Spring 2016
Department of History
GRADUATE
Course Description Guide
University of Massachusetts
Department of History
Graduate Course Description Guide
Spring 2016
Advanced undergraduates are invited to inquire about enrolling in graduate courses. Such
enrollment depends on the permission of individual instructors who should be contacted directly.
Questions can also be directed to the Graduate Program Director, Barbara Krauthamer, at
irenek@history.umass.edu.
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Comparative Memory
J. Olsen
649
Civil War and Reconstruction
M. Sinha
661
American Material Culture
M. Miller
691
World Studies Interdisciplinary Project
A. Seligman
691AR
Atlantic Revolutions
J. Heuer
691SR
From Slavery to Reconstruction
L. Morgan
691W
Writing History
M. Miller
697PR
Imperial America
C. Appy
791J
Writing Seminar in US Cultural History
D. Glassberg
791PG
History of US Social Policy, Politics of Gender/Race/Class
L. Sharrow
You may take two courses outside the department that will count toward your degree. Check
Spire to see graduate course offerings beyond our department. Students often find relevant
courses in Anthropology, English, the W.E. B. Du Bois Department of African American
Studies; Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Public Policy, and other places around
campus.
The following courses are undergraduate courses in which seats have also been reserved for
graduate students with an interest in this topic. Graduate enrollment is capped at 8 for these
courses.
691CA
Explorations in Colonial Andean History
H. Scott
697AA
Theory & Method of Oral History
S. Redman
697LG
US LGBT & Queer History
J. Capó
697RE
Race, Sex, and Empire: Britain and India
P. Srivastava
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History 597
Under the University Numbering System, M.A. students wishing to enroll in an upper-level
undergraduate course (at UMass or on one of the Give College campuses) may do so under the
special topics number, History 597, with permission from the instructor and also with the
understanding that instructors will require additional work of graduate students in those courses.
signed by the faculty member teaching the course (turn this in to Mary Lashway in Herter 612).
Check SPIRE for the listings of undergraduate courses.
There are forms available in Herter 612 describing the additional work to be bperfromed for
graduate credit; these must be signed by the instructor. Students will be responsible for
discussing the course requirements with instructors. Please see the Graduate Program Assistant
about registration to ensure that a grade will be submitted for you at the end of the semester.
Only two 597 courses may count as topics courses towards completion of the M.A. degree.
History 696 or 796 (Independent Study)
Students may enroll in independent studies as either History 696 (reading independent study) or
History 796 (research/writing independent study) with a faculty member overseeing the plan of
study.
To enroll in History 696 or 796 pick up an independent study form from Mary Lashway in
Herter 612. This form must be filled out including name, student number, course number (696 or
796), credits, a detailed description of the plan of work for the independent study (e.g. research
paper, book reviews, historiography, essays, etc.), and signed by the professor overseeing the
independent study. After it has been filled out and signed it needs to be returned to Mary
Lashway to be entered on Spire. Only two independent studies may be counted towards
completion of the M.A. degree.
Scheduled Courses:
626
Comparative Memory
Jon Olsen
Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
The phenomenon of cultures of memory has emerged over the past decade as a subject of serious
historical scholarship. The aim of this seminar is to discuss the problem of national memory
cultures since the Second World War. We will begin the semester by looking at theories of
memory and national identity since 1945. Although the primary thrust of our readings will deal
with remembering the Second World War, we will also delve into other areas of remembering.
The German concept of Vergangenheitsbewähltigung, or coming to terms with the past, and its
relationship to national identity will serve as our guiding analytical tool for our investigation into
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this topic. We will look at a variety of nation-states in Europe as well as the United States and
Japan in order to compare and contrast national forms of memory culture and ponder questions
of universality versus distinct historical experience. We will also concentrate on the political and
cultural aspects that different national forms of remembering have had on the historical
development of these nations. Student evaluation will involve book reviews, class presentations,
and a research paper.
649
Civil War and Reconstruction
Manisha Sinha
Tuesday, 1:00pm-3:30pm
This seminar explores the revolutionary significance of the Civil War and Reconstruction era in United
States history. It seeks to bridge the gap between African American history and the traditional narratives
of mid-nineteenth century American political and social history. We will focus on the wartime destruction
of slavery and the process of emancipation and state formation and African American political
mobilization during and after Reconstruction. Other topics include the transnational histories of the Civil
War, the new military history, gender and the politics of war, the transition from slavery to free labor, and
the role of terror in the fall of Reconstruction. We will read a book a week and recent historical literature
will form the bulk of the reading for the seminar.
All students will be required to lead the class discussion once during the semester and write a fifteen to
twenty page historiographical or research paper on a topic of their choice.
661
American Material Culture
Marla Miller
Wednesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
The aim of this course is to introduce graduate students to the study of "doing history from
things," or material culture. We will attend to the methods by which material culture can be
harnessed for historical analysis and examine the work of historians using objects to investigate
larger historical questions about gender, race, class and society. Students will gain familiarity
with the most significant literature in material culture studies, major trends in material culture
historiography, and the leading figures who have given the field its shape and direction. In their
semester long papers, students will be able to choose between an article-length historiographical
paper on the material culture literature of a given field (e.g., the material culture of faith, the
material culture of childhood, etc), and projects associated with the Humanities Action Lab
initiative Global Dialogues on Incarceration.
691
World Studies Interdisciplinary Project
Andrea Seligman
Tuesday/Thursday, 10:00am-11:15am
This seminar is an opportunity for participating Mellon Sawyer Graduate Students to expand
their thinking and brainstorming beyond our Grad Group Meetings and wider Mellon Sawyer
campus events. Students are expected to demonstrate engaged participation at our group
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meetings and other events and to be consistently in attendance. In addition, they will produce a
short papers or writing selection each semester of about 15 pages in length. This “for credit”
option allows students the chance to deepen their engagement with the major themes of the
Mellon Sawyer seminar and to explore those themes in writing in a way appropriate to their
academic level and research goals. Students selecting this option will receive one credit per
semester from the History Department. It will be awarded as a credit/no credit basis. Please note
this course has the prerequisite of prior acceptance into the Mellon Sawyer Seminar.
691AR
Atlantic Revolutions
Jennifer Heuer
Thursday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This class explores recent scholarship on the tumultuous era of the Atlantic Revolutions. We
look comparatively at the major Revolutions of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
particularly the French and Haitian Revolutions, but also the American Revolution, other Latin
American Revolutions, and other contemporary upheavals. We also investigate the transnational
movements of peoples—free, enslaved, and those potentially in-between—ideas, and laws. Part
of the class may also be devoted to investigating how useful frameworks of the “Atlantic World”
or “Atlantic Revolutions” are to making sense of these events and developments.
691SR
From Slavery to Reconstruction
Lynda Morgan
Wednesday, 2:30pm-3:45pm
This colloquium examines the causes and the course of the Civil War, its social, economic, and
political results during Reconstruction, and the early roots of segregation and the civil rights
movement. It will examine the process of emancipation from the perspective of social history,
and provide the international context of slavery that led to the war. Violent conflicts over free
labor and the political and economic policies pursued by freedpeople, ex-masters, northern
policymakers, wage laborers, and African American women will be covered. African American
viewpoints and histories will receive particular emphasis.
691W
Writing History
Marla Miller
Monday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This course combines a passion for history with a dedication to writing for broad public
audiences. It will explore ways in which historians and others with a reverence for the past write
well for their particular, chosen audiences. We will cover magazine writing
and op-eds, blogs, book-length projects and writing for the arts. Featured will be visits by writers
who have had success in bringing history to "publics" outside the academy -- including Rebecca
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Onion (the 2016 Writer in Residence), and Mark B. Schlemmer (Associate Registrar for
Collections at the New-York Historical Society and founder of “I Tweet Museums.”)
697PR
Imperial America
Christian Appy
Wednesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This graduate seminar examines U.S. foreign relations from the 1846 invasion of Mexico to the
recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Extensive weekly reading will include a mix of old and
new scholarly works, primary documents, and popular accounts. The field of diplomatic history
has broadened greatly over the last two decades and this course will reflect those
changes. Scholars now pay far more attention to subjects in social and cultural history that were
once deemed secondary, if not irrelevant, to issues of war, international relations, and global
power. So, for example, we will read books that explore the significance of gender, race, and
religion in the shaping of American foreign policy. Key topics include debates over the meaning
and impact of U.S. imperialism and the relationship between official explanations of U.S. policy
and the lived experiences those policies produce. In addition to reading assignments, students
will write three essays.
791J
Writing Seminar in US Cultural History
David Glassberg
Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This seminar offers a structured environment for students interested in writing a journal article or
dissertation chapter somehow related to U.S. Cultural History. The first class meeting or two
will address general research and writing issues, but the majority of class meetings will consist of
students discussing drafts of the research papers that they are writing, circulated in
advance. History 791J is the continuation of the fall course, History 655: Topics in US Cultural
History, but students do not need to have taken that course to enroll in this one, provided
that they hand in a well developed research paper prospectus to me before the end of fall
semester. If you are interested in doing that, please request guidelines for writing a paper
prospectus from the instructor before handing one in. Students writing independent study
papers with other professors during spring semester are welcome to participate in the seminar,
but must attend all classes; the seminar will not discuss your work unless you are there to discuss
the work of your fellow students.
791PG
History of US Social Policy, Politics of
Gender/Race/Class
Libby Sharrow
Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
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This interdisciplinary course, designed for students in both Political Science and History, will
concentrate on approaches to the study of the history of U.S. public policy aimed at addressing
social and political inequalities. We will explore the methods, findings, and controversies in
research about public policy in American politics, history, and political science from a range of
theoretical and methodological perspectives and approaches. Readings will focus our attention
on policies aimed at the overlapping axes of marginalization on the basis of gender, race, class,
and sexuality, in particular. Throughout the course, we will analyze the ways in which policy,
over time, has come to address issues and discrimination in intersectional ways, defining
politically-relevant categories, identities, and forms of marginalization, such as gender, sex, race,
ethnicity, class, sexuality, and ideological and partisan identification. Students will write a short
reaction paper every other week, make two short presentations, and write a research paper that
they will present to the class.
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The following courses are undergraduate courses in which seats have also been reserved for graduate
students with an interest in this topic. Graduate enrollment is capped at 8 for these courses.
691CA
Explorations in Colonial Andean History
Heidi Scott
TuTh, 2:30pm-3:45pm
This course examines key moments and processes in the historical trajectories of the Andean regions, with particular
emphasis on Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. The temporal scope of this course incorporates the pre-conquest era (before
1492) and the wars of independence in the nineteenth century. The principal focus of discussion, however, is the era
of Spanish conquest and the nearly three centuries of Spanish colonial rule (ca. 1530 to 1809). Reading and
discussion centers on prominent themes and debates in recent historiography on the colonial Andes. The dynamics of
conquest, the creation and characteristics of colonial urban environments, the transformation of religious patterns
and thought, the role of slavery in Andean colonial society, patterns of rebellion and resistance, and debates over the
emergence of Spanish American consciousness are just a few of the themes this course addresses. Class discussions
and assignments make extensive use of primary sources (historical texts, maps, and other visual images) in addition
to secondary literature. Students with a broad interest in colonial Latin American history and in the dynamics of
colonialism across the globe are encouraged to take this course, in addition to those with a specific interest in the
Andes.
This course meets concurrently with an undergraduate honors class on the same topic (HIST 491CAH).
Graduate students are required to complete additional readings and writing assignments, lead class discussions at
least once during the semester, and meet with the instructor at least twice during the semester to discuss their
progress. An in-depth historiographical essay forms the centerpiece of written assignments.
697AA
Theory & Method of Oral History
Samuel Redman
Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This course introduces students to the Theory and Methodology of Oral History. Oral history is an approach to
studying the past using carefully researched, recorded, interviews documenting first hand accounts. In this course
students will learn abut the history of oral history, current approaches to the field, and conduct their own oral history
interviews.
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697LG
US LGBT & Queer History
Julio Capó
TuTh, 10:00am-11:15am
This course explores how queer individuals and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
communities have influenced the social, cultural, economic, and political landscape in United States history. Topics
include sodomy charges, cross-dressing, industrialization, feminism, the construction of the homo/heterosexual binary,
the "pansy" craze, the homophile, gay liberation, and gay rights movements, HIV/AIDS, immigration, and the on-going
debate concerning same-sex marriage.
This course meets concurrently with an undergraduate honors lecture on the same topic. In addition to writing a
comprehensive historiographical essay, graduate students will do supplementary readings and submit three book reviews.
Graduate students will also meet with the instructor several times throughout the semester to discuss their progress in the
course.
697RE
Race, Sex, and Empire: Britain and India
Priyanka Srivastava
Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
Imperialism cannot be understood merely as an economic-military-territorial system of control and exploitation. Cultural
domination is integral to any sustained system of economic exploitation. Focusing on cultural aspects of imperialism, this
course explores the racial and sexual politics of British Empire in India from the late eighteenth to early twentieth
century. Using a combination of primary and secondary sources as well as visual and literary material, the course will
examine how socially constructed racial and gendered hierarchies, and myths about the sexual practices of colonized
people were linked to the foundation and maintenance of British imperial rule in India. Simultaneously, we will consider
how complex intersections of race, sexuality, and class influenced the political and social cultures of both Britain (the
metropole) and India (the colony). We will analyze key scholarly perspectives on the following: forms of colonial
knowledge, theories of Aryanism, colonial masculinities, regulation of sexual behavior and prostitution, and the varying
roles of colonial institutions, medical practices, popular discourses, and cultural artifacts in producing racial and sexual
stereotypes and in creating distinctions between the colonizers and the colonized.
Students will complete regular short writing assignments and presentations along with a midterm historiographical essay
and a final research project on a topic of their own choosing.
This course meets concurrently with an undergraduate honors lecture on the same topic. In addition to writing a
comprehensive historiographical essay, graduate students will be required to complete supplementary readings, write
three book reviews and additional papers and lead class discussions at least once during the semester. Graduate students
will meet with the instructor several times during the semester to discuss their progress in the course.
Additional Course Options
— enrollment requires instructor permission
You may take two courses outside the department that will count toward your degree. Below are several that may be
of interest to you. As always, please refer to SPIRE for the most current class information, and contact the course
instructor directly for permission to enroll. This is just a sampling of courses from outside the History Department
that may be of interest to our graduate students. Please see Spire and/or departmental websites to see what other
courses are available.
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