Topics in History (492-0-24)

Topic

African American History since 1865

Instructors

Brett V. Gadsden
Harris Hall 209

Meeting Info

Harris Hall room 101: Fri 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

African American History is currently centered in several conversations about its production and meaning. This course returns to the work of academic historians who have and continue to transform what we know about the history of African Americans and the United States. Open to historians and non-historians, this course reviews works that use historical methods to uncover US histories of people of African descent as they confronted various structures of racial inequity after emancipation. In this graduate research seminar, students will examine many of the most salient historical questions and scholarly interventions that have shaped the field of modern African American history in recent years. Course content will focus on—among other subjects— historical agency, community formation, citizenship and nationhood, war, protest and resistance, gender and sexuality, and policy and political mobilization.

Learning Objectives

Understand how historians interpret the past and develop historiographical literacy; Through critical engagement with works representative of the state of the field, students will learn to organize and express their thoughts clearly and coherently both in writing and orally.

Evaluation Method

essays, class participation