New Courses
New Courses
Spring Semester 2004
History 500: History and Memory
Instructor:
- Dr. Mitch Kachun
- Office: 4311 Friedmann Hall
- E-mail: mitch.kachun@wmich.edu
- Phone: (269) 387-4634
General Information:
- Tuesdays, 3:30-5:50pm
- Dunbar 2207
Over the past two decades, the study of what has variously been referred to as historical memory, collective memory, or social memory, has become an increasingly important approach to understanding the past, and nations’ or cultural groups’ constructions of the past.
This readings course will introduce theoretical and conceptual approaches to studying the interplay of history and memory, before reading and discussing historical monographs and essays examining how the study of history and memory has been applied across a wide range of geographical, chronological, and thematic areas, including medieval Europe, modern eastern Europe, post-revolutionary United States, Holocaust Studies, African American commemorations, Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Haiti.
The study of history and memory can involve constructions of nationalism; the invention of traditions; public commemorations and monuments; museums and archives; cultural and national heroes; formal written histories; and popular culture.
This course is conceived as a broad-based, thorough introduction to the theories, practices, and problems associated with the study of history and memory, and should be of interest to students in any field of historical study.
This course will be accepted as credit toward fulfilling History graduate students’ requirements for theory and methodology. Interested students from associated disciplines are welcome. Student responsibilities will involve extensive discussion; presentations; précis, reviews, and critiques; and a major analytical paper.
For additional information, please contact Professor Kachun by email at mitch.kachun@wmich.edu; by phone at (269) 387-4634; or in person.
Fall Semester 2003
Instructor:
- Dr. Linda J. Borish
- Office: 4317 Friedmann Hall
- E-mail: borish@wmich.edu
- Phone: (269) 387-4631
General Information:
- Tuesdays 6:30-9:00 pm
- Dunbar 4207
This graduate seminar explores the historical development of sport in American culture from early America to contemporary America. The course focuses mainly on nineteenth and twentieth century-American society with a primary emphasis on gaining an understanding of the interplay of social, cultural, economic, and political forces in the formation of a sporting culture over time in the United States. We will examine in context the ways class, race, gender, ethnicity, and region have influenced the social history of American sporting experiences of men and women.
Readings of essays and studies of historical topics will increase our knowledge of the significance of sport in time and place in the American past. Research projects will enhance our critical thinking and analytical skills. The development of the research paper will advance the use of primary and secondary sources in our investigation of sport history and increase our historical understanding of sport in American life. In this seminar we will gain an understanding of the place of sport in American history has both a contested terrain and a site for forming various identities.
For further information about this course, please contact Dr. Linda J. Borish: 4317 Friedmann Hall, 387-4631, borish@wmich.edu.
Instructor:
- Dr. Nora Faires
- Office: 4404 Friedmann Hall
- E-mail: nora.faires@wmich.edu
- Phone: (269) 387-5375
General Information:
- Tuesdays 3:30-5:50
- Dunbar 2205
Course Information:
This seminar focuses on two areas of historical inquiry that have received increasing attention in the last several decades: the study of ethnicity and race and the study of gender. The course will seek to examine these subfields for the period of the last decade of the nineteenth century through World War II. In addition we will seek to understand the conjunction of these areas: we will use the lens of gender to examine migration patterns, social constructions of "ethnicity" and "race," and ethnic and racial identities; and we will use the lens of ethnicity/race to examine women's and men's experiences and identities and the varied constructions of femininity, masculinity, and sexuality. The course will introduce some of the most important interpretations of these issues and most recent scholarship in these areas.
For further information about this course, please contact Dr. Nora Faires: 4404 Friedmann Hall, 387-5375, nora.faires@wmich.edu.
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