Course Descriptions

TTh 11:00-12:15

Dr. David McDaniel

Description to be added.

TTh 12:30-1:45

Dr. Alison Efford

The Civil War’s great conflict over slavery and the future of the United States continues to influence American public life. This class addresses the whole era, placing the war, the events leading up to it, and its aftermath in a larger context. We will emphasize Black Americans’ campaign for equality and the reverberations of the war today, but we will also consider the larger global context, settler colonialism, and gender and sexuality. Lecture-based with some discussion. Three assigned books and extra short readings.

TTh 2:00-3:15

Dr. David McDaniel

The History of Rock and Roll (History 3165) is a very groovy course that traces the development of the musical genre of rock and roll from its inception in post-WW II America to its fragmentation by the mid-1970s.

The music itself will, of course, play a significant part in our studies, from the classic doo-wop tunes of the 1950s, to the folk-rock tradition of the early 1960s (featuring groups such as Peter, Paul, and Mary and the inimitable Bob Dylan), through the British Invasion involving the Beatles, and so much more, to the relevance of the 1960s anti-war music, the serendipity of the Woodstock Nation, and the dramatic advent of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal as exemplified by groups such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. In a final chapter, involving what I consider to be the legacy of rock and roll, we will delve into such genres as Punk Rock, New Wave, Alternative Rock, Grunge, Indie Rock, and other trends that may speak more directly to contemporary students.

Beyond the music itself, History 3165 will consider the significant cultural, social, and even political impact of rock and roll on American society in terms of youth rebellion and empowerment and challenges to the status quo in terms of manners and morals and race relations. Ultimately, we will discover the power in the music that became the soundtrack for one of the most dramatic and transformative periods in the history of the United States.

MWF 12:00-12:50

Dr. Daryl Webb

Sports history looks at the games we play on and off the field. The class examines the evolution of sports, new strategies and important players, coaches, and sports leaders. But the class will also consider sports outside the lines and uses sports as a window into society. Focusing on baseball, football, and basketball, the class examines labor relations, gender roles, and race relations. 

T 5:00-7:30

Dr. Rob Smith

This course explores the unique experiences of persons of African descent in the United States. The class will trace the evolution of race/racism/racial formations pertaining to the African American experience using readings, discussions, and assignments. The class will cover the key moments and scholarly debates regarding African American history by relying on seminal primary and secondary materials. When its most useful to do so, we will also investigate the legal cultivation of race using important court briefs and relevant state and federal legislation. By the end of the class, we will be well-versed in the seminal developments of African American history in the United States spanning nearly 400 years. 

MWF 9:00-9:50

Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch

In this class, we will explore the Indigenous peoples, cultures, and communities of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee from the pre-Columbian era to the present day. In particular, we consider the collective experience of Wisconsin’s Native Peoples – “Indians” – while also appreciating the complexities that made, and continue to make, each Indigenous community and culture distinct from one another. This class also focuses on themes of colonization and decolonization, settler colonialism, cultural inclusivity, violence and intimacy, removal and survivance, assimilation and allotment, along with sovereignty and self-determination. Further, this class grapples with contemporary issues related to Native mascots, treaties, casinos, cultural representation, and more. Finally, this course is an experiential class, meaning that we will engage with the Indigenous peoples and communities of Wisconsin and Milwaukee throughout the course of the semester.

MW 2:00-3:45

Dr. Daryl Webb

Franklin Roosevelt defined the 1930s and 1940s and set the course for the rest of the 20th century. Roosevelt took office in the depths of the Great Depression when one-third of the nation was “ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished.”  Roosevelt's New Deal restored hope, put people back to work and created vital reforms. After a decade of the Great Depression, a second crisis hit and the nation faced World War II. Roosevelt became a wartime president managing the war overseas and the conflict and tumult on the homefront. The Age of Roosevelt will examine this difficult, but fascinating era through readings, documentary films and public history projects to gain a host of new and interesting perspectives. 

TTh 9:30-10:45

Dr. Lezlie Knox

The Middle Ages are a figment of our imagination.  Of course, this provocative claim could be made for just about historical era since humans created historical periodization and its associated values.  But the European Middle Ages, from the third-sixteenth centuries, have been particularly prone to revisionism and romanticization (we call these modern views medievalisms). Historians study change over time, which includes the processes by which individual and collective memories are used to create meaning. This class thus explores the various ways we imagine the Middle Ages and ask why they matter.  

It is organized around the analysis of medieval sources (texts and objects) in order to examine how historical actors, events, and their representations resonate in the contemporary world. We will consider especially how historical memories of the Middle Ages have been deployed in our society with intersectional claims about racial identities (whiteness), religion (Christianity), and gender (both patriarchy and feminist golden ages).  Our challenge is not simply to recognize incorrect representations of the past.  Rather our goal is to develop an appreciation for the medieval world’s complex social hierarchies, its diverse categories of identity, and evidence for both religious collaboration and conflict.   The past and the present are connected—but in complicated ways, which also distinguish them from each other and let us imagine different futures.

This class fulfills European and elective requirements in the History major/minor, as well as elective credits for the interdisciplinary minors in Medieval Studies and in German Studies.  It is an MCC Discovery Tier Humanities class for Cognition, Memory, and Intelligence.

MWF 12:00-12:50

Dr. Timothy McMahon

Students will have the opportunity to engage in an intensive study of modern Irish history and culture centered on one of the defining events of twentieth-century Irish history: the 1916 Easter Rising, when a small group of Irish men and women attempted to seize control of Dublin and declare Irish independence from the United Kingdom. HIST 4260 will focus on the period between 1858 and 1948, beginning with the creation of the underground Irish Republican Brotherhood and ending with the declaration of the Irish Republic in the 26-county state with its capital in Dublin. We will pay particular attention to the issues of land ownership, cultural revival, and terrorism (both by the state and by revolutionary actors) and how they shaped the Ireland we know today. Students in HIST 4260 will also create a digital humanities project utilizing primary-source documents from the revolutionary period and mapping technologies to create presentations about the revolutionary era. A major emphasis of the course will be to see how different disciplines examine the interrelationship of social change, cultural innovation, and political revolution. This course is approved as Discovery Tier course for Individuals and Communities theme, and it satisfies upper-division requirements for the interdisciplinary fields in International Relations, Peace Studies, and Irish Studies.

TTh 9:30-10:45

Dr. Chima Korieh

World War II had a profound impact on the world. It required unprecedented efforts to coordinate strategy and tactics with other members of the Grand Alliance in battle against the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the same time, it demanded a monumental production effort in European colonial territories and dominions to provide the materials necessary to fight the war. This course concerns itself with the relationship between World War II and the phenomena of home front. It will examine the challenges of the war years and the lasting effect they would bring to different regions. The course deemphasizes the Eurocentric focus of much of Euro-North American history by focusing on the experiences of non-Western societies—European colonies in the global conflict.

T 5:00-7:30

Dr. Peter Staudenmaier

Fascism has been a controversial topic since its emergence over a century ago. As public discussion of the theme has intensified in recent years, an informed historical perspective has become increasingly important. Our task in this seminar will be to use the tools of scholarly analysis to gain a better understanding of fascism’s past, present, and future. We will examine a series of complex questions about what ‘fascism’ has meant in different historical contexts. Our focus will extend from the classical fascist era before 1945 to the transformations in far right politics since World War II, including the current resurgence of radical right movements around the world. Readings will include primary sources and critical studies from a range of disciplines. No prior familiarity with the topic is expected, but a willingness to engage with challenging material is essential.

MWF 10:00-10:50

Dr. Timothy McMahon

This course offers a global perspective on encounters between Europeans and non-Europeans over the past 500 years, with special focus on the ways that networks and neighbors helped to shape how people thought about themselves and about those who were different from themselves, and how those changing ideas were shaped by political, economic, and cultural dynamics. Ultimately, what we today call the "modern" period emerged out of these encounters as a period marked by both confidence AND uncertainty. In looking at how these tensions emerged in the past, students will gain a better appreciation of some of the uncertainties we continue to face today.

TTh 2:00-3:15

Dr. Peter Staudenmaier

This course is designed to introduce History majors to the basic practices of historical inquiry and argument. We will explore the diverse ways historians make sense of the past while learning the skills and habits of historical thinking. Through reading, writing, and practical experience, we will work toward an informed understanding of history in its many senses, from methods for studying sources about the past to debating its significance in the present.

W 2:00-4:30

Dr. Jessica Cooley

HIST 4101/5101 is a project-based seminar where students produce public-facing programming and projects. For spring 2027 semester, students will work with Dr. Jessica A. Cooley to create programming, access features, and didactics for the Haggerty Museum of Art's fall 2028 exhibition curated by Cooley, All That Sustains You: Nam June Paik and Car Riegger. Through a combination of lectures, interactive workshops, and collaborative projects, students will learn what it means to curate inclusive, intersectional, and accessible exhibitions built on the principles of Disability Justice.

In the first half of the semester, students explore a broad history of museums and curating alongside histories of disability as cultural and creative identity. We will engage local Wisconsin histories of institutionalization and disability organizing, and we will learn what it means to curate exhibitions guided by the principles and politics of the Disability Justice movement. During the second half of the semester, students will work in project groups to design creative access measures for the exhibition (visual description, touch objects, sensory-friendly experiences, comfortable seating, and plain-language and large-print interpretation) to produce an exhibition experience that understands inclusion as its own artistic practice. Students will also propose programming opportunities and draft a plan for community engagement that thoughtfully and reciprocally works with local disability communities. In the second to last week of the semester, we will present our work in progress to Haggerty staff and community partners for their feedback.

HIST 4101/5101 is one of the required courses for Marquette’s Public History minor, and I have designed it as a practicum, so students will leave with work they can show a museum, an archive, or a community organization. The course is open to upper-level undergraduates and to graduate students (HIST 5101), with no prior coursework in art history or disability studies required.

MWF 9:00-9:50

Dr. Alan Ball

Study of the Cold War offers an opportunity to witness diverse nations caught up in a conflict more wide-ranging and—in a nuclear age—more dangerous than anything the world had witnessed previously. This course will survey the origins and nature of the Cold War, with a focus on the first twenty years or so after World War II. Along the way, topics will include not only international tensions but also the domestic fallout of the Cold War in countries on several continents. For students seeking a global experience touching the United States, the Soviet Union, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, this is it. Together with films from the period and segments from CNN’s Cold War documentary, the course features frequent small group discussions of primary documents, memoirs, and recent works by US and Russian historians.

MWF 11:00-11:50

Dr. Michael Donoghue

This course examines the history of the Caribbean from pre-colonial times to the 21st century. As such, we will explore major topics such as colonialism, slavery, race, gender, and state formation. But our main emphasis will be on the notion of “crossing borders” and diasporic world-making, how people on the move from South America to the Caribbean, from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Caribbean, and of course, from the Caribbean to Central America and the United States, played a central role in constructing new social, cultural, and political environments, largely in conflict with preexisting ones.  Students will examine this process from a multitude of perspectives: that of pre-Colombian indigenous hunter-gatherers, Africans kidnapped and enslaved, migrant workers journeying from Caribbean islands to work on railroad and canal projects, and immigrants from the islands seeking economic and political opportunities in Latin America, Europe and the United States.  The neglected story of Asian immigrants who replaced slaves as a labor force from the mid-19^th century onwards will also be addressed. The efforts of these “border crossers” besides creating continuing waves of in- and-out migration, reshaped established notions of race, class, and gender on the islands and forged unique diasporic world-making to survive against great odds in an increasingly globalized environment.  These topics and processes will be analyzed in a multi-disciplinary fashion though the approaches of anthropology, race studies, political science, history, and cultural studies. Students will be introduced to a broad range of methodologies and theories to better understand how reconstructions of race, identity, and culture broke down the borders of colonialism and racial exploitation to forge increased opportunities and renewed communities in a wide range of geographical spaces.  Students will write two short papers on these themes and have a midterm and final exam as well.

MWF 10:00-10:50

Dr. Michael Wert

This is an intense survey of modern Japanese history from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include: dynamic changes that occurred at all levels of Japanese society in the nineteenth century, the creation of Japan as a modern nation-state, its development as an empire-building power, and how these affected people‘s lives (gender, ethnicity, nationhood and culture). A major portion of the course is devoted to WWII and postwar issues: how Japan coped with military defeat, how it regained its regional and global influence and contemporary attempts to deal with its past. Grading will be based on (in order of importance): three short papers (five pages), midterm/final and informal essays.

MWF 1:00-1:50

Dr. Patrick Mullins

Description to be added.

M 2:00-4:30 

Dr. Alan Ball

Political and institutional propaganda has been with us for thousands of years.  Not just the specialty of fascist or communist dictatorships, propaganda can be found among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the medieval Papacy, along with modern political and advertising campaigns, to suggest just a handful of examples.  We’ll begin the course by formulating a more precise understanding of the term “propaganda” than you may have at the moment, and then—with this background as your guide—you’ll be able to choose a version of propaganda that interests you and which will serve as a suitable subject for investigation.  Given that HIST 4955 is a research seminar, the bulk of the semester will be devoted to the research and writing of a paper (approximately 20-25 pages) on your chosen topic, relying on primary sources as far as possible.  During the last week or two of the semester, we will schedule group sessions to discuss the fruits of our labors. 

T 2:00-4:30

Dr. Chima Korieh

This seminar will focus on genocide and mass killings in colonial Africa and is designed to initiate you in the techniques of scholarly historical study through concentrated work in this specialized field. You will have the opportunity to use both secondary and primary source material to investigate cases of genocide and mass killing in colonial times while demonstrating the ability to think critically and write effectively. A sequence of preliminary writing assignments will provide practice with crafting a prospectus, evaluating primary sources, and incorporating secondary scholarship. These exercises will build towards an intermediate-length research essay, which students will submit at the end of the semester.

Th 5:00-7:30

Dr. Chima Korieh

This reading seminar offers a comparative historical analysis of global cities, placing the urban histories of the African continent in direct conversation with global metropolises. Rather than treating African cities as historical anomalies, this course uses a comparative framework to examine how cities across different continents navigated similar structural forces—such as imperialism, industrialization, and global capitalism. Students will challenge standard Eurocentric trajectories of urbanization by juxtaposing African urban centers with peers in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

M 5:00-7:30

Dr. Michael Donoghue

In this course we will explore how peoples, states, cultures, and identities have interacted and conflicted along and across borders from the early modern period in Europe, Asia, and the Americas to the present day within the context of different continents, regions, empires, and emerging nation-states. Key to this analysis is the decentering of state and/or imperial power along border regions which have frequently displayed a surprising ability to reshape and transform larger state projects and particular identities and goals to their own advantage in periods of crisis, conflict, and intense interaction that include immigration, militarization, trade, both legal and contraband - and adversarial community formation typically related to surges in nationalism. Racial, gendered, and ethnic differences usually play a major role in such intersections along borders and frontiers across time. Students and the instructor will read, analyze, and discuss a set of common readings over a 6-week period before students are set free to research and write an original 25-page research paper, using mainly primary sources that focus on their topic.  Students will also give formal oral presentations on their papers in the last two weeks of our course in which fellow students and the instructor will critique and provide helpful commentary on strengthening final papers before they are submitted.         

W 5:00-7:30 pm

Dr. Timothy G. McMahon

HIST 6961—Master of Arts Essay and Professional Discernment

This graded 3-credit workshop serves a dual purpose.  First, it provides structure to complete the required MA essay or public history project (due to the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on April 16).  All students will present a version of their project as a research poster in early April.  Second, it guides professional discernment to explore opportunities for historians inside and outside academe.  In addition to shared readings and reflections, we will have guest presenters.  The class will meet in conjunction with HIST 8961 Doctoral Discernment.

NB: MA students typically enroll in this class in their final spring semester to accommodate graduation deadlines.  Any Incomplete grades (especially from HIST 6954) are expected to be cleared before the start of the semester and each student must submit a plan for revising their essay or project in the first week of classes (guidelines for this plan will be shared in mid-November for students enrolled in the class).  This class is required for all students who have updated their Bulletin year to the current catalogue (i.e. elected for the essay-only option in place of essay and MA comprehensive exam).  Students under the previous Bulletins who are still completing essays also are welcome to enroll.

HIST 8961—Doctoral Discernment and Field Preparation

This graded 3-credit workshop serves a dual purpose.  First, it provides structure to prepare for the Doctoral Qualifying Examinations, which may be taken as early as the end of semester and ideally by the end of the summer (as required by some research fellowships).  PhD students should enroll in this class following their dissertation seminar (HIST 8960, typically taken in the fall semester of their second year) which develops the major reading list and starts to frame the research question(s) for the dissertation. 8960 also should identity the two minor fields which address methodological and thematic issues connected to the dissertation research.  These fields and their examiners need to be confirmed by the start of the semester: iterative bibliographies for these fields will be due by the end of January.  Students will present a poster version of their draft dissertation proposal in early April.

Second, the workshop encourages ongoing career discernment as students prepare to undertake their dissertation research.  PhD students will participate in engaged discussions with the MA students in HIST 6961 and guest speakers, as well as prepare a reflection on their goals and strategies for exploring a range of professional opportunities. Each student will be expected to do at least one informational interview during the semester with a historian who is working in a field outside academia.

This course fulfills two of the University’s Career Skills Requirements: Career Discernment and Communication.