School of Humanities
History Undergraduate Course Descriptions
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Fall 2026
**This is not a complete list of course offerings. Please use the Course Catalog in SOAR for accurate advising.**
HUM 301: Topics in the Humanities/Intro to Digital Humanities
Dr. Jennifer Andrella
T/Th 11:00am 91Թ 12:15pm ONLINE CHAT
Dr. Jennifer Andrella
T/Th 11:00am 91Թ 12:15pm ONLINE CHAT
Intro to Digital Humanities (DH) explores how digital methods transform the way we do humanities research. Build practical skills by experimenting with data visualizations, digital archiving and exhibit design, content management, text analysis, digital mapping, video gaming, web publishing, and audio/visual production! This course applies DH through the lens of cultural heritage. Also known as Cultural Heritage Informatics, this field examines how material culture, texts, media, architecture, memorials, and traditions are collected, preserved, and shared in digital contexts. Together, we will consider how digital access and storytelling shape the preservation and presentation of cultural memory.
HIS 333: Europe in the Nineteenth Century
Dr. Joe Peterson
T/Th 2:30pm - 3:45pm
Napoleon, Jane Austen, and Beethoven91Թ Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sherlock Holmes,
and Jack the Ripper91Թ Mary Shelley and Mary Cassatt91Թ Frederic Chopin, Sigmund Freud,
and Alice in Wonderland91Թ steamships, railroads, and Women91Թ Suffrage91Թ 91ԹHuman Rights,91Թ
World Fairs, the Eiffel Tower, and the scramble for Africa91Թ Impressionism, germ theory,
dynamite, and the Boy Scouts91Թ the first bicycles, the first department stores, the
first machine guns91Թ the first hipsters, the first human zoos and concentration camps,
and the first science fiction91Թ The first age of mass literacy, mass advertising, and
mass politics91Թ The first recorded use of the word 91Թsocialism,91Թ of the word 91Թantisemitism,91Թ
of 91Թfeminism,91Թ 91Թnationalism,91Թ 91Թdystopia,91Թ 91Թagnosticism,91Թ and 91Թhomosexual.91Թ Why are
so many of the issues and questions raised by nineteenth-century Europeans still with
us today? Why does an age so seemingly distant and innocent91Թso 91ԹVictorian91Թ91Թstill feel
so modern? What makes us modern, for that matter? The 91ԹLong Nineteenth Century91Թ91Թfrom
the French Revolution (1789) to World War I (1914)91Թwas an age of unprecedented upheaval
and contrast. A gilded age, before the horrors of twentieth century wars, yet an age
that sowed the seeds of those horrors. We cannot begin to understand our present without
understanding its origins in the nineteenth century. One highlight of the course will
be a role-playing game based on the Congress of Vienna, where students will act out
the parts of monarchs, diplomats, and socialites attempting to restore order after
the Revolution and Napoleon91Թ Wars. Another focus of the course will be our attempt
to recover the voices of people previously left out of European histories: women,
peasants, workers, people of color, and the first gay and trans rights activists.
HIS 360: Modern Military History
Dr. Andrew Wiest
M/W 11:00am 91Թ 12:15pm
This course takes an in-depth look at the development of modern warfare from the growth of national warfare under Napoleon to today91Թ war in the Ukraine. Paying close attention to both societal and tactical developments, the course endeavors to understand military history in the broadest sense. The fist portion of the course investigates the growth of total, industrialized war 91Թ focusing on Napoleon and the US Civil War. The course then moves on to a detailed investigation of total war at its height 91Թ in World War I and World War II. Next the course investigates the birth of modern limited war in the Cold War era, highlighted by Vietnam. Finally, the course investigates warfare since Vietnam with special focus on Afghanistan and Iraq. Students will read three books related to the broad scope of military history. The books include: Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory and Andrew Wiest, The Boys of 91Թ67: Charlie Company91Թ War in Vietnam. Since the history of modern warfare is so vast students will choose a third book in consultation with the instructor. Students will produce a book report on each reading. The reports will form 33% of the final grade. Students will take one midterm and a final 91Թ each counting for 33% of the final grade.
HIS 424: Global History of Mass Incarceration (World in the 20th Century)
Dr. Katya Maslakowski
T/Th 1:00pm 91Թ 2:15pm
This course explores how coercion became central to modern power through the rise of prisons, labor camps, and detention regimes across the globe. From penal colonies and the Panopticon to Nazi concentration camps, the Gulag, colonial detention, and mass incarceration in the United States, we will examine how states have used confinement to discipline bodies, extract labor, and define who belongs within humanity itself. Rather than treating prisons and camps as separate histories, the course places them in the same modern story of state authority and social control. Students will work with memoir, theory, and historical case studies to understand how incarceration functions across liberal democracies, empires, and authoritarian systems. A final project asks students to design a prison system in order to uncover the political, economic, and moral structures that make mass confinement possible.
HIS 473: U.S. Foreign Relations
Dr. Heather Stur
T/Th 1:00pm 91Թ 2:15pm
How did the United States grow from a colony of the British Empire into the most powerful country in the world? To understand this, we need to look at the U.S. and the world. Americans have never been isolated -- foreign relations have taken place on frontiers, within borderlands, and across oceans. While ambassadors, generals, and presidents have conducted the formal aspects of U.S. foreign relations, regular citizens have participated in American diplomacy as deployed troops, singers and performers, peace activists, and civil and human rights leaders. In this course, we will explore the many ways in which U.S. foreign relations have been carried out and how issues at home and in the world have affected each other. The course covers a broad span of U.S. history from the founding to the 21st century.