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(For first and second year students)
History is one of several departments offering Foundation-level ESSV courses (Engaging Social Systems and Values). We created courses especially for this requirement: 1601: Difference and Democracy and 1701: Engaging the World. Numerous sections—each taught by a different instructor with a different point of view and expertise in different times and places—are offered each semester. HIST 1601 and HIST 1701 can count as one of the four surveys required of history majors and minors.
History ESSV courses being offered in Fall 2021
MWF 10:00-10:50
Dr. J. Patrick Mullins
Clashing Cultures in the Early Modern Atlantic World: In this course, we will engage with social systems and values by examining what happened when people from the diverse cultures of the Atlantic World came into contact with one another in the early modern era (1450-1820). This course considers the complex ways in which Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans met and clashed with one another on the Atlantic periphery, struggling over time to achieve peaceful coexistence despite social, ethnic, cultural, religious and political differences. Focusing on Eastern North America, students will use primary source documents and museum artifacts in discussion and research to explore how settlers, planters, natives, slaves, and imperial officials negotiated power through cultural adaptation, diplomacy, trade, captivity, intermarriage, conquest, enslavement, and empire. We will conclude this history of intercultural conflict with the fall of European empires and the Atlantic World's experiment with liberal democracy and human rights as a basis for managing human difference.
MWF 1:00-1:50
Dr. J. Patrick Mullins
Clashing Cultures in the Early Modern Atlantic World: In this course, we will engage with social systems and values by examining what happened when people from the diverse cultures of the Atlantic World came into contact with one another in the early modern era (1450-1820). This course considers the complex ways in which Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans met and clashed with one another on the Atlantic periphery, struggling over time to achieve peaceful coexistence despite social, ethnic, cultural, religious and political differences. Focusing on Eastern North America, students will use primary source documents and museum artifacts in discussion and research to explore how settlers, planters, natives, slaves, and imperial officials negotiated power through cultural adaptation, diplomacy, trade, captivity, intermarriage, conquest, enslavement, and empire. We will conclude this history of intercultural conflict with the fall of European empires and the Atlantic World's experiment with liberal democracy and human rights as a basis for managing human difference.
MWF 2:00-2:50
Dr. Jennifer Finn
The Athenian Experiment: This course will focus on the rise and development of the ancient Athenian democratic system. We will study the structures of the Athenian democracy in the context of warfare, charismatic individuals, and social institutions. We will also investigate the weaknesses of the system, and who was disenfranchised within the context of the democracy. The course will be a mixture of lecture and discussion, with three weeks dedicated to a role-playing game to introduce students first-hand to the experience of Athenian democracy.
TTh 9:30-10:45
Dr. Steven Avella
This class will explore the origins and development of democracy in the history of the United States. It will examine roots in the ancient world, the formation of the American Republic, and the evolution of democratic practice on the local, state, and federal levels. Democracy became a point of pride for Americans and contributed to their sense of exceptionalism. However, this course will also address the glaring failures of the Democratic Revolution as they affected African Americans, American women, and indigenous peoples.
Dr. Kristen Foster
TTh 11:00-12:15
The United States is fast approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In recognition of this founding moment, we will spend the semester coming to terms with the document's promise through the eyes of the women and men who lived in its long shadow. While this document put natural rights at the front and center of the new nation's conversations about equality and belonging; the meaning of equality remained uncertain and contested in the decades that followed. In this dynamic ESSV classroom (reading, lecture, character studies, and lots of conversation), students will engage and interrogate the promises made at the nation's founding that "all men are created equal" and that each was endowed with "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We will explore the stories of those Americans who were left in the shadows of equality and how they fought to make the Declaration's light shine on their lives as well.
Distance Learning - MWF 8:00-8:50
Dr. Alan Ball
This course examines impressions formed of American life by Russian observers in the decades before and after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Their gaze included not just the American political and economic systems but also such topics as religion, racism, popular culture, sports and their commentaries will provide us an opportunity to compare conclusions about American ways expressed by Russian and Soviet visitors with widely differing points of view.
MWF 12:00-12:50
Dr. Alan Ball
This course examines impressions formed of American life by Russian observers in the decades before and after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Their gaze included not just the American political and economic systems but also such topics as religion, racism, popular culture, sports and their commentaries will provide us an opportunity to compare conclusions about American ways expressed by Russian and Soviet visitors with widely differing points of view.
Distance Learning - TTh 9:30-10:45
Dr. Chima Korieh
This course offers students a global perspective on the diversity of human history: the many ways that different peoples, societies, and cultures encountered one another in the making of the modern world. It examines selected topics with an emphasis on the ways peoples and select societies have encountered each other, and how these encounters created and integrated diverse kinds of knowledge about the "other". By examining these interactions and encounters between Africa and distinctive communities in specific times and places, we will become familiar with parts of the past that are seemingly foreign and remote and explore how they have shaped our knowledge and the world today. Overall, the course will push students to think about their place in the larger world in which they live and helps them to develop skills in critical thinking and effective problem-solving for engaging the world beyond their own immediate environment.
TTh 11:00-12:15
Dr. Lezlie Knox
Medieval Silk Roads: From the 2nd - 14th centuries, the so-called 'silk road' supported cultural exchanges between societies across medieval Eurasia. This class will examine written and material evidence to learn more about their values and worldviews, including case studies of Samarkand and Sogdiana, the Dunhuang caves, and European travelers like Marco Polo. We will conclude our semester looking at the role of the silk roads in the transmission of the Black Death.
Dr. Daniel Meissner
Asynchronous Distance Learning
In many ways, China today is a mirror image of the United States. Both nations have hyper-advanced societies, globally-dominant economics, powerful militaries, and international prominence. In other critical respects, however, they are reverse images of each other. Since its inception, the United States has championed participatory democracy, rule of law, inalienable rights, freedom of speech/press, and a free market economy, while the current Chinese government advocates One Party leadership, rule by law, statutory rights, controlled speech/press, and a planned economy. Differences of opinion on such fundamental issues as ideology, religion, justice, and human rights has bred misunderstanding and mistrust between the governments and citizens of the two nations.
Fr. Michael Maher
TTh 2:00-3:15
This course will examine the underlying themes in cultural interaction and apply these principles to various interactions between Christianity and the wider culture in which Christianity existed, noting both failures and success and why events occurred as they did. By examining these patterns of cultural encounter, we will be able to identify principles that can be used for successful cultural encounters in the present.
Fr. Michael Maher
TTh 3:30-4:45
This course will examine the underlying themes in cultural interaction and apply these principles to various interactions between Christianity and the wider culture in which Christianity existed, noting both failures and success and why events occurred as they did. By examining these patterns of cultural encounter, we will be able to identify principles that can be used for successful cultural encounters in the present
(For sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
Each student take at least four courses in one Discovery Level theme; at least one of those courses must be a Humanities course, although students can choose to take two Humanities courses if they so choose. Students can apply up to two Discovery Tier courses to their majors and minors!
Most of these courses are offered every three or four semesters. This list is updated every semester, so check back before registering:
Dr. James Marten
The history of children and childhood in the United States from colonial times to the present, with an emphasis on child rearing, race, gender, class, and popular culture.
Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch
A survey of Native American history from 1491 (before Columbus’s “Discovery”) to the present.Explores the diverse cultures and histories of indigenous peoples in the present-day United States and focuses on particular themes such as colonization and decolonization, settler colonialism,intimacy and violence, removal and “survivance,” assimilation and allotment, along withsovereignty and self-determination. Grapples with contemporary issues related to Native mascots, treaties, casinos, cultural representation and more.
Dr. Alan Ball
Pre-revolutionary Russia from 1861, the Revolution of 1917, Soviet economic growth and totalitarianism, and the emergence of the USSR as a world power and its subsequent collapse.
Dr. Alan Ball
The origins, nature and consequences of the Cold War, with emphasis on the 1945-1970 period. Topics will include the continuing effects of the Cold War, prospects for new international rivalries, and the domestic consequences of the Cold War.
Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch
The origins, structures and major themes in Early America. Focuses on the intersections of European, African and Native American worlds. Themes include colonization and decolonization, empire and revolution, slavery and resistance, religion and witchcraft, cross- cultural negotiation and conflict.
Dr. Philip Naylor
History of Byzantine Empire bridging from late antiquity to early modernity and stretching over three continents. Surveys imperial political, economic, social and cultural policies and developments and especially the empire's encounters and interactions with Slavs, Western Europeans, Persians, Berbers, Arabs, and Turks.
Dr. Philip Naylor
A survey of the Arab, Turkish and Iranian peoples since 1500 emphasizing the Islamic backgrounds and the Middle East in world affairs, especially during the 20th century.
Dr. Alison Clark Efford
A survey of migration to the United States (and Britain's North American colonies) that explores how immigrants have built communities, sought economic security and experienced cultural change. Addresses anti-immigrant sentiment, race construction and notions of cultural pluralism. Contextualizes immigration--an issue central to American identity--within a transnational framework of global labor markets, American incursions overseas and the worldwide movement of peoples.
Dr. Timothy McMahon
Survey of the creation, expansion and dismantling of the world's largest empire from the 16th century to the present. Exploration of political, social, economic and cultural factors. Emphasis on contrasting the views and experiences of Britons and of natives of various colonized areas.
Dr. Philip Naylor
North Africa from the 7th century to the present, emphasizing Islamic and European influences.
Dr. Kristen Foster
Survey of the history of women and the variety of women's experiences in America from pre- European contact to the present. The historical construction of gender and the ways that diverse women have shaped and contested their various experiences as mothers, daughters, wives, and partners; as farmers and workers; as slaves and conquered peoples; as reformers and political activists; and as immigrants and citizens are analyzed.
Dr. Carla Hay
Survey of women's experiences in western civilization from prehistory to the present. Focusing primarily on Europe, the course analyzes the changing roles and responsibilities of women in the family, in the work force, and in the community, and highlights the impact of phenomena such as religion, science, technology, and democracy on the shifting perceptions and definitions of gender in western civilization.
Dr. Michael Wert
Major events, people and debates in Japanese history from 1800 to the present. Includes examinations of the "margins" of Japanese history: the countryside, the common people, ethnic minorities, marginal identities, etc., in order to understand how individuals dealt with changes in Japan from its early modernity to the present day.
(For sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
Although most History classes include quite a bit of writing, a select few have been named “writing intensive,” meaning they feature writing instruction and give students a chance to revise and improve their writing.
History and the Writing Intensive Requirement courses
This list is updated every semester, so check back before registering. If so designated, writing intensive courses can count toward your major, toward Disco Tier requirements, and toward ESSV requirements.
Dr. Lezlie Knox
Examines the 14th century global pandemic as a case study for examining its social, political and cultural impact on medieval societies. Investigates the relationship between the spread of plague and the physical environment, as well as assesses how modern scientific knowledge impacts our understanding of the event.
The department offers several seminar sections each year; all are approved as writing intensive courses.
(For sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
Students can fulfill the second ESSV requirement in a number of ways, including courses taken in their majors.
History and the Second Level Engaging Social Systems and Values Requirement courses
A survey of migration to the United States (and Britain's North American colonies) that explores how immigrants have built communities, sought economic security and experienced cultural change. Addresses anti-immigration sentiment, race construction and notion of cultural pluralism. Contextualizes immigration–an issue central to American identity–within a transnational framework of global markets, American incursions overseas and the worldwide movement of peoples.
The role and response of African-Americans in American society. Emphasis on the problems of slavery, exclusion, accommodation, migration, urbanization, and currents of protest.
A survey of Native American history from 1491 (before Columbus's "Discovery") to the present. Explores the diverse cultures and histories of indigenous people in the present-day United States and focuses on particular themes such as colonization and decolonization, settler colonialism, intimacy and violence, removal and "survivance," assimilation and allotment, along with sovereignty and self-determination. Grapples with contemporary issues related to Native mascots, treaties, ccasinos, cultural representation and more.
Department of History
Sensenbrenner Hall, 202A
1103 W. Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 288-7217
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