HIST 269 - Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History

FDR: HU
Credits: 3-4

A course offered from time to time, depending on student interest and staff availability, on a selected topic or problem in United States, Latin American or Canadian history. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

Spring 2022, HIST 269A-01: Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: Slavery and Colonialism in the African Diaspora (4).
The histories, politics, and cultures of various regions have given shape to the global African diaspora, at times producing continuities and at others, points of departure. Two constants, however, are the prevalence of colonialism and slavery, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean. This class will examine the impacts that colonialism and slavery have had on colonized peoples, as well as the linkages between African and Caribbean history, by traveling to Barbados and Martinique—a former British colony and a former French colony. Particular points for consideration include colonial systems of governance, such as direct rule and indirect rule, as well as the contemporary legacies of colonialism and slavery, including movements for reparations. (HU, EXP, GL) Dennie and Kamara.

Winter 2022, HIST 269A-01: Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: History of the Civil Rights Movement (3).
This course will examine the trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement by focusing on particular events, strategies, organizations, and political actors. After identifying the conditions that contributed to the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement, the course will trace the movement from the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board case to the rise of Black Power during the 1970s. The course will conclude by examining the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. (HU) Dennie.

Winter 2022, HIST 269B-01: Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: Thugs, Jezebels, and Contemporary Politics (3).
In the months prior to the 2016 presidential election, race relations in the United States were propelled into the American public consciousness with great force, although race has continually exerted an omnipresent influence on contemporary politics. Beginning with Clarence Thomas’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, this course will survey how discourse on Black femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and class has impacted American politics from 1991 to the present. Topics for consideration include welfare reform, reproductive justice, mass incarceration, voter suppression, and white nationalism. Readings will also consider how Black activists and Black public figures such as lawyers, journalists, and politicians have responded to and resisted racism and sexism in contemporary politics. (HU) Dennie.

Winter 2022, HIST 269C-01: Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: The Indigenous South (3).
This course is about Indigenous southerners and the region they have long inhabited. It is a chronically broad course that will focus primarily on the history of Indigenous people and nations in the Southeast from the pre-contact period to the present. Comprised of diverse peoples, speaking different languages, and with a range of customs and beliefs, the people of the Native South nevertheless share common cultural traditions, social systems, and histories. In this class will examine the Mississippian mound building civilizations; Native southerners encounters with Europeans; the American Revolution, Civil War, and Jim Crow as seen and experienced in the Native Southeast; and contemporary struggles for Native sovereignty in Virginia. Students will learn about the experiences of Indigenous southerners throughout southern history and in the present; be introduced to the methodologies used by ethnohistorians and in the discipline of Native American and Indigenous Studies that are used to recover Indigenous perspectives and history; develop a final project that explores Indigenous history and erasure in and around Rockbridge County. (HU) Sammons.

Fall 2021, HIST 269A-01: Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History: Introduction to Black Women’s History (3).
What happens when American history is narrated by Black women and through Black women’s experiences? How might we understand US history if we locate Black women at the center rather than the peripheries? These questions provide the guiding framework for this course. This course will trace African American women’s history from slavery to the present. Particular attention will be devoted to Black women’s labor, activism, intellectual thought, and cultural productions. We will also consider how race, gender, class, and sexuality have functioned in Black women’s lives. (HU) Dennie.