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As a faculty member at the University of Redlands, a small liberal arts university in Southern California, I'm lucky to teach a wide variety of classes.
They range from introductory surveys of Early Modern and Modern European history to upper-division courses such as the History of Disability and Twentieth-Century Europe on Film. I also enjoy teaching seminars on gender and sexuality in Modern Europe, the history of the Francophone world, the history of madness, and historical methods and theories. Below you'll find brief descriptions of some of my favorite course offerings. |
The History of Disability
Disability often represents a "baseline inequality"—one which has been used to justify inequalities of race, class, and gender, such as when women or colonial subjects were denied the right to vote based on their perceived irrationality or when immigrants at Ellis Island were not allowed to enter the United States if they exhibited signs of mental or physical “unfitness.” Scholars have likewise pointed out that “disability is everywhere, once you start to look.”
This course examines the history of disability (both its cultural meaning and the lives of disabled people) since approximately 1700, paying particular attention to the history of disability in Europe and the United States. Modern Europe
This class examines the history of Europe from 1789 to the present, asking a series of questions as we examine an era of extraordinary political, social, and cultural change. What conditions make modern life “modern”? Does modernity always signify progress? Or does it have a darker side as well? How have people in the past coped with the contradictions of modern life? How do we? |
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Europe
As some of the most taken-for-granted aspects of social life, sex and gender can seem timeless. However, understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality have changed significantly over time—from the definition of normative gender roles, to the cultural meanings of sexual practices, to the emergence of the concept of sexual identity itself.
This course explores major topics in the intertwined histories of gender and sexuality, paying particular attention to the construction and deconstruction of gender norms in the modern period. Early Modern Europe
This course provides an introduction to Early Modern European history (from approximately 1350-1800).
We'll pay particular attention to the emergence of the new technologies, political forms, and economic practices that shaped the lives of all Europeans—kings, queens, soldiers, peasants, criminals, courtiers, revolutionaries, scientists, doctors, witches, tricksters, and more—during the period of transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern era. |
20th-Century Europe on Film
This class examines how Europe’s traumatic twentieth century has been depicted on film, comparing the representations to the realities and considering the ways in which film has shaped our collective understanding of Europe’s past and future.
Historical Methods
This class asks big questions about the nature and purpose of historical knowledge.
What is history? Why do we study history, and why have others studied it in the past? How do historians derive meaning for their sources? What constitutes evidence, and what are the limits of historical knowledge? What does it mean to think like a historian? And how might this training prepare you for your lives after college? France & the World
This class starts with the Revolution of 1789, paying particular attention to one important fact: from the very moment of its creation, the French nation-state was an empire. We will examine how imperialism shaped French national identity, how events in the colonies affected life in France, and how colonial peoples have challenged French hegemony throughout the empire and within the “hexagon” itself.
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