Department of History

HIST 5097. Independent Study. 1-3 Hours.

Students examine topics not specifically provided in any of the formal courses. Variable Credit (1-3). Course Equivalents: HIST 5397
Prerequisite: Consent of History Department Chair.

HIST 5098. Special Topic. 1-3 Hours.

Students examine topics not addressed in the current curriculum. Variable Credit (1-3).
Prerequisite: Department Approval.

HIST 5301. Methods in History. 3 Hours.

Students hone their research and writing skills needed for the M.A. in History degree. Students assess the various methodological approaches used by professional historians and learn how to conduct original research, engage in historiographical conversations, and communicate their research findings to a larger public. A. in History or departmental approval.
Prerequisite: Admission to the M.

HIST 5307. Intellectual History. 3 Hours.

Students examine major themes in intellectual history. Topics include the dynamics and statics of global philosophical traditions as realized in specific locales since the classical periods. Students discuss key texts in a seminar format.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5320. Mesoamerican Civilizations. 3 Hours.

Students examine the origins, growth, and organizational and cultural features of the great New World civilizations of the region, including human inhabitation, nascent agriculture, and the emergence of early complex societies. Students examine native civilizations such as the Aztec, Maya, and Zapotec and assess the role of evidence and theory in conceptualizing the past.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5321. American Immigration History. 3 Hours.

Students study immigration and ethnicity in America. Using a readings-seminar format, students analyze the settlement of North America from colonization to the recent past using the analytical frameworks of race, class, gender, nation, and ethnicity. Topics covered may include immigration policy; border policing; war and migration; women immigrants; and questions of citizenship and belonging, national and cultural identity, power and privilege.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5322. Debates in Global Migration. 3 Hours.

Students address the major historiographical arguments that have driven the historians of migration, both around the world and in the United States. Students examine how population movements over time have raised crucial questions about the place of empire, nation-state, citizenship, racial formation, borders and boundaries, the role of women, neoliberalism, and globalization. The course also challenges students to consider representation and sources in migration history. Students engage with twentieth and twenty-first century scholarship that has shaped historians' understandings of and debates about migration.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5333. Pre-Modern World History. 3 Hours.

Students examine major historical developments in the world prior to the sixteenth century. Topics may include war in the ancient world, comparative world religions, and Islamic civilization. Readings include important primary sources as well as secondary works.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.

HIST 5336. Pre-Modern European History. 3 Hours.

Students examine major historical developments in Europe prior to the sixteenth century. Topics may include Early Medieval Europe 300-1000; the Roman Empire; and Europe in the Era of Crusades, 1000-1500. Readings include important primary sources as well as secondary works.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5338. Empires in World History. 3 Hours.

Students examine the role of empires in early modern world history and focus on the experience and interactions of empires from 1400 to 1800. Topics include the events, strategies, and policies that determined the ability of the empires of the early modern period to respond to challenges, such as political or geographic. Military as well as social and economic developments will receive attention in discussions of success and failure of the empires.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5340. Recent African-American History. 3 Hours.

Students examine the African-American experience in United States history since the end of the Civil War. Topics include Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, national political leadership and intellectual thought, the Great Migrations, World War I, the "New Negro" and Harlem Renaissance, the labor movement, the Great Depression and World War II, and the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5342. The Japanese Colonial Empire. 3 Hours.

Students examine the history of Japanese imperialism and colonialism in Asia from the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II. Topics may include settler colonialism in Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria, Japan's militarization, fascist ideology, the Pacific Theater of World War II, and war trials.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5351. Early Medieval Europe. 3 Hours.

Students examine Europe during the so-called "Dark Ages" (300-1000), a period of dynamic transformation as the Roman Empire ended, Christian, classical and warrior cultures interfaced, and the search for order met great challenges.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5352. High and Late Medieval Europe. 3 Hours.

Students examine Europe across a period (1000-1500) characterized initially by growth and prosperity, diverse religious movements, towering urban constructions, and the Crusades and later by plague and peasant uprisings, which generated social unrest.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5353. Legacies of the Reformations. 3 Hours.

Students examine the sixteenth-century Protestant and Catholic Reformations and their effects on religion, society, politics, culture, and the economy. Particular attention will be given to the competing interpretations of their long-term historical significance.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5355. Holocaust & Genocide. 3 Hours.

Students examine various aspects of the Holocaust of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Second World War (1939-1945). With particular attention to the years 1941 to 1943, students focus on different aspects of that genocide and may compare it with other episodes of mass killing in modern history. Numerous primary sources and victim and perpetrator perspectives will be incorporated.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5359. The Audible Past. 3 Hours.

Students examine the meaning and significance of sound, music, and noise in culture and analyze how sound technologies shape, and are shaped by, the values of the cultures that produced them. Students apply the tools of historical analysis to primary sources in the form of recorded sound.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5360. African Environmental History. 3 Hours.

Students examine the local and external forces that have influenced African environmental history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Students discuss methodological approaches, key themes, and debates in the historiography. Topics may include disease, conservationist ideologies (African and Western), demography, climate change, and the relationship between capitalistic economies (colonial and post-colonial) and environmental change in Africa.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5362. Seminar in American Environmental History. 3 Hours.

Students examine the complex relationship between nature and society in U.S. history. Topics may include economics; land-use patterns and natural ecosystems; and dramatic changes in natural and human communities that have engendered strong social and political responses.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5363. Seminar In Military History. 3 Hours.

Students examine selected topics in the history of war and violence. Topics may include war and the environment; the experience of combat for soldiers; civilians and societies at war; transitions to peace; and war in memory.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5364. Seminar in War & Violence. 3 Hours.

Students examine how societies experience military conflict and remember war. Students compare the national memories of war with historical realities, interpret how societal images of war change over time, and appraise how these factors influence society itself.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5365. Film and War in America. 3 Hours.

Students examine how film has altered the perception of warfare in the United States over the last century. Upon completion, students are able to compare the various views of war presented. Students examine the filmography to demonstrate how perceptions changed over time due to the influence of politics, patriotism, and warfare itself.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5366. The Reconstruction Era. 3 Hours.

Students examine the social, cultural, political, and military histories of Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War. Topics may include the experience of military occupation, African American political activism, violence and terrorism, the retreat from Reconstruction, and sectional reconciliation.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5367. World War II. 3 Hours.

Students examine various aspects of the Second World War (1939-1945). Topics may include the military history of combat zones, the cultural and social history of the war, politics and strategy, technological developments, and economic change. Students evaluate various scholarly interpretations around the topic.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5368. Britain's Modern Wars, 1899 to the Present. 3 Hours.

Students examine how the waging of colonial, European, and postcolonial wars shaped British national identity and collective memory in the twentieth century. Topics include the World Wars I II, the Boer War, Irish Independence and the Northern Ireland Troubles, and the dirty wars at the end of empire. Students may explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5369. Violence and the State in East Asia. 3 Hours.

Students examine the social, cultural, and political effects of warfare and social violence on East Asian societies during the twentieth century. Topics may include the rise of warlordism, secret societies in East Asia, the Sino-Japanese War, and violence in the Cultural Revolution.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.

HIST 5370. Colonial America. 3 Hours.

Students examine the issues, peoples, and perspectives that shaped Colonial America. Topics may include the exploration, settlement, and maturation of the North American colonies.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5371. Revolutionary America. 3 Hours.

Students examine the era of the American Revolution by surveying recent historical interpretations of the period. Topics may include the cause, conduct, and consequences of the American Revolution and the conflict in comparative perspective.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5372. Early National America. 3 Hours.

Students examine the development of the United States from 1783 to 1840; the failure of the Confederation; organization of government under the Constitution; the Federalist period; Jeffersonian democracy; the War of 1812; national growth in the post-war period; political and economic change; the party structure; the rise of Jackson; and social reform.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5373. United States Civil War. 3 Hours.

Students examine selected topics in the political, military, economic, and social institutions of the United States during the Civil War era. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5374. Seminar in the History of the American South. 3 Hours.

Students examines the diverse history, peoples, and cultures that have occupied the US South. Topics vary by semester; and may include economic and political history; religion, race, literature; the Civil Rights movement; and women's experiences.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5375. Recent America, 1876-1933. 3 Hours.

Students examine the social, economic, cultural, diplomatic and political developments of late-nineteenth and twentieth century America. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5376. Contemporary America, 1933-Present. 3 Hours.

Students examine United States history since 1933. Topics may include the Great Depression, the New Deal, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement, Watergate, the Iranian Hostage crisis, the Reagan era, the end of the Cold War, and the roots of 9/11. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5377. The American West. 3 Hours.

Students examine the U.S. West as a region with a strong emphasis on the nineteenth century. The course content covers the interpretive development of the field as it has progressed from a traditional focus on Anglo expansion to a more balanced view that embraces race, gender, and the workaday West. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5378. American Cultural and Religious History. 3 Hours.

Students explore topics in the cultural and religious history of the people of North America. The course focuses on the patterns of belief and values held by men and women, which have shaped each major period from colonial times to the present. Course Equivalents: HIST 5361
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5380. American Historiography. 3 Hours.

Students explore the complex nature of historical practice and the development of past and current fields within the discipline. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5381. World Historiography. 3 Hours.

Students engage in an in-depth examination of the interdisciplinary methodologies of the New World History. Students investigate the writing of world history as a projection of power and dominance in the era of global imperialism and colonialism; non-Eurocentric explanations for the "rise of the West"; and the latest scholarly efforts to construct a non-privileging world history.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5382. Topics In the History Of Women. 3 Hours.

Students examine the experiences of women of diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, including women's responses to social forces during critical periods in their history. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5383. United States Diplomatic History. 3 Hours.

Students examine the development of United States foreign policy from 1775 to the present. Topics may include diplomacy of the Revolutionary era; the Early Republic; Manifest Destiny; the Civil War era; Imperialism and Expansion; the Great Crusade and after; World War II; and the Cold War. The emphasis is on the forces that have influenced diplomacy and on the changing interpretations of United States foreign policy. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5384. Texas History. 3 Hours.

Students examine major themes in Texas history. Topics may include indigenous peoples, Spanish colonization, the Mexican era, Anglo- and African- American settlement, the Revolution and Republic period, statehood, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the cattle kingdom, the oil industry, and political and economic modernization. The course may be conducted as either a research or reading seminar. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5385. Latin American History. 3 Hours.

Students explore the history of Latin America. The topics for this course vary from semester to semester among the diplomatic, political, social, and intellectual histories of Mexico, the Caribbean, the Anglo-Spanish borderlands, or South America. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources. .
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5386. African American Civil Rights. 3 Hours.

Students examine the African-American civil rights movement in the United States and discuss the origins, evolution, and continuation of the movement. Topics may include Jim Crow segregation, lynching, the establishment of the NAACP, school desegregation, the origins and evolution of Black Power, and mass incarceration.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5388. Public History. 3 Hours.

Students examine various aspects of public history. Topics may include historic preservation, museum studies, living history interpretation, archival arrangement and description, grant writing, and news media. Student projects vary by semester.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5389. Great Britain and the British Empire. 3 Hours.

Students examine major themes in British history. Topics may include British religious, political, social, cultural, economic and imperial histories. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5390. China in Revolution. 3 Hours.

Students examine the patterns and contradictions of the social and political revolutions in the making of modern China. They focus on how issues related to the economy, ethnicity, gender, and cultural production shaped Chinese politics and society from the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 until Mao's death in 1976. Topics include the formative years of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Civil War, the consolidation of the People's Republic of China, the Great Famine, and the Cultural Revolution.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5392. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1922. 3 Hours.

Students survey the history of the Ottoman Empire to provide a comprehensive outlook on the diverse political and social traditions of the Islamic world. The course explores the numerous historical threads that eventually composed the fabric of societies and states in the modern Middle East. Focusing on the political and ideological history of the Ottoman Empire, this course pays attention to empire formation in the early modern era, European imperialism, modernization, and nation-building.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5393. European Diplomatic History. 3 Hours.

Students examine selected topics in the history of European international politics from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. Alternate emphasis may be placed on Eastern and Western Europe as well as on different eras of diplomacy. Students may explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5394. Early Modern Europe. 3 Hours.

Students examine the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries and consider how the foundations for Modern Europe were established amid the dynamic, if not wrenching, transformation from a medieval way of life characterized by religious concerns, kingdoms, a predominately agrarian economy, and a rigid social order, to a modern one marked by science and secularism, sovereign states, a commercialized and industrializing capitalist economy, and a more socially diverse and mobile world. Students explore major recent historical interpretations and/or conduct research in primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5395. Later Modern Europe. 3 Hours.

Students explore selected topics in Later Modern European History. Students examine major recent historical interpretations as well as conduct research in primary sources. .
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 5396. Cross-Cultural Interactions. 3 Hours.

Students engage in an advanced, interdisciplinary investigation of the historiography of cross-cultural encounters and exchanges. Students examine the historiography of three specific case studies: the ancient Silk Roads, the trans-Eurasian Mongol Empire, and the trans-Atlantic Columbian Exchange.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

HIST 6098. Thesis I. 1-3 Hours.

Students engage in the research and writing of their thesis. Variable credit (1-3.) Course Equivalents: HIST 6398 .

HIST 6099. Thesis II. 1-3 Hours.

Students complete and successfully defend their thesis. Variable credit (1-3.) Course Equivalents: HIST 6399 .

HIST 6394. Seminar in History. 3 Hours.

Students develop skills in locating, extracting, evaluating, and synthesizing historical information and writing an article-length paper based on primary sources.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.