My classes (Fall quarter 2009)

I have three classes this quarter, in addition to the class that I am a TA in.

• Socialism, Dictatorship, and Democracy: Chile, a Case Study

This is essentially a reading and discussion class. The class all read one book a week and we meet once a week to discuss it. It looks like it will be primarily student lead discussion. Should be pretty interesting and it jives with my interest in American intervention in Latin American politics. I have to do a two page write-up on each book, so this will probably be posted here.

• Seminar in US Foreign Relations

This is a research class in which I will design a research proposal that I will work on next quarter. There will also be some wide-ranging readings and I will have a review of one book that will probably go up here. This is the class that will give me the most stress because it is designed to lead write into my thesis and I will need to have some sort of idea what my paper will be about in the next three weeks. All-day library tomorrow.

• Oil, the Persian Gulf, and World Power

This class is really interesting. It is lecture based and most of the students are undergrads. It is basically an international history of oil, focusing on the US, Britain, and the Persian Gulf. I might do some responses to some of the readings, many of which are articles. I also have a review of a couple of them that will be due in October that I will probably post.

In addition to these I am a TA for The US and the Vietnam War which will be an international history of the conflict that also examines the effects on the war in the domestic US. I will be doing all the assigned readings and also attending class and taking notes. I hope to be able to lead a couple of the discussion sections in the class.

I have at least one person reading this. Hopefully get a few other interested historians to tune in over the next couple of months. You can witness my trial by fire into grad school.