This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to gender and sexuality studies. Its primary focus is critical perspectives on the social construction of gender and sexuality, inequalities on the basis of gender and sexuality, activism around issues of gender and sexuality, and how gender and sexuality shape and are shaped by other systems of inequality such as race, ethnicity, class, religion, nation, region, and age.
Students worked as tutors at Sophie B. Wright with For the Children. Students also observed gender relations amongst students and staff, provided companionship for residents at St. Margaret’s, and assisted staff in planning special activities.
GESS 3500
Identity, Difference, and Inequality
Various
This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of how gender and sexuality are implicated in, mediate, or are mediated by the social and cultural construction of racial and ethnic identities and cultures, the formation of economic structures and class cultures, and race, ethnic, and class inequalities.
Students conducted an oral history survey and created an archive that documented the history of a New Orleans performance community. Students also collaborated with performers to determine what content would constitute a useful archive for understanding their performance cultures.
Designed to explore the innovations and interventions of Black feminists in both the academy and activism, this course examines the creation of Black women’s intellectual traditions. In the interests of scope, the course extends this conversation from slavery to the present, but in the interests of focus, it primarily explores the African-American tradition.
Students visit St. Gabriel’s Womens Prison to film incarcerated women reading to their children as part of the Read to Me, Mommy program.
Germanic & Slavic Studies
GERM 2030
Intermediate German I
Various
In this course, students will continue to develop proficiency in language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) at the intermediate level. The course will further introduce students to contemporary German culture.
Students surveyed New Orleans public and private schools to determine which schools offered German, developed a presentation, or mentored students studying German at local high schools.
GERM 3050
Advanced Grammar and Composition
Various
This course combines language acquisition with content-based instruction for varying topics. The course aims at reinforcing and expanding students’ proficiency primarily in writing. In this endeavor, the course offers a thorough and comprehensive review of German grammar at the advanced level, including principles and distinctions not usually covered in lower and intermediate courses.
Students helped prepare for the annual Oktoberfest, and developed cultural history of German-speaking immigrants
History
HISA 3190
Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town
Susann S. Lusnia
This course is a survey of Roman culture through the study of the town destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. The focus is on the society, politics, religion, domestic life, entertainment, economy, and art of Pompeii and the surrounding region in the early imperial period.
Students helped Longue Vue House and Gardens develop a landscape manual/database. Students also conducted a "Quality of Life" survey in the 7th Ward.
HISB 4970
Archiving Africa
Elisabeth McMahon
This is an advanced course in historical methods that uses a service-learning component to enhance student understanding of historical materials, archives, and how these connect with the larger community. In this course, students will focus in particular on materials related to African history found in New Orleans archives, allowing students to develop an understanding of the historical links between the local community and the continent of Africa.
Students produced a detailed guide and bibliography of Africa-related collections in the Amistad Research Center (ARC) archives.
HISB 6970
Gulf South in Africa
Elisabeth McMahon
This course will explore the 20th century history and links between people living in the Gulf South and the African continent. The history of Africans brought to the Gulf South as slaves in the 17th-19th centuries is well documented. However, little work has been done on the modern relationship between the two regions. This class will work to build a community archive of knowledge about 20th century links.
Students conducted oral history interviews, transcribed the interviews, confirmed the oral histories with informants, processed the transcriptions for the collection at Amistad, and created a detailed guide and index to the oral histories.
HISE 2170
19th Century Europe
George Bernstein
This course is a survey of 19th Century Europe. Our course will partner with VAYLA, the Vietnamese-American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans. Each student will complete 20 hours of mandatory service-learning through weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions with VAYLA youth (high school students) on Wednesdays from 3:30-5:30pm; the class will travel to and from VAYLA together on Wednesday afternoons. The course integrates additional service-learning experiences in conjunction with VAYLA, including field trips and a reflection workshop.
As their public service, students tutor AP US history, AP world history (since roughly 1600), or AP modern European history at an open enrollment New Orleans public school.
HISE 2330
Modern Britain
George Bernstein
This course is a survey of British history since 1760. The objective of the course is typical of a history survey course: to introduce students to the subject, to historical issues and debates, to thinking and writing like historians, including the use of primary sources as evidence in history.
Students tutor AP high school students, mainly focused on history, teaching the same objectives of history as learned in class. Students focus on links between teachers and learners of history, and the act of teaching as a learning experience.
This course examines the creation of gardens, parks and public green space in Europe and the Americas from 1500 to the present day. We will study not just the historical evolution, technology or art form of gardens and parks but also what they mean to people.
Students will perform service at City Park. This will enable them to understand about park maintenance, usage and development. Through the class readings and the mandatory service, students will be able to reflect on the significance of the role played by parks in the community, and what could be done to enhance this.
HISE 4350
Britain in Decline?
George Bernstein
This course is a history of Britain since the Second World War, with a focus on issues on if Britain did or did not decline. Central to this debate are the following "evidences" of decline: loss of relative power (i.e., rise of US & USSR), loss of empire, rise of welfare state and the supposed undermining of independent initiative.
Students will work at the WWII Museum, and discuss the impact of the war on any of these three issues in their research paper. Alternatively, students can work with a public service partner involved with providing services to the people of New Orleans, and write their research paper on some subject of race, poverty, welfare provision, or urban redevelopment in Britain that gives them some basis for comparison between Britain and the US in dealing with this issue and debates over welfare provision.
This course will explore the history of reproductive health in the United States from the seventeenth century to the present. Students will read scholarly books and articles, memoirs, and films about Americans’ encounters with gynecology, midwifery and obstetrics, birth control devices, abortion, and reproductive technologies. Additionally, students will have opportunities to engage with guest lecturers who study reproductive health issues in the United States and around the world.
Students partner with the New Orleans Abortion Fund (NOAF) [or with an anti-abortion group, if desired] researching the current state of reproductive health in Louisiana. Students will have opportunities to conduct oral histories, to identify locations where women receive reproductive health care, and to analyze federal, state, and local policies that shape Louisianans’ access to reproductive health care. At the end of the semester, students will donate materials to the Newcomb Archives.
HISU 2610/6610
The Old South
Randy Sparks
Economic, cultural and political history of the South from the settlement of Jamestown through the Civil War. Emphasis is on those factors that made the South a unique section of the nation.
Students work at various historical institutions (museums, archives, digital archives, etc.) in different capacities with the goal of learning more about the South’s history and how that history is shaped, preserved, and presented through a focus on New Orleans.
HISU 2620
The New South, 1855-Present
Randy Sparks
An examination of the economic, political, cultural, and intellectual forces that have shaped the American South since the Civil War. Central themes include the rise of sharecropping and tenancy, the struggle for civil rights, the emergence of two-party politics, and the metamorphosis of popular values and social norms triggered by the events of the 1960s. The course will explore the paradox of continued self-conscious regional identity in the face of constant internal change.
Students work at various historical institutions (museums, archives, digital archives, etc.) in different capacities with the goal of learning more about the South’s history and how that history is shaped, preserved, and presented through a focus on New Orleans.
HISU 3690
African American History to 1865
Laura Adderley
This class surveys the history of people of African descent in the United States from the 17th century to the end of the Civil War. The course will explore the development of a distinct African-American experience within the context of colonial North America and the early United States. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the origins and nature of slavery not simply as a system of forced labor, but as a system of unique cultural relationships.
Students worked with historical documents--at Amistad Research Center and Destrehan Plantation-- assisting professional staff in review, description, and cataloguing.
HISU 3700
African American History from Emancipation to Present
Laura Adderley
This course surveys the history of people of African descent in the United States from the end of the Civil War until the late twentieth century. A central theme of the course will be the varying ways in which African-Americans sought, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to achieve political, social, and economic freedom in the wake of emancipation.
Students worked in documentary collections at the Associated for Retarded Children (ARC), which allowed them to engage with primary source materials.
Students will gain a solid foundation in mid-19th and 20th century immigration history and grapple with the following themes: immigrant community formation, the interplay between immigration and American labor, the changing immigration law, the intersection of immigration and U.S. racial formations, and the prominence of immigrant narratives in American culture.
Students partnered with the Loyola Immigration Law Clinic. These students attended an orientation workshop and then traveled to the Tensas detention center where they worked with law students to provide a “Know Your Rights” workshop for detainees.
HISU 3940
Living History
Laura Kelley
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the Native American influence in shaping Louisiana history. Specifically, students will have the opportunity to learn about the history of Native Americans in southeastern Louisiana and work with tribal members on a historic documentation project.
Students researched, recorded, and thereby preserved, the culture, history, and traditions of the tribes of the New Orleans area with a focus on the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe.
HISU 3990
New Orleans Slavery & Local Public History
Laura Adderley
This course will explore the history and public memory of slavery and the slave trade in New Orleans, southern Louisiana, and the wider Gulf South region, including parts of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as some locations further afield related to the domestic slave trade from the upper South to states in the Deep South/Gulf South region.
Students worked with local public history agencies either on slavery research related to their sites or on the development of materials for their public display.
HISU 6560
Rise and Fall of the Plantation South
Randy Sparks
This reading and research seminar will explore the rise of the southern plantation as an agricultural, social, cultural and economic unit. We will begin with the colonial period and end with the decline of the plantation system during the 20th Century. We will explore the origin of the plantation system in the early modern Atlantic World, its rise in the southern part of North America, and its role in shaping the economic, social, cultural, and political life of the region. We will explore the variations in the plantation system governed by the production of the region’s staple crops: tobacco, rice, cotton and sugar. We will analyze the effects of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery on the system, and its persistence is some areas well into the 20th Century.
Students will write a major research paper based on their research at Evergreen, and present an oral presentation on their work there. They will also complete a “Community Experience Portfolio” that will give an overview of the experiences and insights they have gained working in their CBO.
HISU 6930
U.S. Migration and Labor
Jana Lipman
This course is an advanced seminar on the relationships between labor, capital, and migrant populations to (and within) the United States in the twentieth century.
Students worked with agencies that allowed them to have direct experiences with workers, immigrants, and advocacy, conducting research, surveying clients/constituents, and assisting in direct services with Restaurant Opportunities Center, Loyola Law Clinic, and Puentes.
HISU 6932/3930
New Orleans Hidden History
Laura Kelley
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the immigrant influence in shaping New Orleans history. Specifically, students will have the opportunity to learn about the history of St. Alphonsus Parish neighborhood which encompasses the Irish Channel among other neighborhoods and to work with members from the St. Alphonsus Art and Cultural Center on a historic documentation project.
Students engaged in oral history projects and archival research.
