The U.S. Law and Race Initiative offers undergraduate and graduate curriculum on law and race in the United States, taught by initiative faculty and our faculty partners.
HIST 112 - History of the U.S. Present
Study of present-day issues in American society and the historical origins of those issues. Exploration of U.S. contemporary society in a global, comparative perspective. Themes include political development and change, social reform movements, immigration and identity, technology, and war.
HIST 115 - And Justice For All: Race, Gender, and the Law in U.S. History
Introductory survey of the intersections between race, gender, and the law in U.S. history. Includes a review of colonial legal regimes regarding empire, slavery, and liberty; key concepts in American law such as federal Indian law and tribal sovereignty; gendered and racialized restrictions on citizenship and civil rights; tensions between state and federal authority; and historic campaigns for the expansion and restriction of individual liberties.
HIST 245 - Modern America Since 1900
As offered Spring 2025 by Donna D. Anderson
This course will strive to understand time, circumstance, and history as they impact the United States, our communities, and ultimately, ourselves. Fulfilling the Ace 8 objective, this course introduces the theories, methods, and practices of the discipline of History through an examination of key features of American society during the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the role of government, race, class, gender, immigration, popular culture, and social/political reform movements. Acknowledging that there are many versions of history, students will exercise their ability to deduce and reason their historical construction through the use of primary and secondary source materials. In line with the U.S. Law and Race Initiative, the course will focus on understanding racialized people's use of the law to advance personhood, citizenship, rights, and sovereignty throughout American history.
HIST 340/840 - Rights & Wrongs in American Legal History
As offered Spring 2025 by Katrina Jagodinsky
Rights & Wrongs introduces students to fundamental debates and overarching trends in U.S. legal history, including debates and dilemmas over the attainment and distribution of rights and obligations in American legal history from colonial times to the present. First, students develop an understanding of legal history as a discipline and read key works outlining mainstream approaches to historical and critical inquiry of legal practice and systems. Second, students practice using legal history research tools and methodologies so that they are equipped with the skills necessary to produce evidence for their historical questions and analytical models. Third, students read deeply into key events in U.S. legal history that revolve around the question of citizenship exclusion and inclusion in 19th- and 20th-century U.S. legal history and the history of granting rights and policing wrongs in American history. Students will draw from these shared readings to develop their own legal history portfolios centering on particular questions related to course themes. Continued readings throughout the semester will acquaint students with the historical roots of current legal debates.
Cross-listed with ETHN 340.
HIST 341 - American Constitutional History
As offered Fall 2024 by William G. Thomas III
In 1776, the United States proclaimed a set of self-evident truths: that all people are created equal, and that they have unalienable rights to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This is a course about the formation and development of a government designed "to secure these rights." The course explores what constitutes “the Constitution,” and examines how Americans have interpreted the Constitution, both written and unwritten, from 1787 to today. Where do rights come from, and what do these rights mean? How are constitutional rights asserted, defined, and defended?
This course is designed to introduce students to the main themes and events of American constitutional history from the colonial period to the present. The focus of the class is on historical change, and takes an explicitly historical approach to the law and constitutional questions. In this class, we consider constitutional history broadly to include the experience of the Constitution in the daily lives of Americans, the interplay of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of American government, and the role of political, economic, social, and cultural change in shaping American ideas about rights, citizenship, racialization, the rule of law, and government.
HIST 953 - Comparative Legal History
As offered Spring 2022 by William G. Thomas III
This reading seminar introduces students to the major issues and problems in comparative legal history. The course is designed for students in both the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in history, the humanities, law, and related social science disciplines. The course is open to graduate students in other related graduate programs in the College of Arts and Sciences with interest in law, constitutionalism, policy, and social and behavioral sciences. All graduate students who seek a comprehensive course comparing legal systems are welcome. Students in the College of Law may take this course for credit in the joint M.A./J.D. program.
The goal of this course is to provide a common foundation of readings in comparative legal history and legal systems with particular focus on constitutional ideas about rights, citizenship, racialization, the rule of law, and government. As such, the course cannot cover all events and trends with equal depth or precision, but students can look forward to other graduate-level courses to build on the fundamental comparative overview offered here.
HIST 983 - Readings and Problems in Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in History
Engages with recent and classic scholarship on race, ethnicity, and identity, primarily in American history. Covers new comparative and transnational scholarship. May emphasize different themes and readings depending on area of expertise of faculty.