WKU News

History, and our understanding of it, impacts the ways that we view and choose to shape the world around us. Dr. Katherine Lennard, Frockt Family Chair and Associate Professor of History, hopes to build on this understanding to enrich the perspectives of students with HIST 316: The U.S. Civil War in Pop Culture. Inspired by her predecessor who taught a Civil War in Film class, Lennard wanted to take this same idea and expand upon it, incorporating texts and media from all different creative genres and mediums.   

“I loved that idea of thinking about how people have used the Civil War to talk about their own current moment,” she explained. “All of our entertainment, or the things we consume for fun, have a history. The businesses that make it possible for us to stream movies or music on our phones have histories, the industries have histories, so there is a lot that we can learn from thinking about the things that we do for fun with a critical historical lens.”  

The course explores how the Civil War has been influenced by and depicted in pop culture over time. Throughout the semester, students tackle projects that allow them to develop the methodological skills of historians to interpret different types of information and content. They are presented with content relating to pop culture and the Civil War and analyze issues specifically leading up to the Civil War through various readings. 

A special perk students receive while taking this course is working directly with the Special Collections Library at WKU. This collaboration allows students to examine primary sources, interpret and synthesize different cultural texts, and write social media posts to assist in the promotion of the WKU Library. 

Additionally, students in this course can attend events where they will hear from world-renowned speakers like Dr. Philip Deloria, a Professor of History at Harvard University who specializes in social, cultural and political histories of indigenous peoples. Through this course, Lennard hopes students will be inspired to look for their own examples of the relationship between history and media. 

“I think that the argument against doing this kind of analysis is that it makes everything less fun,” says Lennard. “It's harder to have fun when you're thinking critically about the things you’re consuming. I want to push on that and say that it can also give you a much greater appreciation for the power of art, the power of cultural texts, and the various ways that people can express and share ideas. I think that that makes moving through the world a little more fun; to be able to take the things you normally consume as entertainment and view them in that way. I promise you can still turn off that part of your brain when necessary!” 

For more information about the Department of History, please visit https://www.wku.edu/history/index.php.