100 Level
HIST 100AL1 GLOBAL HISTORY
(Ghamari-Tabrizi, B.)
The main purpose of this course is to explain how the worlds we live in came about. Special attention will be given to the plurality of the “worlds” we live in by emphasizing that the present time was not the inevitable outcome of the unfolding of a presumed progressive internal logic of history. Although we will examine earlier points in the emergence of an interconnected and interdependent world during the long 12th century, the main focus of the class will be on post-17th century and the emergence of a new global world. This course will also highlight struggles and contestations of emerging world-orders in each period, giving voice to historical actors whose presence in history are often neglected.
HIST 100B GLOBAL HISTORY
(Tegegne, H.)
The course is designed to introduce students to the great historical events and processes of change that shape and continue to reshape the global world from the fourteenth to the present century. The world has become interconnected so much that every local move is determined by and has consequence on the larger global geopolitical force. The central focus of the lecture and discussion will therefore be on the connection between human communities and the forces that brought together and/or set apart these communities. Some of the themes running through the course include contact between Europeans and non-Europeans, the development of capitalism as system of production and distribution, nationalism and the modern state. Besides the text book and other secondary sources assigned for this course, we will trail the process of change in the global world through analysis of primary sources that have come down to us from the period we are studying.
FOR UNIT ONE AND OTHER LLC STUDENTS.
106AL1 MODERN LATIN AMERICA
(Schneider, A.)
This course provides an overview of the history of the last two hundred years in Latin America, an area that includes Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), South America, and the Caribbean. The course begins with the movements and events related to Independence and nation building in the early nineteenth century and conclude with the political, economic and cultural trends of the twenty-first century. We will examine both changes and continuities in the political structures and social organization over time in Latin America, paying particular attention to questions of citizenship, race, gender, wealth and poverty, and democracy and authoritarianism. Lectures will blend both a general narrative of the region with details specific to particular countries within Latin America. Course readings draw from an array of sources, including literature, journalistic essays, and classic works of history. Weekly discussion sessions will allow students to explore in more depth questions and themes that emerge from the lectures and assigned readings.
120AL1 EAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS
(Fu, P.)
Same as EALC 120
This is a survey of the history of mainly Chinese and Japanese civilizations from 2000 B.C. to the present. In this survey we try to understand the life and values of two Asian countries and, by way of this, also of ourselves. We will look at how different cultural and political forces shaping Chinese civilization, which in turn, shaped many major civilizations in the region, including Japan and Korea. In modern times, with the decline of China as a dominant power in the face of imperialist, we will explore the commonality and differences between China and Japan, and to some extent Korea, in their struggle toward modernization. We will also look at the meaning of the concept Asia itself.Reading includes novels and memoirs.
135AL1 HISTORY OF ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST
(Cuno, K.)
The Middle East for beginners, a/k/a "Muhammad to Mubarak": an introduction to the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to modern times. This course covers the beginnings of Islam and the Caliphal empires, the medieval Islamic world, the rise and heyday of the Ottoman Empire, and the modern transformations of the last two centuries. It will help you to understand the modern Middle East in terms of its history, especially the long-term development of religious, social, and political institutions, which have undergone considerable change in the modern era. The reading includes original works in translation from all periods. Your grade will be based on attendance and participation in the discussion sections; a map quiz; two 4-5 page essays on assigned topics; and midterm and final exams.
140AL1 WESTERN CIV TO 1660-ACP
(Crowston, C.)
Please see course description for 141AL1.
141AL1 WESTERN CIV TO 1660
(Crowston, C.)
This course will survey essential developments in Western Civilization from Antiquity through the seventeenth century. It will focus on the evolution of political institutions from the city-states of Ancient Greece, through the Roman Empire, the feudal system of Medieval Europe and, finally, the emergence of nation-states in the seventeenth century. We will also study the philosophies or religious beliefs that helped men and women understand their society and the world, as well as the social structures and conflicts that characterized different periods of history. In particular, we will examine how relations with "outsiders" - such as Jews, Muslims, the New World, and women - contributed essential new ideas to Western Europeans and helped them define their own identity. In the process, we will gain a new understanding of the cultural fusions and conflicts that continue to define our world. Lectures will be supplemented by in-depth consideration of primary sources materials produced by the people of this fascinating epoch. Throughout the semester, you will be required to read carefully, to attend class, to speak out in discussion section and to complete all written assignments.
141DIS WESTERN CIV TO 1660
(Ramsbottom, J.)
Today the global media refer to the “Western” world-view as if we all understand what that means. Ideas that emerged through interaction with cultures around the world are sometimes portrayed as the unique inheritance of Western Europe—for example, Christianity, human rights, industrial capitalism, and science.
This course is an introductory survey of Western history since earliest times. It is designed to be manageable for students who have not taken European history since sophomore year in high school but also to be challenging for those who took AP history. In this small class setting, we will begin with a basic understanding of the events and then move on to interpretation and debate about the “story” behind history. Students can expect to write and discuss on a regular basis.
142AL1 WESTERN CIV SINCE 1660
(Liebersohn, H.)
We will be examining the development of recent Western civilization in this course -- the extraordinary transition from a world of peasants, artisans, and aristocrats to the democratic, industrial world that we inhabit today. What have been the driving forces behind the birth of the modern world? How did liberty, equality, and fraternity become its watchwords, and what has been their fate? These are among the central questions that the course will address.
Although the focus is on Western Europe, we will also examine the impact of Europe on the rest of the world. This is a course about politics: about the conflict-ridden emergence of modern democracies, their struggle against traditional authority and modern dictatorship, and their inner dilemmas as they have chosen among competing principles of liberty, equality, and community. It is a course about people: some of them highborn and famous, like haughty Frederick the Great and passionate Mary Godwin Shelley, but also ordinary men and women -- peasants, slaves, artisans, factory workers, soldiers, and housewives. We will consider how all of them shaped the world we live in today.
143AL1 WESTERN CIV SINCE 1660-ACP
(Liebersohn, H.)
Please see course description for 142AL1.
172AL1 US HIST SINCE 1877
(Roediger, D.)
Does anything ever change? In History 172 Professor David Roediger argues that change is a profound and central feature of modern U.S. history and that both popular movements and elites shape that change. How people's everyday lives and their collective activities influenced such change is a central question of the course, which examines the U.S. from the aftermath of the Civil War to the aftermath of the war in Iraq. The ways in which ordinary people, and lived their daily lives--how they worked, formed families, loved, worshipped, had fun, faced discrimination, fought racism, migrated, and learned -- receive emphasis. Towering leaders, profound demands for change, and hotly contested elections are seen as growing out of these everyday experiences. Evaluation is based on two 5- to 7-page papers, an in class essay, participation in sections and two brief objective tests.
173AL1 US HIST SINCE 1877 – ACP
(Roediger, D.)
Please see course description for 172AL1.
174AL1 BLACK AMERICA, 1619-PRESENT
(Perzavia, P.)
Same as AFRO 101. SEE AFRO 101.
Description not available at time of publication.
199TH UNDERGRADUATE OPEN SEMINAR
(Symes, C.)
Topic: Senior Honors Thesis
A required seminar for all seniors writing honor theses in history, this course will meet bi-weekly throughout the year and will supplement individual students' meetings with their primary advisors. Its purpose is to provide an intellectually supportive environment in which students work together on common methodological problems, share the results of their research, and critique developing projects. Hours TBA.
200 Level
200A INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(Hibbard, C.)
Topic: Religion, Print, Conflict in Early Modern Europe
“Holy War” has raged within Europe since the 9th century AD, and Europeans have waged such wars on their frontiers and beyond. It has pitted Christians against non-Christians, and sometimes against each other. Our subject will be the phase in this long history that extended from the Reconquista in Spain to the general European peace of 1648. We will be looking at real and metaphorical warfare, considering how the image of the enemy, or “other”, was developed and sustained, through the lens of early English print media. We will read primary sources and published research, and students will prepare a research paper using the methods explored and the skills developed in this course.
200B INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(McLaughlin, M.)
Topic: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Europe
This course will explore the complex relationships between three different religious communities in medieval Europe. These relationships were often violent, as witness the crusades and the growth of anti-semitism in this period. Yet at other times, Christians, Muslims, and Jews traded ideas, worked together, fought together, and even intermarried. How can we understand and explain these apparently contradictory tendencies? And what does the study of medieval religious communities teach us about religious tolerance and intolerance today?
200C INTRO HIST INTREPRETATION
(Chaplin, T.)
Topic: The History of Human Rights
In the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II, human rights became an increasingly important global concern. International political bodies like the United Nation’s Human Rights Council and non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were constituted to denounce human rights violations and to monitor, document, and publicize their abuse. But what are “human rights”? How did they come to be understood as a fundamental element of political morality, one that is inextricable from notions of personal dignity and worth? This course explores how civil, political, economic, social, and cultural constructions of human rights—often understood as inalienable attributes of human nature—are actually historically produced. We will begin with a brief investigation of how renaissance concepts of humanism and humanitarianism informed the elaboration of Enlightenment theories of natural law that underpin human rights norms. We then turn to nineteenth century debates on slavery and imperialism, seeking to understand how nascent concepts of human rights were deployed both to support and combat these practices. The bulk of our course will focus on the ways in which the tragic consequences of twentieth century European history—war, genocide, colonialism, refugee displacement, politicized sexual violence (rape as a tool of warfare) and conflicts over national sovereignty—have shaped contemporary understandings of human rights. Our goals are both scholarly and activist, and include the research and writing of a short paper on some aspect of human rights in historical perspective.
200D INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(Schneider, D.)
Topic: Immigrant Communities
This introductory seminar will introduce students to the history of immigrants, a major area in American social history. We will explore the most pertinent topics in this field while also learning about approaches to immigrant history, sources and research techniques. Writing a research paper on an immigrant community of the student’s choice will be the focus of student work. Students should have survey knowledge of U.S. history since 1840 prior to taking this class.
200E INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(Esbenshade, R.)
Topic: War, Holocaust, State Socialism in Postwar European Memory
This course will introduce students to the practices of intellectual and cultural history and memory studies, while surveying issues that still bedevil European identities and relations between constituent nations and peoples. How did Europeans process—or suppress—memories of the incredible destruction and fratricidal conflicts of World War II? As the oppositions of the Cold War became established, how did these traumas appear differently in East and West? As state socialism in Eastern Europe reached its twilight and fall, how were memories and interpretations of that experience utilized to create the new political landscapes and to negotiate European integration? What is ‘post-communist nostalgia’ and what does it express? After surveying the history of the period, we will examine particular ‘memory struggles’ that emerged at certain conjunctures between various constituencies, examining issues of collaboration and resistance, victims and perpetrators, guilt and retribution, and considering possibilities for future conflict and for reconciliation. We will evaluate different approaches to social and collective memory, as a way of initiation into historians’ practices of integrating theory and event, historiography and history, past and present. Requirements will include much reading and active discussion; regular short response papers; and a final project.
200F INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(Kozlowski, J.)
Topic: Class and Citizenship in Postwar America
This course examines one of the most pivotal developments in postwar US society--the rapid rise and, later, equally precipitous decline of the labor movement in America. It also analyzes the impact that labor's ascendant political, economic, and social power had on the working class at the workplace, in communities, in popular culture, and on the national and international stages. Using class, race, and gender as crucial lenses into working-class experiences, we will additionally assess the impact that dynamic forces such as automation, suburbanization, globalization, political shifts including the resurgence of the political right, immigration, and neo-liberalism had on working-class fortunes, identities, and expectations in a turbulent era. We will also analyze historical methodologies and primary source materials in order to hone the skills necessary for historical interpretation.
200H INTRO HIST INTERPRETATION
(Uszkalo, K.)
Topic: Negotiations and Exploitations in Early Modern England
Description not available at time of publication.
205A HIST LATIN AMERICA THRU TEXTS
(Baber, J.)
Examining the history through the primary texts written by Latin Americans, this course introduces students to key issues in colonial Latin American History. Reading texts written by all strata of society--from indigenous elites to runaway slaves to literary giants--students will re-construct and de-construct the traditional narrative of Latin American history and gain insight into the everyday lived experience of Latin Americans. Looking through the eyes of its diverse people, we will examine fundamental historical issues—such as the “conquest,” gender and sexuality, debates regarding the treatment of native people, experience of enslaved Africans, and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality. Together we will advance our individual and collective understanding of Latin America’s rich and complex past.
222A CHINESE THGHT CONFUCIUS TO MAO
(Chow, K.)
Same as EALC 222, RLST 224
Description not available at time of publication.
227A MODERN JAPANESE HISTORY
(Shimizu, A.)
Same as EALC 227.
Description not available at time of publication.
245A WOMEN & GENDER PRE-MOD EUROPE
(McLaughlin, M.)
Same as GWS 245, MDVL 245.
An introduction to some major issues in the history of women and gender from the fifth to the seventeenth century. Among the subjects to be discussed are the impact of class on gender roles, women's work and access to property, the relationship between the public and private spheres of life, women's roles in the conversion of Europe to Christianity and in The Reformation, and the connection between the misogynist tradition and pre-modern women's sense of self.
252AL1 THE HOLOCAUST
(Fritzsche, P.)
The purpose of this course is to provide students from all backgrounds with an introduction to the complex events in twentieth-century Europe now known as the Holocaust, to the various interpretations that scholars have offered to attempt to explain the Holocaust, and to the global legacy of the Holocaust. We will examine perpetrators, bystanders, and victims, the role of anti-Semitism, the interaction of war and genocide, the relationships between German and other European actors, the responses of Jewish communities, and the memory of the Holocaust. There will be a midterm and a final, but the primary focus of the course will be on student engagement with the texts in three short papers spread out across the semester.
256A GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1688
(Ramsbottom, J.)
In this survey course we will be concerned with major events and trends in British history since the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Particular attention will be given to the formation of the British state, the process of industrialization, and the impact of the World Wars. We will also seek answers to underlying questions: What factors shaped the development of the British constitution? How was the British Empire created and maintained? How have social class and gender affected people's experience of life in modern Britain? In addition to a midterm, online discussion, and a final exam, there will be occasional quizzes and two assigned papers (totaling about 15 pages).
259A 20THC WORLD FROM MIDCENTURY
(Esbenshade, R.)
The second half of the twentieth century saw simultaneous extremes of repression and liberation, wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness, and constant, dynamic change creating the world we live in today. This course will take us from World War II and its worldwide consequences through decolonization, the Cold War, the liberatory struggles of the 1960s, revolutionary efforts around the world in the 1970s, the demise of state socialism in Eastern Europe in 1989, ethnic cleansing and genocide in the 1990s, to 9/11 and the so-called ‘war on terrorism’. We will also explore the roots of current hot topics of environment, food security and (im)migration. Particular focus will be on the perspectives of the ‘Second’ and ‘Third’ Worlds. Fiction, memoir and other primary sources, and a number of full-length dramatic films shown in class, will give insight into the cultural experience of change from different quarters.
263A US HISTORY OF MEDICINE
(Reagan, L.)
Same as GWS 263.
This course examines the history of medicine and public health in nineteenth and twentieth-century America. Topics include the history of the medical profession, nursing, and midwifery; the rise of the hospital; disease definition and control; and the patient experience. We will discuss public policy issues concerning health care that have generated conflict in the past (and present), such as quarantine, vaccination, social vs. individual responsibility for health and disease, the control of venereal disease, racial segregation in medical education and health care, birth control. Throughout the course, we will analyze the relationships among medicine, politics, and economics as well as the ways that race, sex, and class have shaped the history of medicine in America.
The class will include both lectures and in-class discussion of assigned texts and original documents--such as diary excerpts, cartoons, and medical journal literature.
267 1 THE WORLD OF JEWISH SEPHARAD
(Saul, M.)
Same as ANTH 275, RLST 275. See ANTH 275.
Description not available at time of publication.
274AL1 US & WORLD SINCE 1917
(Hoganson, K.)
This class provides an introduction to the study of U.S. foreign relations from roughly 1917 through the end of the Cold War. These are years in which the United States ascended to superpower status, something that affected not only the course of world events but also U.S. politics, society, and culture. Over the course of the semester we will consider both the U.S. exercise of power and the impact of foreign relations on domestic affairs.
Lectures will touch on some, but not all of the readings, and vice versa. So to do well in this course, you need to keep up with the readings and pay attention in lecture. You also need to participate intelligently in section, for these small group discussions are a central component of the course.
276A AFRO-AMERICAN HIST SINCE 1877
(Cha-Jua, S.)
Same as AFRO 276
History 276 surveys the African American experience from 1877 to the present or from the Nadir into the present. This course examines the interaction between African American's community-building efforts and post-slavery systems of racial oppression. It provides a structural framework for understanding the dialectical relationship between changing U.S. capitalist political economies, an evolving federal government, the institutions and ideologies of racial oppression, and the self-emancipatory practices of African American people. It surveys transformations of African Americans from sharecropping and Jim Crow segregation in the South, through migration, urbanization, and proletarianization in the North and West, to contemporary deindustrialization. This course explores the processes by which African Americans created and maintained independent institutions and a distinct culture. History 276 chronicles several phases of the Black freedom movement, including the New Negro, civil rights, and Black power movements. History 276 explores unification and fragmentation among African American people. Consequently, much attention is given to Black workers and issues of class, Black women and questions of gender, and the problems of African American youth and generational conflict.
277A US NATIVE AMERICANS TO 1850
(Hoxie, F.)
Same as AIS 277.
Description not available at time of publication.
279A MEXICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
(Gonzalez, J.)
Same as LLS 279.
This course examines the history of Mexicans/Mexican Americans/Chicana/os in the United States from the U.S.-Mexican conflict in what is now the Southwestern United States to the present. We will attempt to understand the past through an interdisciplinary lens – through art, literature, film, poetry, geography, economics and revisionist histories. We will focus on understanding how these histories influence contemporary Chicano/Chicana life and experience, especially since the development of the Chicano Movement on the late 1960s and early 1970s.
283A ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY
(Alidlo, K.)
Same as AAS 283.
This course surveys the experiences, politics and culture relating to people of Asian descent in the United States from the 1820s to the present. Topics include (but are not limited to): Asian migration and labor systems in the Americas; the impact of United States', Japanese and European colonial ambitions; U.S. immigration and citizenship restrictions; Orientalism and representations; the model minority myth; Asian American liberation movements; the effects of global conflicts beginning with World War II; and millennium politics and culture.
Asian Americans have diverse and multiple ethno-linguistic, political, religious, socio-economic, national, and generational identifications. Further, many are not singularly attached to the United States but rather identify as members of particular diasporas. Not all the people or groups studied in this course identified themselves or were identified as "Asian American." This course proposes that Asian American history is not only about Asian American people but also about ideas, debates, and representations relating to Asian American experiences.
It is the aim of the course that students gain useful tools for inquiring about the ongoing challenges of our diverse world. This survey uses three frameworks: (1) a global perspective; (2) a comparative approach to diverse ethnic-national groups and racial communities; and (3) a gender analysis.
286A US GENDER HISTORY SINCE 1877
(Pleck, E.)
Same as GWS 286.
The big themes of this course are the entry of American women in the political, economic, and military life of the nation, major conflicts between groups of women in defining women's roles, and changing definitions of female sexuality in American culture and society. The course presents the history of U.S. women as a separate topic and also an important part of the big events and changes in U.S. history. The class will combine lectures, films, and some discussion.
295A HONORS COLLOQUIUM
(Liebersohn, H.)
Topic: The History of Travel
Just about everyone likes to travel - but why? What motivates us, and what do we learn by leaving home? In this course we will try to answer these questions and to understand how our multi-cultural, globalized society is the outcome of centuries of travel. We'll look at famous explorers, but also at the beachcombers, missionaries, non-Europeans, and other men and women who have circulated around the world since Columbus; we'll use novels, non-fiction, movies, and original historical documents to bring their experiences to life. Our library is rich in travel accounts and we will make at least one special trip to the library and its rare books room to familiarize class members with its resources.
295A HONORS COLLOQUIUM
(Barrett, J.)
Topic: Chicago - A Social History
The University of Chicago's pioneering sociologists had the idea first in the early years of this century: The city might become a laboratory in which to observe and study the process of urbanization and related problems. Nowhere else did urbanization and the other broad processes of change which have transformed life in the United States -- industrialization, social class formation, mass migration -- occur more swiftly than in Chicago and nowhere did they unfold with more dramatic results. This course employs the history of Chicago as a particularly appropriate case study of these and other key problems in the field of social history.
The course has been designed with the aim of integrating a number of media -- maps, slides, videos, and music with lectures and discussion to probe several theories of urban development and change in relation to Chicago's own growth from the mid-nineteenth century to recent years. (Classes will normally be divided between an informal lecture and seminar style discussion.) In each of the units on race, ethnicity, class, and politics, we will look at a particularly important event or institution and at the general context: the formation of an urban African-American community through mass migration and the 1919 race riot; the rise and decline of working-class radicalism and the Haymarket Tragedy of 1886; the creation of ethnic neighborhoods and their relationship with the model social settlement of Hull House; the development of the urban political machine and Chicago's social and political crisis in the summer of 1968.
Course requirements include a research paper based on original sources and an oral presentation to the class based on this research. Grades are assigned for these two items as well weekly contributions in discussion.
PREREQUISITE: CHANCELLOR'S SCHOLAR, OR CONSENT OF THE DEPARTMENT AND DIRECTOR
300 Level
305A ANDEAN COUNTRIES OF S. AMERICA
(Jacobsen, N.)
The singular ecological environment of Andean South America has given rise to distinct civilizations and national societies. The course will interweave common and diverse Andean patterns of culture, society, economy and politics from prehispanic times until today in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. Themes will include adaptation to the environment by the prehispanic cultures and colonial and national societies, the oppression, resistance and creative adaptations by the Andeans and other ethnic groups since the European invasion of the Inca Empire, colonial and post-colonial "racial orders," nation-state formation and issues of political inclusion or exclusion, the shifting orientations of the region's economy and the rise of mass politics in the twentieth century.
352A EUROPE IN THE WORLD SINCE 1750
(Prochaska, D.)
In this course we focus on the colonial encounter between European colonizers and nonwestern colonized. The aim of the course is not to study the history of European imperialism in terms of European diplomacy, doctrine, and policy, but rather to elucidate the experience of both colonizers and colonized, comparing and contrasting their interactions, minglings and overlaps in the contact zones where they met. Our focus will be on the dialectics of culture and power: always keeping in mind the basis of colonialism in preponderant European power, we shall nonetheless endeavor to understand the culture of colonialism created together by both protagonists. A major theme of the course will be the contrasting experiences of colonial India, the foremost British colony, and colonial Algeria, the foremost French colony. The course will emphasize colonial visual representations.
Students will be expected to actively participate in class discussions. Course requirements include substantial written work and relatively difficult required reading assignments.
353A EUROPEAN HISTORY 1918 TO 1939
(Micale, M.)
This course examines a series of major artistic and intellectual works that emerged from and commented upon the world-historicalcatastrophes of the period 1914-1945 in Europe. We will study texts and topics from Britain, France, Spain, Germany,Austria, Italy, and Russia,with lateral consideration of the United States.
The course divides into three thematic sections: The Cultural Impact of the First World War; The Rise of IntellectualFascism; and The Great Critiques of Totalitarianism. Authors and artists include: Paul Valéry, Sigmund Freud,the British war poets,E. M. Remarque,Otto Dix, George Grosz, Käthe Kollwitz, German Expressionist filmmakers, Ernst Junger, Leni Riefenstahl, Albert Speer, Pablo Picasso, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Charlie Chaplin, George Orwell, Albert Einstein, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, and Hannah Arendt.
366B SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT II
(Maher, P.)
Same as PHIL 318
This course is a selective survey of science and philosophy of science from the 18th century to now. The first third of the course will discuss views on how scientific theories are justified and on the nature of probability (Hume, Laplace, Keynes, Popper, Kuhn, Maher). The middle third of the course will discuss scientific theories from this period in chemistry, biology, and physics (Black, Darwin, Einstein). The final third of the course will discuss accounts of the nature of causation and scientific laws (Hume, Mill, Carnap, Lewis, Lange, Woodward). No prior knowledge is assumed; in particular, students need not have taken Scientific Thought I. Required work is three 50-minute short-answer exams and nine true-false quizzes. Lecture notes will be online. No textbook is required.
367A HISTORY OF WESTERN MEDICINE
(Melhado, E.)
Intellectual and social history of medicine in the West from antiquity to the present. Emphasis on theories of disease and therapy; on professionalization and institution building; and on relations of medicine with society and government. Two hour-exams, short written assignments, final exam.
370A US COLONIAL HISTORY
(Kleehammer, M.)
This course explores multiple perspectives of life in seventeenth and eighteenth century North America through 1763. Major topics covered will include the lives and experiences of First Nations and American Indian inhabitants, the journey and settling of North America by European colonials, the Atlantic slave trade, the African and African American experiences in the colonies, and the economic and political structures of the colonies and their place in the Transatlantic world. This course will focus especially on the following themes: the cooperation and clash of cultures, the origins of racial slavery in the North American context, gender ideologies and the contrasting and common experiences of men and women, social and religious beliefs, the interactions of peoples with their environments, and the changes experienced by inhabitants and wrought on the land that would later become the continental United States. The class will also spend time exploring historical methodologies, working with primary as well as secondary sources, and engaging historical analysis and interpretation. Evaluation will include participation in discussions, presentations, research and essay writing, and exams.
374B CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
(Levine, B.)
Topic: Civil War and Reconstruction
Examines the United States’ civil war (1861-1865) and the era of postwar “reconstruction” (conventionally dated as 1865-1877). In these years the nation underwent its second revolution -- and a revolution more radical than the one that freed it from the British Empire. Much of U.S. history for the next century and more was decided during these decisive years.
376A SOC HISTORY INDUS AM FROM 1918
(Schneider, D.)
American society has often been described as open and flexible by outside observers. On the other hand, Americans themselves have often experienced U.S. society as rigidly divided by class and race. How can the two views be reconciled? How cohesive can a society be if its people are a diverse lot, driven by highly individualist motives? This class will try to provide some historians’ answers to these questions. We will examine how various social divisions and cohesions developed during the twentieth century by studying some of the most important developments of the last century in the United States: the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Civil Rights Movement, the 1960s and the transition to a post-industrial consumer society. The class will use extensive readings from scholarly texts in history, economics and sociology to popular non-fiction, internet resources, music and visual materials. Active participation, a research paper (with presentation) and two in class examinations will be required.
379A LATINA/OS AND THE CITY
(Burgos, A.)
Same as LLS 379, See LLS 379.
Description not available at time of publication.
383A HIST OF BLK WOMEN’S ACTIVISM
(McDuffie, E.)
Same as AFRO 383, GWS 383. See AFRO 383.
Description not available at time of publication.
396A SPECIAL TOPICS
(Avrutin, E.)
Topic: Soviet Jewish History
An examination of how Jewish life and culture contributed to the creation of the world’s first social society. This course will make use of primary sources, scholarly essays and monographs, archival documents, literature, memoirs, film, and visual culture as a way of introducing students to Soviet Jewish History, from the reign of the last tsar, Nicholas II, to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Special topics to be examined include: the breakup of the Pale of Settlement during the Great War; the role of Jews in revolution and revolutionary culture; Soviet nationality policy; shtetl culture; antisemitism; everyday life; the purges of the 1930s; the Jewish experience in World War II; the Holocaust; and mass emigration.
The course will be taught in lecture/discussion format. Reading assignments will total between 150-200 pages per week. Familiarity with European, Jewish, or Russian history is required.
400 Level
405G2/G4/U3 HISTORY OF BRAZIL FROM 1808
(Schneider, A.)
There is a long-standing adage in Brazil that Brazil is “the country of the future!” Often, however, the utterance of this expression is followed with the ironic caveat: “… and always will be.” This lecture and discussion survey course examines the politics, economics, and culture during the past two centuries of this (perhaps) ever of-the-future country. Beginning with the arrival of the Portuguese Court in 1808 through the 2002 election and current administration of Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva, the course emphasizes the changes as well as the continuities of political structures and the forms of social organization over time. Readings and lectures will guide students through specific questions and debates regarding the formation and development of the Brazilian nation-state and a “national” culture. The key topics and themes that thread throughout the course include: slavery and its legacy, poverty and inequality, gender, and authoritarianism and democracy.
406G2/G4/U3 HISTORY OF MEXICO FROM 1519
(Baber, J.)
“What made Mexico uniquely Mexican?” Exploring the history of Mexico, from the arrival of Cortés to today, this course will analyze the past that continues to shape modern Mexico. Our neighbor to the south, Mexico is a land of striking contrasts and contradictions: from its economic disparities to its dramatic landscapes to its concurrent importation of foreign culture and veneration of indigenous traditions. Introducing students to the major themes of Mexican history, the course will examine such issues as Mexico’s colonial past, the development of “lo Mexicano” (Mexican cultural expression and identity), the struggle for native rights and recognition, and the processes of globalization and transnationalism (beginning with its earliest form—the Spanish Empire). We will examine this past through the prism of literature, film, newspapers and even personal correspondences in order to understand what contributed to the formation of modern Mexico.
436G4/U3 JEWISH LIFE-WRITING
(Harris, R..)
Same as CWL 421, RLST 420, SLAV 420, YDSH 420. See YDSH 420.
Description not available at time of publication.
437G2G4/U3 MIDDLE EAST IN 20TH CENTURY
(Cuno, K.)
What led up to the Iraq war? Why can't the Palestinians and Israelis make peace? How has oil production affected the societies and politics of the Persian Gulf region? What is behind Islamic fundamentalism? And how did the U.S. get involved in all of this anyway? This course will help you answer these questions and more. We will examine the post-WWI history of Egypt, Arabia, the Fertile Crescent (including Israel), Iran, and Turkey, a group of countries representing a diversity of societies, political systems, and histories, and which have experienced colonization and decolonization, the rise of nationalist movements and other secularisms, plus religious-reformist and militant religion-political movements. We will explore these issues against the background of the region's modern social and economic transformation. Grades will be based on written work, including a term paper. You have to read to understand this stuff, and so a fair amount of reading is assigned.
445G2/G4/U3 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
(Symes, C.)
Same as MDVL 444.
A course devoted to the main sources and problems of English history, from the end of Roman rule in Britain (c. 410) to the fifteenth century. Readings and discussions will focus on the rise of a distinctive Anglo-Saxon culture, the continuity and discontinuity of identities and institutions before and after the Norman invasion of 1066, the governmental and legal innovations of kings from Henry I to Edward I, the cultural and social changes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the political and military upheavals of the fifteenth. Related themes and topics will include the development of law, the role of women, the changing status of commoners, intellectual trends, and the importance of public media for the dissemination of ideas. Students will be expected to read primary materials and some secondary scholarship in English (and some in Middle English), to write several papers, to participate actively in class, and to take midterm and final examinations.
447G4/U3 BRITAIN STUART AGE 1603-1688
(Hibbard, C.)
“Stuart Age” refers to the royal family, but the 17th century saw two decades in which the rule of that family was contested, civil war broke out, a king was executed, and an “Inter-regnum” (1649-60) occurred. We will explore the political, religious, social and economic background to those momentous events; the rapid growth of radicalism in mid-century and its surprisingly rapid disintegration; and how the new “public spaces” opened up in mid-century made the later Stuart period (1660-88) very different from the world before the war. Course requirements include a book review, participation in a debate, and the midterm and final examinations.
448G2/G4/U3 VICTORIAN BRITAIN
(Rodriguez’G, K.)
"I have seen more magnificence than I ever wish to see...
and more wretchedness than I ever supposed could exist..."
Charles Edwards Lester (c. 1840)
Charles Lester's description of Britain, only two years after Queen Victoria assumed the crown, highlights the duality of Britain's Victorian century, marked not only by great technological, scientific, industrial and social/cultural progress on one hand, but also extreme poverty, prostitution, disease, urban pollution and overcrowding, and the oppression of colonized peoples. During Queen Victoria's long reign (1837-1901), Britain's empire would come to encompass close to half the world's population and a quarter of its land mass. And although Victorians are popularly represented as being repressed, sexually and otherwise, the 19th century also gave rise to Jack the Ripper, the music hall, a fascination with the occult, the birth of modern pornography, and the companionate marriage. The Victorians, to say the least, were an interesting bunch.
In this course, we will consider this complicated mix of Victorian 'values' and the world in which they emerged. Although technically Victorian Britain begins in 1837 with Victoria's ascent to the throne, we will begin with the Act of Union in 1801 that united Ireland with Great Britain (England and Scotland) to form the United Kingdom, and traverse the century to the South African Wars (1899-1902), where Victorian values and imperial ideals visibly began to falter.
450G2/G4/U3 EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS HISTORY
(Koenker, D.)
Same as LER 450, SOC 422.
The everyday life of workers and their families at work, home, and in public constitutes the focus of this class, which considers the experiences of workers and the working class in Europe from the Industrial Revolution to the late twentieth century. The central theme of class formation will help in studying the rise of workers as a class, the ways in which gender structured class experience and class consciousness, changes in living standards, the development of unique cultural worlds, stratification by skill, ethnicity, and religion, workplace autonomy and control, collective action and labor organization, the role played by workers in socialist movements, imperialism, and European politics, and the experience of workers under communism and fascism. Most readings, lectures, and discussion will concern Britain, France, Germany, and Russia; the readings will include memoirs and fiction as well as historical and sociological texts. Evaluation will be based on class participation and discussion, two essays based on assigned readings, and one research paper. No exams.
461G2/G4/U3 RUSSIA-PETER THE GREAT TO REV
(Steinberg, M.)
Description not available at time of publication.
466G4/U3 SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
(Todorova, M.)
This course covers the history of the creation and development of the independent Balkan states (Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and later Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and partly Turkey) during the 19th and 20th centuries. This process, whose obverse side was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, can be approached as a case study of the larger and general process of dissolution of multinational empires into nation states that dominated much of Europe's experience in this period. Special attention is given to Balkan nationalism, its roots, evolution and various manifestations. The modernization of the rural societies of the Balkans, their state and nation building are major problems of comparative analysis. Other topics cover ethnic conflict and/or accommodation, inter-Balkan relations, and the role of the great powers in the region. Finally, a close look will be taken on contemporary developments in the Balkans, especially the Yugoslav crisis. By reading and discussing fictional work and showing several films by Balkan authors, the course will provide a look also at the intellectual production of the region. Books for discussion are assigned on a weekly basis. Additional texts, maps and other materials will be provided by the professor.
467G4/U3 EASTERN EUROPE
(Esbenshade, R.)
During their turbulent past two centuries, Eastern Europeans have desired above all to share the benefits of Western European security and development, while being treated as, at best, poor country cousins. Stuck for the most part in a pattern of economic dependence and rural misery, deprivation of national sovereignty punctuated by periods of homegrown authoritarian rule, they have never ceased to dream European dreams. This course will focus on Poland, the Czech lands, Slovakia and Hungary, from the period of the romantic movements for national awakening of the early 19th century up to the present day. Our special concentration will be on the relationship between national identity, culture and politics; and between the intellectuals, promoters of that national identity, and the mostly peasant masses they have claimed to speak for. The West, both imagined and real, will never be far from our minds, and we will close with the rocky road to European integration since the fall of Communism in 1989. Reading literary works and viewing films will give us a primary view into the internal struggles of East Europeans; student participation in engaging with and discussing these works in class will be vital.
471G4/U3 HISTORY OF AMERICAN FAMILIES
(Pleck, E.)
Same as HDFS 421
We are living in a period of enormous changes in family life around the world. How did we get to this point? The class presents a historical perspective on the contemporary family, emphasizing changes in marriage and childhood in American history over the past four centuries. Readings, discussion, and film will pay special attention to the diversity of the American people and their family experiences. Students will also write about a topic in their own family history. Students who prefer not to write a family history can chose an alternate assignment.
472G4/U3 IMMIGRANT AMERICA
(Burgos, A.)
Description not available at time of publication.
484A AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY
(Ross, R.)
Same as LAW 688. See LAW 688.
Description not available at time of publication.
485A HISTORY OF AMERICAN INDIAN LAW
(Hoxie, F.)
This lecture/discussion course will introduce students to the history of the American Indian struggle for justice in the United States. It will offer students an opportunity to explore Native American encounters with the American legal system through common readings in secondary sources as well as the decisions of federal courts. Students will review the evolution of federal Indian policy as well as the legal issues that have confronted Native Americans (and to a limited extent Native Hawaiians) over the past two centuries. Among the topics to be explored are sovereignty, treaty rights, the powers of tribal governments, jurisdictional disputes involving states and tribes and the civil liberties of Native people. In the last section of the course, students will develop short research papers focused on the history of a single legal dispute involving a particular Indian community
492C HISTORIOGRAPHY AND METHODOLOGY
(Oberdeck, K.)
This course is intended to prepare honors students to write both historiographical essays and research theses. There will be common readings and discussion on historiography and historical methods, along with introductions to the use of the library. Students will also have opportunities to discuss trends, methods, and resources in various fields with members of the history faculty who are able to schedule visits to class. Written assignments will include an historiographical essay and the preparation of a hypothetical prospectus for an honors thesis, both of which will be prepared in several stages with opportunities for instructor and peer review and revision.
495A HONORS SEMINAR
(Brennan, J.)
Topic: Africa and Decolonization
This honors seminar examines the history of sub-Saharan Africa’s decolonization in the 1950s-1970s through two lenses. First, what were the relationships between late European empires and African colonies? More specifically, what were the strategies and tactics that both European and African political leaders followed to negotiate independence, or alternately to take independence through armed struggle? Second, what were the projects of the first generation of African nationalist leaders to ‘decolonize’ these newly independent nation-states? More specifically, what forms did ‘nation-building’ take, and to what extent can these developments be seen as either a major rupture in historical continuity, or alternatively a continuation of trajectories already set in the late colonial period?
Class readings will address these questions through comparative cases focused mainly in (ex)-British colonial Africa, but also include cases from the former Belgian, French and Portuguese colonies. The aim of these readings is to develop a set of thematic comparisons across late colonial and early post-colonial Africa, as each student selects a case study to research and explore the trajectories and meanings of ‘decolonization’ in a specific part of the continent.
498A RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Vostral, S.)
Topic: Diseases and Devices: A History of Medicine and Technology
This course examines the history of material cultures of health care. The class will analyze how technological innovation has become central to medicine over the last two centuries and how we are coping with the consequences, both intended and unintended, of our reliance upon such devices. We will look at the ways in which disease is constructed, and how technologies contribute to the naming of maladies and the identities associated with “sickness.” Attention will given to race, class, and gender, in term of implications for emergent biotechnologies.
498B RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Jacobsen, N.)
Topic: Indians and Nation State Formation in Latin America
This section of the undergraduate seminar has two goals: first, to achieve a good understanding of the varied and significant roles that indigenous groups played in the long process of building the modern Latin American nation states, from Mexico to Bolivia and Guatemala to Brazil; and second, to help students to produce a significant piece of research and writing associated broadly with the theme of the course. Each week we will read on specific aspects of Indian/nation-state relations - from the revolutions of independence 200 years ago to the modern indigenous rights movements. And each week we will tackle a specific task in the research and writing process so that everyone remains on target for producing a sharp paper at the end of the semester. Possible topics range from the portrayal of Indians in novels and essays, to indigenous rebellions, the recruitment of Indians for armies, and the role of protestant missionaries in indigenous communities.
498C RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Tillman, E.)
Topic: Disaster and Dictatorship in Latin America
This course examines readings and documents from across disciplines to examine natural disasters and their role in the political history of modern Latin America. We will analyze the historical effects of such disasters as floods, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, earthquakes, and epidemics. Throughout the course, we will assess the impact that these events had on the societies and politics of Latin American countries, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. The course emphasizes both through reading and individual student research projects, a wide variety of different types of natural disasters, and will also represent a broad swath of Latin American geography. Readings will focus especially on Mexico and Guatemala, Cuba and Haiti, Peru and Ecuador, and Brazil. Response papers and in-class discussions will address the ways in which the consequences of disaster in each of these areas is representative and ways in which they are geographically and culturally unique. This set of exercises encourages students to consider the more universal aspects of historical occurrences alongside the specifics that affect each individual occurrence.
This course provides a non-western view of disasters and their effects on society, how they are received, and their longer-term effects. Readings, discussion, and research confront such questions as geographical determinism. Students will analyze the reasons for certain common Latin American trends such as poverty and dictatorship. We will also address the aftermath of disaster by answering as to how disasters are represented and explained over time and how countries and populations recover. The latter question will form a large part of reading and discussion throughout the course of the semester, so that students will be able to address what happens to a national or group consciousness when foreign powers are called in to aid, when populations are uprooted, or when traditional industries are destroyed, to name a few examples.
In individual research projects, students will be asked to make connections between modernization/technology and poverty. The final research paper uses one historical example to address the following questions: How do different governments and government types respond to natural disasters? What role do these disasters play in the continuation or overthrow of governments—how are some overthrown because of a disaster while others manage to use them to stay in power or even increase their power? How does unequal wealth distribution affect the damage done by such disasters?
498H RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Schneider, D.)
Topic: Gender and Migration
The Seminar will focus on history of Transnational Migration as a major development of the nineteenth and twentieth century. At the beginning of the semester, the class will read theoretical and historical works to understand the major spaces and time periods of migration in the United States, Europe and Asia. We will also determine the theoretical and historical importance of gender as a category of analysis in understanding migration history. Everyone will then develop their own guided research project on an immigrant group or a specific sub-theme of migration history with the help of materials located in the University Library. Students will be expected to perform extensive library research, write a paper of 12-20 pages and to present their work in class.
498K RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Toby, R.)
Topic: Visual History
A picture may or map be “worth a thousand words,” but it’s never self-evident which thousand words they are. Pictures and their cousins, maps, that is, are representations that must be “read” with the same critical care given to written, verbal texts: Who is the “author” (“artist”; “cartographer”; “producer”)? What was the context of production and reception? What conventions of representation are built into the work? What are the limits of empirical and interpretive reading of visual texts? Initial examples will be taken from the rich archive of visual production in early-modern Japan, but students are encouraged to pursue the historical reading of the visual in their own areas of interest.
Visual History” is a research seminar focused on the theory, problematics, and practice of interrogating visual artifacts (paintings, prints, photographs) as historical document or source. We begin with some theoretical and methodological readings from history, art history, and criticism, etc., and a brief review of the history of early modern Japanese art, before proceeding to implement those insights in individual research projects employing visual or pictorial “evidence” in historical interpretation. The instructor has focused in his own research on the “reading” or “textualizing” of Japanese paintings, prints, maps, and book illustrations, some of which will be presented in class; materials will be drawn from many other cultures as well.
Students will research and write original papers exploring the possibilities of reading the visual as historical text, and will make class presentations of their research-in-progress.
498M RESEARCH AND WRITING SEMINAR
(Todorova, M.)
Topic: History of Travel
This seminar offers an introduction to the ways scholars are thinking about the phenomenon of travel in a historical perspective. It will survey the ars apodemica, or "art of travel" in antiquity, the medieval and early modern period, and will focus on the rationale and mechanisms of travel from the Enlightenment to the present. Key topics we will consider are the delineation of types of travel in different periods according to a variety of characteristics: motives, provenance, social class, duration, means of transport, etc. Others include aspects of the role of travel as a method of research, i.e. the accumulation and systematization of descriptive and evaluative knowledge through travel for the formation of new disciplines and genres in the humanities: anthropology, sociology, political science, comparative history, literature, etc. We shall explore different regions of "discovery"--Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Southern and Eastern Europe, finally Europe as a whole and North America itself, and will deal with questions of representation. Special attention will be devoted to the problem of women travelers and their work. Throughout, our central objective will be to attempt to evaluate travelogues as historical sources.
500 Level
502A PROB IN COMPARATIVE HISTORY
(Chaplin, T.)
Topic: Bodies on Fire: Sexual Modernity in Comparative Historical Perspective
This course will investigate how scholars (from the 18thC to the present) have approached sexuality as an object of historical inquiry. What are the theoretical, epistemological, social and political stakes of such analysis? How do we grasp the embodied subject within an historical frame? What is sexuality? How is it practiced, produced, policed, constructed, represented, liberated, controlled? We shall begin by reading foundational and contemporary texts (Foucault, Butler, Reich, Marcuse, Freud, Kinsey, Beauvoir, Sedgewick, etc), in order to establish familiarity with the methodological and theoretical questions circumscribing work in this field. Subsequent investigations shall be structured thematically around such topics as sexual orientation, colonial/postcolonial sexual economies, prostitution, sexology and sexual norms, reproductive technologies, pornography and the erotic, sexuality and the media, sexual education, and questions of health, disease and desire. The geographic focus in this class is eclectic; Europe and America will constitute our primary areas of study but texts may range globally to Africa, Asia, Latin America, etc. Students will complete a substantive research paper on a topic of their own choosing related to the themes of the class. Our work will include the analysis of sexuality and the erotic in art, literature, the print and broadcast media, advertising, and film.
502B PROB IN COMPARATIVE HISTORY
(Hoddeson, L.)
Topic: Oral History
This graduate seminar explores the practical and intellectual issues of using interviews as a research tool in the writing of history. The advantages of offering "living sources" a voice in historical reconstructions include the opportunity to write histories that are more complete, colorful, and sensitive to personal factors than studies based on documents alone. Oral narrative can amplify historical accounts with personal connections, motivations, and other information. Moreover the process of doing interviews often helps historians find references or documents not yet deposited in archives. For the historian a major disadvantage -- and a challenge -- of using interviews in dealing with the distortions of human memory.
Assigned readings and seminar discussions during the first half of the course will address issues of historiography, human and historical memory, and interviewing technique. Through analysis of historical works based on oral history we will study conceptual and practical consequences of offering living sources a voice in the interpretation of events. The second half of the seminar will be focused on student interviews and reports oriented toward writing seminar papers. Students will learn how to prepare for interviews, how to compose dynamic questions keyed to documents, and how to direct interviews to jolt memories and probe social masks. We will also discuss interpretation of interviews, equipment, interviewing etiquette, ethics, transcription, and the legalities of releasing interviews.
Students will be required to: (1) carry out reading assignments and participate in class; (2) prepare, conduct, transcribe, and secure release of at least one well-researched interview relating to a research topic of their choice; (3) critique interviews conducted by other members of the seminar; (4) report in class on their oral history project; and (5) write a seminar paper incorporating material from their interview. Students can select their project from any area of history in which interviews are of use.
502C PROB IN COMPARATIVE HISTORY
(Fritzsche, P.)
Topic: Memories of Disaster
In this interdisciplinary course, we will explore “catastrophe and the modern imagination,” pairing fiction with non-fiction and analyses of catastrophe with the politics of its representation. Topics will include Katrina, the extinction of the dinosaurs and global warming, millenialism, revolution, terror, colonialism, famine, the Great Depression, war and killing, the Holocaust, genocide, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and memory, truth, and reconciliation. Readings will include Dave Eggers, Zeitoun, Maurice Blanchot’s The Writing of the Disaster, Don DeLillo’s Falling Man, Paul Martin’s Twilight of the Mammoths, Tom LaHaye’s Left Behind, Sven Lindqvist’s “Exterminate all the Brutes”, Mike Davis’ Late Victorian Holocausts, Michael Taussig’s Law in a Lawless Land, Amartya Sen’s Poverty and Famine, Paul Fussell’s, The Great War and Modern Memory, Hans Nossack’s The End, Albert Camus’s The Plague, Lawrence Langer’s Holocaust Memories, Robert Eaglestone’s The Holocaust and the Postmodern, Dave Grossman, On Killing, Mahmood Mamdani’s When Victims Become Killers, Fiona Ross’s Bearing Witness, J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, and Philip Bobbitt’s Terror and Consent. Please read Eggers for the first day.
510A PROBLEMS IN AFRICAN HISTORY
(Brennan, J.)
Topic: African Historiography
Description not available at time of publication.
520A PROBLEMS IN CHINESE HISTORY
(Chow, K.)
Same as EALC 520
Topic: New Approaches to the Study of Ming Qing Culture
Description not available at time of publication.
551A PROB EUROPEAN HIST SINCE 1789
(Avrutin, E.)
Topic: Jews and Their Neighbors in Europe 1500-2000
This course is an interdisciplinary graduate-level introduction to the encounter between Jews and their neighbors. It focuses on the significations and transformations of Jewishness in modern Western history, through a wide range of recent writings by historians, anthropologists, and cultural theorists. We will consider the pre-modern roots of the position of Judaism and Jews in Christian thought and society, but will more closely focus on the modern re-articulation of this relationship in the aftermath of the Enlightenment. Key themes will include the varied pathways of Jewish modernization, the emergence of modern Jewish political, cultural and religious formations, constructions of Jewish otherness, everyday neighborly relations, and both Jewish and non-Jewish responses to the Holocaust. We will read the Jewish/ non-Jewish encounter above all as a crucial site for the elucidation of the possibilities and pitfalls of majority / minority relations in the modern West. The course will be joined at times by the faculty members and visitors from the Program in Jewish Culture and Society.
551B PROB EUROPEAN HIST SINCE 1789
(Todorova, M.)
Topic: East European History
The goal of this graduate seminar is to serve as an introduction to the complex historiography of Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe in the context of this course is understood as East-Central Europe and Southeastern Europe (the Balkans). Russia, is not included, although it is considered to be a part of Eastern Europe. We will explore mostly English-language historiography but will attempt to inform each other about work done in the region in other languages. Different approaches will be covered (socio-economic, political, cultural and intellectual history, the Annales paradigm, anthropology, political science, etc.) as well as central themes (modernity, modernization, economic and social structure, nationalism, socialism, war, violence, representation).
The format of the course will consist of class discussions on readings, book reviews and a final historiographical research paper.
572A PROB IN US HIST SINCE 1815
(Hoganson, K.)
Topic: U.S. in The World
This course, inspired by the internationalizing U.S. history movement,considers the United States in world context. Readings explore such topics as the Atlantic world, borderlands, empire, transnationalism, migration, Americanization, Orientalism, militarization, and globalization. We will discuss the imperial turn, recent critiques of the nation-centered historiographical tradition, the relevance of postcolonial theory to the United States, the new diplomatic history, and the relation between U.S. history and world history as we consider multiple ways of framing historical narratives in our self-consciously global age. The course will be run as a problems class. Students wanting research credit should speak to the instructor prior to enrolling.
572B PROB IN US HIST SINCE 1815
(Oberdeck, K.)
Topic: U.S. Cultural and Intellectual
This readings seminar in US Cultural and Intellectual History will focus on problems of locating cultural and intellectual formations that speak to class identities as they operate at a variety of scales: local, national, imperial, global, and/or mobilized across one or more of these. We will ask about the significance and relevance of class distinctions in relation to other dimensions of social identity (e.g. race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality) and to geographical place and scale as they shape cultural production, reception, expression and conflict. The first few weeks of conceptual and methodological readings on studying culture, intellect, and relevant conceptions of geographical scale. Subsequent weeks explore these issues through book- and article-length secondary readings ranging topically from the mid-nineteenth through the late-twentieth centuries, accompanied in many cases by illustrative primary texts. These readings will focus on issues of cultural production, constructions of working-class and middle-class identities through culture; the relation of class to distinctions of race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality; cultural work on empire; global cultural connections. Likely topics include popular literature, class, and race; cultural constructions of work and workplaces; working-class writing and reading; African American cultural constructions of class; culture and spatial mobility; and the relevance of urban/rural/suburban distinctions to cultural constructions of class, race and gender.
575A PROBLEMS AFRICAN AMERICAN HIST
(Cha-Jua, S.)
Topic: African American Historiography
Description not available at time of publication.
591A HISTORY AND SOCIAL THEORY
(Prochaska, D.)
What is it that historians do when they “do” history? We can agree that after reading and researching, historians usually write up their results in a narrative format typically with an argument. But where do these narrative constructs, these arguments come from? In this course we will endeavor to plot a cognitive map of history and interpretive communities; together we will construct a genealogy of contemporary historical studies by successively inquiring into the intellectual and political fields in which historians practice their craft. Beginning with Marx and Weber, we will move on to survey the French Annales school and social history, women and gender, Geertzian anthropology and cultural history, Foucault, postcolonialism, and postmodernism.
594A INTRO HISTORICAL WRITING
(Barnes, T. and Levine, B.)
Description not available at time of publication.
597D DISSERTATION PROPOSAL WORKSHOP
(Hibbard, C.)
The workshop intends to give students a forum in which they can present drafts of their dissertation proposal for critique. By receiving feedback from their peers and from a faculty member not necessarily from their field of study, the students can refine their dissertation projects. Organizational, methodological, and theoretical issues will all be addressed. This course prepares the student to apply to grant and fellowship competitions.