submit written reports, and, at the end of the semester, submit a final project report and assessment. More Info
Offered in:hist 638 World War I +
Description:
This course analyzes the causes and development of World War I and its aftermath. The discussions will include the diplomatic origins of the conflict, the power relationships among the different powers, expansion of the Great War, the most important military operations, and the historiographical debate regarding the conflict. The aftermath of the war will also be examined, including the Paris Peace Conference, the complex developments that produced the postwar world, and the debate over their relationship to the outbreak of the next World War. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 639 World War II +
hist 641 Socialism: The International History of a Revolutionary Idea +
Description:
This course will discuss one of the most important movements in modern history. Readings and discussions will give students an idea of Socialist ideology and the different strains that emerged from it, including anarchism, revolutionary socialism, social democracy, and communism. They will consider the different interpretations that have produced conflict among adherents of different varieties of socialism and how they have affected the world. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 642 Fascism +
Description:
This course examines the origins and development of Fascist ideology and practice, from rise from a local to a major international force, and its fall, in the twentieth century. Readings and discussions will present different interpretations of the Fascist phenomenon and whether its core style is being revived in the twenty-first. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 664 Boston History +
Description:
This reading-intensive seminar will provide a broad overview of Boston history. We will pay close attention to the issues of race, ethnicity, religion, and class in understanding the larger issues that have shaped modern-day Boston. We will also examine the physical development of the city over that time and the major political issues that have defined Boston. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 667 The Progressive Era +
Description:
This course covers a volatile period in which Americans came to grips with the social and political consequences of industrial and urban transformation. A generation of reformers and political activists reorganized cities, confronting issues of poverty and dangerous working conditions, and looking to government to regulate the unbridled power of large corporations. Artists challenged European traditions in art, music and literature. The period also saw racial polarization and a new, rights-oriented African American movement. Unprecedented immigration and the massive influx of so-called ''new immigrants'' from southern and eastern Europe stirred nativist and racial exclusionist sentiment. More Info
Offered in:hist 668 Age of FDR: Depression, War, and the Birth of Modern America +
Description:
When Franklin Roosevelt became President in 1933 in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployment was 25 percent and most banks were closed. Over the next eight years the nation climbed gradually out of depression. Millions of Americans earned paychecks through public works programs. Between 1942 and his death in 1943, Roosevelt was at the center of Allied war planning, and American factories churned out unprecedented amounts of war goods. The class will examine FDR's policies, his opponents, and the lives of American citizens in depression and war. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 670 Cold War America, 1945-1989 +
Description:
This graduate-level seminar will provide students with an in-depth look at American history during the period of the Cold War, roughly between 1945 and 1989. The United States found itself on the side of the victorious Allies in World War Two, but in the war's aftermath a new and different war against the Soviet Union began to take shape. This course will look at American politics and society during the Cold War. We will cast a wide net thematically, but will focus mainly on three areas: 1) how anti-Communism affected America both in terms of foreign affairs as well as domestic politics; 2) the trajectory of post-war economic growth and the increasingly globalized nature of the economy; and 3) the expansion of individual freedoms and civil rights. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 681 Topics in European History +
Description:
Examinations of important themes in European political, social, cultural, and intellectual history. Topics vary. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 682 Topics in American History +
Description:
Examinations of important themes in American political, social, cultural, and intellectual history. Topics vary. More Info
Offered in:hist 684 Topics in Food History +
Description:
This course examines different topics related to the history of food. The place and time period covered in the course may vary according to the instructor. Students will examine themes related to the production, distribution, and consumption of food and explore how these practices have shaped local, regional, and global cultures, economies, and politics. Students will gain better understanding of why the study of food matters to historians, providing insight into the global impacts of migration, cultural exchange, industrialization, trade, and empire as well as more interpersonal dynamics of family; community; and the production or deconstruction of racial, class, gender, ethnic, national, and sexual identities. More Info
Offered in:hist 685 Topics in Atlantic History +
Description:
This course is an examination of important themes in the history of the Atlantic world between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such themes will involve economic, cultural, social, and/or political interactions between peoples and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 686 Topics in Gender History +
Description:
This course examines different topics related to the history of women, gender, and sexuality. The location and time period covered in the course may vary according to the instructor. Students will examine themes related to the history of gender norms and their implications for how people over time have lived their lives. Students will gain better understanding of why the study of gender matters to historians, especially in terms of overlapping identities like race, class, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, and queerness. They will learn how gender is intrinsic to understanding various historical contexts and moments, including the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Revolutions, industrialization, imperialism, the World Wars, decolonization, and the sexual revolution. More Info
Offered in:hist 688 Oral History +
Description:
The practice of oral history is an important counterpart to traditional archival research methods. This course examines what it means to be a practitioner of oral history. The course will explore in depth the contributions that oral history can make to the understanding of the past. Throughout the course we will think critically about the nature of narrative an memory and work extensively to develop interview skills. The course will also explore the design of an oral history archive. More Info
Offered in:hist 689 Capstone Project +
Description:
This course is for students in the Archives and Public History Tracks who choose to take the Capstone route instead of Thesis. In this course, those students will complete a substantial Archives of Public History project. Students will choose their topics and complete their projects under the supervision of a faculty advisor. More Info
Offered in:hist 690 Final Project Prep: Prerequisite for HIST 693 and HIST 699 +
Description:
This is a required course for advanced graduate students who have completed or nearly completed their other course work and are preparing to write a history review essay (History track only) or a thesis (all tracks). Public History and Archives students planning to write a capstone may elect to take this course after consultation with their track director. For all students, History 690 offers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the historiography for their final project. In this class, students locate and read relevant sources, identify the questions they intend to pursue, and write a proposal. Students should have a final project topic and advisor identified before enrolling in History 690. More Info
Offered in:hist 693 History Review Essay: Independent Study with Advisor +
Description:
History 693 provides students with an opportunity to develop and complete the historiographical essays they propose and plan in History 690. Successful essays demonstrate deep reading in and extensive knowledge of a chosen field of historical scholarship. Essays showcase the ability to synthesize, analyze, and evaluate secondary texts by asking critical questions about historiography, research methods, sources, and theory. Overall, completed essays provide a record of mastery in historical thinking and practice befitting the holder of a graduate degree in history. More Info
Offered in:hist 696 Independent Study +
Description:
Advanced course of independent readings under the guidance and subject to the examination of the instructor. Areas and topics according to student need. More Info
Offered in:hist 697 Special Topics +
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics within this subject. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the registration period. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
hist 698 Internship in Public History +
Description:
In order to gain direct experience with the problems and applied solutions in the field, students in the Public History Track will conduct tan Internship of at least one semester in length in which they will be asked to participate in a project or activity with a public history group or institution. The students will be given close supervision by a UMB History Department faculty member and will be required to meet the same requirement as graduate students meet in laboratories. In other words, the three-credit internship will require 2.5 hours of work per week, per credit, or a total of 7.5 hours of intern work per week. In the process of the internship, students will learn from public history practitioners such as museum professionals, tour guides, re-enactors, documentary film makers as well as from scholars of history. These practitioners will guide students through the problems and solutions involved in planning and funding public history projects as well as the problems in selecting, conducting and oral and community history projects and interpreting and presenting historical information in various venues in order to engage and educate public audiences. More Info
Offered in:hist 699 Master of Arts Thesis +
Description:
Under the supervision of the appointed advisor. All topics must be previously approved by the program's graduate committee. The thesis will be defended before a committee of three faculty members who will also judge its suitability as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master of arts degree. More Info
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