Professor Lassiter has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the History Department at the University of Michigan since 2000 and has served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies (2012-2014) and Director of Graduate Studies (2006-2008). He has received five major teaching awards at U-M, including an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship (2015- ) for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education, a 2017 John Dewey Award for long-term commitment to the education of undergraduate students, and the 2004 Golden Apple Award presented by Students Honoring Outstanding University Teaching. Scroll down to watch Lassiter’s “ideal last lecture,” given Jan. 28, 2004, in receipt of the Golden Apple Award and titled “Alienation, Apathy, and Activism: American Culture and the Depoliticization of Youth.”
Undergraduate Courses
Most recent syllabi of undergraduate courses taught at the University of Michigan. Visit the Digital Projects page for more about the online exhibits created in the HistoryLab and Michigan in the World research seminars.
- History 366: Crime and Drugs in Modern America (Winter 2020)
- Flipped lecture course where students work in teams of five; core course for Minor in History of Law and Policy
- History 491: Cold Cases: Police Violence, Crime, and Social Justice in Michigan (Fall 2019)
- History 202: Doing History (Fall 2018) [methods seminar for History majors]
- History 399: Environmental Activism in Michigan (Fall 2017)
- Michigan in the World research seminar. Digital website here.
- History 497: Global Activism at U-M: The Anti-War, Anti-Apartheid, and Anti-Sweatshop Movements (Winter 2015)
- History 364: History of American Suburbia (Winter 2013) [lecture course]
- See below for media coverage of this course, the first of its kind when started in 2004.
- History 497: War on Crime/War on Drugs (Fall 2013) [capstone research seminar]
- History 467: United States History since 1945 (Winter 2011) [lecture course on Cold War America]
- History 261: United States History since 1865 (Winter 2008) [lecture survey course]
- History 196: Political Culture of Cold War America (Winter 2003) [first-year film history seminar]
- History/American Culture 374: Politics and Culture of the Sixties (Fall 2000)
Graduate Courses
- History 688: Urban/Suburban History (Fall 2019)
- History 715: Methods in Advanced Historical Research I (Winter 2018)
- History 688: The United States in the World (Winter 2017)
- History 611: The Literature of American History (Winter 2014)
- History 688: The New Political History (Fall 2012)
- History 771: Research Seminar in U.S. History (Winter 2011)
HistoryLab/Michigan in the World Seminars–Media Features
“In the Public Eye,” LSA Magazine (Spring 2019). Feature of pilot “Cold Cases” seminar of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab (and other pilot HistoryLab courses).
“Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan” (History 399/Fall 2017) featured in Michigan Today (March 2020); Earth Day at 50 Teach-Out (Coursera, April 2020); “Earth Day Celebrates 50 Years” (WEMU “Issues of the Environment,” April 22, 1970); “When Michigan Students Put the Car on Trial,” Smithsonian Magazine (April 2020).
“Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan” also featured in two Washington Post essays by Matt Lassiter: “What the Older Generations Owe the Young 50 Years after the First Earth Day” (April 22, 2020) and “The Forgotten Environmental Action that Pointed the Way Forward for the Left” (March 11, 2020).
History of American Suburbia–Media Features
“Popular Culture’s Evolving View of the Suburbs,” Weekend Edition/National Public Radio (Oct. 7, 2006).
“Beyond the Picket Fence: Historians Are Finally Giving the Suburbs their Due-and Changing their Lily-White Image,” Boston Globe (July 23, 2006)
“Nation’s Suburbs Gain Respect in Academia: Classes Reflect Influence on Social Issues,” Detroit News (April 19, 2006)
“Backstory: Suburbia 101,” Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 11, 2006).
Golden Apple Lecture (2004)
“Alienation, Apathy, and Activism: American Culture and the Depoliticization of Youth.” Read the transcript here.