Courses
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HIST 2010 - U.S History to 1865
History 2010 is an introduction to American civilization from the age of exploration and colonization through Reconstruction. The course examines the major themes and issues that have affected the development of America since exploration. It examines institutional, cultural, social, and political changes in America. Theses treated in the course include: exploration and colonization; early America and the British empire; the American Revolution; establishing the new nation; the era of Andrew Jackson; technological, industrial, and transportation revolutions; westward expansion and sectional crisis; the Civil War and Reconstruction.
HIST 3881 - African-American History from Slavery to Present
History 3881 is an introduction to African-American History from slavery to present. The course examines the African Diaspora and the African-American experience during colonial and ante-bellum slavery, the Civil War, emancipation and reconstruction. This course will also examine the African-American experience from reconstruction to present including Black Reconstruction, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, “The Black Exodus,” thirty years of lynching, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement, African-American leaders, and the current issues of drugs, crime, violence, and the growing rift between poor blacks and the black middle and upper classes. These issues will be discussed in the context of American history.
HIST 4053 - The African Diaspora: From Africa to America
History 4053 is designed to study the history of African Americans from their departure from Africa to their arrival in the Caribbean, South America and North America during the 16th century. It also examines their lives in the Americas during colonial and antebellum slavery. The course examines the African Diaspora, colonial slavery, the impact of slavery on the formation of the United States of America, and its expansion and institutionalization during the rise of the “Cotton Kingdom” in the early 1800s. This course focuses on the experience of both free and enslaved African-Americans and explores the relationships between, Europeans, Africans and Native Americans during both the colonial and the early antebellum periods. These issues will be discussed in the context of American history. To take this course students must first have complete History 3881 or African-American Studies 2100.
HIST 4879/6879 - From Africa to America: Blacks in America to 1820
History 4879 / 6879 is designed to study the history of African Americans from their departure from Africa to their arrival in the Caribbean, South America and North America during the 16th century. It also examines their lives in the Americas during colonial and antebellum slavery. The course examines the African Diaspora, colonial slavery, the impact of slavery on the formation of the United States of America, and its expansion and institutionalization during the rise of the “Cotton Kingdom” in the early 1800s. This course focuses on the experience of both free and enslaved African-Americans and explores the relationships between, Europeans, Africans and Native Americans during both the colonial and the early antebellum periods. These issues will be discussed in the context of American history. To take this course students must first have complete History 3881 or African-American Studies 2100.
HIST 4881/6881 - African-American History From Slavery to Present
History 4881/6881 is an introduction to African-American History from slavery to present. The course examines the African Diaspora and the African-American experience from slavery to reconstruction. This course also examines the African-American experience from reconstruction to present including Black Reconstruction, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, The Black "Exodus, thirty years of lynching, the Civil Rights movement, major African-American leaders, the current issues of drugs, crime, violence, and the growing rift between poor blacks and the black middle and upper classes. These issues will be discussed in the context of American history.
HIST 4941/6941 - History of the American Indian
History 4941/6941 is a survey on Native American History from its earliest beginnings to present. The course examines the origins and varied cultures of Native Americans and their relations with Europeans and Africans since 1492. Events of major importance to Native Americans in the context of American history will also be discussed in the context of American History.
HIST 7880/8880 - African-American Historiography
History 7880/8880 is designed to introduce students beginning their graduate work in African-American history to the basic philosophical problems of recreating and understanding the African-American past, to the history of historical writing and both African American and other (white etc.) scholars, and to the practical skills needed by a professional historian in the field of African-American History.
HIST 7881/8881 - African-American History to 1865
This course is designed to introduce some of the most recent as well as standard scholarship in the field of African-American history for the period from slavery to 1865. The format of the course will be discussion of assigned core readings supported by written reports. Each student is to read the core reading and supplementary reading each week. Requirements of the course include 2 oral reports on core readings with outlines turned in to instructor (25%), typed book reviews (25%), class participation (20%), and a bibliographical essay examining the scholarship on one of the relevant historical topics covered in this class (30%). Core readings and some supplementary readings should be available for purchase at the campus bookstore or found in the library. The bibliographic essay will be due on December 2.
HIST 7882/8882 - African-American History Since 1865
This course is designed to introduce some of the most recent as well as standard scholarship in the field of African-American history for the period from 1865 to Present. The format of the course will be discussion of assigned core readings supported by written reports. Each student is to read the core reading and supplementary reading each week. Requirements of the course include 2 oral reports on core readings with outlines turned in to instructor (25%), typed book reviews (25%), class participation (20%), and a bibliographical essay examining the scholarship on one of the relevant historical topics covered in this class (30%). Core readings and some supplementary readings should be available for purchase at the campus bookstore or found in the library. The bibliographic essay will be due on December 2.
HIST 7883/8883 - African-American History to 1820
This course will examine sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth century African American history, with a particular focus upon the creolization of Africans during colonial and early antebellum slavery in the Caribbean and the Americas. Students will read, discuss, and write book reviews of monographs that attempt to explain this period of African American History. Our major tasks include understanding the African Diaspora, the roots of slavery and the creolization of Slaves, Free Blacks and Maroons in the Caribbean and the Americas. The course will also examine the sugar culture of the Caribbean, the Tobacco culture of the Chesapeake, the rice and indigo culture of the Carolinas and the Cotton culture of the “Lower” or “Deep South.” Finally this course will also examine the evolution of slave law, relations between Africans, Native Americans and Europeans, the impact of the American Revolution on Blacks, and the institutionalization of slavery during the antebellum period.
HIST 7012/8012 - Directed Readings
This course is geared towards exploring themes in African-American, Native-American, Colonial American, Southern, North Carolina, Community History that may not be offered in regular course listing. Students interested in working with me in any of these areas, please feel free to contact me at asmallwd@memphis.edu.
HIST 7070/8070 - Research Seminar
This course is designed for its participants to produce a scholarly article on twentieth-century African-American history. Students will produce a review of the relevant historiography, perform substantial primary source research, give a presentation, and write a polished essay suitable for publication in an academic journal.
HIST 7996 - Masters Thesis
This course is designed for its participants to work on their Masters Thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts degree from the Department of History.
HIST 9000 - Doctoral Dissertation
This course is designed for its participants to work on their Doctoral Dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Department of History.
Courses that will be taught in the future
Colonial American History
Early American Religion
Native-American History
Tennessee History
North Carolina History
Southern History