HISTORY DEPARTMENT
GRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SPRING 2016
HIS 500 (10139) (1cr) Grant Writing
N. Kizenko ()
Tues 4:15pm-7:05pm
SS 117
Part of work in academia is applying for—and winning—grants. This class introduces students to the principles and fundamentals of grant writing, from identifying suitable grant-giving agencies, writing a grant proposal, and revising it. By the end of the class, students will have identified key grant-givingbodies in their subject field and written a sample grant proposal.
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HIS 506 (10141) (3crs) History Museums
P. West McKay ()
Mon 4:15pm-7:05pm
SS 117
This course will investigate the history and function of American museums, emphasizing the historical contexts of their establishment and their role in the shaping of popular knowledge.
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HIS 509 (8173) (3crs) Introduction to Historic Preservation
J. Bonafide ()
Tue 4:15pm-7:05pm
ED 126
This course will provide an overview of the field of historic preservation, emphasizing the history, evolution, and application of its programs. Significant areas, such as the history of the preservation movement, historic preservation laws and their application, and the identification, evaluation, registration and protection of historic resources will be discussed.
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HIS 530 (6821) (4crs) Topics in American History
D. Becker ()
Mon, Wed 7:15pm-8:35pm
BBB 004
*Also taught as HIS 406 (6375) and DOC 406 (6376)
Practicum in Historical Documentary Filmmaking This is a hands-on production course. Student working in teams will make original 10-15 minute historical documentary films during the semester. Along the way they will learn each step of the production process: Research, pitching, writing treatments, pre-production, shooting, script writing, editing and post-production. The class will emphasize developing strong storytelling skills: Digging through the past to find good stories, then figuring out how to tell them both dramatically and accurately. Labs will introduce students to the camera, lighting & sound technical skills necessary to shoot professionally as well as basic editing skills. Giving and receiving criticism is an essential part of the creative process, so substantial class time will be devoted to critiquing each other’s work throughout the semester.
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HIS 530 (7393) (3crs) Topics in American History
K. Van Acker ()
Thu 2:45pm-5:35pm
SLG 002
*Taught with DOC 324(7631) and JRL 324
History and Practice of Documentary Photography From Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs, to the work of photographers of the U.S. Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, and through the stunning and emotive images of contemporary social, ethnographic, scientific, and war photographers, documentary photography has experienced a long and vigorous development. In this introductory hands-on workshop, students will examine the long heritage of documentary photography as well as the practical lessons to be learned from renowned practitioners. Students will research and photograph a documentary issue as part of a project that will be sustained throughout the semester (students may choose to also incorporate video components). Students should have a working knowledge of computers and of the fundamentals of digital camera operation, and are required to have access to a digital SLR camera with a zoom lens and flash.
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HIS 530 (10347) (4crs) Topics in American History
J. Hobson ()
Wed 4:15pm-7:05pm
LC 014
Black Women in the U.S. This reading and research seminar will examine the history of black women in the United States. We will evaluate both historical and interdisciplinary literature and documentaries on black women’s lives, covering periods from enslavement up to the twenty-first century. We will also explore black women’s resistance strategies, communal organizing, labor force participation, and creative expressions.
HIS 596 (10143) (4crs) Practicum in Digital History
M. Kane ()
Tue 2:45pm-5:35pm
SLG 12
*Also taught with HIS 407 (9016)
This course introduces students to major new directions in the practice of history on the web and the growing distinction between digital history as method and digital history as medium. Students will gain skills in web publishing, identifying avenues for public engagement, and using digital tools for historical analysis. Through a series of case studies on social networks, mapping, text analysis, and narrative, students will build a collaborative, publicly engaged historical project. The Spring 2016 offering of this course will focus on the history of Albany before 1860, but PhD students may work on a research project related to their dissertation area with permission of the instructor. Home use of a computer with internet access and the ability to install software is required.
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HIS 599(3920) (1-4crs) Special Projects in History
G. Zahavi ()
ARR
Students will be able to choose from among several projects sponsored by area institutions. These projects might involve archival or museum work, or primary historical research. See instructor for further information.
PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR IS REQUIRED. S/U graded.
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HIS 599(7078) (3crs) Special Projects in History
G. Zahavi ()
ARR
Students will be able to choose from among several projects sponsored by area institutions. These projects might involve archival or museum work, or primary historical research. See instructor for further information.
PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR IS REQUIRED. S/U graded.
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HIS 603(10150) (4crs) Social and Economic Histories of the Twentieth-Century United States
K. Smith-Howard ()
Thu 5:45pm-8:35pm
BBB 356
*Also taught as HIS 628(10161) & HIS 630(10211)
Through discussion of classic works and new scholarship, this seminar will deepen students’ engagement with twentieth-century US social and economic history. Themes explored through the readings will include: the development of consumer culture and its effect on the political, economic, and environmental life of the nation; technologies and policies shaping urban, suburban, and rural life and the relation between these locales; the effects of immigration and foreign policy on domestic life and policy. Since the scholarship on the twentieth-century US is so vast, and so diverse, this seminar cannot capture the main currents of any one field. Rather, it will sample and begin to identify some of the key interpretive strains and methodologies used to study the twentieth-century United States, and provide students with a good launching point for MA or PhD comprehensive exams and/or research projects in this period.
Students will be expected to read and offer substantive comments about at least one book and one article or book chapter each week. They will be expected to write four short review essays and two longer, more comprehensive historiography essays. By the end of the course, you should be able to engage some of the field’s key questions, be equipped to explore the field further (having practiced using historical databases, footnotes, review essays, and book reviews to guide such forays), and be able to bring the insights of the field to bear on your own research and reading.
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HIS 607 (4879) (4crs) Seminar and Practicum in History and Media
G. Zahavi ()
Tue 5:45pm-8:35pm
BBB 04
* Also taught with DOC 450 (4936)
The aim of this course is to assist students in planning, researching, and producing a substantial research-based documentary project in any one of the following forms: audio, video, digital/Web, still photography (with an “exhibit catalog”), or text. Students are expected to come into the course with skills needed to work in their planned media area. Class members will work with oversight from the course instructor as well as appropriate on-campus experts; they will receive feedback, as well, from fellow students enrolled in the course. Discussion of such topics as research, project planning, prospectus preparation, scriptwriting, media ethics, and workflow organization will assist students undertaking their research, production, and postproduction work.
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HIS 609 (3817) (4crs) Seminar in American History
R. Irwin ()
Wed 5:45pm-8:35pm
SLG 24
*Also taught as HIS 620(10041)
Students will conduct research on American or world history. Their research will result in a scholarly paper based on primary sources, which will serve as the basis for a dissertation chapter, a thesis, or a peer-reviewed article. In analyzing primary sources, students will useappropriatehistorical methodologies. The seminar is open to all students, but the professor's expertise is limited to nineteenth and twentieth century U.S./world history. Before the semester begins, students must consult the professor, and every student must begin the term with a clearly defined research question and a preliminary research plan. As the course proceeds, students will conduct their research independently, complete several research activities, and read and evaluate each other's scholarship. Our objective is to maintain a productive, collegial environment throughout the semester and write a top-shelf piece of historical analysis.
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HIS 609 (10152) (4 crs) Seminar in American History
D. White ( )
Wed 7:15pm-10:05pm
SS 255
*Also taught as HIS 620(10154)
Explorations in Public Policy History. This research seminar will focus on the area of public policy history, defined broadly and encompassing developments in Europe as well as the United States. Students will be free to identify and define the topics they wish to explore. It is likely that such projects will fall into the historical span that extends at the earliest from 1750 onward inasmuch as purposeful state actions become more plentiful from that point and primary sources are increasingly likely to be available. Topics can range up to the near-present; the suggested arena of investigation is domestic policy, although explorations of foreign policy formulation may be undertaken as well. The objective is to gather sufficient primary materials to support an essay of around 25 pages built on the researcher/writer’s interpretation of events. Class meetings oriented toward common issues in research and writing will alternate with individual discussions with the instructor as the semester progresses. Students considering enrolling in the course are encouraged to contact the instructor prior to the spring semester to exchange ideas about possible subjects. One caveat: those who wish to undertake a project in the history of a non-English speaking country must have a reading competence in the relevant language.
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HIS 611 (7168) (4 crs) Readings in European History
J. Monfasani ()
Mon 7:15pm-10:05pm
SS 117
Christianity from the First to the Seventeenth Century. This will be a graduate version of my lower division course on early and medieval Christianity. We shall examine a series of specific issues starting with the historical Christ and the New Testament and continuing through to the Reformation era. This will not be a survey but a weekly examination through common readings of specific central and/or controversial issues. Students will be required to write short analytical papers on five of the common readings and a historiographical paper on a debate chosen by the student relevant to the subject matter of the course.
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HIS 611 (10159) (4crs) Readings in European History
B. Trachtenberg ()
Wed 5:45pm-8:35pm
SS 117
*Also taught as HIS 626 (10373)
Readings in War & Genocide in the 20th Century
The twentieth century has appropriately been called The Century of Genocide. Genocide in most instances occurs under the cover of total warfare.Many of these genocides have prompted refugee crises as well as attempts at memorialization and reconciliation. Inthis seminar, we will start by reading Eric D. Weitz’sA Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nationand continue with Hannah Arendt’sOrigins ofTotalitarianism (as well as critical responses to both works). We’ll then read texts related to the Armenian Genocide during World War I, the Ukrainian Genocide under Stalinism, the NaziHolocaust during World War II, the Cambodian Genocide under the Khmer Rouge, and the Tutsi Genocide during the Rwandan Civil War (unfortunately,this is not a complete list). In oursurvey, we will examine a number of theoretical, ideological, and methodological approaches to discussing war and genocide.
Each student will write a number of critical reviews,as well asmake at least one substantive, well-organizedpresentation on a week’s readings. Students will also write a final paper that critically engages a topic related to the course.
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HIS 620 (10154) (4 crs) Seminar in European History
D. White ( )
Wed 7:15pm-10:05pm
SS 255
Also taught as HIS 609(10152)