By Alexandra Napoli
Staff Writer
History buffs, look out. The history department is offering two recently added courses for the spring 2013 semester.
Immigration, race and ethnicity have become popular topics in the United States, along with the country’s impact on the rest of the world, the history department has created two courses which discuss just that.
One course, called “United States in the World,” (offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2:30 p.m.) will focus on the effects the U.S. has had and currently has on other countries throughout the world.
Another course, “U.S. Immigration and Ethnicity,” (offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:30 a.m.), which was originally offered last semester, will cover U.S. policies on immigration and how they’ve evolved since the nineteenth century.
These courses will be taught by history professor and immigration and ethnicity expert Maddalena Marinari.
Marinari said she believes these courses will be highly beneficial, not only for history majors, but also for other students interested in these topics.
“(My Immigration and Ethnicity class) was extremely successful last year, so I decided to offer it again,” Marinari said. “(Both classes give) a completely new perspective on American history and introduce (students) to episodes in the history of this country that they did not know.”
According to Marinari, it is important for her courses to reach a wide variety of students while also teaching them a new perspective within American history.
Junior history and English major Sydney Neubauer is enrolled in Marinari’s “United States in the World” course next semester.
“It is often hard to find classes that catch students’ attention within the history field, but these classes are doing just that,” Neubauer said. “These courses provide students with a new spectrum in history to focus on what pertains to issues that we are still dealing with today.”
The three-credit courses are offered to all students, regardless of year or major. They have sparked interest within the student body, especially for junior history major Mariah Wolford.
“I may consider taking one of these courses. Immigration is an important topic that gets overlooked,” Wolford wrote in an email. “In order to understand larger issues (in history), the smaller ones need to be examined, too.”
Marinari encourages all students, not only history majors, to sign up for her new courses.
“I truly welcome everybody who has a general interest in these issues,” she said. “They bring a completely different perspective to our class discussions.”
With these new courses beginning spring semester, Marinari said she is excited to offer students the opportunity to learn even more about their country.
Marinari said she is also happy to be contributing to the diversification of the history department.
“I am excited by the opportunity to offer courses in my areas of expertise at Bonaventure that were not taught before my arrival,” Marinari said. “The history department is interested in diversifying its offerings as much as possible and in incorporating new trends in historical studies.”
