Graduate Course Descriptions

The following directory lists the graduate courses which the University expects to offer, although the University in no way guarantees that all such courses will be offered in any given academic year, and reserves the right to alter the list if conditions warrant. Click on the links below for a list of courses in that subject area. You may then click “View Classes” to see scheduled classes for individual courses.

5101. Introduction to Historical Research

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Introduction to the sources and methods of professional historians. Finding primary sources (qualitative and quantitative), evaluating them for accuracy and usefulness, organizing data, and writing exercises based on the sources. Students must produce a proposal (fully annotated) for a major research paper to be written in the subsequent semester.

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5102. Historical Research and Writing

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: History students in M.A. and Ph.D. programs.

Grading Basis: Graded

A research seminar for students in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in history.

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5103. Teaching History

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A survey of the pedagogy and practice of history teaching, designed to prepare advanced graduate students for careers in colleges and universities, museums, and other educational settings. Seminar will explore the contemporary landscape of higher education; debates over the liberal arts and the place of history in the curriculum; diversity in the classroom; and challenges of designing syllabi, preparing and delivering lectures, leading discussions, advising and evaluating.

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5140. Introduction to Historical Museum Work I

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A study of historical agencies and museums. Laboratory work and field trips are included.

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5141. Introduction to Historical Museum Work II

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A study of historical agencies and museums. Laboratory work and field trips are included.

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5142. Administration of Archives and Manuscripts

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

An overview of the history and development of the American archival profession, including basic archival theory and methodology. Emphasizes principles of collection, organization, and reference service for historical manuscripts and archives.

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5195. Special Topics in History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 15 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5198. Variable Topics in History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Detailed study of a specific historical theme or topic with an emphasis on developing skills in research. Topics vary from semester to semester.

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5199. Independent Study in History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 18 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5201. Theories of History

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

The principles and problems underlying the study of history; and a survey of the history of historical writing and of various schools of historical interpretation.

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5218. Historical Conceptions of Race and Science

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Historical examination of the interplay between concepts of race and scientific naturalism as they emerged in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Attention also paid to political and social contexts.

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5235. The Making of the African Diaspora

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 6 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theory and practice of African Diaspora history. Recent theoretical debates and cases of African Diaspora studies and history including: politics, culture, resistance; community formation; slavery; pan-africanism; transnationalism; black internationalism; African and black consciousness; Diaspora theory; gender, race, and class analyses.

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5250. Topics in Transnational Jewish History

Also offered as: CLCS 5250, HEJS 5250

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 6 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Topics in Jewish history, both transnational in space (European, American, global) and diachronic in time (Early Modern to Late Modern). May be repeated with a change of topic to a maximum of six credits.

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5270. History of Human Rights

Also offered as: HRTS 5270

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Covers the field's classic texts, controversies, and recent topics. Incorporates political, social, intellectual, and cultural history.

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5276. War and Revolution in the Twentieth Century

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5316. Topics in Medieval History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5370. Western Europe in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5373. Europe in the Seventeenth Century

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5374. Europe in the Eighteenth Century

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5410. The French Revolution

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

An intensive study of the intellectual, social, economic, political, and military events of the period and of their impact upon the world, as well as upon French history.

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5412. Nineteenth Century France

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5423. State and Society in Europe since 1800

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Relationship between social change and state formation in Western Europe from c. 1800 to the mid-20th century; industrialization, class, social identities, nationalism, and imperialism.

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5424. Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5456. Germany in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5462. Topics in Modern British History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5470. Topics in Italian History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5475. Histories of the Body: European Perspectives since 1500

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Historical and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the body and the European imagination since 1500. Topics include: representations of health and illness; the body as a site of law and sovereign power; sexed bodies; the body in social and political theory; the government of life and death; race and ethnicity.

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5505. Gender in the Early Modern West

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Discussion of key works on gender, women, and sexuality, spanning the 1400's-1700's with a geographical focus mostly on Britain, continental Europe, and the Americas.

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5510. Topics in Colonial American History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5515. The American Revolution

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5520. United States in the Early National Period and the Age of Jackson, 1787-1840

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5525. Society and Culture in the Civil War Era, 1830-1880

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

The social, economic, political and cultural forces, including gender, race, and class, that shaped the Civil War and its aftermath.

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5530. United States in the Age of Reform, 1877-1924

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5540. Topics in American Social and Cultural History, 1600-1876

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Major themes in the recent scholarship of social and cultural history: community and communication; family and gender; race, class, and industrialization; religion; and slavery.

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5543. Social Change in 19th Century America

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Major sources of social change in 19th-century United States, including legacy of the American Revolution; fate of Native America; rural society; slavery; industrialization; immigration; class formation; race; the impact of Civil War and Reconstruction.

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5544. American Land and Society

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examines the historical literature on American ideas about landholding and agriculture from the 18th to the 20th century and their impact on society, culture, and the environment.

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5545. Topics in New England History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5555. Topics in the History of American Women

Also offered as: WGSS 5333

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5560. Topics in the History of American Foreign Relations

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5565. Topics in the History of Urban America

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5570. Topics in Black History

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5575. American Maritime History

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A study of the development of American mercantile enterprise from colonial times and its relationship to American political, economic, and cultural history. The course includes lectures, readings, and extensive use of the facilities at Mystic Seaport. It is given at Mystic Seaport under the joint auspices of the University of Connecticut and the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies.

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5576. Seminar in American Maritime Studies

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A seminar involving reading and research on selected topics in American maritime studies. Open only to students who have previously taken History 5575 or to advanced students who are concurrently enrolled in History 5575. This course is given at Mystic Seaport under joint auspices of the University of Connecticut and the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History.

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5610. Comparative Transnational Latin(o) American History

Also offered as: LLAS 5100

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Critical issues in diverse U.S. Latina/o histories and forces that contributed to the arrival of people of Latin American and Caribbean heritage to the United States. Topics include: the epistemological origins and historiographical traditions of the field; U.S. empire; labor, migration, and diaspora; border formations; constructions of gender and sexuality; and comparative racialization.

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5621. Topics in Latin American History

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5622. The Historical Literature of Latin America

Also offered as: LLAS 5622

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

The history and historiography of postcolonial Latin America, with particular attention to shifting notions of race, nation, and citizenship, and the emergence of new spatial configurations and social groups pressing for political inclusion and economic rights.

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5630. The Historical Development of the Caribbean

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 6 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theories and case studies of Caribbean history. Recent theoretical debates and cases of Caribbean history including: economy, politics, culture, community formation; political mobilization; slavery and emancipation; nation and state formation; law; immigration and emigration; intellectual traditions; gender, race, and class analyses.

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5836. Topics in Twentieth-Century China

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5837. East Asian History

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Topics in modern Chinese and Japanese history with emphasis on Chinese thought and politics.

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6000. American Studies: Methods and Major Texts

Also offered as: AMST 6000, ENGL 6800

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Introduction to the methodologies and topics of American Studies through a survey of major texts in the field, past and present. Course also provides a history of the field.

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6850. American Studies: Keywords

Also offered as: AMST 6850, ENGL 6850

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 6 credits.

Prerequisites: Open to graduate students in English, History, and Political Science; open to others with consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Detailed study of a specific topic in American cultural studies with an emphasis on developing skills in interdisciplinary research. Topics vary from semester to semester.

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