HIST 498

Spring 2026 All Classes

All Classes

Research and Writing Seminar

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Credit: 3 hours.

Capstone course required of all majors. Students will make history by researching and writing a work of original scholarship. Several of these seminars are offered each term and each focuses on a special topic, thus allowing students with similar interests to work through the process of gathering, interpreting, and organizing historical evidence under the direction of an expert in the field. The topics on offer each semester will be listed in the Class Schedule and described in the department's course guide at http://www.history.illinois.edu.

3 undergraduate hours. No graduate credit. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Advanced Composition

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HIST 498 class schedule data for spring 2026
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
32175	Discussion/ Recitation	A	2:00PM -3:50PM	M	301 Architecture Building	Mason, S	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Research & Writing Seminar Section Info: Topic: Capital and Culture in US History Description: From teacups and tobacco to canals and cotton bonds, early Americans lived in a world where markets shaped what they wore, worshiped, and dreamed. We investigate the rise of market society and the many ways commerce and material culture transformed American life from the colonial period through the eve of the Civil War. Examining how exchange, credit, and consumption connected distant regions; how slavery, land speculation, and internal improvements generated capital, controversy, and expansion; and how ordinary Americans experienced the opportunities and inequalities of an expanding economy through the goods they made, bought, and displayed. Shared readings introduce key debates on capitalism and culture, including the Atlantic economy, the consumer revolution, slavery and finance, and the Market Revolution, and provide models for historical interpretation by pairing older and newer arguments and works together. Building on this foundation, each student will produce a substantive historiographical essay situating their periodized analysis within the broader scholarship on capitalism, material culture, and the market in early America. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
32178	Discussion/ Recitation	B	11:00AM -12:50PM	M	138 Wohlers Hall	Jaimes, M	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Research & Writing Seminar Section Info: Topic: Empires in Theory and History Description: This course examines the role and significance of empires in history, from the earliest empires in the Fertile Crescent to the collapse of the British Empire in the mid-20th Century. For more than a millennia, empire has been the dominant form of political structuring and students will explore how the system remained in place by examining specific case studies and developing their own research projects. While the case studies will center on European empires, students are invited to focus their own research on any topic related to empire, regardless of geographic or temporal boundaries. As the capstone course for history majors, students will be expected to work both on class material as well as their own research project, utilizing both primary and secondary sources. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
43311	Discussion/ Recitation	C	10:00AM -11:50AM	W	326 David Kinley Hall	Baul, D	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Advanced Composition course. Section Title: Research & Writing Seminar Section Info: Topic: Anti-colonial Resistance in South Asia Description: This course will examine certain key strands of anti-colonial resistance that developed in modern South Asia during the colonial period. It will assess both elite and subaltern politics by focussing closely on movements and ideologies that responded to the imperial encounter. Students will be encouraged to make connections with present-day politics in the region. By examining the past with an eye to its contemporary relevance, we will explore how anti-colonial mobilisations reshaped modern South Asian cultures. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.