Course Descriptions for Summer 2019
Below, you’ll find course descriptions for the undergraduate courses we’re offering during summer 2019.
MAY INTERSESSION COURSES
HST 490: American Consumers, 1880s-Present
Prof. Rebecca Marchiel
MTWThF 8:30AM-12PM
Americans have a complex relationship with consumption, lamenting its impact on civic life on one hand while enjoying its bounty on the other. This course will take a long historical view to examine this relationship, assessing the impact of consumption on American politics and society from the late nineteenth century to the present. We will explore “conspicuous consumption” of the Gilded Age, anti-chain store activism during the New Deal era, and the rise of mass consumption. We will examine twentieth-century social movements, including the black freedom struggle and gay liberation, with attention to their use of consumerist rhetoric and tools such as boycotts. Throughout the course, we will consider to what extent consumerism has had a depoliticizing effect, transforming engaged citizens into passive purchasers, and to what extent buying power has created a new kind of politics by animating social movements, disrupting power relations in the public and private spheres, and delivering the good life on an unprecedented scale.
FIRST SUMMER SESSION COURSES
HST 121: Intro to European History since 1648
Instructor Will Little
wclittl1@go.olemiss.edu
MTWThF 10-11:50AM
HST 130: Intro to U.S. History to 1877
Staff
TBD
MTWThF 8-9:50AM
HST 131: Intro to U.S. History since 1877
Prof. Tyson Smith
atsmith1@olemiss.edu
MTWThF 10-11:50AM
HST 434: U.S. Religious History
Prof. Darren Grem
MTWThF 2-3:50PM
What is “true religion”? Who decides and enforces what constitutes an “authentic” faith? How does one experience the “unseen” and “unlikely” but meaningful? What are the political and cultural implications of holding to one faith, or many faiths, or none? In what ways have the social contexts of the American past shaped religious persons, institutions, and communities? How has religion served as a means of understanding race, manhood, womanhood, and sexuality in the American past? How did tribes, priests, kings, judges, legislatures, representatives, presidents, and laws legitimize certain faiths over others? What about other matters of faith, from conquest to slavery to education to nuclear war to civil rights? Why can’t you buy beer in some counties in Mississippi? Can you actually worship “America”? Can LSD really bring you closer to God? Or is that best left to a corporation or by voting for a Republican or Democrat? How does Steve Jobs fit into all this? And, finally, is SEC football a “religion”? We will explore such questions via an intensive survey of religion in American life.
HST 452: The History of Mississippi
Prof. Tyson Smith
MTWThF 1-2:50PM
Mississippi has long been a land of dreams, where empires and settlers gambled on extracting natural resources to turn a quick profit. The roots of modern capitalism can be found here: the word “millionaire” first came into usage after 18th century venture capitalists invested in the vaunted “Mississippi Company.” By the 1850s, Mississippi was second only to New York as a home of the wealthiest Americans. Their fortunes depended on two commodities: cotton and slaves. By the twentieth century, however, Mississippi had become synonymous with poverty. How did this happen? This course will trace the development of Mississippi from the pre-Columbian period to the present, placing the state at the center of a global struggle for wealth, empire, and human rights.
HST 490: Southern Music History
Prof. Darren Grem
MTWThF 10-11:50AM
Today, millions around the world enjoy music born and bred in the American South. This course examines the major genres of southern music, proceeding chronologically from the antebellum era to the late twentieth century. Students will go on a rollicking tour of the places and spaces that birthed slave songs, gospel, the blues, jazz, hillbilly/country, rock n’ roll, soul/R&B, southern rock, and southern rap. At home and in class, students will listen to numerous samples from each genre, using the musical and lyrical contents to understand how specific songs, artists, and performances fit into or reaffirmed—or challenged or even changed—the social, cultural, and political arrangements of the South and broader nation and world.
SECOND SUMMER SESSION COURSES
HST 121: Intro to European History to 1648
Prof. Joseph Peterson
jwpeters@olemiss.edu
MTWThF 10-11:50AM
HST 130: Intro to U.S. History to 1877
Instructor Eli Baker
ejbaker@go.olemiss.edu
MTWThF 12-1:50PM
HST 131: Intro to U.S. History since 1877
Instructor Justin Rogers
jirogers@go.olemiss.edu
MTWThF 8-9:50AM
HST 335: The French Revolution
Prof. Joseph Peterson
MTWThF 1-2:50PM
HST 402: Revolutionary America, 1763-1800
Prof. Jeff Bourdon
MTWThF 12-1:50PM
This class examines the social, political, and economic causes of the American Revolution and the nation’s founding. The course picks up after the conclusion of the French and Indian War and concludes with the election of Thomas Jefferson. It explores how the American Revolution was experienced by different groups of Americans–rich and poor, white, black, and Native American, men and women, patriots and loyalists. It also examines the various governments that emerged during and after the war, including those under the individual state constitutions, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. Finally, it considers the lasting legacy of the American Revolution.
HST 420: African Americans in Sports
Prof. Matthew Bailey
MTWThF 10-11:50AM
This course offers a historical survey of African Americans and their roles in various sports. It begins with a look at black participation in the late 19th century and chronicles that involvement into the 21st century. Some of the major developments that will be examined in this course include: the appearance of black jockeys, cyclists, and baseball players in the late 19th century; black participation in football, golf, and boxing in the early 20th century; the rise of color barriers in various sports; black teams during the age of segregation; the integration of various sports; the origins and persistence of certain stereotypes about black athletes; protest movements led by black athletes, and the future involvement of African Americans in sports.
FULL SUMMER COURSES
HST 120: Intro to European History to 1648
Prof. Wendy Smith
wdsmith@olemiss.edu
OFFERED AS A WEB-BASED COURSE & AN iSTUDY COURSE
HST 121: Intro to European History since 1648
Prof. Chiarella Esposito
esposito@olemiss.edu
OFFERED AS A WEB-BASED COURSE
HST 130: Intro to U.S. History to 1877
Prof. Wendy Smith
wdsmith@olemiss.edu
OFFERED AS AN iSTUDY COURSE
HST 131: Intro to U.S. History since 1877
Prof. Wendy Smith
wdsmith@olemiss.edu
OFFERED AS AN iSTUDY COURSE
HST 407: United States: The Nation since 1945
Prof. Wendy Smith
OFFERED AS AN iSTUDY COURSE
This course will examine the social, political and cultural changes that occur from the end of WWII to the present. Themes will include the Cold War (including the Korean and Vietnam Wars), Economic Development (prosperity in the ‘50s,stagnation in the ‘70s and beyond), the Civil Rights Movement (African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Women, and the Gay Rights Movement), and political developments like the creation of the New Left and the New Right. Topics will be divided as evenly as possible between domestic affairs and foreign policy.
HST 415: African American History since 1865
Prof. Shennette Garrett-Scott
OFFERED AS A WEB-BASED COURSE
This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to important historical, political, cultural, and artistic issues concerning people of African descent in the United States. Students will examine the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans from the end of the Civil War to the Black Lives Matters Movement. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of the role of protest and resistance in African American history. Through readings, primary sources, movies, and discussion, the course will illustrate the multiple ways in which African Americans have protested and resisted oppression. The course strives to be challenging, stimulating, and transformational.
AUGUST INTERSESSION COURSES
HST 490: United States Social Movements since 1945
Prof. Jessica Wilkerson
MTWThF 8:30AM-12PM
This course examines the numerous, overlapping social movements—of various political ideologies—in post-1945 United States history. Studying movements in relation to one another instead of separately (as is so often the case), students will consider how movements overlapped or challenged one another and how the mosaic of movements shaped American society and politics. Students will analyze the origins of movements, the generational divides that characterized many of them, the context in which they arose, the ideas and people that influenced them, and their successes and limitations. Topics include anticommunism crusades, the New Left, the civil rights movement, women’s movements and feminism, disability rights, the New Right and grassroots conservatism, environmentalism, Black Power, LGBTQ activism, labor and union struggles, anti-war and peace movements, among others. We will explore these topics through activist biographies, documentary film, and sources such as speeches, letters, and diaries. The course will interweave lecture with in-class assignments and discussion to help deepen our understanding of the histories under investigation.
