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College Catalog 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses

 

Geology
  

  • GEOL 400 - Capstone Research Methods

    Geology majors and minors conducting research in the geosciences frequently utilize a variety of analytic and other laboratory equipment. This course provides students with guidance, mentorship and hands-on experience using the equipment and analytic tools they require to conduct their capstone and independent research projects. Students may take this course during any semester they are conducting research. S/N grading only. Offered occasionally. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 450 - Senior Seminar

    The overarching goal of the Senior Seminar course is to provide senior majors in the Geology Department an opportunity to demonstrate a culmination of their disciplinary learning in the Geology major by the creation of advanced work.  Students will participate in the peer-review process (both in writing abstracts, writing research papers or an honors thesis, and in the oral presentation of their work) and gain feedback from faculty as well.  In addition, the capstone experience provides an opportunity for students to reflect on the meaning and value of learning experiences in the Geology Department and their trajectories beyond Macalester. S/N grading only. Prerequisite(s): Senior standing in geology or permission of instructor. Spring semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 494 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 601 - Tutorial

    Closely supervised individual or small group study with a faculty member. A student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of study not available through the regular catalog offerings. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 602 - Tutorial

    Closely supervised individual or small group study with a faculty member. A student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of study not available through the regular catalog offerings. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 603 - Tutorial

    Closely supervised individual or small group study with a faculty member. A student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of study not available through the regular catalog offerings. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 604 - Tutorial

    Closely supervised individual or small group study with a faculty member. A student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of study not available through the regular catalog offerings. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 611 - Independent Project

    Independent study of geologic problems or preparation of senior research thesis. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing and permission of the instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 612 - Independent Project

    Independent study of geologic problems or preparation of senior research thesis. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing and permission of the instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 613 - Independent Project

    Independent study of geologic problems or preparation of senior research thesis. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing and permission of the instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 614 - Independent Project

    Independent study of geologic problems or preparation of senior research thesis. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing and permission of the instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 621 - Internship

    Work that involves the student in practical off-campus experience. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 622 - Internship

    Work that involves the student in practical off-campus experience. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 623 - Internship

    Work that involves the student in practical off-campus experience. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 624 - Internship

    Work that involves the student in practical off-campus experience. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 631 - Preceptorship

    A student works with a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 632 - Preceptorship

    A student works with a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 633 - Preceptorship

    A student works with a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 634 - Preceptorship

    A student works with a faculty member in the planning and teaching of a course. The department chair will determine if this course may be applied toward the major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 641 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 642 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 643 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GEOL 644 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)

German
  

  • GERM 101 - Elementary German I

    Introduction to German language and culture. Emphasis on comprehension of oral and written contemporary German as well as developing elementary oral proficiency. The course emphasizes vocabulary recognition and acquisition within a variety of concrete contexts. Students develop facility with German within highly structured contexts. Contemporary culture in German-speaking countries provides the content of the course. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Students with any previous training in German must take the German placement exam. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Every fall. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 102 - Elementary German II

    Continuation of introduction to German language and culture. Vocabulary acquisition continues within broader contexts. Emphasis on both oral and written production with continuing development of reading and listening skills. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using primarily concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. The course provides an introduction to extended reading in German as well. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 101  with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor. Every spring. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 110 - Accelerated Elementary German

    An five-credit accelerated course which covers material and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Every semester. (5 Credits)
  

  • GERM 174 - Vampires - from Monsters to Superheroes

    Vampires are cyclical. Just a few years ago you ran into them anytime you walked into a bookstore or turned on the TV-just like in Victorian times when Bram Stoker’s famous work emerged from a vampire craze. Vampires have always been popular fodder and will continue to be so, even if and as the image of the vampire shifts dramatically over time. The popularity of vampires has waxed and waned for over a hundred years, partially because vampirism can be used as a metaphor for almost anything-from the plague to sexuality to addiction. We will juxtapose classic tales of vampires as monsters with the more recent generation of vampires. What happened to change our imagination of vampires from monsters into hip, outsider superheroes? And what can the examination of vampires tell us about the context in which they were created? Occasionally offered. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 194 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 203 - Intermediate German I

    This course is designed to help students increase their proficiency in the German language while emphasizing authentic cultural contexts. Through exposure to a variety of texts and text types, students develop oral and written proficiency in description and narration and develop tools and discourse strategies for culturally authentic interaction with native speakers. Cultural topics are expanded and deepened. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102  or GERM 110  with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 204 - Intermediate German II

    The course aims to help students attain a comfort level with extended discourse in German within culturally appropriate contexts. Students develop the ability to comprehend authentic spoken German on a variety of topics at length. They develop effective strategies for comprehending a variety of texts and text types. They gain increased facility with extended discourse, such as narrating and describing. Writing in German is also developed so that students can write extensively about familiar topics. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203  with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 255 - German Cinema Studies

    Changing topics in German film. Possible titles include: Nazi Cinema; Film, Philosophy, Politics; Film and the Fantastic; Form and Gender in German and American Cinema; Cinema of the Weimar Republic; Where am I in the Film? Students may register up to two times for courses numbered 255, provided a different topic is offered. Taught in English. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 279 - Value: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Cheap

    Cross-Listed as MCST 279  
    For thousands of years value has been scrutinized in philosophy, art history, and economic analysis, as it cuts across three constitutive aspects of social, cultural, and political life: economy, aesthetics, and ethics. Not only do we have and impose on the world our moral, aesthetic, and exchange values, but these three fields often become difficult to distinguish, as is evident in the slippery flexibility of words that allow us to say as much “this painting is bad or worthless” as “I think this person is bad or worthless,” or “this is a bad, or worthless, remark” and “this is a bad or worthless check.” This course will focus primarily on influential accounts of value in aesthetic theory, while also examining the ways in which aesthetic value demarcates itself from or implicates its moral and economic counterparts, and what the interplays among the three fields entail for aesthetic value. Our readings will focus on the impact of primarily German thought on the formation of modern aesthetic theory-from the early eighteenth century through the Enlightenment and Romanticism to high modernism and the Frankfurt School. Class and readings in English. Prerequisite(s): No pre-knowledge required. This course is appropriate for all level students. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 294 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 305 - Advanced German

    This is a language course in which participants expand their abilities in all four language modalities - particularly oral and written expression - through engagement with numerous aspects of the life, literature, and culture of German-speaking countries and their multicultural societies, as well as their relations to the world. Including an extensive review of important advanced language topics, this course offers students the opportunity to improve their German to university-level proficiency. Every semester. (4 credits) Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 , placement test or permission of instructor Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 308 - German Cultural History I

    This course prepares students for upper-level courses in German Studies through the critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in the context of German cultural history from 1815-1945. Such topics include the tension between the German Kulturnation and the political nation, the economics and philosophical critique offered by socialism, imperialism as discourse and political tool, the aesthetic revolution of modernism in the arts, and the debacle of fascism and the Holocaust.  In addition to historical sources, students read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and investigate examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite: GERM 305 , placement test, or permission of instructor Every spring. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 309 - German Cultural History II

    This course prepares students for upper-level courses in German Studies through the critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in the context of German cultural history from 1945 through the present. Such topics include the tension between consumer culture and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the West Germany of the 1950s, the theory and practice of collectivism in East Germany, the significance of the Wall, political upheaval and terrorism in West Germany, real existierender Sozialismus in the East, German unification, multiculturalism, and contemporary topics such as environmentalism and sustainability. In addition to historical sources, students read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and investigate examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 305 , placement test, or permission of instructor Every spring. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 314 - Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud

    Cross-Listed as PHIL 214  
    We all have values; but what are they based on? Perhaps no two thinkers have asked this question as persistently and approached it with such intrepid originality as Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Writing in an age when religious belief had lost credence as a foundation for ethics, Nietzsche and Freud confronted the groundlessness of value systems while recognizing the impossibility of living without them. Both were reacting to Darwin’s discovery of natural selection, which dispelled nature’s divine aura and inaugurated what Nietzsche would call the “death of God.” The course explores the challenges to value judgments in the wake of Darwin and attempted solutions to them, centering on the four domains of ethics, subjectivity, aesthetics, and cultural value. Readings will include excerpts from Darwin’s The Origin of Species ; Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, The Gay Science , and the texts posthumously published as The Will to Power ; Freud’s Totem and Taboo, Civilization and Its Discontents , and Beyond the Pleasure Principle ; as well as other works. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 337 - Dead White Men

    Cross-Listed as MCST 337 
    Today we often hear people dismiss the Western (mostly European) philosophical tradition as a bunch of “dead white men.” In other words, the argument goes, these thinkers harbored such passe notions as universal truths, a universal subject, and an individual in total control of itself and endowed with a pure reason unadulterated by rhetoric, imagination, fiction, and politics. Why should we bother with “dead white men” now that we understand that truth depends on historical context, that the self is decentered by the unconscious, that identity is constituted by gender, race, class, and other cultural factors, that truth is linked to power, and that ideology is omnipresent? Unfortunately, this all-too-familiar attitude overlooks its own faulty presupposition: it presumes a clear-cut break between philosophical tradition and contemporary thought, as if contemporary thought had no tradition out of which it emerged and could, therefore, merely discard what preceded it. Hence the popularity of phrases like “philosophy is dead.” It is all the more ironic to see this attitude prevail in the West at the very moment that multiculturalism has become our cause celebre : all cultural traditions are supposed to be “respected,” except the West’s own tradition. (Perhaps as a new way for the West to reinstate surreptitiously its superiority as the sole culture with no tradition?) This course pursues a close reading of texts by various “dead white men” as the unconscious (i.e., repressed and, for that matter, all the more powerful) undercurrent of contemporary thought. Assigned texts will include: Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, as well as texts by twentieth-century thinkers that stress the dependence of contemporary thought on philosophy. No pre-knowledge required; all readings in English. With different reading lists this course may be taken more than once for credit . Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 360 - Proseminar in German Studies

    Changing German Studies topics such as: Desire, Reason and Power in Modernity; Modernity and the Unconscious; German Nationalism and its Legacy; Kafka and German Expressionism; Karl Marx and the Development of Communism; German Political Theater; Nietzsche: Romantic, Modern, Postmodern; The Comical Effects of Kafka and Kleist. Students may register up to two times for courses numbered 360, provided a different topic is offered. May be taught in German or in English. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 363 - Crime and the Fantastic

     

     

    This course explores the modern fascination with the uncanny, the mysterious, the magical, and the demonic in two related genres: murder mysteries and tales of the supernatural. We will ask why both of these genres were invented in German Romanticism and what function they play in later contexts. Course materials include stories of the uncanny by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Tieck; Goethe’s “Faust”; Grimm’s fairy tales; the fantastic realism of the nineteenth century; Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”; German TV crime drama. Taught in German. Requirements: weekly reading responses; three short papers with revisions. Offered fall term of even-numbered years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 364 - Class Cultures

    This course explores depictions and concepts of “class” in literature, film, and political discourse since the French Revolution. Discussion topics include the invention of the bourgeois family; the Lumpenproletariat (prostitutes, rogues, vagabonds) in literature and art; revolutionary culture and politics in the inter-war period; depictions of class in contemporary mass culture. How does “class consciousness” emerge in German history? Is class an economic necessity or a consequence of culture and politics? Why is culture still fascinated by class? Taught in German. Prerequisite(s):  , GERM 309 , or the equivalent Offered fall term of odd-numbered years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 365 - Kafka: Gods, Animals, and Other Species of Modernity

    This course approaches Kafka’s work both as a case for literary analysis and as a text that reveals insights into modernity - the historical era characterized by capitalism, secularization, the nation-state, increasing bureaucratization, the commodification of art, the development of technology and media. In addition to reading closely a selection of Kafka’s short stories and exerpts from his novels, we shall also read some influential commentaries on his work, as well as texts that address major phenomena that characterize modernity. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s):  , GERM 309  or the equivalent Offered spring semester of even-numbered years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 366 - Literature and Film

    In this course we read closely a selection of German literary texts and compare them to their film adaptations. The literature may range from German “classics” to popular “best sellers,” and the films from critically acclaimed cases to box office successes, as a way of gauging social diversity in interests and taste. Beyond focusing on literary analysis, the course will address questions such as: how the written word is translated to the screen; what happens when the film adaptation occurs in another language and culture; what difference it makes if the work was written in the 1920s and filmed in the 2000s. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s):   or GERM 309   Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 394 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 488 - Senior Seminar

    Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the seminar brings together fundamental questions engaged by the field of German studies, and enhances students’ understanding of the theories and methodologies informing contemporary scholarship. Part of the seminar will be devoted to study of an aspect of German studies; students will then conduct independent research, which will serve as the basis of class discussions during the latter part of the semester. Changing topics may include: Constructing National Identity; Radicalism and Conservatism in Modernism; Goethe’s Faust ; Centrality and Marginality in German Culture; Translingual Interventions: Migration and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Germany, Stardom and Charisma. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s):   Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 494 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 601 - Tutorial

    Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GERM 602 - Tutorial

    Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GERM 603 - Tutorial

    Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GERM 604 - Tutorial

    Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 611 - Independent Project

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GERM 612 - Independent Project

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GERM 613 - Independent Project

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GERM 614 - Independent Project

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 621 - Internship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GERM 622 - Internship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GERM 623 - Internship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GERM 624 - Internship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 631 - Preceptorship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GERM 632 - Preceptorship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GERM 633 - Preceptorship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GERM 634 - Preceptorship

    Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • GERM 641 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • GERM 642 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • GERM 643 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • GERM 644 - Honors Independent

    Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)

History
  

  • HIST 114 - History of Africa to 1800

    A study of the history of Africa before 1800, this course covers the major themes relating to the development of African societies and cultures from the earliest times. Students will engage with themes of state-building, trade and religion as catalysts for change and learn how historians have reconstructed the history of early Africa. This course will provide students with knowledge of specific case studies from North, South, East, West, and Central Africa. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 115 - Africa Since 1800

    This course is designed to introduce students to the history of Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines major themes relating to change in the colonial period such as European conquest and imperialism, the development of the colonial economy, African responses to colonialism and the rise of nationalist movements that stimulated the movement towards independence. Students will examine these themes by applying them to case studies of specific geographic regions of the continent. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 121 - The Greek World

    Cross-Listed as CLAS 121 
    This course surveys the political, economic, and cultural development of the peoples of the ancient Greek world from the late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era. Students will hone their critical thinking skills while working with translations of ancient literature, archaeological remains and works of art. The basic structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the interaction between physical landscape and historical change; rule by the one, the few and the many; the nature and development of literary and artistic genres; the economic, military, and/or cultural dimensions of empire; or the intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, slave/free status and civic identity in the Greek world. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 122 - The Roman World

    Cross-Listed as CLAS 122 
    This course introduces students to the Roman world, which at its height stretched from Britain to Iran, from Germany to Africa, and lasted well over a thousand years. Students will develop critical thinking skills while working with Roman literature in translation, art, architecture and other archaeological remains. The structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the development of Roman literature out of and in response to Greek culture; the effects of the civil wars and the resulting political change from a republic to a monarchy; the cultural, religious and/or military aspects of the Roman empire and its immediate aftermath; Roman conceptions of gender, sexuality, slave and free status, citizenship and/or ethnicity, and how these social categories were used to legitimize or exercise power. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 137 - From Confederation to Confederacy: US History from Independence to the Civil War

    In the Plan of Union prepared during the 1754 “Albany Convention,” Anglo-American colonists met to consider uniting as a loose confederation for their common defense and to ally with the Iroquois confederacy. That plan failed, but a later experiment in unity succeeded when the united colonies declared independence. Nevertheless, social, cultural, and ideological differences persisted, and the union formed in 1776 was tried and tested before finally fracturing with the secession of South Carolina, precipitating the Civil War. In the intervening years, Americans grappled with how they should govern themselves, who should be included in the polity, and how society should be organized. Reformers considered the controversial issues of women’s rights, the role of Native Americans within the US, and the place of slavery in a nation founded on the precept that “All men are created equal.” This course covers the periods of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the early national and antebellum periods, before concluding with the Civil War. It also considers the global causes and consequences of the war and the rise of the new United States. We will also analyze the construction of the myth and historical memory of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who has captured the imagination of people in the modern U.S.  Through a study of the recent biography of Hamilton along with the music and stage production of Hamilton, we will consider both the biographical and mythical Alexander Hamilton in order to understand his era and our own. Spring semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 140 - Introduction to East Asian Civilization

    Cross-Listed as ASIA 140 
    This course introduces the cultures and societies of China, Japan and Korea from the earliest times to the present day. Primarily an introductory course for beginners in East Asian civilization, this course considers a variety of significant themes in religious, political, economic, social and cultural developments in the region. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Every fall. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 154 - African Life Histories

    In this course we will learn about African history through the stories that Africans themselves have told about their own lives. We will use oral history, songs of West Africa’s griots; slave narratives; political autobiographies; theatre and film to explore the personal narration of lived experience. To guide our class discussions we will also consult scholarly essays about life history as a genre, to help us understand the methodology behind the production of these important texts. Class activities will include seminar discussions, writing workshops, a field trip and intermittent background lectures. Each student will carry out an individual research project on their topic of choice. Offered annually. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 164 - Governing the Body: Health/Eugenics/Population Control in Global Perspective

    Concerns about health and population transcend both temporal and geographic boundaries. These are problems that have preoccupied governments, colonial armies, international organizations, and individual families throughout history. While disease has affected populations from the earliest days of human civilization, doctors and politicians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries developed new and different ways of governing bodies. This course traces the dramatic shift from a concern about the transmission of infectious diseases to an overriding fear about the “quality and quantity” of families, workers, and soldiers. Using a global/comparative approach, we will explore themes such as the history of epidemic disease control, population policy and eugenics, and the creation of international health organizations Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 168 - Sex, Love, and Gender in History

    This introductory course will use a global/comparative approach to introduce students to the ways that historians think about sex, love, and gender. We will explore themes such as sex and war, the role of the state in shaping people’s intimate lives, the intersections between gender, race, and social class, changing courtship practices, and the ways that the politics of sex and gender shaped the evolution of empires and nations. Students will engage with a wide variety of historical sources, including memoirs, poems, novels, art, film, and photography and will engage with a range of theoretical approaches to thinking about sex and gender. This course will emphasize critical reading skills and will also introduce students to the basic tenets of historical research and writing. We will discover together how archives work and, as a final project, students will explore the collections at the Minnesota Historical Society and develop their own individual research projects on the theme of “Sex, Love, and Gender in Global Minnesota.” Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 180 - Going Global: The Experiment of World History

    What broad patterns do we see repeated across human cultures and eras? How do current international concerns shape the way we perceive these patterns, and retell the past? This course is an introduction to the youngest and boldest experimenters in the discipline of history: global historians. We follow these trail-blazers to every corner of the planet and across the grandest expanses of time, all the way from the emergence of Homo sapiens to present day. Such a sweeping survey of human history invites us to look beyond chronological, national, cultural and geographic boundaries. It also forces us to sharply rethink the methodology of traditional historians. Throughout our critical survey of world history we will assess the usefulness (and potential outdatedness) of the concepts of civilization, empire, revolution, and global networks. This course fulfills the global/comparative requirement for the major. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 181 - Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean

    Cross-Listed as LATI 181 
    This course offers a general survey of the complex and heterogeneous region we somewhat reductively term Latin America. It follows a roughly chronological approach, beginning with the eve of encounter and continuing through the contemporary era. Discussions will consider themes such as the institution and legacy of colonialism, the search for new national identities, and the onset of modern racial and political strife. The course will emphasize the import of global economic, political, and cultural trends on the formation of the region. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Offered every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 194 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 201 - History of U.S. Feminisms

    Cross-Listed as WGSS 201 
    This is an introductory course about the history of U.S. feminism as it was articulated and experienced in the United States from roughly 1800-1970. We will focus on not only on the experience of those who worked for the cause of women’s rights but also the ideologies at home and abroad that influenced feminist thought. In so doing, we will interrogate the myths about feminism and the backlash against it that are central to the history, culture, and politics of the United States. This course is especially concerned with the multiple and contradictory strains within feminism. Topics that the class will consider include: the roots of feminism as it took shape in the anti-slavery movement, the overlap of women’s rights and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, and the women’s health movement, among others. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 209 - Civil Rights in the United States

    Cross-Listed as AMST 209  
    The course examines the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement led by African Americans in the United States.  In the class, students will analyze key people, issues, events, and debates within movement history, including, but not limited to, gender and leadership; struggles for civil rights in the south, west, and urban north; the impact of the Cold War on race relations; student activism; movement strategies; and the emergence of Black Power.  Throughout the semester, students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary texts to illuminate the activities and life stories of individual participants as well as the broad historical forces that characterized this long era of insurgency.    Every year (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 213 - Women in African History

    The objective of this course is to explore the role that women have played in the development of African history and to understand the major issues that define their experience as women from this region of the world. This course introduces students to the ways in which gender is studied in African history and to the major “break-through” works on women in African history. An important component of this course is the study of life histories of women from various geographical regions of the continent. Alternate years (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 219 - In Motion: African Americans in the United States

    Cross-Listed as AMST 219  
    In Motion is an introduction to modern African American History from slavery to contemporary times. In Motion emphasizes the idea that both African Americans and the stories of their lives in the United States are fluid, varied and continually being reinterpreted. Rather than a strict chronological survey, this course is organized thematically. Some of the important themes include movement/mobility/migration; work/labor; resistance to systems of oppression; gender/sexuality/culture/performance; politics/citizenship; and sites of (re)memory. While the course is geographically situated in the United States, we will also consider African American life, culture, thought and resistance in global perspectives. In this course, students will read important historical texts, both primary and secondary, engage in discussion, and write essays that ask them to critically engage the history of African Americans in the US. Cross-listed with History 219. 4 credits. Every year (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 222 - Imagining the American West

    Cross-Listed as   
    The American West is central to the construction of America’s identity and popular culture.  The mythology of the American West, built on a narrow foundation of Euro-American settlement and conquest, is critical to understanding the role of the West in the national narrative of American history. Using a variety of materials, including films, art and photography, literature, and historical sources, this course will examine how writers, artists, actors, settlers, and government officials, among others, shaped the creation of the mythic West.  This course will investigate what - and who - is and is not considered part of this mythology, as well as the ways in which these constructs attempted to make sense of the diverse populations converging in the West. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 224 - African American History: Slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction

    Cross-Listed as AMST 224 
    This course explores the Afro-American experience from the villages of West Africa to the cotton plantations of the antebellum South. Considers West African social structure and culture, the international slave trade, the development of racism, the development of American slavery, the transformation of Afro-American culture over more than two centuries, the struggle, the possibilities of reconstruction, and the ultimate rise of share-cropping and segregation. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 225 - American Indian History to 1871

    Cross-Listed as AMST 225  
    The history of American Indians is wonderfully complex, but this history is simultaneously fraught with misconceptions and misinterpretations. European (and, later, Euro-Americans) alternated among fascination, fear, and frustration toward American Indians, while American Indians sought to maintain tribal sovereignty and control over their lands, cultures, religions, politics, and lifestyles amidst continuing encroachment and settlement. This course examines American Indian history to 1871 - the year that Congress stopped making treaties with Native nations - by considering the complicated and multifaceted history of the nation’s indigenous people. By looking at American Indian interactions with Spanish, French, British, and American explorers, settlers, missionaries, militaries, and government officials, this courses argues that the history of American Indians is essential to understanding past as well as present issues. Furthermore, this course looks to move beyond the notion that American Indian history is one of inevitable decline by creating a more nuanced understanding of the American Indian experience from pre-contact toward the twentieth century. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 226 - American Indian History since 1871

    Cross-Listed as AMST 226  
    This course examines Native American history since 1871. We begin with an introduction to indigenous history before 1871, characterized by centuries of Euro-American attempts to colonize and Christianize, to assimilate Native bodies and allot Native lands. We will then analyze the ways in which Native Americans have continually fought to sustain their cultures, languages, and religions, as well as their political and socio-economic structures, throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. Focusing on themes such as Native resistance to the development of U.S. federal policies and the proliferation of Native culture, we will also consider the shifting nature of Native American sovereignty and the importance of indigenous identity in regards to the experiences of Native Americans. Offered spring semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 228 - Gender and Sexuality in Colonial America and the Early Republic

    Cross-Listed as WGSS 228 
    Since the 1960s historians have revisited early American history to identify populations on the margins and historical actors whose stories and experiences were neglected in the traditional canon of history. Historians of women made some of the first forays into this important work of recovery. Building up the foundations produced by women’s historians, the field of gender and sexuality studies have flourished and enriched the narratives of American history. This course examines American peoples and cultures from the 16th through early 19th centuries to uncover the ways in which gender and sexuality shaped the formation of an early American society. Particular attention will be given to the way that ideologies of gender and sexuality shaped early concepts of race and the development of North American political institutions. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 229 - Narrating Black Women’s Resistance

    Cross-Listed as AMST 229  and WGSS 229  
    This course examines traditions of 20th century African American women’s activism and the ways in which they have changed over time.  Too often, the narrative of the “strong black woman” infuses stories of African American women’s resistance which, coupled with a culture of dissemblance, makes the inner workings of their lives difficult to imagine. This course, at its heart, seeks to uncover the motivations, both personal and political, behind African American women’s activism. It also aims to address the ways in which African American women have responded to the pressing social, economic, and political needs of their diverse communities. The course also asks students to consider narrative, voice and audience in historical writing, paying particular attention to the ways in which black women’s history has been written over the course of the twentieth century. Every year (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 232 - Immigration and Ethnicity in US History

    Cross-Listed as AMST 232 
    An overview of U.S. history as seen through the experiences of newly arriving and adjusting immigrant groups. This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 234 - U.S. Environmental History

    Cross-Listed as   
    People have always had to contend with the natural world, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and their environment over time. In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connections and interdependencies between the two that are often overlooked. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 235 - Captives, Cannibals, and Capitalists in the Early Modern Atlantic World

    Cross-Listed as AMST 235  and LATI 235  
    This course explores cross-cultural encounters in the Americas that characterized the meetings of Europeans, Africans, and Americans in the early modern world between 1492 and 1763.  During this period, the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent land masses became critical locations for economic, biological, and cultural exchanges.  This course focuses on the Americas as sites for discovery, mutual incomprehension, and exploitation.  The course explores the ways that conquest, resistance, and strategic cooperation shaped peoples’ “new worlds” on both sides of the Atlantic. It also considers how colonialism framed and was framed by scientific inquiry, religious beliefs, economic thought, and artistic expression.  Students interrogate primary sources-written, visual and aural–that emerged from these encounters and the secondary literatures that have sought to make sense of them. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 236 - Consumer Nation: American Consumer Culture in the 20th Century

    Cross-Listed as ENVI 236  
    “Of all the strange beasts that have com slouching into the 20th century,” writes James Twitchell, “none has been more misunderstood, more criticized, and more important than materialism.” In this course we will trace the various twists and turns of America’s vigorous consumer culture across the twentieth century, examining its growing influence on American life, its implications for the environmental health of the world, and the many debates it has inspired. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 244 - US Since 1945

    This course examines the tumultuous changes that define the postwar era in U.S. society and culture. Themes of the course will vary depending on instructor. Topics may include: cultural tensions of the Cold War era, the civil rights movement and Black Power, the women-s movement, postwar prosperity, suburbanization, the Vietnam War, and the New Right. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 250 - Science, Magic and Belief

    Events of the distant European past continue to shape our modern attitudes towards religion, magic and science. How did people in the sixteenth- and seventeenth- century Atlantic world use these frameworks to make sense of the world around them? In this course we will journey back to the period of the “Scientific Revolution” to investigate how and why people began to distinguish sharply between the three systems. Who lost, and who profited, from this transition? What similarities between religion, magic and science persisted? To understand this turning point, we will compare contemporaneous cases of individuals who practiced magic, science and religion and ran afoul of authorities. Their trials highlight how the three spheres began to diverge. Cases we will consider might include the 1633 trial of Galileo, and the 1663 witchcraft trial of Tempel Anneke in Germany. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 251 - Pirates, Translators, Missionaries

    Why are cultural intermediaries often remembered as villains or traitors? This course calls the popular stereotype into question by focusing on four dramatic case studies of notorious but pivotal mediators who moved between the Spanish, Aztec, English, French, Kongolese and Portuguese empires of the early modern period. Among others, we will consider conflicting primary source accounts and current scholarship about the Dona Marina, the Mexica translator for the Army of Cortes; Nathaniel Courthope, and English profiteer who made a fortune peddling nutmeg between India and New York; two competing French pirates who sacked the South American port city of Cartagena de Indias twice in a single month; and Dona Beatriz, an Kongolese convert to Christianity who was burned at the stake for professing that she was possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony. This diverse group of pirates, missionaries and translators walked a similar tightrope between worlds, both liberated and constrained by their border crossings. We will evaluate how gender, race, religion, and imperial loyalties affected the survival of this small group of interlopers, and how, in spite of this, they came to disproportionately influence events in the Atlantic world. This course fulfills both the global/comparative and pre-1800 requirements for the major. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 252 - Conversion and Inquisition: Religious Change

    What causes people to change their religious beliefs? How have societies handled those who do alter their spiritual attitudes? This course focuses on several dramatic case studies of men and women who self-consciously changed their religion during the turbulent period of imperial encounters between the mid-1500s and the 1700s. Among others, we will examine and interrogate reports of converts to Christianity including Jewish and Muslim prisoners of the Inquisition, captives of Mediterranean pirates, and the nearly canonized Mohawk convert Catherine Tekakwitha. We will consider how violence, national loyalties, gender, charisma, local power dynamics, environmental upheaval, and serendipity affected the choices and fates of these converts. This course fulfills both the global/comparative and pre-1800 requirements for the major. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 256 - Transatlantic Slave Trade

    Cross-Listed as AMST 256 
    This class examines the Atlantic commerce in African slaves that took place roughly between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities, the gendered dimensions of the slave trade, resistance to the trade, the world the slaves made, and the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will read a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a more complex understanding of the slave trade and how it changed over time. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 257 - Empires

    This course will survey the evolution of modern European empires from their inception in the mid-nineteenth century to their aftermath in the 1980s and 1990s. The course will be organized topically, separate modules being devoted to theory, imperial administration, race and segregation in the colonies, cultural and economic exploitation of colonies, European culture and imperialism, indigenous anti-colonial movements and decolonialization, and the issue of colonialism’s role in globalization. Materials will be drawn from the experiences of the British, French, German, Dutch and Russian empires. Lectures, class discussions and films. Essay exams prepared outside of class and quizzes.  Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 258 - Europe Since 1945

    A survey of European history from the end of World War II to the present, emphasizing social and economic history and including both western Europe and the former socialist republics of eastern Europe. The course tests the hypothesis that Europe constitutes a social and political entity as well as a geographic one. Among the topics the course will cover are a comparison of European post-World War II reconstruction (East and West), Europe’s power decline in a global context, Europe as a tool and a participant in the Cold War, political trends and their roots in social and economic change, and the origins and European-wide implications of the collapse of the socialist states of eastern Europe. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 259 - Women, Gender, and the Family in Contemporary Europe

    Cross-Listed as WGSS 259  
    This course will explore the ways in which the major events and processes in contemporary European history shaped the lives of women and families as well and the way that both individual women and women’s movements have shaped the history of contemporary Europe. Much of our discussion will revolve around the themes of equality and inequality and their evolution over the course of the last two centuries. Our exploration will begin with the French Revolution in 1789 and end with the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century. We will focus on issues such as family policy, reproductive rights, labor, immigration, women’s political representation, and LGBTQ equality in Europe. We will also explore the importance of children and childhood in the context of contemporary European society and the role that the state has played in shaping the lives of young people. Whenever possible, we will approach the topics at hand by exploring the voices of our historical actors themselves and we will consider the experiences of people from a wide range of identities. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
 

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