HMUS 536 - Major Historical Issues for Museums 3 s.h.

This course explores key historical topics, themes, and issues that American museums routinely address. Students analyze primary documents and historical works with the goal of building critical skills and knowledge needed for the conceptualization of exhibitions and programs on historical topics from the era of contact to the present. Major topics include changing interpretations of Native American histories and cultures, the political uses of the American Revolution, confronting slavery and race in museums and historic sites, the contested histories of the Civil War and Reconstruction, shifting debates over immigration, the legacies of the Civil Rights Movement, the role of environmental history in the environmental movement, and the challenges of narrating the history of terrorism. Fall elective.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor and the director is required for students not enrolled in CGP.