Germs and the Constitution. Professor Dale
Tuesday period 4; Thursday periods 4-5
In 1905, the United States Supreme Court decided a case called Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which held that under the police power the state could compel people to be vaccinated for public safety. In this practicum we’ll learn about historical research methods as we investigate that case and the scope of police power in constitutional law.
Methods, Sources, and African History. Professor Janzen
Tuesday period 8-9; Thursday period 9
This course will introduce students to the general elements of the professional study of history: research skills; the critical reading of primary and secondary sources; and a variety of methodologies. The course will also feature a series of workshops exploring the unique methods employed by historians of Africa. Students will thus also learn how to study history using archaeology, historical linguistics, oral sources, fiction, visual culture, social space, and rumors.
The Great Patriotic War: History and Memory. Professor Bernstein
Tuesday, periods 2-3; Thursday, period 3
The people of the Soviet Union and its successor states called World War II the Great Patriotic War. The name denoted an enormous struggle that ended in the deaths of almost thirty million Soviet citizens, but also a triumph that made Stalin’s authoritarian state into a global superpower. This history of violence, political repression and national glory has spawned an important but complicated legacy in Eastern Europe. This course will explore the links between history and memory by looking at the lived experience of the war and its afterlives. We will approach this history by exploring a diverse selection of source methodologies: oral history and memoirs; film; digital archives; and secondary sources. It will ask how adopting perspectives like gender, empire and memory can shift our view on history.