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HI*E299*55
“A Night to Remember”: e RMS
Titanic
as an Icon of Edwardian Britain
V. Markham Lester
Prerequisites:
None
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Letter
Max. Enrollment: 15
Meeting Times:
MW 9:30am-11:30am, Tu2:00pm-4:00pm
In April 1912 the RMS
Titanic
sank with the loss of over 1,500 passengers and
crew. It was the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disaster inmodern
history. is project examines the
Titanic
as an icon of Edwardian society
and culture. What insights can the ship provide about mental attitudes, class
structure, and technology of the period? Attention will be given to the ship’s
construction, crew, passengers, sinking, and cultural legacy. ere will be
out-of-class reading and film viewing, and evaluation will be based on class
participation, projects, and short essays.
HUMAN RIGHTS
HRC*E299*56
Black, Green, and Between: Human Rights Study in Alabama and Ireland
Sandra Sprayberry and Erica Brown
Prerequisites:
None
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Letter
Max. Enrollment: 10 (FULL)
Meeting Times:
On campus meetings Jan 3-4 and at pre-arranged times
throughout Fall semester, Travel Jan 5-17
Fifty years after the Birmingham and Derry civil rights movements, scholars
are drawing substantive historical connections between the two movements
in Alabama and Ireland. Writers, artists, and musicians at the time of each
movement (and still today) called and responded. is project is a cultural
immersion in some of these commonalities. In this interdisciplinary and
international human rights project, students will study the historical
foundations of both movements and will experience—through study-travel in
some of the border counties of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland—
contemporary efforts towards peace and reconciliation.
Students will research the 1950s-60s movement in Birmingham and the
1960s-70s movement in Derry. Students will then travel to Dublin, Donegal,
and Sligo, Republic of Ireland, and to Derry, Northern Ireland. While there,
students will travel to important cultural heritage sites and will meet with
community activists. A focal part of the experience will be Drew University’s
fourth annual Transatlantic Connections conference; the 2017 theme is
“Equality Emerging.” BSC students will present and attend panels and
workshops that bring together BSC and Ulster University (Magee campus)
students. e conference theme promises to attract international scholars
and leaders to discuss human rights from a variety of interdisciplinary
approaches.
Estimated Student Fee: $3500
HISTORY
HI*E299*53
A General Education Curriculum for Global or World History:
From the Big Bang to the Present
Matt Levey
Prerequisites:
None
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Letter
Max. Enrollment: 15
Meeting Times:
M Tu W 11:00am-12:30pm
In this project we will explore Global or World History, from the Big Bang
to the emergence of European imperialism in the late 15th and early 16th
centuries. e project will be comprehensive in terms of time (from the Big
Bang to approximately 1500) and space (all over the world), and will proceed
in four phases: (1) an overview of
cosmological
or
universal history
—the story
of the Big Bang and the ever-expanding universe it created, because without
it, there would have been no possibility of life as we know it on earth; (2)
geological history
—the story of earth and how it helped shape the processes
of the evolution of all plants and animals in general; (3) the
evolutionary
history
of mankind—the evolution of hominids to the emergence of
humankind (the species
homo sapien
); and, finally, (4) the
history of
civilization
—beginning with the pre-civilized condition, the transition from
that to civilization, and the history of all civilizations up to 1500.
Because this involves a wide range of academic disciplines, the final
project will be for each student to design a liberal arts general education
curriculum that (1) integrates academic disciplines from the three areas
of the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and Mathematics and the Natural
Sciences; (2) has global reach, which is to say, is not confined to one or two
civilizations.
HI*E299*54
Internships for Historians
Will Hustwit
Prerequisites:
At Least One History Course
Open To:
Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors
Grading System: S/U
Max. Enrollment: 10
Meeting Times:
Tu W 10:00am-12:30pm
“Except for teaching, what’s a history major good for?” Sign up for this
project and find out! Students will learn about the field of public history as
they serve as interns in libraries, archives, museums, living history sites,
and other facilities, all in the Birmingham area. Students will be individually
placed according to talent, interest, and availability – but all will have the
opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they’ve learned as historians
at BSC, and all will get the chance to explore career possibilities for those who
want to engage with history outside of the classroom. S/U grade will be based
on intern mentor’s evaluation and a five-page reflective essay.