U.S. LGBTQ History

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  HIST 300-20
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a History course for undergraduate or graduate students by Suzanna Krivulskaya at California State University San Marcos. The open textbook provides a case study in gender and sexuality in the first half of the twentieth century. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was affordability and fit with course content. Most student access the open textbook in the electronic format through the library.

HIST 300-20 U.S. LGBTQ+ History
Brief Description of course highlights:  Surveys histories of non-normative sexualities and gender expressions in the lands that became the United States. Explores themes of nonconformity and coercion, intimacy and secrecy, surveillance and resistance. Considers ways in which LGBTQ+ identities and expressions have shaped ideas about normative sexuality. Emphasizes ways in which discourses of difference have shaped and been shaped by changing legal, religious, economic, and social contexts. Highlights differences among the experiences of LGBTQ+ people based on sex, race, gender expression, and class.

Student population: Majors and non-majors alike; attracts upper-division students from various disciplines because it meets the campus’s Diversity & Equity requirement. 

Learning or student outcomes:  Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Describe the major characters, themes, and events in the study of U.S. LGBTQ+ history from multiple perspectives
• Develop empathy toward people in historical contexts different from their own
• Demonstrate skills of close reading, analysis, and interpretation of primary sources
• Evaluate evidence and argumentation in secondary sources
• Pose meaningful historical questions and locate answers in the historical record
• Critically analyze media created for popular consumption using historical insights

Key challenges faced and how resolved: As with all online courses, the interaction between students and the instructor can be lacking. I tried to overcome that by recording weekly lectures that featured a video of me and getting the students to talk to one another in a variety of discussion forums.

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.  The motivation is to save students money while still exposing them to high-quality scholarship.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? CSUSM Library

Sharing Best Practices:  Research the library catalogue and talk to your friendly local librarians.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. It is incredibly easy and rewarding to provide no-cost materials to students in my classes. They appreciate it as well.

Instructor Name - Suzanna Krivulskaya
I am a History professor at California State University San Marcos. I teach courses in religion, gender, sexuality, and digital history.
Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csusm.edu/profiles/index.html?u=skrivulskaya  

Please describe the courses you teach I teach courses in modern U.S. history, and my specialty is the intersection between American religion and sexualities. I teach courses in Women’s History, LGBTQ+ History, Religious History, and Digital History.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I think one of our primary tasks as educators is to empower students to be life-long learners. I try to do that by meeting them at their level, learning about their needs, and sharing the tools that they will need to succeed in my courses and beyond.

The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams
Brief Description: The book is a biography of a remarkable, if little known, lesbian immigrant who came to the United States in the 1930s. Her life, loves, and career in the United States reveals important insights into the relative openness of the sexual regime at the time—and her eventual deportation and death at the hands of German Nazis allow students to think about continuities and ruptures in the histories of immigration, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Please provide a link to the resource  https://csu-csusm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_USM/1vm4rkc/cdi_globaltitleindex_catalog_295780332

Authors: Jonathan Ned Katz

Student access:  CSUSM Library Reserves (online). 

Supplemental resources: Other resources included instructor-created lectures, accompanied by quizzes, news/blog articles, YouTube videos, academic articles (available online through the library), and documentary films (also available through the library), including Before Stonewall (1984), Screaming Queens (2016), After Stonewall (1999), Queers in the Kingdom (2014), and The Celluloid Closet (1996).

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  $30-80 (depending on the book format)

License: Copyrighted and available through an unlimited user ebook through the library