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Histories of Violence in the United States (327-0-20)

Instructors

Kathleen C Belew
847/467-2305
Harris Hall 242

Meeting Info

Block Pick-Laudati Auditorium: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

How does violence change life stories and national narratives? How can a nation remember and retell obscured histories of violence, reconcile past violence, and resist future violence? What does it mean that lynching emerged as a category in the same historical moment as the Bill of Rights, and that certain kinds of violence have been central to American identity?

The story of the United States is built on the inclusion or omission of violence: from the genocide of Native Americans to slavery to imperial conquest, from "private" pain of women to the nationalized pain of soldiers. This lecture course brings violence to the center of U.S. history. Moving from Early America to the present, we will discuss these overlapping stories in terms of their visibility and invisibility, addressing questions of representation and the haunting function of traumatic experience. Following an emerging subfield of scholarship in Histories of Violence, this course examines narrative, archival, and political issues around studying, teaching, and writing such stories.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives Historical Studies Students will… • Learn and retain a broad overview of United States history, encountering both primary and secondary sources • Encounter and evaluate primary sources with emphasis on their context • Assess secondary sources, evaluating their basis in historical evidence and understanding their argumentation within a field of historical study • Develop a praxis of the 5C's of historical thinking: complexity, causality, contingency, change, and context in spoken and written argumentation • Produce historical argumentation grounded in evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources • Recognize, evaluate, and debate with the historical argumentation of others U.S. Overlay (Power, Justice, and Equity) Students will… • Explore the inclusion and exclusion of racial ethnic groups from national narratives of U.S. history and the relationship of this story to violence against those groups • Examine systemic power in the United States, its disparate impact upon people living in the United States, and its historical context • Reflect upon long legacies of violence in relation to their own hometown or a place where they have lived, including analysis of the impact of violence upon marginalized groups Advanced Expression Students will… • Engage regularly in a dialogic process with peers, including presentation and receiving feedback • Create and present a major historical project to their peers, advancing an argument and receiving feedback • Sharpen their skills in historical argumentation through class discussion, presentations, and creative work

Evaluation Method

Participation: 25% Exams: 40% Final Project: 35%

Class Notes

Concentration: Americas

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity

Associated Classes

DIS - University Library 3370: Thurs 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - Locy Hall 106: Thurs 1:00PM - 1:50PM

DIS - Locy Hall 106: Thurs 2:00PM - 2:50PM