How to Register
To register for HIST 498, email the instructor for permission (email addresses are indicated below for the instructor for each section). The instructor can then give permission by email to the academic advisor, Paloma Boykin boykin1@arizona.edu, to enroll you in the course.
Capstone Options for Spring 2025
HIST 498: "Histories of Colonialism"
Prof. Gosner (kgosner@arizona.edu)
In person: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:45pm
In this research seminar, you are invited to explore global histories of colonialism. We’ll take an expansive view, think beyond Europe, and push our time frames back into antiquity or forward into the 21st century. Scholarship on colonialism in its many dimensions—war and trade, religion and conquest, immigration and settlement, ecology and disease, identity and culture, authority and resistance—cuts across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. You’ll have an opportunity to work with wildly different kinds of primary sources, focus on a time and place of your own choosing, and share your research in creative new formats or time-honored seminar papers.
HIST 498: "The History of Disaster"
Prof. Cushman (gcushman@arizona.edu)
In person: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:45pm
War, famine, and pandemic! Earthquakes and eruptions. Crash, collapse, and depression! When the slavers or colonists came. ‘Fear, fire, flood, and foes!’ The historical memory of societies is almost invariably structured at some level around catastrophic events. This capstone research seminar for history majors will investigate the history of disaster in any world region or time period before Y2K.
HIST 498: "Historical Biography"
Prof. Steptoe (tsteptoe@arizona.edu)
Fully Online
The story of one person’s life can reveal the history of an era, a place, a specific event, and so much more. This course explores the methods of researching and writing historical biography. Students may write about any person from any period.