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Example Syllabi

Curious about how to use H/21 modules into your class? We encourage instructors to download, adopt, and adapt our instructional materials in ways that make the most sense for them and their classes. You might drop a complete module into your existing history course, adapt part of a module into a lessons you already have, or construct a course around our modules entirely!

Below are a few examples of the ways that instructors have incorporated our lessons into their world history courses, including classes that thread entire modules together to complete a full course of study. Download the documents to see the instructor’s narrative outline, as well as course schedule.

Introductory World History, 1500-Present (Jesse Spohnholz)

Photograph by Jamie Seckington

I have used five case studies linked together as the entire course content in my introductory world history class (post-1500). The narrative arc holding my class together runs chronologically as follows:

  1. Early globalization & colonialism (1500s)
  2. Intensifying colonialism & mass enslavement (1680s–1720s)
  3. Atlantic Revolutions & nationalism (1770s–1880s)
  4. The Technological Revolution & democratization (1880s–1920s)
  5. Decolonization (1940s–today)

We focus less on learning the narratives of wars or other political developments as much as their impact on ordinary people. For each case study, I begin and end each with an exercise that serves as a hook, asking students to center themselves in the process of learning about the subject.

  • Sample Syllabus (Spohnholz)

Introductory World History, 1500-Present (Brenna Miller)

Photograph by Jamie Seckington

The sample syllabus below is a modified version of a course taught at Washington State University that combines five History for the 21st Century modules to create a 15-week introductory world history course. The course modules used are:

  1. Atlantic Piracy in Global Perspective, c. 1500-1750
  2. Hunting, the Wilderness, and Imperialism, c. 1850-1900
  3. Africa and Africans in the First World War, c. 1910-1920
  4. Questioning Decolonization, c. 1940-present
  5. Unsovereign Space, c. 1600s-present

These modules were selected to emphasize the theme of imperialism, its impacts on societies, and legacies in the world today from the early modern era to the present. For the purposes of this course, each module began and ended by emphasizing the relevance of history in the present day, whether by highlighting the legacies of historical dynamics and processes, or the parallels between the past and the present.

  • Sample Syllabus (Miller)

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  • H/21 Authors Host Virtual Workshops on their Modules
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