A visiting professor will succeed Arthur M. Shclesinger, Sr., retiring Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History, next year, as lecturer for History 61b, The Making of Modern America. The professor's name has not yet been announced, but David E. Owen, chairman of the History Department, said yesterday that the historian will be a leading expert in the American field.

Frederick Merk, Gurney Professor of History and Political Science, will continue to give History 61a, The Growth of the American Nation.

The new lecturer may also take over the Schlesinger, Sr., History 163 course. The Social and Cultural History of the United States. Oscar Handlin, professor of History, will eventually teach History 163, but will be on a sabbatical next year.

Owen also announced that the department has proposed for faculty approval the addition of four new courses.

History 179, a half course, will deal with the Caribbean Area from 1492 to the present. It will emphasize the West Indies, and will be taught by an expert in that field. The lecturer for this course has also not yet been named.

The same professor who is to teach History 179 will also give a spring term graduate course on the Concepts and Theories of Empire, mainly a study of the ideas behind colonial government.

The History Department will also offer new courses next year on American Education and the French Renaissance.

Owen also announced that the Department will renew courses on the American South and the Byzantine Empire.