Loyola University Chicago

Department of History

Current and Recent Course Descriptions and Schedules

Spring 2019 Course List

  • HIST 460: Urban America
  • HIST 481: Management of Historical Resources
  • HIST 487: Management of History Museums
  • HIST 555: Seminar: US Social and Intellectual History
  • HIST 561: Seminar: Gender and Women's History

 

Spring 2019 Course Descriptions

 

HIST 460: Urban America
Wednesday 4:15 pm-6:45 pm
Dr. Timothy Gilfoyle

The "United States was born in the country and has moved to the city."    Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (1955), 23.

This course examines the evolution of the United States from a rural and small‑town society to an urban and suburban nation.  Cities, and especially Chicago, have long offered some of the best laboratories for the study of American history, social structure, economic development and cultural change.  Certain problems and themes recur throughout the course of American urban and cultural history which will be focal points of this seminar: the interaction of private commerce with cultural change; the rise of distinctive working and middle classes; the segregation of public and private space; the formation of new and distinctive urban subcultures organized by gender, work, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality; problems of health and housing resulting from congestion; and blatant social divisions between the rich and poor, the native‑born and immigrant, and blacks and whites. This colloquium will thus provide a historiographical introduction to the major questions and issues in the culture and social life of American cities.

 

HIST 481: Management of Historical Resources
Monday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Theodore Karamanski

This class is an introduction to historic preservation. The class will review the way public historians work to protect the material culture of the built environment on a local, state, and national level. The class will consist of lectures on aspects of historic preservation, the discussion of weekly readings, and the execution of a preservation project. The project will be to prepare a National Register of Historic Places nomination on a single property or historic district.

 

HIST 487: Management of History Museums
Thursday 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo

This  course  will  introduce  graduate  students  to  the  issues  involved  in  the  management  and  operation  of  history  museums  while  considering  many  questions  about  the  role  and  function  of  museums  in  American  society.  What  does  it  mean  to  say  that  museums  serve  the  public?  Why  do  museums  preserve  some  objects  and  not  others?  How  do  they  care  for  the  objects  they  collect  and  how  do  they  make  them  available  to  the  public?  How  do museums  tell  stories  and  who  gets  to  decide  what  stories  to  tell?  Why  do  people  come  to  museums?  What  do  they  experience  there  and  what  do  those  visits  mean  to  them?  What  does success look  like  and  how  does  one  measure  it?  What  financial,  administrative,  and  ethical  issues  do  museums  face  today?  Finally,  how  is  the  past  preserved  and  interpreted  in  museums  and  what  role  do  historians  play  in  these  efforts?

 

HIST 555: Seminar: US Social and Intellectual History
Tuesday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin

This course is a research seminar in which students will use primary sources to write an original work focusing on commemoration and historical memory. Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of historians have focused on the ways in which examinations of commemoration and memory inform our understanding of both the past and present.  We will explore examples of this type of research and analysis and discuss some of the methodologies important in using commemoration or memory as the lens through which to understand the past.  Early on each student will meet with the instructor to formulate a topic for her or his semester's work. By the end of the term, each student will produce a draft of an article that is publishable, perhaps with some revision, in a scholarly journal. While the focus of this course is on the United States, it is not the preserve of US historians.  If students with a non-US area of study wish to take this course and work on a topic in her or his field, they are welcome to enroll.

 

HIST 561: Seminar: Gender and Women's History
Tuesday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Michelle Nickerson

This seminar focuses on the use of gender as a category of analysis in history, and is particularly appropriate for those who have taken courses in Women's and Gender History or Women's Studies.  Students will produce a major research paper; they may choose any topic relevant to issues of gender or women for any time period or society, as long as adequate primary sources are available. During the first month, class meetings focus on a variety of approaches to the study of women and gender history based on common readings.  The rest of the semester will be spent engaged in individual research projects.  Students will read and comment on each others’ papers.  The goal of the course is to produce an article-length (25-30 pages) research paper.  It is expected that students can read the appropriate foreign languages needed to do their research.  Once enrolled in this class, it is imperative that students speak to Professor Nickerson in office hours before the end of the Fall ’18 semester about the: 1.) topic or theme for the research paper and 2.) the base of sources that will be used.

 

 

 

Fall 2018 Course List

 

Fall 2018 Course Descriptions

HIST 400: Twentieth Century Approaches to History 
Wednesday 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. John Pincince

This seminar focuses on twentieth-century historical writing, emphasizing interpretive paradigms and innovative methodologies.   We begin the course in the nineteenth century, with a critical analysis of the “objectivity question,” and an introduction of Karl’s Marx’s Historical Materialism. Entrance into the twentieth century begins with an exploration of Annales historiography (through the fourth generation), from where we continue consideration of historical approaches such the rise of social history and cultural history as the dominant historical genres in the profession.  In particular, the course explores the impact of social science models on the writing of history in the post-World War II era, as well as the more recent challenges posed by historians of women and gender, post-colonialism post-structural, and post-modernism.  The final week we enter the Anthropocene, and look backward at the emergence and expansion of the field of Environmental history. By examining key historical works that have shaped the discipline of history, we will try to understand the profound changes in ideas about the nature of history and historical writing that have emerged over the preceding century.

 

HIST 442: Women's and Gender History: USA
Wednesday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo

This course explores the literature on women and gender in United States history with attention to theoretical issues, a broad chronological scope, and cultural diversity.

 

HIST 450: Nineteenth Century America
Thursday 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Theodore Karamanski

Through weekly readings and discussion this course will review the historiography of the most important topics in nineteenth century American history, including market expansion cultural history and social development, national expansion, slavery, the Civil War and reconstruction, and industrialization. This course is essential for graduate comprehensive examination preparation in American history.

 

HIST 479: Public History Media
Thursday 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Kyle Roberts

This course is an introduction to the role of new media and the digital humanities in the service of cultural heritage.  It will focus on examining the ways that emerging media have affected our historical understanding in the past and present and on developing facilities with digital applications, methodologies, and platforms that scholars and public history professionals increasingly need to use in the present and future.  This includes archiving, blogging, digitizing, digital storytelling, editing and analyzing, social media, virtual exhibitions and web design.  It will also take up broad social and ethical questions surrounding media and contemporary culture, including accuracy of evidence, intellectual property, and open access to knowledge.  By the end of the semester, students will have produced a digital portfolio of their work.  Cross-listed with DIGH 400: Introduction to Digital Humanities Research.


HIST 480: Public History: Method and Theory
Monday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin

This course explores the field of public history with special emphasis on the theoretical and methodological challenges faced when preserving or presenting history outside of a formal classroom environment.  Also under consideration will be the professional and ethical responsibilities of the historian both inside and outside of the university setting.  Students will be able to understand the theoretical and methodological issues of importance to the field of public history, reflect upon ethical issues involved in the collection, curation, and presentation of history, and participate in applied projects drawing upon public history methodologies and presentation modes.


HIST 483: Oral History: Method and Practice
Tuesday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Christopher Manning

This course will give students a basic understanding of oral history by asking several questions of the discipline, including: What exactly is oral history and what sets it apart from other historical research methodologies?  What are the ethical issues involved in undertaking oral history?  How does one conduct, record, and archive an interview?  What steps are necessary in constructing an oral history project?  What are the merits of the various products that can be derived from oral history in both texts and multimedia?  In addition to reading oral historical texts and theory, students will conduct at least two interviews and participate in an ongoing oral history project.

 

HIST 488: Topics in Medieval History: Digital Humanities and Premodern Studies:  An Introduction

Ten-Week Graduate Seminar at the Newberry Library

Taught by Dr. Isabella Magni and Dr. Christopher Fletcher, Newberry Library.

Enrollment in this course is contingent upon acceptance to the Newberry Library’s Graduate Seminar. Early application deadline is May 1, 2018. See below for details of the course and how to apply.  (Additionally the ability to read sources in their original languages is preferred whenever possible.)

Registration Information and Cost: 

Enrollment is limited, by competitive application, with priority to students from the Center for Renaissance Studies consortium institutions, of which Loyola is a member. The course fee is waived for consortium students. If accepted, you must register for this course (HIST 488-800) to receive credit as part of Loyola’s History Graduate Program.

Description:

This course will introduce you to methods, approaches, uses, and challenges of digital humanities with respect to the study of the premodern world. Over the past few decades, scholars in all fields of medieval and early modern studies have increasingly used digital resources to study and teach the premodern past. Likewise, universities and funding organizations are devoting more and more financial resources to the development of digital projects designed to deepen our understanding of medieval and early modern culture in a way that is more engaging for the general public.

In this course, we will examine how digital humanities can support the study and teaching of all fields of premodern studies. We will discuss the ways in which digital humanities have changed the study of the premodern world; consider the advantages and disadvantages in the increasing use of digital tools in the classroom; and learn about the ins-and-outs of digital projects from the scholars creating them. We will also familiarize ourselves with some basic tools, approaches, and platforms available for the creation of digital resources, and learn how to use them by engaging with medieval and early modern materials from the Newberry’s collection. All of this will culminate in the development of your own grant proposal for a digital resource enhancing the study and teaching of the premodern world.

Details on the seminar are available here: https://www.newberry.org/09272018-digital-humanities-and-premodern-studies-introduction

The application is available here: https://www.newberry.org/renaissance-center-graduate-seminar-application

 

Summer 2018 Course List

  • HIST 410: Special Topics: Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Displacement (Dr. Aidan Forth)

 

Summer 2018 Coure Description

HIST 410: Special Topics: Settler Colonialism
Hybrid Format Meeting Dates/Times TBA
Dr. Aidan Forth

This graduate level course examines the vast expansion of settler societies in the 18th and 19th centuries and considers the lingering conflicts and resulting inequalities. We’ll travel from the U.S. to Australia and from Israel to Manchuria to examine settler colonialism as a distinct yet widespread form of violence and domination. How did settlers help build the modern world? And what was the cost to the environment and indigenous communities?

 

Spring 2018 Course List

 

Spring 2018 Course Descriptions

HIST 419: English Social History: 1500-1750
Wednesday 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Robert Bucholz

This course is a seminar in the social and cultural history of early-modern England.  While not unaware of the political and constitutional developments of the Tudor and Stuart periods, it proposes to concentrate upon those enduring beliefs and continuing realities which formed the background to the lives of the great mass of the common people.  It will focus, in particular, upon the tension between how early modern English men and women saw their world (ordered, hierarchical, stable, divinely sanctioned) and what their world was actually and increasingly like (disordered, socially mobile, unstable, secular).  This tension will be explored through reading and critical discussion of the best and most recent work in demography, iconography, family history, women's history, and the histories of material culture, popular culture, religion, education, and crime.  Thus, students enrolled in this course will be exposed not only to current work on an interesting and important subject, but also to a wide variety of historical methodologies as well as the preoccupations and techniques of related fields such as anthropology and art history.  This exposure should foster a sharpened critical faculty as well as methodological diversity among those who will go on to become professional historians.​

 

HIST 461: Readings in 20th Century U.S. History 
Monday 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. Elliot Gorn

Reading and discussion seminar, students will read monographs and articles in recent US history, including social, cultural, intellectual and other approaches.  Final assignment will be a long historiographic paper.

 

HIST 482: Archives and Records Management
Wednesday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Kathy Young

The purpose of this course is to introduce and understand core concepts and methods of the archives profession. Students are introduced to issues and principles in archives and gain insight into the practical application of these principles.

 

HIST 484: Material Culture  
Thursday 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo

This course introduces graduate students to a wide range of approaches to the study of American material culture in its many forms. The course will consider the various ways historians and other scholars use material culture to investigate and understand the past, with an emphasis on artifacts as evidence of cultural expression and as products and mediators of social relations.

 

HIST 558: Studies in American Cultural History
Tuesday 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Kyle Roberts

This course is a research seminar in which students will use primary sources to write an original work of cultural history. Since the 1970s, American historians have grown increasingly interested in studying culture – the beliefs, practices, languages, and worldviews that make up a specific group’s way of life – as a way of unlocking the meanings of their experiences. Over this period, cultural historians have utilized a range of approaches drawn from fields as diverse as anthropology, linguistics, and the Digital Humanities to study sources such as print but also material culture, visual culture, the body, and performance. Students will be introduced to both traditional and digital methodologies for cultural history study. Early on each student will meet with the instructor to formulate a topic for her or his semester's work. By the end of the term, each student will produce a draft of an article that is publishable, perhaps with some revision, in a scholarly journal.

 

Fall 2017 Course List

 

Fall 2017 Course Descriptions

HIST 400: Twentieth Century Approaches to History
Wednesday 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. John Pincince

This colloquium focuses on twentieth-century historical writing, emphasizing interpretive paradigms and innovative methodologies.  It examines the rise of social history and then cultural history as the dominant historical genres in the profession.  In particular, the course explores the impact of social science models on the writing of history in the post-World War II era, as well as the more recent challenges posed by historians of women and gender, post-colonialism and postmodernism.  By examining key historical works that have shaped the discipline of history, we will try to understand the profound changes in ideas about the nature of history and historical writing that have emerged over the preceding century.

 

HIST 410: Readings in Early American History
Tuesday 4:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Dr. John Donoghue

This course will explore select readings in American history from the colonial period through the Civil War. The creation of the republican, American nation state will feature prominently in the course.  But part of its purpose, in line with the History Department’s increasingly transnational focus, is to de-center the national paradigm of historical analysis.  New studies integrating early American history with Atlantic, transnational, and global history will thus figure largely in assigned readings, as will analytical categories of race, class, and gender.  Thematic emphasis will be given to histories of colonialism, empire-building, capitalism, slavery, political thought, and borderlands.

 

HIST 460: Urban America
Wednesday 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Shermer

This course focuses on significant issues in the development of Urban America from the Early Republic to the present.  The course is designed to both cover the history of metropolitan development but also the historiography of key themes, such as economic development, industrialization, the environment, race and ethnicity, gender, as well as the role of religion in urban social and cultural life.  This is the basic course for students who wish to take a concentration in US Urban Social and Cultural History.  As such, the readings and assignments are designed to prepare students to take exams and build bibliographies for research projects (either for seminar papers or dissertations).

 

HIST 479: Public History Media
Thursday 7:00 pm -9:30 pm
Dr. Kyle Roberts

This course is an introduction to the role of new media and the digital humanities in the service of cultural heritage.  It will focus on examining the ways that emerging media have affected our historical understanding in the past and present and on developing facilities with digital applications, methodologies, and platforms that scholars and public history professionals increasingly need to use in the present and future.  This includes archiving, blogging, digitizing, digital storytelling, editing and analyzing, social media, virtual exhibitions and web design.  It will also take up broad social and ethical questions surrounding media and contemporary culture, including accuracy of evidence, intellectual property, and open access to knowledge.  By the end of the semester, students will have produced a digital portfolio of their work.  Cross-listed with DIGH 400: Introduction to Digital Humanities Research.

 

HIST 480: Public History Method and Theory
Monday 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin

This course explores the field of public history with special emphasis on the theoretical and methodological challenges faced when preserving or presenting history outside of a formal classroom environment.  Also under consideration will be the professional and ethical responsibilities of the historian both inside and outside of the university setting.  Students will be able to understand the theoretical and methodological issues of importance to the field of public history, reflect upon ethical issues involved in the collection, curation, and presentation of history, and participate in applied projects drawing upon public history methodologies and presentation modes.

 

HIST 483: Oral History: Method and Practice
Tuesday 6:00 pm - 8:30pm
Dr. Christopher Manning

This course will give students a basic understanding of oral history by asking several questions of the discipline, including: What exactly is oral history and what sets it apart from other historical research methodologies?  What are the ethical issues involved in undertaking oral history?  How does one conduct, record, and archive an interview?  What steps are necessary in constructing an oral history project?  What are the merits of the various products that can be derived from oral history in both texts and multimedia?  In addition to reading oral historical texts and theory, students will conduct at least two interviews and participate in an ongoing oral history project.

 

HIST 561: Women’s and Gender History
Thursday 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Dr. Alice Weinreb

This seminar focuses on the use of gender as a category of analysis in history, and is particularly appropriate for those who have taken courses in Women's and Gender History or Women's Studies. Students will produce a major research paper; they may choose any topic relevant to issues of gender or women for any time period or society, as long as adequate primary sources are available.

 

 

 Summer 2017 Course List

 

Summer 2017 Course Description

HIST 410: Special Topics: African-American Chicago
Weekly Online Meeting Dates/Times TBA
Dr. Christopher Manning

This summer, Dr. Chris Manning will teach the History Department's first-ever online graduate course, History 410: African-American Chicago. Spanning from the Migration of the Talented Tenth to neighborhood activism of the 1990s, this course will explore the history of African American in the city of Chicago through weekly readings of scholarly monographs and some scholarly articles. We will meet every week at the appointed time through video conferencing on-line.   Topics of the course will include the earliest migration of African Americans to Chicago after the Civil War, the first Great Migration, the Chicago Renaissance, the development of the Blues, the Great Depression, the Second Great Migration, the Chicago Freedom Movement, deindustrialization, the Harold Washington era, and 1980s housing activism.

 

 

Spring 2017 Course List

 

Spring 2017 Course Descriptions

HIST 410: Special Topics: Transnational Urban History
Thursday 4:15 pm – 6:45 pm
Dr. Edin Hajdarpasic

This class examines urban history from a transnational perspective. We will explore major themes in urban history, including social control, urban design, state intervention, racial segregation, sexual politics, class divisions, and the city in times of war and disaster.  Tracing global connections, we will engage with multiple cities in diverse national, cultural, and political contexts, crossing Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and beyond (with our home city of Chicago featuring prominently in readings and discussions). The historical focus is on modern cities as they emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

HIST 450: Reading in Nineteenth-Century U.S. History
Wednesday 2:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Dr. Timothy Gilfoyle

Modern, industrial America was born in the nineteenth century.  The United States experienced its most remarkable changes between the presidencies of Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.  American cities and per capita levels of immigration grew at their greatest rates ever.  The most sophisticated form of coercive labor in world history became a dominant institution.  A new feminine ideal flourished.  The factory was born and industry replaced agriculture as the nation’s dominant economic force.  The public school, the Mormons, the prison, the department store and "Wall Street" were created.  The United States completed its final continental boundaries.  Political officials left imprints which still define American politics and culture: James Madison, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. An American literary renaissance produced canonical writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Edith Wharton and Walt Whitman.  And the century witnessed the most devastating war in U.S. history.  This colloquium provides a historiographical introduction to the major questions and issues of nineteenth-century America.  Class discussion will also examine different possibilities for future research.

 

HIST 481: Management of Historical Resources
Tuesday 6:00 pm-8:30pm
Dr. Theodore Karamanski

This course will consider the problems of protecting and interpreting historical and cultural resources.  Topics will include: historic preservation, historical architecture and urban redevelopment, the National Register of Historic Places, historical archaeology, and the writing of cultural resource impact statements. Instruction will involve both faculty and practitioners of public history.

 

HIST 487: Management of History Museums
Tuesday 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Dr. Elizabeth Fraterrigo

This course will introduce graduate students to the issues involved in the management and operation of history museums while considering many questions about the role and function of museums in American society. What does it mean to say that museums serve the public? Why do museums preserve some objects and not others? How do they care for the objects they collect and how do they make them available to the public? How do museums tell stories and who gets to decide what stories to tell? Why do people come to museums? What do they experience there and what do those visits mean to them? What does “success” look like and how does one measure it? What financial, administrative, and ethical issues do museums face today? Finally, how is the past preserved and interpreted in museums and what role do historians play in these efforts?

 

HIST 558: Studies in American Cultural History
Wednesday 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Dr. Elliott Gorn

This course is a research seminar.  Students will use primary sources to write long essays on topics in American social, cultural, intellectual, and/or urban history.  Early on each student will meet with the instructor to formulate a topic for his or her semester's work.  The goal by the end of the term is that each student will produce the draft of an article that is publishable, perhaps with some revision, in a scholarly journal.

 

HIST 584: Local History
Monday 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Dr. Patricia Mooney-Melvin

This course will examine the nature and practice of local history and explore various methods and approaches central to local history research. This course has three objectives: (1) to introduce students to the literature on local history; (2) to acquaint students with methodology critical to local history research; and (3) to conduct research on a local history topic. The course is organized around a particular theme and focuses on a particular geographical area. This year we will examine the nature of neighborhoods and their relationship to the larger urban community. Research topics will explore the communities of Rogers Park, West Ridge, Edgewater, and Uptown.