Sylvie Coulibaly

The course is designed specifically with first-year students in mind. The seminar is taught by an interdisciplinary group of Kenyon faculty members who have interests in teaching, researching and engaging with others in the discussion of issues and concerns pertaining to African and African diaspora studies. The specific topic to be addressed each year is developed by the crossroads faculty at the end of the preceding spring semester. The seminar typically will be taught as a colloquium where several crossroads faculty offer a set of lectures serving as discrete modules. Within this format, students will explore the cultures of the African diaspora and their influences on the global culture. Students will also focus on analytical writing and public vocal expression. Enrollment is limited to 15 students. This counts toward 0.5 units in AFDS or AMST. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. No prerequisite. Generally offered every other year.

This course is a thematic survey of the United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Students will examine the transformation of the United States from a rural, largely Protestant society into a powerful and culturally diverse urban/industrial nation. Topics will include constitutional developments, the formation of a national economy, urbanization and immigration. The course also will discuss political changes, the secularization of public culture, the formation of the welfare state, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War as well as suburbanization, the civil rights movement, women's and gay rights, and the late 20th-century conservative politics movement and religious revival. This counts toward the history requirement for the major. This course is the same as HIST 102D. This course must be taken as HIST 102D to count towards the social science requirement. No prerequisite.

This course is a thematic survey of the United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Students will examine the transformation of the United States from a rural, largely Protestant society into a powerful and culturally diverse urban/industrial nation. Topics will include constitutional developments, the formation of a national economy, urbanization and immigration. The course also will discuss political changes, the secularization of public culture, the formation of the welfare state, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War as well as suburbanization, the civil rights movement, women's and gay rights, and the late 20th-century conservative politics movement and religious revival. This course is the same as AMST 102D. This must be taken as HIST 102D to count towards the social science requirement. This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite.

The stock market crash of 1929 is remembered as the beginning of the longest and most severe economic crisis in the history of the United States. With the near collapse of the banking and financial systems, widespread unemployment and crushing poverty, what had started as a crisis morphed into what is known as the Great Depression. The Depression was the result of several historical processes that may be traced as far back as the Gilded Age. The Depression destroyed Herbert Hoover’s political career and gave rise to the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal. In the process, F.D.R redefined the relationship between government and the people, revolutionized the role of government and ushered in a new era in U.S. politics with the emergence of modern Liberalism. Farmers, city people, agrarian conservatives, labor, the unemployed, politicians, demagogues, free market versus national planning, progressive ethos versus conservative ideology, men and women, white, black, Hispanic and Native Americans, are some of the themes this course will focus on. Additionally, the course will assess the social, cultural and intellectual currents of the Great Depression era. This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.

Until the 1960s, historians of the United States’ past largely ignored the experiences and the roles of women and of other minorities. Gerda Lerner was among the first historians to use gender as a tool of historical analysis and to challenge a narrative that relegated women to the margins. This course will trace how from settlement in the 17th century to the present day, American women have shaped the historical process of the nation and beyond. We will examine broad themes including the legal definitions of womanhood, women’s economic status, their work, consumption, sex, sexuality, reproduction and marriage as well as the social and political aspects of clothing. Religion and spirituality as well as women’s role in politics will be among the other themes this course will focus on. We will also analyze the ways in which notions of gender have changed over time and how a wide variety of women have created and responded to changing domestic and global economic, political and social environments. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.

From “Birth of A Nation” to “Spartacus,” “Milk,” “Seabiscuit” or “Ali,” films that are “based on actual events” or “based on a true story” attract scores of audiences to the theater. Both art and products of mass consumption, films exert a tremendous influence in shaping popular culture, both in the US and abroad. Films do not just entertain us; their stories shape how we think of ourselves as individuals and vehicle powerful ideas about race, gender, class, sexuality and nationhood. Films, TV series and documentaries are perhaps the most influential medium through which Americans learn about the past, especially the American past. While this course will analyze the birth of cinematography and the rise of the film industry, the goal will be to understand the relationship between history, historians and films that represent the past. Our inquiry into this complicated and sometimes conflictual relationship will be guided by questions that include: What are historical films? How are historical films made and why? Are historical films a valid way to learn about the past? Are historical films a valid historical source? What do historical films tell us about ourselves? What is the relationship between history, film and propaganda? How do history, film and power intersect? No prerequisite.

We will examine how successive waves of immigrants, from the eve of the Civil War to the present, have shaped cities, markets, suburbs and rural areas, while altering education, labor, politics and foreign policy. The course will address such questions as: Why do people leave their homelands? Where do they settle in America and why? What kinds of economic activities do they engage in? How do the children adapt? How does assimilation work? What are the effects of immigration on those born in America? This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite.

This course will examine the emergence of black intellectual life in the United States from the early 19th century to the present. The course will focus on the changing role of black intellectuals as individual figures and political and social leaders. The course also will focus on how slavery, racism and gender discrimination have affected black thought. Works of fiction and films will be used extensively. This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor.

This course shall focus on the major trends of U.S. foreign policy from the Spanish-American War to the present. This seminar will examine the actors who have shaped U.S. foreign policy, as well as how such policies are connected to the larger historical forces both at home and abroad. The course will emphasize, in particular, the origins of U.S. foreign policy and its evolution through various time periods and administrations. The course will explore themes such as: What is foreign policy? Does the U.S. need a foreign policy? What is the relationship between race and foreign policy? How do conceptions of manhood and of womanhood affect foreign policy? What are the economic and cultural aspects of foreign policy and their effects? This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor. Offered every two to three years.

At the end of the Gilded Age, Pastor Lyman Abbott of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn lamented, “What shall we do with our great cities? What will our great cities do with us? These are the two problems which confront every thoughtful American today.” Yet, in “The Great Gatsby,” looking over New York, Nick Carraway remarked that the most unique possibility the city offered was for reinvention, saying that, “‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge.’ I thought; ‘anything at all… Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.’” These words highlight the centrality of the city in American life and culture from the turn of the 19th century to this day and the tensions between proponents of the metropolis who celebrate its economic dynamism, cultural prominence and diversity, while its detractors decry the same. This course will trace the history of how New York City became the archetype of the modern American city from its rise as a global economic, cultural and political center to its fall during the desegregation era and its renewal in the last decade of the 20th century. Race, gender and class will provide the frameworks of analysis to explore such themes as economic transformation in the industrial age and beyond, urban planning and technological advances, the concept of public space, utilities and welfare policies, as well as immigration, cosmopolitanism, community and identity. This counts toward the modern and Americas/Europe and modern requirement for the major and minor.

Novels and films are powerful tools of historical projection in modern societies, and Africa is no exception. The sub-Saharan African novel is a recent phenomenon, dating back, for the most part, to the early 20th century. The African film is of even more recent vintage and to a large extent remains a marginal form of expression for most of sub-Saharan Africa. However small a group they remain, sub-Saharan novelists and filmmakers have had a considerable impact on the societies that produced them. We will examine the influence of African novelists and filmmakers on the political and social realms of their societies and attempt to determine the relationship between novels, films and the historical reality of sub-Saharan Africa from the 1940s to the present. We also shall focus on how novels and films have in turn been shaped by the historical forces they have attempted to transcend. Finally, we will analyze the vision Africans have of their past and their judgment of that vision. This counts toward the modern requirement for the major and minor.

The goal of this course is to give each history major the experience of a sustained, independent research project, including formulating a historical question, considering methods, devising a research strategy, locating and critically evaluating primary and secondary sources, placing evidence in context, shaping an interpretation and presenting documented results. Research topics will be selected by students in consultation with the instructor. Classes will involve student presentations on various stages of their work and mutual critiques, as well as discussions of issues of common interest, such as methods and bibliography. Open only to senior history majors. This counts toward the senior research seminar requirement for the major. Prerequisite: HIST 387. Offered every fall.