HIST 814: Methods Seminar
Fall 2025: HIST 814 is the entry-course for students matriculating into the graduate program in the SFU History Department. We will meet in person the first three weeks of the term and then pivot to Zoom meetings. Given the contingencies of enrollment in SFU's graduate program, the challenge of this course is to balance the development of collective conceptual frameworks that enable scholars to converse across diverse periods, geographic settings, and themes with individual specialization of fields and subjects. The professor will contact students once they have enrolled in 814 to tune readings to their individual fields of study. There will be several common books and many common articles, but the common themes of the second half of the course will diverge into specialized reading lists for each student. There will be weekly papers and a lot of discussion about the craft of writing. Stay tuned.
Topics: I am making it up as we go
Course Prerequisites
Acceptance into the MA or PhD program in SFU's History Department
Required Texts
Richard White, Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories (Seattle: UW Press, 1998/2004)
Louise Pubols, The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California (UC Press, 2009)
Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches. Discourse on a Silent Land: Marquesas, 1774-1880 (Dorsey Press, 1988)
Plus three books TBD
Course Evaluation
Weekly Precis Paper 30%
Weekly Discussions 30%
Term Paper 40%
Topics: I am making it up as we go
Course Prerequisites
Acceptance into the MA or PhD program in SFU's History Department
Required Texts
Richard White, Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories (Seattle: UW Press, 1998/2004)
Louise Pubols, The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California (UC Press, 2009)
Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches. Discourse on a Silent Land: Marquesas, 1774-1880 (Dorsey Press, 1988)
Plus three books TBD
Course Evaluation
Weekly Precis Paper 30%
Weekly Discussions 30%
Term Paper 40%
