Time Schedule:
Linda L Nash
HIST 498
Seattle Campus
Each seminar examines a different subject or problem. A quarterly list of the seminars and their instructors is available in the Department of History undergraduate advising office.
Class description
This is a senior seminar which focuses on the history of consumption and consumer culture in the United States since the late nineteenth century. Through a series of class readings and discussions, we will survey the rise and expansion of consumer culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and consider some of the key theoretical perspectives on consumerism. Readings will emphasize social, cultural, and environmental approaches to the study of consumerism. Students will then conceptualize and produce their own social and environmental histories of a particular commodity or a commodified space.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
reading and discussion
Recommended preparation
Some college-level coursework in post-1865 U.S. history, especially in cultural or social history. The associated lecture course on consumerism, HSTAA 371, is excellent preparation, though not required.
Class assignments and grading
Active and regular participation in class discussions; several short writing assignments based on assigned readings; rough and final drafts of a longer (15 pp) research paper.
Grade will be based on participation in seminar discussions and written work.
