This course introduces students to the history of emotions and senses. Students explore theories and methods for studying emotions in history, as well as scholarship on emotions or senses in specific historical contexts.
Syllabus Final Project
This final project asks students to conceptualize and design an undergraduate course related to the study of emotions. This “un-essay” assignment gives students the opportunity to analyze emotions in relation to a topic of their own choosing and to engage with their own learning process by reflecting on how syllabi shape the way we learn about history.
Overcoming Anxiety in Graduate Teaching and Public Speaking
Graduate school is stressful, and some incoming students struggle with anxiety and panic when teaching or speaking publicly. Here are some tips for managing and overcoming anxiety as a graduate student.
Year in Review: The Top Public, Scholarly Pieces of 2022
2022 saw outstanding public scholarship. Each week, Ben Railton shared the week's best public scholarship in his #ScholarSunday threads. This year-end list highlights 30 of the year's top pieces.
“Our war of independence”: President Zelensky’s Speech to Congress and the Memory of the American Revolutionary War
With well-chosen references to and evocations of the memory of the American Revolutionary War, President Zelensky connected the American and Ukrainian struggles for independence.
Strikers, Octopi, and Visible Hands: The Railroad and American Capitalism
In popular culture and American historiography, the railroad corporation has long been a site where Americans have grappled with larger questions of political economy.
Every flute its Lizzo, Every Lizzo her flute.
What do the reactions to Lizzo's September 2022 visit to the National Archive say about access to public services? We have work to do if we want to keep saying libraries are welcoming spaces, and a radical librarian from the 1930s gives us a place to start.
Sports, not Politics?: Contextualizing Qatar in the History of Controversial Sporting Events
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has faced unprecedented criticism due to allegations of corruption and wide scale human rights abuses in the country in the lead up to the tournament. Criticism of Qatar must be seen in the wider historical context of corruption and "sportswashing," which reveals that global sporting bodies are inherently political despite claims of being apolitical.
What AHA President James Sweet Got Wrong—And Right
A controversy over comments by the president of the American Historical Association reveals deeper truths about the challenges historians face.
How to Prepare for a Job Interview at a SLAC
A guide for interviewees at teaching-focused history programs.