Theory and History:

Some courses I teach focus purely on the philosophical theories of the last century or so which historians have drawn on in order to understand society, identity, culture, and change. Theoretical writings which these courses draw on are those of Gramsci, Foucault, Habermas, Freud, Lacan, Althusser, Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Trin T. Minh-ha, bell hooks, Edward Said, Benedict Anderson, Spivak, Frantz Fanon, Hobsbawm, Gloria Anzaldua, Judith Butler, Joan Scott, Joan Copjek, Donna Haraway, Slavoj Zizek, Irigaray, Kristeva, Deleuze and Guattari, Toni Morrison, Jacques Derrida, among others. While these theorists and the theoretical fields of feminist theory, marxist theory and postmodern theory have relevance for many scholarly disciplines, my interest in them lies primarily with their usefulness to historians in understanding cultural specificity and change over time.

An example of a course on theory and history that I teach is:

Historiography (689)

Course description and objectives:  The primary goal of this course is to provide incoming graduate students with the opportunity to think seriously and systematically about history as a discipline shaped by many and often contradictory concerns, as a profession with its own historical trajectory, and as an intellectual project requiring intense metacognitive consideration.  Students will be introduced to a selection of significant historical writings culled from various fields of historical inquiry.  They will also encounter quite recent synthetic and exploratory theoretical writings by theoreticians, philosophers, social critics, and historians of history.  The purpose of juxtaposing these two different types of is to encourage students to critique their own and others’ conceptualizations of history and historical methodologies and to enable them to participate effectively within the debates and discourses with which professional historians are currently engaged.

Women, History, and Film  (Special Topics:  HST 340)

Course description and objectives:   Using visual as well as textual sources, this course exposes students to major ideas and debates in feminist film theory.  Students will learn to bring a historical perspective and theoretical sophistication to their analysis of the representation of women, audiences, and popular culture in the twentieth century.