Graduate History Courses Offered in Fall 2025
Advanced undergraduates are invited to inquire about enrolling in graduate courses. Such
enrollment depends on the permission of individual instructors who should be contacted directly. Questions can also be directed to the Graduate Program Coordinator, Mary Lashway, at @email.
609 - Debates and Issues in Modern German History - J. Olsen
612 - Professional Lives of Historians. - A. Nash
659 - Public History - S. Redman
691P - Intro to History - H. Scott
691LA - Modern Latin America - J. Wolfe
692P - US Foreign Policy in the Asia-Pacific - G. Washington
You may take two courses outside the department for degree credit. Check Spire to see graduate course offerings beyond our department. Students often find relevant courses in Anthropology; English; the W.E. B. Du Bois Department of African American Studie; Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning; Public Policy; Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, and other programs around campus.
History 597
Under the University Numbering System, M.A. students wishing to enroll in an upper-level
undergraduate course may do so under the special topics number, History 597, with permission from the instructor and also with the understanding that instructors will require additional work of graduate students in those courses. signed by the faculty member teaching the course (turn this in to Mary Lashway in Herter 615). Check SPIRE for the listings of undergraduate courses.
There are forms available in Herter 615 describing the additional work to be performed for graduate credit; these must be signed by the instructor. Students will be responsible for discussing the course requirements with instructors. Please see the Mary Lashway about registration to ensure that a grade will be submitted for you at the end of the semester. Only two 597 courses may count as topics courses towards completion of the M.A. degree.
History 696 or 796 (Independent Study)
Students may enroll in independent studies as either History 696 (reading independent study) or History 796 (research/writing independent study) with a faculty member overseeing the plan of study.
To enroll in History 696 or 796 pick up an independent study form from Mary Lashway in
Herter 615. This form must be filled out including name, student number, course number (696 or 796), credits, a detailed description of the plan of work for the independent study (e.g. research paper, book reviews, historiography, essays, etc.), and signed by the professor overseeing the independent study. After it has been filled out and signed it needs to be returned to Mary Lashway to be entered on Spire. Only two independent studies may be counted towards completion of the M.A. degree.
Scheduled Courses:
609 Debates and Issues in Modern German History | Jon Olsen | Wednesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
Debates and Issues in Modern German History provides an advanced survey of the history of modern Germany. We will cover the period from the 18th Century to the present and on the close reading and in-depth discussion of carefully selected monographs and essays. Together, we will work our way through a mix of classic works and recent publications to analyze various methods and historiographical trends.
The course is designed to meet the needs of both students intending to specialize in modern German history and those with other or related primary interests in modern Europe. We will also learn about the field itself – sources, archives, prominent journals in the field, institutions, grant opportunities, conferences, and current research trends.
612 Professional Lives of Historians | Alice Nash | Tuesday, 5:30pm-7:00pm
"I say this to my past self, and maybe to some of you: the more you take charge of your career during graduate school, the better off you'll be. You can get away with some passivity in undergrad (just get a degree) but grad school, esp PhD, is entirely different." --Jennifer Polk (From PhD to Life)
In this 1-cr pass/fail course, students will explore the many identities of professional historians. Historians are professors, preservationists, administrators, teachers, archivists, journalists, museum professionals, policy analysts, publishers/editors, and more. In this course, students will learn about these different fields and careers; meet with invited guests and potential mentors; and connect with resources on campus that support students during and after graduate school. Through readings, discussions and events, students in this course will 1) gain familiarity with the range of ways to contribute to the historical profession; 2) identify and develop skills that will serve them in any future career as a historian, in academe and beyond; and 3) explore their own goals as professional historians and public intellectuals.
659 Public History | Sam Redman | Tuesday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
This course introduces you to public history theory and practice. A fundamental premise of the course is that practicing public history well requires an outlook, ethical stance, and set of skills that go beyond what is usually required of historians. Public historians intervene responsibly in the memory streams of the communities in which they practice. During the course of the semester, we will analyze how these interventions take place in community oral history projects, archives, museums, and historic sites; on the internet through digital history projects and podcasts; and in the environment through historic preservation and landscape conservation. We will consider how various versions of the past are created, institutionalized, and communicated as the public history, as well as the relationship of those public histories to more private versions of past communicated among family and friends. By the end of the semester, you will have read some of the most significant past and contemporary literature in the field of public history, and, through discussions in and beyond the classroom, have formed your own answers to the questions that drive and shape public history practice. Each student in the course will also contribute to a semester long, team-based field service project, completing a Public History project for a community partner. Through our shared readings, conversations with guest speakers, and your own public history fieldwork you will have a clearer idea of what it means to work in a variety of public history settings.
691P Intro to History | Heidi Scott | Thursday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
In this course we explore with a curious and critical eye the contours of academic history and how these have changed in recent decades. We also consider the interconnections and continuities between history and other, related disciplines. What kinds of concepts, theoretical frameworks, and methods have gained prominence in historical research and writing since the mid-20th century? In what ways might a historical interpreter’s contemporary contexts influence their approaches to researching and writing about the past? We discuss how historical interpretation is influenced by the varied array of sources with which researchers engage and think about the role of institutional archives, their structures, and accessibility in shaping whose stories can be told, and in what ways. In addition, we consider the varied forms and registers in which historians communicate with different audiences and think about how the research trajectories of individual historians shift and change over the course of a career.
Course requirements include active participation in discussion, short papers and peer
commentary, presentations on academic journals, and a historiographical paper that will be developed over the course of the semester.
691LA Modern Latin America | Joel Wolfe | Monday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
We often take for granted that there is a region known as Latin America. Yet, the many countries that constitute it have individual histories that are sometimes quite distinct from each other. There are, however, important similarities and continuities in their histories. The vast majority of the region gained independence from Spain and Portugal in the 1820s. Mexico endured a decade of bloody conflict with Spain and its local allies, while Brazil severed ties with Portugal through a simple declaration. Cuba remained a colony of Spain until 1898, and then came under direct and later indirect U.S. control. Puerto Rico went from Spanish to U.S. control, and remains a part of the United States. And, yet these countries and others have important shared histories. This seminar examines the primary themes in Modern Latin American History through a close reading of major works in the historiography. Topics include the development of modern export economies, the role of foreign actors, especially the United States, in the region, political revolutions, and the struggle to create democratic societies in the region. Students will write a series of short papers on the assigned readings throughout the semester.
692P US Foreign Policy in the Asia-Pacific | Garrett Washington | Monday, 2:30pm-5:00pm
In this graduate seminar students will examine the relationship between the United States and their Asian-Pacific neighbors since 1800. The course will begin by introducing students to key themes, theoretical frameworks, and chronologies relevant to the United States’ diplomatic relations with Japan, China, Korea, and Hawaii. We will then explore the transnational cultural histories of the US with each of these countries. Through the lenses of gender, race, religion, and education students will explore the important role that individual actors, organizations, and ideas have played in connecting the US and the Asia Pacific. This approach aims to complicate students’ understanding of what constitutes transnational history and familiarize them with less traditional categories of historical analysis. The last third of the course will be devoted to the composition of an original research paper that incorporates significant primary and secondary sources.
Additional Course Options
*enrollment requires instructor permission
MA and MA/PhDs may take two courses outside the department that will count toward your degree. Below are several that may be of interest to you. As always, please refer to SPIRE for the most current class information, and contact the course instructor directly for permission to enroll. This is just a sampling of courses from outside the History Department that may be of interest to our graduate students. Please see Spire and/or departmental websites to see what other courses are available.