First, let me provide an overview of the teaching that I’ve been able to do here. One aspect of teaching at ACU that has been interesting and somewhat unexpected has been the variety of courses that I have had the opportunity to teach in a relatively short period of time. When I was initially hired in 2010, I was told to expect a typical semester to include three survey courses (Civilizations I or II, in my case) and one upper level. As it turned out, I had that schedule only once–in my very first semester. In all other semesters, I have had multiple upper levels, or some combination of upper levels, Core classes, and surveys. This is why I provide so many syllabi below–I have prepared and taught thirteen distinct courses in five and a half years. This teaching load has allowed me to rapidly expand my arsenal of pedagogies and my knowledge of the subjects I teach. My confidence in the classroom has grown as I have taken on each new course. Because of these opportunities to teach in such a variety of settings–classes ranging in size from three to 105 students, skills-based courses and content-driven courses, team-taught and alone, online and face-to-face–I unequivocally feel that it is in the area of teaching that I have grown and improved the most since coming to ACU.
The History and Global Studies Department’s curriculum includes five major history surveys: American History I and II, Civilizations I and II, and, recently added, a Modern World History survey; two majors courses, Historical Methods and Historiography Senior Capstone; and a variety of selections in upper level coursework, which allows students to develop more specific geographic and chronological focus. I teach both of the Civilization surveys regularly, and taught both Historical Methods and the Historiography Capstone for the first time in the 2013-14 academic year (while Dr. Tracy Shilcutt, who usually takes those courses, was teaching at CitySquare in Dallas).
The upper-level history courses I teach include, proceeding chronologically: Renaissance and Reformation Europe (c. 1350-1648), Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century (1789-1918), Recent Europe/Europe in Crisis (1918-present), and Modern Britain/British Imperialism (1688-present). I also have taught History of Asia, a much broader study of China, India, and Japan that ranges from the prehistoric era to the present, and in 2014, I revamped that class as the Special Topics course Mongols, Poppies, and Satyagraha: China, India, and the West since the Fourteenth Century. In the Fall of 2015, I am teaching our new World History Survey, HIST 131, for the first time.
Finally, I also teach in the University Core. I taught Core 120 until the shift to 210, and in the Fall of 2015 I am currently teaching Core 210 (Identity and Community) with Dr. Lauren Lemley for the fifth time. I have twice served as a speaker for the Cornerstone Spotlight, as well. You can watch a video of my Spotlight speech on the Humanities, a collaborative effort with Dr. Jeremy Elliott, here: Elliott Spotlight Humanities.
Outside of the normal academic calendar, I have taught a January Intensive short course on Nineteenth-Century Europe, and one history survey online during the summer. I expect to write and teach more online history surveys in the future as our department works to maintain and increase student enrollment. In the spring of 2015, I also team-taught an Honors Colloquium with Dr. Joshua Brokaw of the Biology Department.
Syllabi for all of these courses are available at the links below. In a few cases, I have provided syllabi from earlier and later years in my career so that readers may see the adjustments I have made over time. I have also included both the catalog titles of the courses and the more descriptive names so that readers should have no trouble connecting the appropriate syllabus to relevant student evaluations, which are available both on the front page of the portfolio and in the Student Evaluations page within the Teaching section.
General Education and Survey Courses:
Core120_Spring2011 (Human Nature and Identity, my first experience with Core, taught with Dr. Greg Straughn and Dr. Susan Lewis)
Core120_Fall2011 (Human Nature and Identity, with Dr. Lauren Lemley)
CORE 210_Fall2013 (the new combined course Identity and Community, with Lauren Lemley)
CORE 210 Syllabus F14 (the most recent iteration of Identity and Community in Fall 2014, with Lauren Lemley)
HIST 117 CivI_Fall2010 (Western Civilizations from prehistory to the 16th c., the first semester I taught at ACU)
HIST 117 CivI_Fall2012 (Western Civ prehistory to the 16th c., updated with a new project and some new pedagogies)
HIST 118 CivII_Spring2012 (Western Civilizations from the 15th c. to the present, Spring 2012)
HIST 118 Online SummerOnlineCivII_2013 (Western Civ, 15th c. to the present, Summer 2013, written with Dr. Tracy Shilcutt and implemented with a great deal of help from Shannon Smith)
HIST 117 HIST117_Sp15TR (my most recent Civ I syllabus, from Spring 2015, with some new contemporary readings and the Parthenon Debate added)
HIST 131 HIST131_Fall15 (Global Connections since1400, currently teaching Fall 2015)
Majors courses and upper levels:
HIST 495 History of Asia
HIST 419 NineteenthCenturyEurope
HIST 419 NineteenthCenturyEurope_JanIntensive (short course)
HIST 474 Recent Europe (now in the catalog as Europe in Crisis)
HIST 440 Modern Britain (now in the catalog as HIST 418 British Empire)
HIST 472 Renaissance and Reformation
HIST 353 Historical Methods This course is required for all history and history teaching majors.
HIST 459 Historiography Seminar This senior capstone course is required for all history majors.
HIST 440 ST: Mongols, Poppies, and Satyagraha: China, India, and the West since the Fourteenth Century (this course overhauled and will likely replace HIST 495 History of Asia)
Colloquium:
Evolution HON406-416 Syllabus: An honors colloquium on evolution and society, taught with Dr. Joshua Brokaw of the Department of Biology in spring 2015
You will find information about specific pedagogical adjustments, reflections on specific lessons I gleaned from teaching some of these courses, and student evaluations of these courses in the coming pages of the Teaching Section.