History of Sexuality in Early America

In this seminar, students were introduced to the interdisciplinary study of sexuality in early America through primary source research in the unparalleled archival holdings of the American Antiquarian Society. Over the course of the semester students moved from the study of prescriptions for appropriate sexual behavior to descriptions of many different forms of sexual experience. While it is often tempting to think of the past as a time when sexuality was either more .traditional. or more .repressed..

Dressing Democracy: Clothing and Culture in America

Touted as the only nation where citizens could not be classed by their appearance, Americans were nevertheless anxious about the ways they presented themselves in a world without fixed social hierarchies. This seminar examined this crisis of self-presentation in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America, exploring the ways in which aspirants to genteel culture — as well as those excluded from it — employed dress, etiquette and deportment to personal and political ends.

Reason, Revival, and Revolution: Religion in America's Founding, 1726-1792

The role of religion in the founding of the American Republic is one of the most contentious historical and political issues of our time. As Presidential candidates vie to persuade voters of their religious fervor, religious denominations undertake unprecedented lobbying and electoral action, and the Supreme Court blurs "the separation of church and state," two different historical accounts of religion in Revolutionary society have also emerged in scholarly discourse.

The Nineteenth-Century Networked Nation: The Politics of American Technology, 1776-1876

Americans often talk of twenty-first century communications technology as if society were embarking on a novel endeavor towards a gleaming (virtual) city of the future. But what if our engagement with the technology of the present resonates with the experience of previous generations? And what if that past experience could teach us important lessons about the politics of technology in general? Could we learn whether—and how—politics can direct the development and adaptation of new technologies?

The North's Civil War: Union and Emancipation

Between 1861 and 1865 Americans made war on one another. By the time the killing had ended upwards of 750,000 were dead and much of the South lay in ruins. In the process the United States was transformed in ways that few people could have anticipated in 1861. Through service in the United States army, participation in various patriotic organizations, or just by following the war's progress on the home front Americans debated central issues related to the survival and maintenance of their Union.

The Worm in the Apple: Slavery, Emancipation, and Race in Early New England

New England’s complicated relationship with slavery and emancipation is an important part of the American story. In the eighteenth century, the trade in Indian and African slaves and products produced by their labor undergirded New England’s maritime commercial development. Ending slavery in the region was a painful and lengthy process accompanied by increasing white hostility and violence toward free people of color.

Early American Transgender Studies

A revolution in transgender rights in the United States is underway. Once marginalized and denigrated by mainstream society, the medical establishment, the legal system, and even the lesbian and gay rights movement, transgender people are increasingly gaining rights and recognition. This seminar will survey a wide range of transgender practices from the past and explore the intersection between the fields of early American history and transgender studies.

A Second and More Glorious Revolution: Protest and Radical Thought in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Socialist communes; antislavery insurrections; strikes and riots; Free Love dance parties: the nineteenth-century United States bubbled over with schemes to overthrow the existing social order at a time that is too often misremembered as conservative or “Victorian.” Students in this seminar will explore the literature and culture of American radicalism, discovering the forgotten historical precursors of contemporary social movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and Me Too.

We Protect Us: Early American Histories of Mutual Aid and Community Care

In the months following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid a deepening housing and employment crisis, numerous mutual aid organizations sprouted up across the country as a way to share resources during lockdown. Many BIPOC organizers were quick to point out that mutual aid–which seeks to directly meet people’s needs without harmful intervention masked as aid from the state–was not invented in 2020, but has long been a central part of social movement work and how disenfranchised communities take care of one another.

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