Stories We Tell Course Pairing
Encountering the Past: The French Revolution (HS 100)
Rather than approaching history as a list of dates, names, and historical events, Encountering the Past explores how historians think about the world and how historical thinking enables us to approach and understand complicated texts and ideas. The course introduces students to the way historical knowledge emerges through contestation and debate and will prepare them to engage with and understand modern controversies over history, memory, and memorialization. This section will use the French Revolution as our case study. The French Revolution was many things. An absolute monarchy was overthrown. An effort at democracy descended into terror. Women made new claims to citizenship. Enslaved people in Haiti overthrew their masters and founded an independent state. A European empire emerged that brought new hierarchies and the rule of law to other countries at the same time. The French Revolution thus proves an apt event with which to explore how historians debate and understand the past because the French Revolution offers to pat answers to the questions it raises: How should we organize our politics? Why have democracies struggled to ensure equity, especially for women and people of color? How is the law used to perpetuate inequality? By exploring how historians have debated the meaning of the French Revolution we will, turn, debate some of the most important questions facing us today.
Faculty Biography
Dr. Andrew Israel Ross received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2011 and began teaching at Loyola in 2018. His research focuses on the history of sexuality in modern Europe, especially France, and he recently published his first book, a history of homosexuality and prostitution in nineteenth-century Paris. At Loyola, he teaches courses in European history and the history of gender and sexuality.
Media Writing (CM 201)
Students learn basic story writing skills that can be applied across communication fields, including journalism, digital media, public relations, and advertising. In this course, students explore what news is, how to interview effectively, and how to distinguish fact from opinion or fiction. Students learn how to tailor their messages in advertising campaigns, to social media platforms, and how to direct their messages to the media in press releases. Students are also introduced to some basic grammar rules in communication fields and explore some of the ethical issues facing news journalists, advertising executives, and public relations professionals today. Required for communication majors.
Faculty Biography
Professor April Newton is a Multimedia Journalism Lecturer in the Department of Communication. She is currently working on a PhD in Journalism Studies at the University of Maryland, studying the experiences of women journalists in newsrooms of all kinds. Ms. Newton's areas of research and academic interest include media ethics, as well as intersectional experiences of media and in media creation.
Mentor Biography
Kathleen Bruns is the Assistant Director of Disability Support Services.
Virtual Advisor
This course pairing is recommended for students considering a Communication major or minor. Students not majoring or minoring in Communication will receive elective credit for CM 201. HS 100 satisfies a core requirement for all students.
