The history and global studies department is adding two new courses to students this upcoming spring.

One class being added is Introduction to Public History: Interpreting American Path’s.

History majors are required to have a specific amount of U.S. History survey credit, which is two courses as of now. To fulfill those two courses, the courses offered are U.S. History I and U.S. History II.

Majors will be able to take this course as one of their two U.S. History classes. The history and global studies department encourages students outside of this major to take the course.

“The idea behind the course is to provide essentially a survey of U.S. History since the civil war but to do that through the lens of public history,” said Dr. Kelly Elliot, associate professor and chair of the History and Global Studies department.

The course will focus on monuments, national parks, museums, presidential libraries and much more for students wanting to take this upcoming class.

The second class being added is Topics in Public History, which will focus on African American public history in the spring.

What this class will primarily focus on in the spring is African American Public History, but the class may also be offered in various contexts such as African American public history, history of presidential libraries or even study abroad.

“Dr. Shilcutt will be offering it in Oxford in the fall of ’21, and in that context it’s going to be about studying history of the way imperialism has been portrayed,” Elliot said.

These courses are not yet in the catalog, but the council plans to add them by spring.