Fall 2020  |  HIST 1000 Section 001: New Topics in History -- Panic & Plague in 1720 & 2020: The View from Here (34527)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Repeat Credit Limit:
6 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
Topics Course
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/08/2020 - 12/16/2020
Fri 11:15AM - 01:45PM
UMTC, West Bank
Willey Hall 125
Enrollment Status:
Open (8 of 40 seats filled)
Course Catalog Description:
Courses on new topics in history, historical topics related to current events, and other special subjects. Contact the History department for current listings.
Class Description:
In 1720, two global projects of financial speculation, one centered in Paris that focused on the imagined development of the Mississippi River region, collapsed, creating a global economic panic. In the same year, the Mediterranean city of' Marseilles experienced the last mass outbreak of the Bubonic plague recorded in European history. In 1721, Boston was rocked by an outbreak of the viral disease smallpox that afflicted almost half the city's population. Yet this outbreak was also innovative in that it led to the first use in the West (the practice was ancient in Africa and the Middle East) of the practice of inoculation to fight the disease, a remedy that also provoked from the outset an "anti-vaxxer" movement in opposition to it. 1720-21 was therefore a time of global epidemics and trans-oceanic economic crisis, not unlike our own time three hundred years later, and this alternative experiential learning class will explore these comparative historical dynamics by building bridges between 1720 and 2020, and between Minnesotans living today during the Corona virus pandemic and the inhabitants of the premodern Upper Mississippi Valley region during the crises of 1720-21. Students will read and discuss texts and study images and artworks from the eighteenth century and today; they will virtually attend Zoomcast lectures from visiting scholars who are experts on these topics; they will work with library curators in the development of an online exhibition, and take field trips to museums and historical sites as the pandemic allows it; they will also and work in conjunction with a student theater director in the production of an eighteenth-century play.
Who Should Take This Class?:
Anyone interested in thinking critically and imaginatively about the past experience of disease, pandemic, and global economic crisis, and its relevance for understanding our world today.
Grading:
As an experiential learning class, active participation and effort will be a major criteria in determining grades.
Exam Format:
This will be a project based class, with no exams. Much of the work will involve the use of digital technologies.
Class Format:
This class is listed as an "in-person" class, but much of the work will be done remotely using online technologies, and many of the assignments will be done via Canvas and other online resources. Students who need accommodation because of the risks involved with in-person gathering due to the Corona virus, WILL BE ACCOMMODATED, and this course is open to any student regardless of their level of comfort with in-person gatherings. Please address any questions about these issues to me at jbshank@umn.edu.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/34527/1209
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
18 July 2020

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