FIRST SEMESTER 2008-09
HISTORY CAPSTONES

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HST 400.1 Senior Capstone: Gilded Age Entrepreneurs – T R 3:30-4:45
Dr. Mary Cayton

Explores the life and times of so-called “robber barons” or “captains of industry” – e.g., John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon – and their impact on their times.

HST 400.7 Senior Capstone: History Honors – T 6:00-8:40 pm
Dr. Allan Winkler

Capstone for students in the History Departmental Honors program, who have completed HST 359, Junior Honors Colloquium.

HST 400.Q Senior Capstone: Social Change in 20th C. Africa – T 7:00-9:40 pm
Dr. Osaak Olumwullah

HST 400.R Senior Capstone: History of Commodities – M 7:00-9:40 pm
Dr. Robert Thurston

Commodities–anything from food to oil to wood products and way beyond–have made the global economy go around for a long time. We will look at the history of various commodities in the first weeks of class and will discuss questions of taste, politics, and power in making some items popular. We will discuss the effects of the introduction of new commodities into Europe and America on taste, style, diet, social interaction, and politics. Each student will then choose a commodity to research and to write about. Paper topics can be flexible; someone might study the images of the Turks that accompanied spices and coffee, another might look into the changes in the structure of the oil industry, for example.

HST 400.T Senior Capstone: African-American Women's History and Feminist Thought - R 7:00-9:40 pm
Dr. Nishani Frazier

Since the early 1970s, the discipline of African American history has experienced a surge in the examination of black women’s struggles and contributions to American life and feminist/womanist studies. Since this period, voluminous essays and manuscripts have detailed the unique interests of black women as related to issues of race, gender, sexuality. This course utilizes a variety of sources to study the historical experiences–individual and collective - of African American women and their development of black feminist thought. Particular attention is given to developing knowledge and understanding of African American women through: (1) religious, sexual, reproductive, racial, and gender experiences, (2) efforts to achieve self-definition and self-sufficiency, (3) social and political activism, and (4) the production of African American/ multicultural/womanist/feminist thought.

HST 400.V Senior Capstone: Life and Times of Machiavelli – T R 2:00-3:15
Dr. Renée Baernstein

A fresh look at one of the world’s most famous and misunderstood authors. Machiavelli’s life, times, and work are studied mainly through close reading of his letters, comedies, political writings (The Prince and The Discourses), and histories. Topics of republicanism, state power, military tactics, religion, gender, sexuality, the role of classical antiquity, and theater in the Italian Renaissance will all be considered as part of the background to Machiavelli’s thought. Recommended: At least one advanced course in pre-1700 European history.

HST 400.Z Senior Capstone: 18th Century Atlantic Slave Trade – T R 11:00-12:15
Dr. Andrew Cayton

We will spend the first half of the semester reading and discussing recent books and articles about the Atlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century. We will also examine primary sources, including visual representations and material objects. Students will then write a major research paper using class readings and their own research in primary sources. Papers should address an historical question related to some aspect of the slave trade in the eighteenth century. Students will choose a topic that interests them and for which sources are readily available.

 

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