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  HISTORY DEPARTMENT

History Department

Division of Humanities

Associate Professor Daniel Castro, PhD, Chair

Professor Steven C. Davidson, PhD

Associate Professor Elizabeth Green Musselman, PhD

Associate Professor Thomas V. McClendon, PhD

Assistant Professor Shana Bernstein, PhD

Assistant Professor Lisa Moses Leff, PhD

Visiting Assistant Professor Martha Norkunas, PhD

Instructor Ann Genova, MA (part-time)

The study of History promotes individual and collective self-understanding by examining the record of the past. It develops a way of thinking that enables students to identify trends and relations of human existence and to appreciate both the limits and the possibilities of our own age.

The History program provides students with a global perspective and a solid grounding in the methods and fields of history, while also encouraging interdisciplinary connections. The History major provides students not with a random collection of courses, but with a program that is concerned with finding patterns and connections. Beginning with introductory courses, the major prepares students for advanced courses on topics, themes, and methods of history, and for research experience. With their understanding of the past and their historical mindedness, History students go on to careers in all levels of education and government, in law, social service, communications, museum and archival work, and business.

To receive a BA in History, a student must take two World History courses. These are foundation courses for the study of History, each of which seeks to provide students with basic historical literacy. Each also seeks to develop appreciation for large-scale regional and global patterns as well as regional and global connections, including exchanges of ideas, labor, trade, technology, etc. Finally, each of these World History courses seeks to combat ethnocentricity by examining the internal development of the cultural and institutional heritages of each people involved in these patterns and exchanges. Students must take Historiography in the sophomore or junior year and two courses designated as Research Seminars. The two Research Seminars constitute the History major capstone. Students are required to take five additional courses from the general departmental offerings chosen in consultation with the academic advisor according to the following guidelines: one upper-level course must be taken from three of the five geographical areas covered by the department (Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, United States), and one course with a substantial pre- or early modern component is also required.

The History department strongly encourages students to pursue an off-campus international, intercultural, or academic internship experience as a part of their curriculum. If this interferes with a student’s ability to take the two Research Seminars and graduate on time, then specific course work taken during this experience can be substituted for the second research seminar, but only with permission from the History department chair, received at the same time the student files the other paperwork for that off-campus experience. To receive approval, students must demonstrate that logistically they cannot take both research seminars, study abroad, and graduate on time. Additionally, the experience must be in another country, last for at least one semester, and it must involve at least one upper-level course in history that preferably contains a significant research project.

Study abroad as well as advanced historical research necessitate language skills beyond the level of proficiency required for all Southwestern students. Students preparing for graduate work in history should check graduate catalogs to see if additional language work is expected.

It is possible to do a 54-hour paired major in History and Feminist Studies by double-counting two courses cross-listed in History and Feminist Studies. Currently those courses are 16-393 History of European Women, 16-473 Gender and Generation in Africa, 16-543 Gender and Science, and 16-643 Women in Colonial Latin America, although other cross-listed courses may be substituted by permission of the Chair of the Feminist Studies Committee, and new courses may be added.

It is also possible to complete a 48 hour program in International Studies that pairs a major in History with an additional “Concentration” of four courses on either East Asia, Europe, or Latin America plus two courses at the 300 level or above in an appropriate language and a semester or longer study abroad experience. See the International Studies Program for further details.

Individual members of the Department work with highly motivated students who design independent study projects. The Department also occasionally has internships in local history. Finally, the Department participates in the Honors Program by inviting exceptional students to do an Honors Project during their senior year.

Major in History: 32 semester hours, including one from History 16-013, 043, 093; one from 16-023, 063, 073; 16-853, 864 (two semesters) (Capstone); one course above the introductory level from three of the following five areas: Africa 16-263, 433, 453, 473; East Asia 16-243, 253, 273, 563, 583; Europe 16-203, 213, 293, 313, 323, 353, 383, 393, 403, 523, 533, 543, 593; Latin America 16-333, 363, 373, 453, 633, 643, 653; United States 16-103, 113, 413, 453, 463, 503, 753; six additional hours of History.

Additional requirements for the History major: One course having a substantial pre- or early modern component, as part of the geographical distribution or as one of the two non-designated courses, from History 16-203, 243, 253, 273, 313, 323, 363, 393.

Minor in History: 18 semester hours, including one from History 16-013, 043, 093; one from 16-023, 063, 073; 12 additional hours of History above the introductory level.

See the Education Department for information regarding teacher certification in History.

History (HIS)

†16-013WORLD CIVILIZATIONS TO 1500. The origins, development, and character of the major world civilizations and their relationships to one another to 1500. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-023WORLD CIVILIZATIONS SINCE 1500. The changing nature of the world’s civilizations and their increasing interrelations after 1500. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-043EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, AND COLONIZATION IN WORLD HISTORY. During the early modern era, new and old civilizations collided and merged in Asia, Africa and the Americas, irreversibly transforming the world. This course is intended as an exploration of some of the most salient processes and events responsible for the dramatic transformation of the world in the aftermath of the Middle Ages. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-063COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL WORLDS. This course will introduce students to a historical understanding of the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, framed by colonial and post-colonial relationships between the West and areas colonized by it after 1750. We will pursue several themes, including: imperialism, including contradictory goals and methods of colonizers and varieties of indigenous response; social and cultural effects of colonization on colonizers, as well as colonized peoples; anti-colonial struggles, decolonization, and the Cold War; independence and dependence; and globalization of markets, political structures, and cultures. We will explore these themes through textbooks and primary source accounts, as well as novels and films. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-073NATIONS AND NATIONALISM IN WORLD HISTORY. A history of the modern world focusing on how “nations” are defined in different historical and geographical contexts. In each context, the course will address the question of who has the legitimate authority to represent the “nation,” as well as how national “insiders” are distinguished from “outsiders” by those who have the authority to define the boundaries of the nation. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-093SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN WORLD HISTORY. This course surveys how humans worldwide have understood and manipulated nature from prehistory to the present. The class investigates whether science is a uniquely European invention; what standards should be used to judge the value of natural knowledge systems that bear little resemblance to modern science; what needs and desires humans have fulfilled through understanding and manipulating nature; what has led different cultures to perceive the natural word in such divergent ways; and how technology and science have influenced each other historically. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
†16-103U.S. HISTORY BEFORE 1865. This course will explore major social, political, economic, and diplomatic developments in the United States before 1865. It will examine the profound and numerous transformations in American society through the end of the Civil War. It will expose students to a wide range of historical actors and dialogues by considering themes such as: how Americans have struggled to understand and define the nature of freedom and equality; the evolving national government; socioeconomic and cultural shifts brought on by the transportation/market revolution; and the consequences of the country’s territorial expansion. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Biennially)
†16-113U.S. HISTORY SINCE 1865. This course will explore major social, political, economic, and diplomatic developments in the United States since the Civil War. It will examine the experiences and the conflicts that made up the history of modern American society. Students will be exposed to a wide range of historical actors and dialogues. We will examine the profound and numerous transformations the country experienced in this period through three themes: how Americans have struggled to understand and define the nature of freedom and equality; the evolving character of the American state and its relationship to the sociopolitical economy; and how the United States became increasingly involved in a “global community.” (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Biennially)
†16-203EARLY MODERN EUROPE. Survey of the history of Europe from about 1400 to 1800. Topics will include the Renaissance and Reformation; transitions from feudal to capitalist and colonial economies; health and epidemic disease; women’s experiences, sexuality and family life; magic, the “Scientific Revolution” and Enlightenment; absolutism and the development of modern nation-states. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Annually)
†16-213MODERN EUROPE. A history of Europe from the French Revolution of 1789 to the present, emphasizing the development of new political traditions and social structures, the establishment of new forms of international organization, the transformation of work, changes in the lived environment, and the evolution of understandings of the self. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Annually)
†16-243ANCIENT CHINA. An examination of ancient China from the rise of the earliest state through the “classical” era and the early empires of the Qin and the Han. This course will focus on intellectual, cultural, and social history, including such topics as ancestor reverence, universal kingship, the mandate of Heaven, the writing and transmission of the “classics”, the formation of the Confucian and Daoist traditions, and the establishment of territorial empires from 221 B.C. to 220 A.D. Also Religion 19-423. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
†16-253IMPERIAL CHINA 589-1911. A survey of the intellectual, cultural, and social history of China from the reunification of the Chinese empire in 589 A.D. through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties until the demise of the dynastic system in 1911. The nature of Neo-Confucianism, the Chinese scholar-official class, the examination system, the bureaucratic state, foreign influences and conquests, and the arts and literature of imperial China are the primary concerns of this course. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
†16-263AFRICAN HISTORY. This survey is an introduction to African cultures and history from precolonial times to the present, emphasizing Africa’s variety and its connections to other parts of the world. Topics include: precolonial social and political organization; the spread of Islam and Christianity; the impact of the Atlantic slave trade; conquest and resistance; social change under colonial rule; decolonization; neo-colonialism and postcolonial challenges. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Annually)
†16-273JAPANESE CIVILIZATION. This course is a survey of the history and culture of Japan from the rise of the Yamato state in the sixth century A.D. to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The course will examine indigenous institutional and cultural developments and the nature of stimuli and influences from the East Asian continental cultures and from the U.S. and Europe. Heian aristocratic society, Japanese feudalism, Japan’s late traditional state and society, and the Meiji Restoration will be studied. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
16-293TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE. These courses investigate how people in the past have understood nature. Each course topic emphasizes a different geographical area, chronological period, and specific area of scientific or medical interest, but every version of the course will emphasize how broader historical contexts have shaped human knowledge of nature. May be repeated with change in topic. (Biennially)
†16-313GREEK CIVILIZATION. See Classics 07-313. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Biennially)
†16-323ROMAN CIVILIZATION. See Classics 07-323. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Biennially)
16-333 GUERRILLA MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY. The objective of this course is to provide students with a general overview of the evolution of guerrilla warfare in Latin America from the earliest indigenous rebellions in the 16th century to the struggles waged in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico at the end of the 20th century. (Biennially)
16-353MODERN EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY. A history of major currents in European thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Romanticism, Psychoanalysis, Existentialism and Structuralism. The class will explore these currents by reading the works of European novelists, social theorists, and philosophers, including, for example, Goethe, Balzac, Freud, Sartre, and Foucault. (Biennially)
†16-363COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA. This course provides an overview of the most significant historical themes and events that have contributed to the formation, evolution, and development of Indoamerica. The class will examine the period encompassed between the apogee of pre-Columbian high civilizations and the Creole wars of independence of the nineteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to the encounter and collision of Europe and America, and the nature of the complex society that emerged as a result of this chain of events. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
†16-373MODERN LATIN AMERICA. An overview of cultural, social, economic, and political themes that contributed to the creation of modern Latin America. The course will examine the period between the beginnings of the Wars of Independence, in the early nineteenth century, to the present. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
16-383 THE HOLOCAUST. This course will look at the Holocaust, the destruction of European Jewry, as an event in both European history and Jewish history. We will focus on the development and implementation of Nazi ideology and the “final solution” in Germany and the territories it conquered during World War II, and seek to account for both the actions of perpetrators and the responses of victims and bystanders to the events as they unfolded. We will draw on work scholars have done in the fields of literature, anthropology, philosophy, and religious studies, as well as history. (Biennially)
16-393 HISTORY OF EUROPEAN WOMEN. Introduction to the experiences of European women from the High Middle Ages through modern feminist movements. The course focuses on the effect of changing political, economic, and intellectual trends on European perspectives of gender and sexuality—and vice versa. Topics will include religions, peasant life, courts and salons, education and intellectuals, marriage and family life and laws, effects of industrialization, complicity in and rejection of imperialism, and feminist movements. Also Feminist Studies 04-393. (Biennially)
†16-403THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND MODERN FRANCE. A history of France from 1789 to the present. We will study the development of new political ideologies and institutions during the Revolution, the modernization of state, culture and society in the 19th and 20th centuries, workers’ struggles, and questions of religious, political and ethnic diversity. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Biennially)
16-413HISTORY OF RACE RELATIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY U.S. By exploring the history of Asian Americans and Latinos as well as African Americans and whites, this class emphasizes the multiracial history of twentieth-century America. This course recognizes the historical significance of multiple racial and ethnic groups. The ways in which major events and episodes in the century, including the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, affected minority groups as well as how these groups responded to their social and political environment will be examined. Also Feminist Studies 04-423. (Biennially)
†16-433MODERN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY. A survey of the history of southern Africa from the eve of the region’s encounter with European settlers to the present; this course will emphasize the 19th and 20th centuries. Themes will include indigenous social organization; colonization; slavery; the spread of Christianity; labor migrancy; industrialization; segregation and apartheid; African nationalism and resistance; the disintegration of apartheid; and the rise of the “new” South Africa. We will examine these issues with attention to questions of race and ethnicity, class, gender and generation, and the nature of resistance. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
16-453SLAVERY IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD. Slavery and the slave trade were fundamental to the development of the Americas. Africa and the Americas were linked through the Atlantic slave trade, as well as through the movement to abolish slavery. Slavery was also widespread in Africa, and it grew in importance as a result of the Atlantic slave trade. This course will consider various systems of slavery and the changes in those systems over time, as well as examine the economic and ideological links among slave systems in Africa and the Americas. (Biennially)
16-463LATIN AMERICAN, ASIAN, AND EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA. This course will examine topics in the history of Latin American, Asian and European immigrants in America, especially during the years between 1880 and 1965. A comparative framework will be used to integrate Latin Americans and Asian migrants into a more common understanding of European immigration in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will explore major themes in immigration history rather than a comprehensive examination; themes will include debates in immigration history, round-trip vs. permanent migration, community building, acculturation, and racial formation among others. (Biennially)
16-473GENDER AND GENERATION IN AFRICA. This course enables students to gain a better understanding of historical and contemporary Africa through examination of two important and interlocking features of African social organization: gender and generation. These constructed categories have important implications for students of Africa, as both gender and generation significantly shape community life and structure social conflicts. Changes associated with colonialism and modernity have in turn had significant effects on African understandings of gender and generation and have resulted in new types of conflict. We will analyze these social and cultural patterns, changes, and conflicts through reading and discussing the work of historians and anthropologists, as well as novels and films by contemporary Africans. The course will conclude with presentation of students’ own research. Also Feminist Studies 04-473. (Biennially)
16-503THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WEST. This course will focus on the development of the 19th and 20th century American West. It will explore themes that highlight the intersections of race, gender, class, nationality, and the environment rather than providing a chronological overview of the history of the West. Course objectives include learning to interpret varied forms of historical evidence and fostering analytical, reading, discussion and synthetic skills that will help students think and communicate critically about historical and contemporary society and politics. (Biennially)
†16-523BRITISH HISTORY, 1688 TO THE PRESENT. This course will look at the modern portion of Britain’s unique history. Beginning with the 1688 Glorious Revolution, when England restored its monarchy under a constitution and Protestant church, we will trace not only political developments, but also the key economic, social, and cultural changes that have shaped modern Britain. Topics will include the bitter loss of America and the often violent absorption of Scotland and Ireland; changes in the class system; the Anglican Church’s fight to maintain religious dominance; increasing literacy and popularity of science and literature; rivalries with the French; the wonders and horrors of industrialization; the growth of cities; imperialism’s heyday and decline; the changing status of women; the devastation of the two world wars; the rise of the welfare state; and Thatcherism and Tony Blair’s response: Cool Britannia. (POK-American and Western Cultural Heritage) (Annually)
16-533TOPICS IN BRITISH CULTURE. Cultural history seeks to understand how people have attached meanings to their lives through the expression of ideas, art, science, performance, consumption, sport, and other cultural forms. This course will examine various aspects of Great Britain’s cultural history to try to understand British identities, and how Britons have understood the meanings of their everyday lives. Offerings include British Isles under the Tudor-Stuarts; English and Scottish Enlightenments; Victorian Britain, Ireland, and Empire. May be repeated with change in topic. (Biennially)
†16-543 GENDER AND SCIENCE. This course examines what the sciences have said historically about women, men, gender, and sexuality – as well as the flip side of that coin; how preconceived notions about women, men, gender, and sexuality have shaped scientific ideas. Using historical examples, the course considers when the sciences have alternately been tools for empowerment and enslavement. Subjects for discussion include: women in the sciences, changing anatomical views of male and female bodies, race as a complicating factor in scientific notions about gender, scientific investigations of homosexuality, the masculinity and femininity of scientists, the gendering of nature itself, and science as a kind of power. Also Feminist Studies 04-543. (POK-Values Analysis) (Biennially)
†16-563 20TH CENTURY CHINESE HISTORY. A study of the fall of the Chinese dynastic system, cultural and revolutionary movements, the establishment of the People’s Republic, and the continuing transformations in contemporary China. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
16-583 MODERN JAPANESE HISTORY. A study of the intellectual, social, and institutional origins of modern Japan, its role in World War II in the Pacific, its post-War transformations, and recent trends. (Biennially)
16-593MODERN JEWISH HISTORY. A survey of the major currents in Jewish culture, society, religious life and political status from 1492–present. Course places these aspects of Jewish life within context of the wider cultures in which Jews have lived. Topics include: the consequences of the Spanish expulsion of 1492; traditional piety in European Jewish culture; forms of mysticism; the Jewish enlightenment; patterns of acculturation; religious reform; Zionism; the Holocaust; and Jewish life in America. Also Religion 19-593. (Biennially)
†16-633HISTORY OF MEXICO, 1519-1920. An examination of the evolution of some of the most significant strands that form the tapestry of Mexican history. This survey begins with an examination of the subjugation of high native civilizations by European invaders and concludes in the apotheosis of the Mexican Revolution. (POK-Other Cultures and Civilizations) (Biennially)
16-643WOMEN IN COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA. The primary objective of this course is to examine the crucial role played by women in the period between the first contact of Spain with mainland America, 1519, to the period of national independence in the early 19th century. In the process of this examination, the course will challenge existing outmoded perceptions, prejudices, and stereotypes concerning Latin American women. Also Feminist Studies 04-643. (Biennially)
16-653LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY IN FILM AND LITERATURE. Latin America, or Indoamerica, is a complex territory and a state of mind suspended between the extremes of despair and unbound hopefulness. Telling its history poses insurmountable challenges to the academic historian, and often the history of the land and its people is better expressed in the work of magicians, artists, writers and auteurs. This course is but a humble attempt to venture into the labyrinthine relationships between the artist and that enigmatic territorial and spiritual landscape extending from the Rio Bravo to Tierra del Fuego. (Biennially)
16-753 TEXAS HISTORY. This class will focus on the representation of the Texas past as evidenced by the preservation and presentation of Texas history at major Texas historic sites. Students will examine major periods and themes in Texas history as presented by the sites, and consider the aspects of history that are left out of the larger story. Students will pay particular attention to the ways in which history is taught to school children at the sites. In addition to visiting Austin sites, students will visit a number of Texas Parks and Wildlife historic sites. The class will cover a variety of topics. Highlights include: turn of the century life in the Hill Country and German Texans, LBJ as Texan, African-Americans in the period of enslavement in Texas, African-Americans and Jim Crow in Texas, the Great Depression and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Texas, and women in Texas history. (Biennially)
16-853 HISTORIOGRAPHY. A study of the concept of history, the history of historical writing, the major schools of historical interpretation today, and the relation of history to philosophy of history. Prerequisite: Must be at least a second semester sophomore. (Annually)
16-864 RESEARCH SEMINAR. Topics, which change from semester to semester, include History and Memory, Utopias and Utopianism, Law and History, Microhistories, and On Revolution. Prerequisite: History 16-853. (Annually)

16-001, 002, 003, 004 SELECTED TOPICS. May be repeated with change in topic.
16-301, 302, 303, 304 SELECTED TOPICS. May be repeated with change in topic.
16-941, 942, 943, 944 INTERNSHIP IN HISTORY.
16-951, 952, 953, 954 INDEPENDENT STUDY. May be repeated with change in content.
16-983 HONORS. By invitation only.