HIST316

Description

Content & topics vary by semester and instructor; May be repeated one time for credit. THE TITLE OF THIS COURSE FOR FALL 2025: SEC, 2 ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY Introducing the fundamental historical narratives of Asian Americans, this course invites students to explore the varied experiences of Asians in America and their interactions with other racial and ethnic groups by using the lens of law, gender, race, colonialism/imperialism, and citizenship. We examine a couple of seminal cases: Asian slaves in Colonial Mexico, the original fight for Birth Right Citizenship, the influence of Frederick Douglass's idea of the Composite Nation, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese American incarceration during WWII, the killing of Vincent Chin in Detroit, the myth of model minority, the 1992 Los Angeles Riot, and the Anti-Asian violence since 2020. Finally, this course aims to provide a critical perspective on the conventional narrative of American history that largely excludes (and erases) the life stories, impacts, and contributions of Asian Americans. TOPIC FOR FALL 2025: SEC. 1 VIOLENCE IN EARLY AMERICA This course traces the history of violence in colonial North America. Students will examine both the concept of violence and how it shaped everyday life for colonists, Indigenous communities, and enslaved people. The course will touch on everyday violence, intimate violence, environmental violence, and warfare. Students will also draw on "Settler Colonial Theory" and other frameworks to analyze the cultural origins of violence in America. THE TOPIC FOR SPRING 2025 IS: WAR AND PEACE, 20TH CENTURY AMERICA. This course examines three major wars of 20th century (WWI, WWII and Vietnam), particular in terms of the peace movements that were associated with each. Students will consider the individuals, organizations, and ideologies associated with these movements; their actions, impact and legacy. In addition to secondary readings, videos and lectures, students will engage directly with various primary source archives at Clark and elsewhere to craft three short research papers. THE TOPIC FOR FALL 2024 SEMESTER: A History of Hip Hop This course explores the history of Hip Hop from its origins in New York City in the 1970s to its emergence as a dominant form of cultural expression in the suburbs and rural America by the end of the 1980s. After surveying Hip Hop's rise to national prominence, the course will consider the impact of Hip Hop on popular culture in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as its global influence on urban youth culture in the twenty-first century.