Each week in this course focuses on one topic in the history of Boston, except for week 3, when the students are learning about research and digital humanities. Each Tuesday (and one Friday) we have a guest or guests, to lecture on the topic and/or discuss a book or article that they have authored. I will create a page for each topic, upload the lecture/discussion, and include references for the readings. I have posted the full schedule below (you can see the full syllabus here). Those interested in reading the essay questions students had to write on these topics can find them here.
Week 1, The Birth of Boston
September 15, Christopher Parsons (Associate Professor of History, Northeastern University)
Week 2, Research and Digital Humanities Training
September 22, NULab seminar on “Storytelling with Mapping: KnightLab StoryMap” led by Sarah Connell (Digital Scholarship Group and Assistant Director, Women Writers Project).
September 25, Molly Brown, seminar on working with digitized collections (Reference and Outreach Archivist, Northeastern University Library and Special Collections).
Week 3, King Philip’s War in History and Memory
September 29, Martin Blatt (Affiliate Professor of the Practice and former Director of the Public History Program, Northeastern University) and Christine DeLucia (Assistant Professor of History, Williams College)
Week 4, Boston as Atlantic Empire
October 6, Mark Peterson (Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History, Yale University)
Week 5, Slavery in Boston and Boston’s Role in the Slave Trade
October 13, Jared Hardesty (Associate Professor of History, Western Washington University)
Week 6, Boston’s Role in the American Revolution
October 20, Eric Schlereth (Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Dallas)
Week 7, Building the City
October 27, Nancy Seasholes (Independent scholar and author, PhD in History and Archaeology)
Week 8, Migration, Industry, Politics, and Law Part I: The Irish Migration
November 3, Hidetaka Hirota (Associate Professor of North American Studies and Migration Studies, Sophia University)
Week 9, Migration, Industry, Politics, and Law Part II: The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
November 10, Moshik Temkin (Johnson and Johnson Visiting Chair, Tsinghua University; Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University)
Week 10, Segregation and Integration in Boston
November 17, Matthew Delmont (Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History, Dartmouth College)
Week 11, The Sexual Abuse Scandal in the Boston Archdiocese
November 24, Matthew Carroll (Professor of the Practice of Journalism, Northeastern University)
Week 12, The Challenge of Policing in Boston
December 1, Michael Dukakis (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Northeastern University, and former Governor of Massachusetts)
December 4, Rod Brunson (Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Chair of Public Life and Professor of Criminology/Criminal Justice and Political Science, Northeastern University)
Wrapping Up, Boston’s Current and Future Challenges, from Climate Change to Inequality
December 8, Kim Janey (Boston City Council President, City Councilor, District 7)