Registration for Summer and Fall 2009 Classes Has Begun

Late additions to the Fall schedule

These courses do not appear in the printed course schedule: HIST 344 Russia since 1855, HIST 370 History of American Sport, HIST 379 Clashing 20th Century Global Forces, HIST 414 The Automobile Industry and Modern America, and two additional sections of HIST 124 The United States, 1877 to the Present.

Consult the Student Guide to Registration for directions how to register. Please check our course offerings online, as the printed schedule does not reflect late changes.  If you would like to meet with an adviser to discuss your schedule, call us to make an appointment or email an adviser with a question.  Consult the online catalog for course descriptions, and feel free to email the instructor if you have additional questions.

Please continue reading for Information on our special undergraduate course offerings:

Special offerings for Summer 2009

We will offer several classes on campus and online, including two special topics classes:  HIST 479 The German Way of War (Area B) and HIST 479 American Environmental History (Area A).  The latter class will meet July 20-24, with additional instruction online.  We will offer a class that meets the Historical Writing (HW) requirment, HIST 341 The Middle East 1798 – Present and we will also offer HIST 349 The History of South Africa in a one week format; this class will meet at the Traverse City campus August 1-7.

Special offerings for Fall 2009

We will offer the following special topics classes:

  • HIST 379 Biblical History.  A survey of the primary history of the Hebrew Bible (Joshua—2 Kings) from the perspective of contemporary historical method. (Area C)
  • HIST 379 Clashing 20th Century Global Forces. Primarily a discussion-format course based on reading Prof. Moss’s recent book An Age of Progress? Clashing Twentieth-Century Global Forces and online sources. Main topics to be treated are 20th century war, terrorism, capitalism, socialism, communism, imperialism, racism, nationalism, westernization, globalization, and international finance; freedom and human rights; physical and mental environmental changes; and culture, science, education, religion, and social criticism. Finally it explores in what ways the twentieth century made significant progress and in what ways it did not. (Area A, B, or C)
  • HIST 479 Revolution in the Classroom, 1957-1980.  This course in the history of 20th century American political culture examines dramatic developments in post-WWII federalism represented by sweeping changes in K-12 education policy.  From Eisenhower’s deployment of federal troops to Little Rock Central High School, through the implementation of Title IX policies to achieve gender equity, to bilingual education mandates; this era of dynamic changes transformed the relationship between the national government and thousands of rural, suburban, and urban school districts.  A survey of current scholarship in this turbulent era of U.S. education policy will serve as a springboard to research by students into the social and political context of federal initiatives and their impact on communities across Michigan.  (Area A)

The following hybrid classes will combine on campus and online instruction:

  • HIST 300W Researching and Writing History, Friday morning section. Research will focus on topics and primary sources in Michigan, your local communities, and your families. We will visit local archives as a group in the early weeks of the class; subsequently, online discussions of research issues will be substituted for several of the class sessions. Explorations into primary sources (census records and election data, for example) and assignments will be online.
  • HIST 123 and 124 sections taught by Dr. Jones: These courses employ an online research/writing component called EDiT: EMU's Digital History Textbook.  Students will work collaboratively online to develop, expand, critique, and improve the accuracy and reliability of the Digital History Textbook.  Other course components include weekly online quizzes of course content.  Class periods will be used for discussion of knowledge of the history discipline and for discussion about the broader themes in US and world history that are not available through the textbook.

We will offer an evening section of HIST 124 The United States 1877 to Present on EMU's Livonia campus.

The following sections fulfill the Historical Writing (HW) requirement: HIST 306 Hinduism, HIST 336 The History of Women in the US and Great Britain, 1800 – Present, HIST 341 The Middle East 1798 – Present, HIST 379 Clashing 20th Century Global Forces, HIST 456 Europe since 1945, HIST 465 US Constitutional History, HIST 468 The American Mind to the Civil War, and HIST 480 The American Revolution.

About Us

The primary mission of the EMU History Section is to teach and to mentor our students. To enable students and faculty to get to know each other, we limit our upper-level undergraduate classes to 25 or 33 students and our graduate classes to 15. Professors are also available outside of the classroom for everything from advice on research to the letters of recommendation so important to their future success. These contacts often continues long after students graduate.

The extensive expertise of our 20 professors and four full-time lecturers enables us to offer courses covering a broad range of historical topics every semester. We regularly offer classes on the history of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Canada, as well as courses in African-American and Native American history, gay and lesbian history, and women's history. Course offerings also reflect faculty expertise in military history, social and intellectual history, the history of religion, and state and local history. We make these classes available in a variety of formats, including online, weekend, one week, evening, and travel classes.

We encourage you to explore this site to learn more about our undergraduate and graduate programs, our faculty and staff, and the opportunities we offer to students, alumni, and the community. To learn more about what we have to offer, please contact us by phone or email.

World War II Oral History Project Seeks Volunteers

The Yankee Air Museum is seeking volunteers to conduct oral history interviews of World War II veterans and those who supported the war effort from the home front. The museum has approximately 100 veterans waiting to be interviewed. 

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Author Interview: John McCurdy

Professor John McCurdy's first monograph, Citizen Bachelors: Manhood and the Creation of the United States, was published this spring by Cornell University Press. Dr. McCurdy agreed to answer a few questions about the process of researching and writing this book.

What is your book about?

As the title indicates, my book is about unmarried men at the beginning of American history.  It explores the many dimensions of bachelorhood over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ultimately arguing that emergent ideas about single men were key to the shaping of American citizenship that emerged during the American Revolution.

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Grad Student Awarded Presidential Management Fellowship

Amber Van Amburg, graduate student in Social Science and American Culture, has been awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship.  Administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, this two-year program prepares fellows for positions of leadership in the Federal government.  This year 786 fellows were selected from over 5000 applicants nationwide.  Amber has accepted a position with the General Services Administration as a Program Analyst and will be moving to Washington, DC this summer with her husband Kris and her sons Ethan, age 6, and Hudson, age 5.  Amber says, “I am very honored to represent Eastern Michigan University in the PMF program, and hope to someday start a scholarship fund to pay out of pocket expenses for future PMFs from EMU.”

Changes to History Major and Minor

We have made some minor changes to the requirements for the History major and minor. Effective Fall 2009, majors in History will be able to count HIST 109-110 (World History) as their 100-level sequence, and they will be able to count HIST 100 (The Comparative Study of Religion) as an unrestricted elective. Minors in History will be able to count HIST 109 and 110 as required area courses and will be able to count HIST 100 as an unrestricted elective. For full program requirements, see the online catalog.

Alum Wins Statewide Award for History Teaching

EMU History alum Rachel Krumwiede has been awarded the 2008 Jim & Annette McConnell Educator Award for Excellence in Teaching History.  The Michigan Council for History Education awards three of these awards annually, and Ms. Krumwiede is this year’s winner in the pre-service category.  Rachel graduated in April 2008 with majors in History for Teaching and in Language, Literature and Writing for Teaching.  While at Eastern she served as President of Phi Alpha Theta and the Students’ History Association, and she did her student teaching at Plymouth High School.  As the new Education Coordinator at the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run, Michigan, she is creating an education program for the museum.

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