Spring 2024 Undergraduate Courses

History 3304 – History of Islam in Africa

Description: Introduction to societies and cultures of pre-modern China, Korea, and Japan; the East Asian geographical and cultural unit.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 3356.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Theme: Sustainability course.

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History 2702 – Food in World History

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Theme: Sustainability course.

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History 2703 – History of Public Health, Medicine and Disease

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Theme: Health and Wellbeing course.

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History 2704 – Water: A Human History

Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am

Description:

This course shows what history can teach us about the future survival of humanity on planet Earth. From January to April, we dive deep into the past, examining how Americans have affected the natural environment over time and how nature has shaped the course of human events. You will learn to think like an environmental historian, mastering a historical sub-discipline first developed in the 1970s that places nature at the heart of our national narrative. This course tackles some of the biggest issues hitting headlines today. How bad is climate change? What can we do about it? Are we running out of water? How will we quench our thirst in the years ahead? Looking to the past, we journey across the country (and the globe) to find solutions to these questions and more. You’ll never look at American history the same way again.

Assigned Readings:

Mark Fiege – Republic of Nature

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

Legacy GE Historical Study course

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History 3704 – From Microbiology to Macrohistory

Days/Time: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm

Description: In 2012, an estimated 35.3 million people around the world were living with HIV, a number startling close to the estimated number of people who have died from AIDs since 1981.  Unlocking the virological secrets of HIV/AIDs has been one of the grand scientific challenges of the last three decades, and the disease remains one of the world’s most serious challenges to human health and development.  The burden of the disease is very uneven globally, and sub-Saharan African, where the disease originated, is home to 69% of those living with HIV today. How did this virus and this global pandemic come to be? The course traces the evolution of the virus at both the molecular level and within its global historical context.  Team-taught by a virologist and a historian, the goal of this class at the broadest level, is to put the sciences and humanities in conversation.

The course will require students to apply the theory of evolution by natural selection to explain the origin of HIV (chimpanzees in Africa) and the ability of HIV to develop drug resistance and evade an effective vaccine. The course will simultaneously put these scientific processes and the effects of disease into historical context. The very scientific revolutions that led to Darwin’s theory of evolution and Koch's postulates of infection transmission helped make European colonialism possible. For example, Social Darwinism justified imperial aims, Pasteurian ideals of contamination influenced notions of racial purity, and the new field of tropical medicine was created to protect colonial administrators and soldiers in their distant postings. Similarly, colonial rule and the creation of the extractive economies of central and southern Africa set in motion population movements, wealth inequalities, and structures of power that amplified the effects—decades later—of HIV and contributed to what would become a global pandemic. Although the academy approaches the medical facts of disease and its social consequences through distinct disciplines, those who have contracted the virus experience all aspects of the disease. This course makes it possible for students to consider the medical, scientific, social, political, and economic causes and consequences of one of the world's most devastating viruses.

This course is cross-listed with Microbiology.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for Micrbio 3704. This course fulfils Group Africa, post-1750, ETS for the major, or it can fulfill a GE requirement.

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History 3706 – Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change 1800-Today

Days/Time: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm

Description:

Coca-Cola is everywhere. Today, the company sells over 1.8 billion servings of its products daily to customers in over 190 countries worldwide. The company has bottling plants in every corner of the globe from Australia to Zimbabwe. This is remarkable considering the company started out as a “brain tonic” first sold for just five cents in a small Gilded Age Atlanta pharmacy in 1886 by a sick and cash-strapped businessman named John Pemberton. So how did the company do it? That’s one of the big questions we will ask in this global environmental history course.

History 3706 offers an introduction to the fields of environmental history and business history. It is organized chronologically, beginning with the railroad revolution of the nineteenth century and ending in the twenty-first century and it asks how we can use the past to create a more environmentally sustainable economy in the future.. It chronicles the rise of some of America’s biggest multinational corporations and examines how these firms, working with governments and other institutions, shaped global ecological change between 1800 and 2017. It also considers the social and political responses to these environmental changes and the various corporate sustainability plans that have been developed over the years by major firms.

The questions we will ask in this course are not simple, and they will require us to re-imagine well-told stories from a new, ecological perspective. How did Coca-Cola acquire the natural resources it needed to end up all over the world? Can history tell us whether global climate change is real? Are Californians going to run out of water? We will deal with these and other intriguing questions as we explore the history of America in the world through the lens of environmental history.

Assigned Readings:

• Ted Steinberg - Down to Earth: Natures Role in American History
• Naomi Klein - This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
• John Soluri - Banana Cultures : Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

Legacy GE Historical Study and diversity soc div in the US

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History 3708 – Vaccines: A Global History

Days/Time: MTWR, 11:30am – 12:25pm

This course examines the history and biology of vaccines. We explore the discovery and development of vaccines, along with the political and cultural controversies that have surrounded them for centuries. Team-taught course with faculty member in Pharmacy.

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Phr 3708.

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

New GE Theme: Health and Wellbeing course. Cross-listed in Phr.

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History 3712 – Science and Society in Europe, from Newton to Hawking

Description: This class introduces students to the political, social, and cultural developments that shaped the history of modern Europe since 1660. Some topics include responses to war and crisis in early modern Europe; the emergence of new ideas questioning absolutism during the Enlightenment; the birth of representative politics and democratic institutions; scientific innovation, industrialization, and the new technologies; the ideologies of modernity such as conservatism, liberalism, socialism, and nationalism; the effects of European colonialism and imperialism; the new social classes and changing gender roles; the triumph of the nation-state and the two world wars; challenges to the democratic order and experiments in socialism and fascism; the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing; the divided world during the Cold War and the overthrow of the communist regimes; and decolonization, multiculturalism, and globalization. Using a variety of primary sources, students will learn and debate about the historical developments that created the modern European state, society, and culture.

Assigned Readings:

All required readings are provided on CARMEN via PDFs or web links.

Assignments:

• Quizzes: 5%
• Weekly discussion forum posts: 30%
• Two 2-page reflection papers: 20% (10% each)
• Midterm exam: 20%
• Final exam: 25%.   

Prerequisites and Special Comments:  English 1110.xx, GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 1210, 2203, 2204.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.
New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 1212 – European History II

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

 

Instructor: Keller, Hannah

Days/Time: WF, 9:35am - 10:55am

Description: Survey of medieval history from the late Roman Empire to the early sixteenth century. Sometimes this course is offered in a distance-only format.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: 

GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

 

Instructor: Corsi, Michael

Online, Synchronous

Days/Time: MW, 2:20pm - 3:40pm

Description: Examination of selected themes from the history of Modern Europe from the French Revolution to the Present.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: 

GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

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History 2204H – Modern European History

GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

 

Instructor: Seay, Nicholas

Online, Synchronous

Days/Time: M, 2:20pm - 3:40pm         

Description: This course will provide an overview of the history of the Russian Empire, the former Soviet Union, and its successor states. We will examine the expansion of the Russian Empire, starting in the late 17^th century, into places as diverse as contemporary Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, the Russian Far East, Ukraine, and Poland. We will then study the experience of Russian rule in the Soviet period and developments in the region since the collapse of communism in 1991. This class will provide students with a firm understanding of the history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Understanding this history will help students make sense of contemporary Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Assigned Readings: 

Valerie A. Kivelson and Ronald Grigor Suny, Russia’s Empires (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017) 

**Selected Primary Source Readings Provided  

Prerequisites and Special Comments: This class is online and has one synchronous session per week. The rest of the content will be delivered online asynchronously.

GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

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History 3231 – Creating Medieval Monsters: Constructions of the ‘Other’

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

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History 4255 – Seminar in Modern European History

Description:  This course explores the most creative period in Western cultural history, roughly 1890-1930, which ironically straddles one of the most destructive wars in history, World War I. To explain this great irony, we will explore how leading artists and novelists treated the war indirectly even as it transformed their personal life. That dynamic is evident in the work of cubist and abstract artists such as Picasso and Kandinsky, philosophers such as Nietzsche, and literary figures such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and T. S. Eliot. We will study some causes of the war, its course, major battles, and its effects. The first section will analyze a variety of cultural developments and ideas about time and space and consider how they may have shaped the failure of diplomacy in July of 1914 that led to the outbreak of the “cubist war” and the structure of combat during its fighting. The second section will contrast two studies of the culture of the war period as ironic skepticism versus a reaffirmation of traditional values. The final section will view the effects of the war dramatized in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway that includes the hunger for wholeness and repair in English society, shell shock, the practice of psychiatry, new gender roles and feminism, lesbianism, colonization and empire, Christianity and the growing secularization of high culture, and the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Assigned Readings:

• Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918
• Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (selections)
• Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (selections)
• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Assignments:

Three papers, four-five pages each.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for JewshSt 2453.

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

Cross-listed in JewshSt.

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History 4475 – Seminar in Jewish History

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Latin American History

History 2105 – Latin America and the World

Instructor: Schoof, Markus

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Instructor: Delgado, Jessica

Days/Time: WF, 12:45pm – 2:05pm

Description: Women, gender relations, reproductive rights, and women's response to the impact of religion and the state in Latin America from the Conquest to the present.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 533.06.

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 4125 – Seminar in Latin American History

Topic:  “Revolutions and Revolutionaries in Modern Latin America”

Instructor: Smith, Stephanie

Days/Time: R, 2:15pm – 5:00pm

What is a revolution? Why are successful revolutions such rare events? Why have so many revolutions failed and so few succeeded? Who are the revolutionaries? What is guerrilla warfare, and why do people resort to guerrilla warfare? What happens after the revolution, and how do revolutionaries rebuild/create a new government? What is the difference between a revolution and social movement? And historically, what was the complex relationship between the United States and modern Latin American countries, and why was the U.S. interested in Latin America?

This course examines these and other questions to analyze the history and meanings of revolutions and revolutionaries in modern Latin America. Starting with Mexico’s great revolution, we will move forward to analyze other revolutions and social movements in Guatemala, Cuba, Nicaragua, and others. Throughout this class we will discuss the causes of revolution, their changing historical nature, and revolutionary outcomes. Additionally, we also will consider dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil to examine the search for social justice and reform. To better understand the inclusion of all peoples within the revolutionary experience, the course includes a consideration of the concepts of class, gender, and race and ethnicity. In this manner, we will pay special attention to historical actors to explore participation from the ground level up. We also will look at U.S. involvement in Latin American countries, including the role of the U.S. in revolutions and in the creation of a post-revolutionary society. Through an examination of these various historical factors, this class ultimately will provide a context for many of the major issues facing Latin American today.

Required Texts / Assigned Readings:

TBA, although most of the assigned readings will be available online through the OSU library or on Carmen.

Assignments:

TBA

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

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Military History

History 2550 – History of War

Instructor: Grimsley, Mark

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Description: “History of War” is an introduction to the salient concepts and problems involved in the study of military history.  Although it examines war from prehistoric times to the present, the course is thematic rather than strictly chronological—less  a survey of wars and military developments per se than an examination of the major concepts involved in the study of war.  In addition, the course focuses extensively on the warrior codes of various cultures (Greek, Roman, Japanese, Native American, etc.).

Students will achieve an understanding of the causes, conduct, and consequences of war, as well as how various societies—past and present, western and nonwestern—have understood and practiced war.  They will also hone their skills at critical writing and analysis, and gain greater insight into the way historians explore the human condition.

The course contends that the martial warrior ethos translates metaphorically into civilian life.  As used in the course, the ethos is defined as aggressive, disciplined action taken on behalf of a cause larger than oneself.  That cause may take the form of military service, but it may take many other forms, ranging from social justice activism to a sustained effort to improve one’s own life.  As a direct encounter with the warrior ethos, students will undertake a Personal Challenge Assignment (PCA).

Assigned Readings:

• Shannon E. French, The Code of the Warrior:  Exploring Warrior Values Past and Present.
• John Keegan, The Face of Battle:  A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme.
• Wayne E. Lee, Waging War:  Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History.
• Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct:  How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.

Assignments:

• Twice weekly quizzes (15 percent of course grade)
• Surveys, both graded and anonymous (5 percent)
• Participation in Discussion Groups (10 percent)
• Personal Challenge Assignment (10 percent)
• Midterm Examination (25 percent)
• Final Examination (35 percent)

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

More information about the Personal Challenge Assignment may be found in a 6-minute video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MRgDZH-7bX0

English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 2550 – History of War

Instructor: Douglas, Sarah

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Description: A survey of the main concepts and issues involved in the study of war in world perspective, using case studies from prehistoric times to the present.

Prerequisites and Special Comments:  English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 3560 – American Military History, 1607-1902

Instructor: Grimsley, Mark

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Description:

This course explores the American military experience from the colonial period to the end of the Philippine War. In part, it focuses on “traditional” subjects; the creation of American military institutions, for example, the genesis of policy-making and maintenance of civilian control over that process, the interrelationship between foreign and military policy, the conduct of war, and the influence of American society upon the armed forces as social institutions.  But it also treats events such as Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion as part of the American military experience.

Students will achieve an understanding of the main developments in American military history, the ways in which these developments have reflected or shaped developments in general American history, and the main interpretations advanced by scholars who have studied this subject. They will also hone their skills at critical writing and analysis, and will gain greater insight into the way historians explore the human condition.

The course contends that the martial warrior ethos, exemplified by the Native American warriors of the western plains (as well as numerous other cultures),  translates metaphorically into civilian life.  As used in the course, the ethos is defined as aggressive, disciplined action taken on behalf of a cause larger than oneself.  That cause may take the form of military service, but it may take many other forms, ranging from social justice activism to a sustained effort to improve one’s own life.  As a direct encounter with the warrior ethos, students will therefore undertake a Personal Challenge Assignment (PCA).

Assigned Readings:

• Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America, Revised and Expanded Edition.
• Patrick H. Breen, The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt.
• James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades:  Why Men Fought in the Civil War.
• Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.

Assignments:

• Twice weekly quizzes (15 percent of course grade)
• Surveys, both graded and anonymous (5 percent)
• Participation in Discussion Groups (10 percent)
• Personal Challenge Assignment (10 percent)
• Midterm Examination (25 percent)
• Final Examination (35 percent)

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

Although any undergraduate may enroll in History 3560, I encourage students who have not already completed at least one history course at the 2000-level to take the other course I’m teaching Spring Semester:  History 2550 – The History of War.

More information about the Personal Challenge Assignment may be found in a 6-minute video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MRgDZH-7bX0

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History 3570 – World War II

Instructor: Mansoor, Pete

Days: WF, 2:20pm – 3:40pm

Description:

World War II was the largest and most destructive war in human history. More than seventy years after it ended, the war continues to shape our world. This course examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of this devastating conflict. Through readings, lectures, and video, the class will study the politics that shaped the involvement of the major combatants; military leadership and the characteristics of major Allied and Axis armed services; the national and theater strategies of the various major combatants; the military operations that led to victory or defeat on battlefields spanning the globe; war crimes; the Holocaust; and other factors such as leadership, economics, military doctrine and effectiveness, technology, ideology, and racism that impacted the outcome of the war. This course falls under the new GE Foundation of Historical and Cultural Studies. In the old GE curriculum, this course falls under the GE category of Historical Study and it additionally fulfills the GE Global Studies requirement.

Assigned Readings:

• Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett, A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War (978-0674006805)
• Mark A Stoler and Molly C. Michelmore, eds., The United States in World War II: A Documentary History (978-1624667473)
• Michael Lynch, Hitler (978-0415436465)
• E. B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (978-0891419068)

Assignments:

• Take-home mid-term and final examinations
• Two book reviews (2-3 pages each)

Prereq: English 1110.xx, GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 3575 – The Korean War

Instructor: Douglas, Sarah

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Instructor: Parrott, Joe

Instructor: Steigerwald, David

Instructor: Cabanes, Bruno

Days/Time: W, 9:35am – 12:20pm

Description: This course is a research and writing seminar that explores and analyzes the history of World War I. Students will read and discuss in class several books, articles and documents related especially to the social and cultural aspects of the conflict. They will be asked to write a 25-to-30 page research paper, based on primary sources, by the end of the semester.

Assigned Readings:

• Bruno Cabanes, August 1914: France, The Great War, and a Month that Changed the World Forever (Yale University Press, 2016)
• Martha Hanna, Your Death Would be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2006) (Web e-book, Thompson Library)
• Jennifer Keene, Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)

Assignments:  Once during the semester, students will be asked to lead the discussion on the required readings; a 25-to-30-page research paper, based on primary sources, will be the core requirement of the course (40% of the final grade).

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level  History course; or permission of instructor.

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Native American History
 

History 3011 – The American Revolution and the New Nation

Instructor: Newell, Margaret
Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm

The American Revolution has never been more relevant. As we debate issues of race, democracy, citizenship, partisanship, and economic inequality today, Americans look to the founding era for roots of problems as well as solutions. This class examines the social, economic, cultural, and political changes in early America that culminated in revolution and the creation of the republic.

England had twenty-three colonies in the Americas and Caribbean and yet only thirteen rebelled successfully, so the broader imperial network and the differences among colonial regions and societies will be part of our inquiry. In this context, we will examine the origins of slavery as well as the ways in new ideas about race played out in the Revolution. Colonists enthusiastically toasted the coronation of George III in 1761, so why did they tear down his statues in 1776? Colonial rebellions were unprecedented, so what did Americans think they were doing? Where did ideas about natural rights come from, and who had them? We will analyze the Declaration of Independence for answers and look at the possibilities for profound social change that the Revolution unleashed.

Independence was a social event, a political event, an economic event, and a military event, and we will study all four aspects. For some the Revolution was distant or even unwelcome, so we will explore the experiences of Loyalists and Native Americans. Mobilization and warfare involved violence, and the Revolution was America’s largest slave uprising. Finally, we will assess the “revolutionary settlement”—the institutions that Americans created to sustain and carry out revolutionary goals, including state governments, definitions of citizenship and participatory democracy, and the Constitution’s model for the federal government. For some, this settlement abandoned certain revolutionary ideals. American history after 1800 reflects continued debate over this settlement and efforts to change it.

Assignments: In addition to completing readings and discussion prompts, students will delve into primary sources and will complete a project using 18th century newspapers and another based on the Constitution.

Books used in the past have included:

• Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge (Atria, 2017)
• David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (Oxford, 2004)
• Woody Holton, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, & the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (North Carolina,1999) **library ebook available
• Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (Penn, 2007) **library ebook available

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

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History 3070 – Native American History from European

Instructor: Newell, Margaret

Days/Time: TR, 3:55pm – 5:15pm

Description: This course fulfills the Legacy GE category of Historical Studies OR the New GE Theme Migration, Mobility, and Immobility (MMI). In this course, we will explore the major issues and events in Native American History from the era before European invasion and colonization through the early 19th century. Our goal will be to view events from the perspective of Indigenous people as much as possible. This includes a recognition that Native America was a diverse place with many cultures that make generalization impossible.  Still, new understandings of Native American history stress several themes:

Indigeneity: this theme lets us consider what is distinct about Native American culture.

Mobility: this theme includes territorial mobility (mobility as a subsistence strategy and a form of territoriality for Indigenous people), Indigenous mobility and long-distance trade and religious pilgrimage networks, and migration as an adaptive strategy to socioeconomic change and environmental challenges. It also encompasses cultural adaptation and change before and after Europeans arrived. Colonization brought new drivers for mobility, migration, and immobility: disease and new causes and weapons for warfare; accelerated enslavement and captivity; and large-scale dispossession and removal.

Modernity:  this theme encompasses several ideas. One is that medieval North America was a place of scientific innovation, complex social arrangements, complex cultures, and continental trade relations not so different from Europe in the same period. This history shaped later interaction with Europeans. Another element of modernity is that Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans all faced challenges of globalization, mobility, and revolution in the early modern era. Native Americans were not static, "anti-modern," or swept away by modernity, but rather active and creative participants in change who shaped the direction of the post-1492 history of North America in many ways and continue to do so. 

Settler Colonialism: this theme focuses not only on the physical displacement and replacement of Indigenous people by European (and forced African) immigrants, and land takings, but also the intentional erasure of Native Americans from past and present histories and understandings of the United States. It is about who belongs. Settler colonialism is a process and also a complex idea that we will grapple with throughout the class.

Assignments: Reading, discussion posts, in-class discussions, and a capstone research project.

Past readings have included selections from the following but may change:

• Ramon Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away
• Pekka Hamäläinen, The Comanche Empire
• Margaret Newell, Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery
• Jean O'Brien, Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England
• Theda Perdue, Cherokee Women
• Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things
• Stephen Warren, The Worlds the Shawnee Made

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies course.

New GE theme migration, mobility, and immobility course.

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History 3071 – Native American History from Removal to the Present

Instructor: Rivers, Daniel

Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm       

Description: Covers major events in American Indian history from 1820s to present, including removal, reservations, cultural adaptation, federal policies, self-determination, activism, and contemporary issues.

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and diversity soc diversity in the US course.

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History 4015 – Seminar in Modern US History

Instructor: Howard, Clay

Days/Time: M, 2:15pm – 5:00pm

Description: Advanced research and writing on selected topics in Modern U.S. History.

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.

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Seminars

History 2800 – Introduction to the Discipline of History

Instructor: Cashin, Joan

Days/Time: Online, TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm

Course Description: This is the gateway course for history majors, and it is designed to introduce undergraduates to the historical method, that is, how historians write history.  We will learn how to distinguish between primary sources (sources created by historical figures) and secondary sources (those created by historians), and how to interpret primary sources in context.  We will concentrate on how American women, white and black, experienced the Civil War, and the debate among historians on their experience.  We will also discuss how women have been depicted in American culture.  Students will write short papers on the reading, as well as a longer paper on women and the war.

This class will be conducted entirely online, via regularly-scheduled sessions on carmenzoom and/or email.  It will include synchronous discussions between students and the professor, and other assignments that students will work on independently in asynchronous fashion.

Students will read some monographs and several articles.   They will also watch some documentaries and do research on museum websites.    

Prerequisites and Special Comments:  Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

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History 2800 – Introduction to the Discipline of History

Instructor: Stebenne, David

Days/Time: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am

Instructor: Goldish, Matthew

Days/Time: WF, 11:10am – 12:30pm

Description: Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Honors standing, or permission of instructor. Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.Not open to students with credit for 398H.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: Honors Standing. English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

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History 4015 – Seminar in Modern US History

Instructor: Howard, Clay

Days/Time: M, 2:15pm – 5:00pm

Description: Advanced research and writing on selected topics in Modern U.S. History.

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.

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History 4125 – Seminar in Latin American History

Topic:  “Revolutions and Revolutionaries in Modern Latin America”

Instructor: Smith, Stephanie

Days/Time: Online, R, 2:15pm – 5:00pm

What is a revolution? Why are successful revolutions such rare events? Why have so many revolutions failed and so few succeeded? Who are the revolutionaries? What is guerrilla warfare, and why do people resort to guerrilla warfare? What happens after the revolution, and how do revolutionaries rebuild/create a new government? What is the difference between a revolution and social movement? And historically, what was the complex relationship between the United States and modern Latin American countries, and why was the U.S. interested in Latin America?

This course examines these and other questions to analyze the history and meanings of revolutions and revolutionaries in modern Latin America. Starting with Mexico’s great revolution, we will move forward to analyze other revolutions and social movements in Guatemala, Cuba, Nicaragua, and others. Throughout this class we will discuss the causes of revolution, their changing historical nature, and revolutionary outcomes. Additionally, we also will consider dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil to examine the search for social justice and reform. To better understand the inclusion of all peoples within the revolutionary experience, the course includes a consideration of the concepts of class, gender, and race and ethnicity. In this manner, we will pay special attention to historical actors to explore participation from the ground level up. We also will look at U.S. involvement in Latin American countries, including the role of the U.S. in revolutions and in the creation of a post-revolutionary society. Through an examination of these various historical factors, this class ultimately will provide a context for many of the major issues facing Latin American today.

Required Texts / Assigned Readings:

TBA, although most of the assigned readings will be available online through the OSU library or on Carmen.

Assignments:

TBA

Prerequisites and Special Comments: This online seminar is for Columbus campus students only. Please contact your advisor to register for this class.

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History 4255 – Seminar in Modern European History

Topic: Nazism and the Holocaust

Instructor: Judd, Robin

Days/Time: T, 3:00pm – 5:45pm

Description: During the past three decades, historical scholarship on the Holocaust and the Third Reich has reached considerable proportions. This course is designed to explore this development and to analyze the recent historiographical debates concerning the state-sponsored murder of millions of Jews and non-Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. The class’ purpose is to provide grounding in the contemporary and classical literatures of the field, as well as to identify a research topic that you wish to explore further. Because it provides students with an opportunity to delve deeper into a specific historical field, this course demands a great deal of reading and writing.

Assigned Readings: (tentative)

• Anne Berest, The Postcard
• Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men
• Ari Joskowitz, Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust
• Wendy Lower, The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed

Assignments (tentative)

Book review, primary source review, secondary source review, final project

Prerequisites and Special Comments:

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History 4255 – Seminar in Modern European History

Instructor: Kern, Stephen

Days/Time: Online, WF, 2:20pm – 3:40pm 

Topic: Black Ecologies: The making of the Black Radical

Instructor: Fontanilla, Ryan

Days/Time: R, 2:15pm - 5:00pm

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History 4475 – Seminar in Jewish History

Instructor: Yehudai, Ori

Days/Time: T, 12:45pm – 3:30pm

Description: During the 20th century, millions of Jews were uprooted from their homes as a result of war, persecution and economic distress. This seminar course explores the impact of displacement on Jewish life in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. It covers the major Jewish refugee and migration flows, starting with the exodus from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and concluding with post-soviet emigration. We will begin with a theoretical discussion of basic concepts such as diaspora, exile and refugees and continue with an in-depth look into specific migratory movements. Through these case studies, we will explore the relationships between displacement and such issues as gender, violence, nationalist sentiment, citizenship and Jewish and human solidarity, while also comparing Jewish and non-Jewish migration. Readings and discussions will consider the perspectives of various actors, including states, voluntary organizations and the migrants themselves. 

Assigned Readings: Journal articles and book chapters. No textbook. No purchase.

Assignments: Research paper; participation in class discussions; class presentation

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level  History course; or permission of instructor.

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History 4575 – Seminar in Military History

Instructor: Cabanes, Bruno

Days/Time: W, 9:35am – 12:20pm

Description: This course is a research and writing seminar that explores and analyzes the history of World War I. Students will read and discuss in class several books, articles and documents related especially to the social and cultural aspects of the conflict. They will be asked to write a 25-to-30 page research paper, based on primary sources, by the end of the semester.

Assigned Readings:

• Bruno Cabanes, August 1914: France, The Great War, and a Month that Changed the World Forever (Yale University Press, 2016)
• Martha Hanna, Your Death Would be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2006) (Web e-book, Thompson Library)
• Jennifer Keene, Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)

Assignments:  Once during the semester, students will be asked to lead the discussion on the required readings; a 25-to-30-page research paper, based on primary sources, will be the core requirement of the course (40% of the final grade).

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level  History course; or permission of instructor.

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History 4625 – Seminar in Women’s/Gender History

Instructor: Rivers, Daniel

Days/Time: M, 11:00am – 2:00pm

Description: Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Women's/Gender History.

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.

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Women's Gender & Sexuality History

History 3642 – Women in Modern Europe, from the 18^th Century to the Present

Instructor: Søland, Birgitte

Instructor: Rivers, Daniel

Days/Time: M, 11:00am – 2:00pm

Description: Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Women's/Gender History.

Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.

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World, Global, Transnational History

History 1681 – World History to 1500

Instructor: Hunt, Catalina

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Instructor: McDow, Thomas

Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm

Description: Survey of the human community, with an emphasis on its increasing global integration, from the first European voyages of exploration through the present.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 2642. This course is available for EM credit.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 1682 – World History from 1500 to the Present

Instructor: Hunt, Catalina

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous

Description: Survey of the human community, with an emphasis on its increasing global integration, from the first European voyages of exploration through the present.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 2642. This course is available for EM credit.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 2641 – Global History to 1500

Instructor: Arnold, Ellen

Days/Time: MWF, 11:30am – 12:25pm

Description: Examines the major issues that have shaped the human experience from the beginnings of human civilization (ca. 3500 B.C.E.) to ca. 1500 C.E., through comparative study of civilizations within the context of religion, trade, technology, art, culture, and gender relations.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 1681.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 2642 – Global History 1500 to Present

Instructor: Walker, Lydia

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Days/Time: W, 12:30pm – 3:15pm

Instructor: Limbach, Eric

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous                   

Description: Global perspective on major forces that shaped the world since 1914. Provides students with factual knowledge and a critical interpretive framework for responsible global citizenship.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 2650 – The World since 1914

Instructor: Teague, Greyson

Session 2 (02/28/2024 – 04/22/2024)

Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous              

Description: Global perspective on major forces that shaped the world since 1914. Provides students with factual knowledge and a critical interpretive framework for responsible global citizenship.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: Prereq or concur: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course.

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History 2680 – It's The End of The World!: Apocalypticism in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

Instructor: Goldish, Matthew

Days/Time: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am

Description: This course will explore how the end of the world-generally understood to be preceded by enormous wars and disasters as well as the judgment of people and a reckoning of their deeds-was imagined over two millennia by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The course will cover primary and secondary historical works, as well as fictional bestsellers, about the apocalypse from around the world.

Prerequisites and Special Comments: English 1110.xx, or completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for NELC 2680.

Legacy GE Historical Studies and Diversity: Global Studies course.

New GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course and lit, vis and performing arts course.

Cross-listed in NESA.

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History 3676 – Leadership in History

Instructor: Judd, Robin

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Other

 

History 4870 – The Ohio State University: Its History and Its World

Instructor: Staley, David & Chute, Tamar

Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am         

Description: An introduction to the past and present of OSU, its importance, its disciplines, the interrelations of the academic and other components of the institution, and the contributions over the years of OSU to the wider world.

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for ArtsSci 4870.

Legacy GE cultures and ideas course.

New GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.

Cross-listed in ArtsSci.
 

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