Change: Creation & Navigation

Students wishing to take history during their senior year choose two semester-long courses:

Fall - Constitutional Law
This course helps students gain an understanding of the slow but steady movement towards a more inclusive and expansive view of fundamental rights by the Supreme Court. The course will look at the term “liberty” and see how this one word has been debated for over a century, and how it is the basis for many rights that many have taken for granted. Students will consider such cases as Lochner v. New York, Griswold v. Connecticut, Roe v. Wade, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges—all of which focus on different elements of “liberty” is this relates to individual rights and privacy. Throughout the course students will be called upon to answer for themselves what the 14th amendment means when it says, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”? What is liberty? What is due process? Is there such a thing as substantive due process? Students will try to answer these questions by studying old cases and by looking at new interpretations. They will engage in critical thinking, in-class debates, and mock oral arguments to test their ideas and argumentative skills.

Fall - Modern Political Movements in the U.S.
Democracy is messy, and there are many ways to make change. Students in this class will learn to analyze why political movements emerge, how they are organized, and what kinds of tactics and strategies they use. We will look at how movements use tools such as social media, sit-ins, and mass protest. How movements interact with the government and industry is also an important strategy, so we will study how movements use lobbying and lawsuits to achieve their goals. Measuring the success of a political movement is a tricky business, so students will learn some methods for studying movement outcomes. We will focus on movements from the 20th century in order to better understand contemporary fights for equality that are ongoing today. Class projects will include making protest posters and short documentaries, as well as writing position papers and making strategy recommendations for contemporary movements.

Spring - Religious Extremism
Religion, in many ways, is meant to be uncompromising. Faith is not meant to be negotiable. This being said, most people in the world today, and the majority of all people in history, have been members of religious communities. Moderation has often been the state of religion, though when this is not the case, the results can be bloody and notable. This course will look at extreme religious interpretations, and how practitioners have interpreted religions to justify cruelty and violence. We will look at early Christian martyrs, Islamic Kharijites, Jewish zealots, Buddhist self-immolators, and many other groups. We will use multiple lenses to understand the Anabaptists of Munster and how they tried to make a new Jerusalem in the chaos of the Protestant revolution. Students will dive into the Crusades and how they reshaped Europe, and we will research how 1979 shaped the Mujahidin. Students will leave the course with a deeper understanding of extremism, religion, and the world.

Spring - Focus on the First Amendment
The First Amendment gives Americans five basic freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to petition, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. In this class, we will study these freedoms through case law and current events. What does our Constitution have to say about a variety of topics, ranging from religious practices in public spaces to provocative or even hate speech? Does the First Amendment really allow us to say whatever we want wherever we want? Who determines where the line lies between free expression and harmful speech? Students will present oral arguments in mock trials, write briefs, and debate First Amendment jurisprudence. These activities will help students think critically and with nuance about the freedom of speech.