“Every true history must, by its human and vital presentation of events, force us to remember that the past was once real as the present and uncertain as the future.”— George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876-1962), Clio, A Muse, and Other Essays Literary and Pedestrian (1913), 16.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
The ultimate goal and purpose of my teaching is to help students become more informed, skilled, empathetic, and ethical citizens. I do this by teaching the foundational principles of the historical method (sometimes called the “Five Cs”), by enabling students to experience history for themselves, and by highlighting moral dilemmas in history.
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES (SLOs)
My classes introduce students to the skills and habits of mind of historical practice — how to think about and interpret the past, how to analyze evidence, sources, and narratives, and how to craft historical arguments — in line with the History Department’s Student Learning Objectives at the University of Colorado Boulder. At the end of the course, students who engage fully will be able to:
Historical Substance: Call upon historical context through facts, evidence, and questions.
Historical Concepts: Understand change and continuity over time, causes and consequences, contingency, and complexity in history.
Historical Analysis: Assess the arguments, sources, and methods of historical narratives.
Historical Production: Construct historical arguments by researching sources, evaluating, interpreting, and synthesizing evidence, and sharing explanations.
Historical Perspective: Develop global literacy and apply historical knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to the problems of the present world.
STUDENT REVIEWS
“I really enjoyed this class and I truly felt like I learned a lot. This course reminded me of why I study the major I do and made me fall back in love with it.”
“Fantastic course taught by a fantastic and knowledgeable instructor. Assignments didn’t feel super-duper overwhelming, but felt rewarding to complete in the sense that you were able to really synthesize and defend an argument for history, as opposed to just memorizing dates. The skills from writing in this class can be applied elsewhere; that’s huge!”
“Dr. Pace is a respectable and enthusiastic teacher who clearly has a lot of passion for modern American history and is very good at communicating his points. He consistently encourages his students to find their own analyses for historical events, allowing for a more open engagement with the material in the course. He asks a lot from his students in regards to weekly writing and reading material to continue encouraging active engagement. His class is a joy to be a part of and he is a very engaging, likable presence to teach history.”
“I loved taking this course and the instructor did a great job bringing across the information in a meaningfully and passionate way. He loved teaching the material and that made it fun to learn it.”