Citizen Nation

This is the course website for “Citizen Nation” at Worcester State University in Fall 2014, which can be taken as History (HI) or Political Science (PO), as well as for Honors credit. I used this website when I taught the course in previous terms and I’ve left that course material up as an archive for those students; you can ignore any post not tagged “Fall14.”

This course is a seminar on the history and meaning of American citizenship, organized around several guiding questions: Who counts as an American? How do we decide as a society? What does it mean to be an American citizen? What rights, privilege, and responsibilities are part of that definition? In the founding generation, citizenship was limited to property-owning white men, and since that time, struggles to expand American citizenship have been at the core of the American story. How did the specifics of that struggle unfold over the course of American history?

As an upper-level seminar and a LASC “super-course”, this class presumes some prior historical knowledge and will ask you to dig deeply, read extensively, and write often; it is designed to be challenging even for experienced students. For the complete list of what you’ll be expected to know and do by the end of the course, see the “About” tab above.

For incoming students, get the list of 3 required books under the “Readings” tab above, and read the “Peer to Peer Advice” tab to get a sense of what to expect from–and what to put into–this semester’s work. Previous semester’s student research paper abstracts are posted in the “Student Showcase” if you’d like to get a sense of the quality and scope of research papers produced in prior semesters. If you need to contact me over the summer, you can track me down with the information posted under “Prof Info.” I look forward to meeting you in September!