Fall 2012 Undergraduate Topics and Writing Courses
History Topics Courses
2280 Section 401 (TUCC) Topics in American History
The World of Ben Franklin
Instructor: Joseph Foster
Taking a step into the world of one of America’s leading politicians, scientists, inventors, authors, and revolutionaries, the course hopes to gain an appreciation of both Benjamin Franklin and the eighteenth-century world he very much influenced. Through works both by and about him, the class will examine Franklin’s perspective of himself and of an American society undergoing a rapid and at times confusing transition. Franklin’s world encompassed North America, Great Britain, and France, and he managed to be present literally at his century’s many historical crossroads, not as an observer but as an active participant, and one who was well aware of his place in history.
A considerable portion of our work will be outside the classroom, visiting eighteenth-century Philadelphia. To that end, we will visit some of the city’s remaining eighteenth-century sites, such as Elfreth’s Alley, the Powel House, the Physic House, Independence Hall, Christ’s Church, Old City, and Carpenters’ Hall, places that defined the time he lived in Philadelphia.
2970 Section 001 Honors Special Topics
Race Gender Empire in the Iberian World
Instructor: Monica Ricketts
Latin America is a culturally rich and diverse region. Its complex and fascinating history is the product of different worlds and cultures coming together in the sixteenth century. In this course we will analyze this encounter and its consequences by looking at two main topics: race and gender. Following a chronological order that starts with the conquest of the Americas by the Spaniards and Portuguese in the sixteenth century and ends with the breakdown of the Spanish empire in the early nineteenth century, the course will explore the ways in which different peoples have interacted. We will discuss the various roles men and women assumed in these societies and the significance of race. In so doing, we will attempt a deeper analysis on the social dynamics of Latin America in the past that will give us a better understanding of its present and future.
3480 Section 001 Topics in European History
Greek Archaeology
Instructor: Michael Eisman
This topics course will explore the archaeological material that is used in Greek History, Greek Art History and Classical Studies. We will study the material remains of the Hellenic period of Greek History (1100 - 323 BCE) and look at various sites that have been excavated and well as the material for vase painting, sculpture, architecture, city planning, and the minor arts. A major part of the course will be concerned with a project which will culminate in an opportunity to handle ancient Greek artifacts. While a course in Greek History is not needed for this course some background reading may be helpful. It is also possible to combine this course with Greek History.
WRITING INTENSIVE COURSES
3296 Section 101 (Ambler) Intermediate Writing Seminar in American History
United States 1870-1945
Instructor: Angelo Repousis
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the main elements of American social/economic development during the industrial period, approximately 1870-1945, with some attention to the transition to the post-industrial era after World War II. Topics covered include the growth of new industries and changing work conditions, urbanization, class divisions, immigration and black migration, the changing status of women and the family, and the impact of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II on American life. Successful students will learn to identify historical issues and to raise questions about those issues; to develop explanations (or interpretations) of important events in our recent past; to set forth and defend arguments using historical information; to provide reasoned arguments linking primary source materials to broader historical events and explanations; to explore and to clarify their personal perspectives and the way in which those perspectives affects choice and interpretation of information; to be introduced to the means by which professional historians critique the works of others; and, finally, to sharpen their written and oral communication skills in the course of learning about the recent past and in presenting their own historical findings. Course objectives will be met through lectures and discussions, where students will explore selected documentary and firsthand source materials.
3296 Section 001 Intermediate Writing Seminar in American History
Crime and Punishment in the United States
Instructor: Melanie Newport
Since the founding of the United States, policymakers have struggled with the question: How do we punish citizens in a democratic society? This course will explore how the answer to that questions have changed over time, and how historians have understood the growth of a penal system that now incarcerates over 2.5 million people. Topics will include the rise of the penitentiary, racism and criminality, the professionalization of the police, juvenile justice, the incarceration of women, and prisoner and victim's rights movements. Students will explore a variety of methods that will provide models for their own research. This course is writing intensive and will include a range of assignments designed to develop the research and persuasive writing skills necessary for the capstone seminar in history.
3296 Section 003 Intermediate Writing Seminar in American History
Topic: 19th Century US Political Culture
Instructor: Jon Crider
After the signing of the Unites States Constitution, Americans struggled to create a democratic political system. Political parties, organized by white men, quickly became a central part of American politics. Yet outside of traditional politics, non-voting women, blacks, and immigrants organized and influenced American political culture in a variety of creative and effective ways. This writing seminar will explore United States political culture from 1787 until the legal ending of Reconstruction in 1877. We will examine the creation and failures of the first and second party systems as well as the actions of women, blacks, and others who worked outside of the traditional political system. This course is writing intensive and will include a number of small reflective papers as well as a larger research paper in preparation for the capstone seminar in history
3296 Section 004 Intermediate Writing Seminar in American History
Writing About Cities
Instructor: Francis Ryan
Writing About Cities is an engaging writing seminar that introduces students to the exciting topic of contemporary Urban Studies. Through in class writing exercises, walking tours of downtown neighborhoods, journals and the use of a wide range of media, we will explore the history and meaning of urban space from the perspectives of the United States. Some of the topics include the history of neighborhood development, the drug epidemic, the crisis of urban education, the anthropology of police work, suburbanization and the cultural meanings of graffiti and forms of urban music such as funk, “the Philadelphia Sound” soul tradition, and hip hop. We will draw heavily on local Philadelphia resources, such as Temple University Urban Archives and Blockson collections, and conduct a comprehensive analysis of Mayor Michael Nutter’s proposed 2036 “Philadelphia Plan” of urban redevelopment initiatives.
3496 Section 001 Intermediate Writing Seminar in European History
Cousins against Cousins: The Atlantic World in the Age of Revolutions, 1763-1826
Instructor: Travis Glasson
Between 1763 and 1826 the British, French, and Spanish empires in the Americas were transformed by a series of movements on behalf of political independence and social revolution. This course examines the histories of the American, French and Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions in comparative perspective and through the lens of Atlantic history, which stresses the connections that existed between the various peoples and communities that existed around the Atlantic Ocean. Among the themes we will consider are the causes of these political upheavals, the trans-Atlantic exchanges that spurred them, and the similarities and differences between these events. This course is an intermediate writing seminar, and will emphasize research and writing assignments related to the course theme.
3697 Section 001 Intermediate Writing Seminar in African, Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American History
Asian Biography
Instructor: Sophie Quinn-Judge
This seminar and writing course exposes second or third-year undergraduates to one of the most important issues in Asian historiography: the uses of biography and autobiography. Both in the Confucian and Islamic traditions the writing of the lives of virtuous men has been central to the establishment of State legitimacy and the transmission of cultural values. (Only rarely have women been included in the pantheon of heroes.)
We will examine the development of traditional approaches to biography and autobiography, and then look at how the tradition has evolved and been adapted to the needs of modern states, and also been expanded within civil society. Special attention will be paid to the way in which communist states have modified the traditions of biography. As this is a writing course, students will write short weekly response papers for discussion in class, and also undertake a longer essay on the biography of a communist or nationalist leader, which they will have the opportunity to present to the class and then revise. We will concentrate on developing a topic and thesis statement, creating an outline, expanding the discussion of the topic and sources used, sharpening an argument and drawing a conclusion closely based on the facts. The class will be run as a seminar, but the instructor will use short lectures to introduce new themes. Peer critiques will form an important part of the learning process.
4296 Section 001 American History Writing Seminar
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Instructor: David Watt
This research seminar focuses on a set of historiographic controversies associated with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Students who enroll in this class will be required to write three successive drafts of a fifteen-page paper. The paper will be based on primary sources and secondary works that shed light on the United States’ decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
4296 Section 002 American History Writing Seminar
Civil Rights in the North, 1890-1950
Instructor: Bettye Collier-Thomas
This seminar will introduce students to the skills of historical research and writing. We will examine the history and historiography of civil rights in the urban North between 1890 and 1950. Students will research and write an original paper based on primary sources focused on some aspect of civil rights in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before 1950.
4296 Section 004 American History Writing Seminar
Political and Social Rebellion in the 1960s in Comparative Perspective
Instructor: Petra Goedde
This seminar will explore the wave of protests that swept the globe during the 1960s from a transnational perspective. The primary focus will be on the United States, France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, but we will touch on the global dimensions of the decade as well. This course is writing-intensive and students are required to write an independent research paper on some aspect of the 1960s.
4497 Section 001 European History Writing Seminar
Consumption
Instructor: Rita Krueger
This capstone writing course will explore European social history through the prism of changes in consumption from the early modern to the modern period. The goal of the course is to see how conflicts over the production, trade, and consumption of goods, including food and drink, affected European society, culture, and politics. Among other topics, we will be exploring how European societies used consumption to define social status, hierarchy, culture, and notions of taste; how diets and drinking patterns changed; how consumption was gendered; concerns about morality, health, crime, and illicit substances; notions of excess and attempts to reform or police consumption; institutions and rituals of consumption; the nationalization of consumption; and the impact of imperialism, technology, industrialization, and ideology on consumption patterns in modern Europe. After exploring different aspects of consumption research, students will formulate research projects that either explore a particular historical problem involving consumption or reconstruct a commodity chain related to European consumption. Students will work over the course of the term to complete and revise this research paper using a variety of primary and secondary sources.
4696 Section 001 Third World History Writing Seminar
“Third World”
Instructor: Benjamin Talton
This course examines major themes in the history of the “Third World.” We explore local, national and international events, ideological trends, and historical processes that defined politics, culture, and history in the “Third World” during the second half of the twentieth century. This course positions the “Third World” as the post-colonial nations of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and parts of Latin America. The “Third World” originated as a chronologically, ideologically and geographically bounded aspirational movement. In this course, we use the “Third World” to explore human rights, popular culture, democracy, race and sovereignty as issues that defined relationships within the global south and between southern nations and dominant political powers of Western Europe, particularly within the context of the Cold War. As a writing course, considerable time and energy is devoted to developing historical research and writing skills, which culminate in students writing an original 20-page research paper.
4697 Modern Japan: Empire War Society
Instructor: Kathleen Uno
Was early modern Japan (1600-1867) static or dynamic? Do the roots of Japan’s modern achievements (1868-1945) lie in her early modern culture? What happened to Japan after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, and why? Was modernity a blessing or a curse? We’ll find answers to questions like these as we survey Japanese society, culture, and events and trends at home and abroad from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Pacific War. Assignments focus on writing a comparative review.