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2026-2027 Academic Year

Fall 2026

HIST 211 Civil Rights Movement: N & S
Cross-listed with AFST 220-01. The post-World War II movement for African Americans' civil rights is often considered solely in terms of Southern-based groups and events. This class will explode the myth that the civil rights movement was confined to the South by exploring the national character of inequalities, segregation and the movement for Black freedom. With special attention to the years 1945-1975, this class will consider how segregation formed differently in Birmingham versus Alabama, how the fight for school de-segregation included battles in both Little Rock and New York, and how gender shaped protest politics and tactics of the movement across the nation. Key topics will include Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and ideas of leadership; key campaigns in Birmingham, New York, Detroit and elsewhere; important groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and how ideas about masculinity and femininity shaped the movement. An important thread throughout the class will be understanding how racial inequalities came to be "baked into" the structures and systems that shape life in the United States - from housing to education to employment. We'll learn about structural racism through the prism of Black resistance to it.

AFST 220 Civil Rights Movement: N & S
Cross-listed with HIST 211-02. The post-World War II movement for African Americans' civil rights is often considered solely in terms of Southern-based groups and events. This class will explode the myth that the civil rights movement was confined to the South by exploring the national character of inequalities, segregation and the movement for Black freedom. With special attention to the years 1945-1975, this class will consider how segregation formed differently in Birmingham versus Alabama, how the fight for school de-segregation included battles in both Little Rock and New York, and how gender shaped protest politics and tactics of the movement across the nation. Key topics will include Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and ideas of leadership; key campaigns in Birmingham, New York, Detroit and elsewhere; important groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and how ideas about masculinity and femininity shaped the movement. An important thread throughout the class will be understanding how racial inequalities came to be "baked into" the structures and systems that shape life in the United States - from housing to education to employment. We'll learn about structural racism through the prism of Black resistance to it.

AFST 221 African Amer Since Slavery
Cross-listed with HIST 273-01.

HIST 273 African Amer Since Slavery
Cross-listed with AFST 221-01.

HIST 311 Mod Hist of Polic & Incar
Cross-listed with AFST 320-01. The United States of America imprisons more of its residents than almost any other country in the world. How did mass incarceration come to define this country? In this class, we will explore this question by looking at the multiple ways that the US policed and incarcerated various groups throughout the 20th century. We will pay special attention to the ways that lawmakers, police and the courts have historically targeted African Americans, but we will also study how other people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, and workers were criminalized. A major learning goal for this class will be understanding that "deviance" and "crime" were constructed categories. We will consider how the meaning of these categories shifted over time and why. Major topics will include chain gang prisoner exploitation; eugenics, the psychiatric creation of "feeble-mindedness," and asylum incarceration; the criminalization of sex work, interracial relationships, labor organizing, and political dissent; jingoism, a "new" Yellow Peril, and Japanese internment; and outlawing drug use and mass incarceration. To gain a deeper understanding of how the criminal courts actually work, students on this class will participate in a court-watching program, for which everyone will receive training.

AFST 320 Mod Hist of Polic & Incar
Cross-listed with HIST 311-01. The United States of America imprisons more of its residents than almost any other country in the world. How did mass incarceration come to define this country? In this class, we will explore this question by looking at the multiple ways that the US policed and incarcerated various groups throughout the 20th century. We will pay special attention to the ways that lawmakers, police and the courts have historically targeted African Americans, but we will also study how other people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, and workers were criminalized. A major learning goal for this class will be understanding that "deviance" and "crime" were constructed categories. We will consider how the meaning of these categories shifted over time and why. Major topics will include chain gang prisoner exploitation; eugenics, the psychiatric creation of "feeble-mindedness," and asylum incarceration; the criminalization of sex work, interracial relationships, labor organizing, and political dissent; jingoism, a "new" Yellow Peril, and Japanese internment; and outlawing drug use and mass incarceration. To gain a deeper understanding of how the criminal courts actually work, students on this class will participate in a court-watching program, for which everyone will receive training.

Spring 2027

HIST 118 American Hist 1877 to Present
This course covers aspects of political evolution, foreign policy development, industrialization, urbanization, and the expanding roles of 20th century central government. Includes attention to historical interpretation. Multiple sections offered.

HIST 204 Intro Historical Methodology
Local archives and libraries serve as laboratories for this project-oriented seminar that introduces beginning majors to the nature of history as a discipline, historical research techniques, varied forms of historical evidence and the ways in which historians interpret them, and the conventions of historical writing. Prerequisite: one previous course in history.