HIST 6700 - Learning and Teaching World History for Graduate Students

World History is a comparatively new, or at least newly redefined and newly important, field of teaching, research, and writing in our discipline. Many history graduate students have never studied it, or have been introduced to it only in cursory or piecemeal fashion, yet are increasingly called upon to refer to it, utilize its findings and insights in their own work, and … teach it. One obvious goal is to provide a quick and broad-brushed overview of the basic content of World History. Covers major periods in world history from the beginning to the present, highlighting major global changes and their interconnectness. A second goal is to develop a sensitivity to and critical sense about such fundamental matters as structure, generalization, and perspective in World History. Considerable time is spent discussing these, and emphasizing areas in which comparative study is and is not appropriate. A third goal is to introduce some of the major themes and issues that attract debate among world historians these days, and to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses which they pose. This attention to current historiography, especially in a new field, is critical for showing the differences and similarities between today’s World History and other perspectives on the study of the past. Along the way, we will consider some strategies for coming to terms with the welter of information and opinion in this often unwieldy field, and for approaching it in ways that are useful to learning and understanding what it has to offer to the study of other varieties of history. A final aim is to introduce graduate students to the many challenges and approaches to teaching this subject. The intent is not only to prepare graduate students for teaching their own World History surveys, but to suggest ways in which they can incorporate global perspectives into their own scholarship and into a variety of possible teaching assignments. Students follow common readings and individual readings, and produce weekly papers on these readings, which are discussed intensively in a seminar setting. The final portion is devoted to students producing an original syllabus for an undergraduate course in World History (either Before 1750 or Since 1750), of sufficient quality to be used in the classroom. This intended to better prepare our graduates to enter the real teaching world of today, in which most will be asked at one time another to talk about and teach World History, and in which having taken a course like this can be a critical factor in an academic job interview.

Requisites

Credit Hours: 4.0
Repeat/Retake Information: May not be retaken.

Lecture/Lab Hours: 4.0 seminar

Eligible grades: A-F,PR,WP,WF,FN,FS,AU,I