Part of teaching the history of the United States is teaching the history of ideologies of white supremacy and their institutional expressions. And one of the techniques of white supremacy has been the dehumanization of non-whites with racist language. Because of slavery and the centrality of anti-blackness to white supremacist ideas, the “n-word” remains probably…
Teaching the second half of the U.S. History survey offers countless opportunities to draw parallels between history and current events (especially if one carves out time for the Bush and Obama years). In the past year alone, news stories involving police brutality, gun violence, and voting rights (to name a few) have garnered discussion, both…
As I prepare for a new semester, I often escape onto social media for respite. Last night, I found no succor. Instead, I was confronted by a random gathering of posts either disparaging or misunderstanding a liberal arts education. Oh how the stars align. Instead of thinking about the last minute changes I need to…
When I summarized my research paper in the survey experience last semester, a very nice twitter discussion developed about how to give students feedback on long, research-based papers. I thought I would use my space this month to discuss how I approach guiding and grading such assignments. The biggest revelation I had as an undergraduate…
I am extremely ambivalent about extra credit. On one hand, I am convinced that most extra credit is utterly worthless, if not downright counterproductive. It has the potential to provide students with an incentive to do shoddy work on their regular assignments, or shirk them altogether. It has become so ubiquitous that students simply expect…
On Monday, I promised my students that I would make learning about footnotes fun. We’ll see if I can deliver. This semester I’m teaching a section of our Historical Methods and Skills course, HST 201. The way that we teach methods is to have multiple 20-person sections each semester, in which students write a 15-20…
The annual AHA meeting is this weekend, putting forth a program that not only pays considerable attention to pedagogy but also the rapidly expanding field of digital humanities. Digital humanities, a bridge between technology and history, is one of many components within the broader historical profession that engages with STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.…
By way of brief introduction, as this is my first post, let me say that this semester I will be teaching a U.S. history survey for the first time, at the University of Texas at El Paso. I was trained in Latin American history, and have taught surveys in that subject area. But the U.S.…
In the wake of the tragic shooting in Charleston this past summer, the shadow of the American Civil War Era hangs over the nation like a heavy cloud. More than a century and a half removed from Appomattox the war has never left the collective national consciousness even in spite of the disparate and conflicting…
What methods from high school history courses are useful in the college classroom? I’ve been trying to understand how history education in college connects to that of the secondary and primary level. One of the clearest areas of overlap is the Advanced Placement (AP) history curriculum offered in many high schools. These classes culminate with…
