“We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‘We, the people.'” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

More than 200 years after it was written, the U.S. Constitution remains the legal backbone of this country. First penned in 1787 (and later amended 27 times), the Constitution governs both federal and state level laws, and its original legal intent is often the topic of debate. 

When Colin Kaepernick expressed his 1st amendment right to freedom of expression and knelt to protest the social injustices facing African Americans in the U.S., it is all anyone could talk about. The debates flooded our news feeds and social media timelines. Was this disrespectful? Was this appropriate? But there was one thing most people could agree on – Kaepernick had the Constitutional right to peacefully protest in any way he deemed appropriate.

HIST 423 – Creating the Constitution explores the creation of the federal Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights, and examines the many crises that the Constitution was designed to solve. Students in the course will also investigate the politics behind the constitutional convention and the contest between the two opposing political movements of that time: Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

HIST 423 is a fully online course and offers Social Science GEP credit. It is recommended but not required that students enrolling in this course will have taken HIST 101. 

Get to know the Instructor:

Terry Bouton is a distinguished author and associate professor of History at UMBC. He is also the 2012-2015 Presidential Teaching Professor as well as a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians(OAH). Professor Bouton has taught courses on the American Revolution, the Early National Period and the Atlantic Revolutions of the late-18th to mid-19th century. Professor Bouton won the 2008 Philip S. Klein Book Prize as well as earned an Honorable Mention for the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award for his first book titled: Taming Democracy: “The People,” the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution(Oxford, 2007). He is currently working on a new book titled: “Foreign Founders: How European Financiers Helped Write the Constitution” which explores how the nation’s pillar has been influenced by foreign investors.

GWST 345: Unruly Bodies is a 3 credit course designed towards initiating a new perspective at looking at the human body. Drawing on feminist, queer, social, and critical race theory, this course examines the status of the body in both historical and contemporary debates about identity, representation, and politics. This course is committed to challenging the common sense behind the understanding of how the human body is produced, managed, and deployed in various ways to discipline and manage populations. The course will also investigate all the political possibilities of body work to resist and reshape the disciplinary practices listed above by paying close attention to “queer” forms of embodiment.

GWST 345 can be taken for Arts & Humanities (AH) or Culture (C) GEP credit. Courses GWST 100 or GWST 200 are recommended but not required for this course.

Get to know the Instructor:

Dr. Kate Drabinski is a lecturer of Gender Women’s Studies courses and also Director of the Women Involved in Learning and Leadership(WILL), here at UMBC. Dr. Drabinski received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric with a graduate certificate in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. She was awarded a UMBC Breaking Ground grand to incorporate civic agency and digital activism into the Feminist Activism department. Besides teaching this Unruly Bodies course, Dr. Drabinski also teaches Introduction to Critical Sexuality Studies, Studies in Feminist Activism and Sexuality and Queer Theory.

“Magic’s about understanding – and then manipulating – how viewers digest the sensory information.” – Teller

Long before David Copperfield, Harry Potter, and Gandolf, there was Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient World.

This January, ANCS 350 offers you the chance to explore the ancient Greek and Roman roots of modern supernatural/paranormal legends (demons, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves) and discover how those in Ancient Mediterranean used magic to protect themselves from supernatural attacks.  

Examine age-old uses of daily practical magic and curses, as well as how astrology, dream-interpretation, and fortune telling contributed to the development of medicine and philosophy.

You’ll even have the opportunity to create your own curse tablet and a baked-clay amulet!

ANCS 350 is a hybrid course that combines online discussion/writing with in-class lectures and activities.

Register October 22 – January 2.

Get to know the Instructor:

Dr. Molly Jones-Lewis is a social and cultural historian of ancient medicine. She received her Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Swarthmore College in 2003, and earned her Masters in 2006 and her Ph.D in 2009, from The Ohio State University. Her research is oriented around the ways in which doctors and medical theories functioned in the Roman Empire. Some of her ongoing projects focus on theories of ethnicity, the doctor in Roman law and the making and popularization of Eunuchs in Rome. In her spare time, Dr. Jones-Lewis loves to knit, spin yarn, play a baroque recorder as well as spoil her cats.