The past is present
In this assignment for the course "The 2000s," students write a response to the 2008 film Wall-E. The assignment asks them to consider the film's messages about key early 21st-century issues, including technology and the environment.
This course is a survey of US History from 2000 to 2015. It examines the US through political, social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic lenses. Students will learn about major historical developments, including the War on Terror, culture-war battlegrounds, neoliberalism, and the expansion of the Internet.
Today’s activists know what those in the Black freedom movement knew: Jail, No Bail was a critique of not just bail, but of an entire system of unjust laws and courts. Then and now, activists understand that power concedes nothing–not desegregation, not pre-trial freedom—without a fight.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Like many Vietnam War-era films, Taxi Driver contains historical truths but also reinforces deeply problematic myths about veterans, homecoming, and trauma.
Fifty-five years ago this month, All in the Family debuted, launching a transformation of the American sitcom.
In honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, it is both appropriate—and overdue—to discuss the significance of Coretta Scott King. When Coretta declared, “I was called, too,” she insisted we remember her not as a shadow of her husband, but as an equal.
In 2023, UF president Dr. Ben Sasse called for "less indoctrination" of students by their professors. This course explores the historical debates over indoctrination to understand how such undue influences may have threatened or seemed to threaten freedom of thought, personal autonomy, and self-determination—the touchstones of liberal democracy.
Comprehensive Exams, or 'Comps,' can be confusing and intimidating for graduate students, but the first step to conquering Comps, and the fear they elicit, is to understand what they are, what they are designed to test, and how they work.
As the Trump administration calls for the return of domestic manufacturing, there is one industry that managed to resist the outsourcing process of the late 20th century. It only required the destruction of its labor unions.
In 1995, Democrats held up a Big Bird doll to laud the importance of children’s television and save public broadcast funding. This strategy does not seem likely to work in 2025.
Clio and the Contemporary 