Historical Investigations: Methods and Skills

About the Course:

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

Winter 2019:  Do bodily practices and emotional expressions have a history? How is culture written on our bodies? How are cultural differences expressed and mediated through the human body? These are just a few of the questions that historians of the body and historians of the emotions have tackled in recent decades. This course uses specific primary and secondary readings to explore some of the ways that historians of sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century North America have begun to write the history of the human body, and, through it, the history of cultures in interaction. Readings will cover topics such as anger, torture, sexuality, pregnancy, visions, ghosts, dancing, manners, conjuring and clothing to uncover changing approaches to understanding and interpreting culture and emotions in the body.
Students will work in teams with specific “bodies” of primary evidence to unpack the cultural richness and insights of this field of historical investigation.

Pre-requisites:

This course is restricted to lower division students only. Upper division students must obtain instructor approval to add the course.

Documents:

Schedule of Courses

Go to the Schedule of Courses on the Registrar's website to register or view scheduling information on all courses.