You can find a link to the History Major Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
You can find a link to the History Minor Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
Online (U800, U700) Classes: Online History Courses are set up through The College of Professional Studies (formerly known as University College or UC), not through the History Department. The majority of the seats in these classes are reserved for College of Professional Studies Students. Any other available seats can be taken on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to enroll in the course during the enrollment period, you will have to wait until the first day of class, when any remaining reserved seats are released. We are unable to offer permissions or increase enrollment caps at this time.
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An introduction to Islam and the lives of Muslims in the Middle East and around the globe through movies, tv, music, and other media. Introduces students to Islam as a living faith through the lives of Muslims and their representation. By combining history and religious studies, the course provides important context for understanding the role of Islam and Muslims in the world today. Drawing examples from the contemporary Middle East and Middle East history, the course situates Islam as a global religion and in relation to transnational social and political movements. Examples consider the place of Islam in secular states whether majority Muslim (Egypt) or majority Christian (the U.S.) and in relation to religious nationalism (Saudi Arabia) to examine how religion intersects with socio-economic class, gender, and race. Drawing examples from television, fiction, documentary film, and multiple musical genres to expose students to popular culture made by and for Muslims, we combine critical media literacy with an understanding of the development of media infrastructure, commercialization, and the politics of production and consumption.
Concentration: US/Global / Period: Modern
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HST 102: American History Since 1865
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This semester offers a broad look at the history of the United States in the 150 years from the end of the Civil War through the first decade of the 21st Century. Throughout the course, we will engage with the social, political, and cultural changes, ideas, and events that have profoundly shaped modern American society.
Key questions include: How have we defined being American? How has the nation’s relationship with the world changed? How have the rights of citizens evolved over time? How have various groups in American society articulated their claims to citizenship and national belonging? What factors have affected the development of American political leadership?
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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HST 112: Napoleon to the Present
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This course examines the major developments in European history since the late 18th century, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Fascist and Nazi seizures of power, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and European Unification. The thematic focus of this course is the relationship between the individual and the state. How does this relationship change over time – what makes it “modern”? To address this question, we will examine ideologies (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, fascism), the birth of mass society, poverty, violence, women’s rights, and racism. There are two lectures and one discussion section per week. Discussions emphasize primary sources and historical debates. Grades are based on in-class exams, papers, and discussion.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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HST 122: Global History 1750-Present
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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The course will analyze the complex histories and transnational forces that influenced the migration of diverse communities from their homelands. In addition to assessing forces that influenced these developments, such as colonization, imperialism, and globalization in the global north and south, the course will attempt to understand the transnational experiences, struggles, and activisms of diasporic communities across race, class, gender, and sexuality. Drawing on a diverse range of case studies, for example the global South Asian and African diasporas, the course will draw connections between a diverse array of experiences while also appreciating and understanding the nuances between them. Exploring these trajectories from the late colonial period to the present day, students will critically analyze what categories like diaspora, migration, and immigration mean to communities that are given these labels and to what extent these categories are tied to global power dynamics.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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Did ancient people feel the same emotions as we do? How did people in the past cope with depression and anxiety? What makes people ultimately happy? Why did some medieval Christians think that angels don’t feel pity? These and similar questions are central to this course that focuses on conceptions of the 'soul', the force felt to animate and energize a human body for as long as it was considered alive, and to activate virtually all aspects of its behavior through time. The emphasis will lie on texts on the care of the soul and on the relationship between body and soul – the latter topic being especially important in Christian discourses regarding the bodily resurrection.
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Interested in the Middle East but not sure where to begin? This course is the perfect introduction to understanding a fascinating and dynamic part of the world today. It covers major aspects of Middle East history from the twentieth century to the present, including the countries from Turkey and Iran in the east, to Palestine, Israel, Syria and the Arabian Peninsula, and from Egypt across northern Africa to Morocco in the west. Lectures combine political basics with a insights on social and cultural life, and women’s rights. Readings blend specific details of political and economy change in each country while indicating broader regional trends, from as European imperialism, the impact of the two world wars, to revolutionary aspirations and radical social movement. These are supplemented by primary sources that incorporate the words, perspectives, and self-representations of individuals across the Middle East. Additional topics include intellectual life, constitutionalism and democracy, anti-colonial nationalism, feminism and women’s movements, the radical left, political Islam, and contemporary debates.
There are no prerequisites for this class.
This class meets twice a week, there is no discussion section.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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HST 211: Medieval and Renaissance Europe
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This introductory survey traces Europe’s transformation during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, from roughly 300 CE to roughly 1500 CE. It begins as the Roman Empire slowly gave way to new societies in both East and West, and then follows the fortunes of these societies over more than 1000 years. It explores the religious, political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and artistic aspects of these societies and how they changed over time. Readings will include both primary sources (those written at the time) and secondary sources (by modern scholars). Students will learn to analyze these sources in order to find out what happened in this period, how people understood events, and how historians use evidence to explain the past. Requirements include reading and participation, midterm and final exams, and two papers.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
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A survey of modern African history since 1800. Are you curious about African History? Do you want to understand the causes and consequences of colonialism in Africa? How about understanding how Africans navigated colonialism oftentimes to their advantage while opposing its excesses? How did some Africans manage to evade colonialism? Do you wonder about the role of African states in the Cold War? How has Africa come to be a part of the global community by default? This course will answer those questions and more through surveying the history and transformations of the African continent over the last two hundred years. Some of the themes and topics this course will examine include: the role of slave trade in shaping nineteenth century Africa, nineteenth century commerce, European imperialism and African responses, colonial economies, the effects of colonization on African societies, rise of African nationalism, decolonization, Africa and the Cold War, postcolonial successes and challenges, the state of Africa in the twenty-first century and digital age.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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Elizabeth I: Cultural icon? Virgin queen? ‘Father/Mother’ of the nation? This course will examine the images, personality, words and actions of one of the most important monarchs in English history. How did Elizabeth manage to negotiate her rule of a patriarchal society as a ‘weak-willed woman’? Did she exploit her considerable political skills to benefit the country or simply to maintain her position on the throne? And what of those who sort to assassinate or replace her? How did she react to threats of foreign invasion, domestic rebellion and a barely concerned hostility among many in the governing classes? Using both early modern and modern iconography, we will explore the images and representations of Elizabeth to unravel her life and examine how she sought to portray herself and how others have seen her through the years.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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Capitalism is not only a Western economic system. It is a more comprehensive mode of organizing society that is being continuously adopted, modified and subverted around the globe. In this course, we will explore the multiple, and often counter-intuitive ways, in which capitalism became entrenched in the modern Middle East. Drawing on social, intellectual, environmental and business histories, we will examine how the encounter with modern capitalism shaped such pervasive political phenomena as European imperialism, post-colonial nationalism, and contemporary sectarianism. Additionally, we will dissect common modern practices, like smuggling and consumerism, to uncover how they came to define the culture of capitalism in the Middle East over the past two centuries.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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This course examines two concurrent developments in medieval history and historiography. The first is scholarship reevaluating race (and ideas about race) in the European Middle Ages. Second is how ideas about race continue to frame discussions about the Middle Ages today, both in academia and in the broader culture. Examples include debates among medievalists about the study of race, and the misappropriation and misrepresentation of the Middle Ages by white supremacists. By discovering that medieval Europe was more diverse than is generally assumed and that ideas about race go further back than most historical accounts recognize, students will better understand how the medieval era shaped the present and is being distorted in the present.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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This course will examine the long history of Asians and Asian Americans in the United States, while exploring how they have narrated their experiences and family histories, fought for human and civil rights, and grappled with marginalization and unbelonging. The class begins with historical overviews beginning in the mid-19th century when Asian migrants arrived on the Pacific Coast and encountered fierce nativist reactions and discriminatory laws. We look at subsequent policies (Immigration Acts of 1924, 1965, Executive Order 9066, etc) that impacted Asian and Asian-American demographics in the United States. The course then focuses on various memoirs, graphic novels, and art produced by American authors of Asian descent (east, south, southeast and west Asian) across the last century. Engagement with these sources will allow students to familiarize themselves with the ways Asian-American writers and artists have experimented with narrative voice and pushed against stereotypes and myths. Readings will cover topics ranging from mental health and well-being to intergenerational trauma, memory and erasure, inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations, humor and joy. We will explore how the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, citizenship and immigration status have impacted ways of understanding and navigating identities. Students will also have the opportunity to hone their own narrative voice by working on various creative-non-fictional pieces.
Concentration: US/Global / Period: Modern
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HST 300: Native American History 1830-Present
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This course is part two of the Native North American Survey. Beginning with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this course will take a chronological approach to Native North America to understand how major historical events and themes connect the past to the present. This is mostly a discussion-based course with major topics including Native sovereignty and self-determination, forced removal, forced assimilation, the Red Power movement, Landback, Native repatriation, and other forms of Native resistance and cultural perseverance.
Concentration: U.S./Native / Period: Modern
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This course explores the history of representations of Native Americans and their culture in popular media by both Native and non-Native peoples. Through analyses of both films and literature, this course will investigate major several major themes that affect Native people in the present-day such as colonialism, erasure, survivance, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, forced assimilation and boarding schools, the myth of the vanishing Indian, and Natives dealing with a post-apocalyptic future. The course will be accompanied by a weekly film viewing series where we watch movies from several different genres, mostly written and produced by Native filmmakers.
Concentration: U.S./Native / Period: Modern
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What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects.
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T/TH 2:00-3:20
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What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects.
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The course explores and analyzes the place of Africa and Africans as victims and players in historical events of global implications from the late nineteenth century (circa 1870) to the present. By utilizing interpretations from history of international relations, the course puts Africa and Africans at the center and periphery of these global currents as important role players and victims. Examples of global events/processes examined include, but are not limited to: integration of Africa into global economies; nineteenth century European imperialism; Colonial Economies; Global conflicts; health and disease; environmental issues; the Cold War; decolonization; Neocolonialism; International institutions and Africa; the Development Question; global war on terror; to mention but a few. Readings combine primary documents with secondary sources.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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This course provides a survey of the most important political, cultural and social developments in the period between 300 and 900, or roughly between the reign of Constantine and end of the rule of the Carolingian kings, mostly focusing on Western Europe. In this period falls one of the most dramatic historical breaks: the “Fall of the Roman Empire” and the “Beginning of the Middle Ages.” But was there really a “Fall of the Roman Empire?” When, how and why did the Roman Empire come to an end? This still ferociously debated question will play a central role in the course. Other topics will be the rise of Christianity, the development of medieval institutions (such as kingship, church structures, and feudalism), and the continuity and discontinuity of intellectual traditions. A special emphasis will be laid on reading and interpreting (translated) primary sources and on methods of historical research.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
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What caused the French Revolution? How did an absolutist regime transform into the First Republic? How did the ideals of democracy, equality and liberty lead to Terror? How did Napoleon rise out of the ashes of the French Revolution? The class will examine the social and cultural foundations of the Old Regime, the expansion of the French empire into Asia, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic world, and the ways this expansion triggered tensions among France's Three estates and with non-French populations. It will study the radical transformations in French society, politics and culture generated in the age of Enlightenment and Revolutions. How did Enlightenment thinkers redefine concepts such as reason, nature, civilization and sociability? How did Enlightenment ideals regarding universalism and human rights impact politics, state, and culture? How did they lay the groundwork for reform while also creating a new vocabulary for the exclusion of others? The final segment of the class will study the transition from reform to revolution. What political languages were in play at the start of the revolution? How did women, slaves, Jews, and Muslims participate in revolutionary upheaval? The class will examine the development of the Terror, Robespierre’s Republic of Virtue, and the rise of Napoleon. What was the impact and legacy of the Revolution on the nineteenth century? On future revolutions, socialism, totalitarianism? On the present? Course documents will include novels, political treatises and policy memos, images, plays and journal excerpts.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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In 1945, the hopes and ideals of classical liberalism and even the enlightened spirit of Europe itself seemed to have been destroyed by the European descent into bloody cataclysm. The shattered continent found itself the chessboard of an emerging American and Soviet conflict—a conflict that would unmistakably shape European history for the next half century. While war in Europe went cold, proxy wars and wars of decolonization chipped away at centuries of imperial dominance. Refugees, migrants, and laborers flooded into Europe bringing with them new challenges that tested the limits of tolerance. Within this commotion Europeans simultaneously recast historic ideals, struggled for social justice, and sought to stabilize the international political order. By the turn of the 21st century, unprecedented economic growth across the continent and the emergence of the EU announced that Europe had risen from the ashes anew. But today, Russian expansionism in the east, massive waves of African and Middle Eastern refugees, the rapid rise of right-wing populism, and the British secession from the EU undermine stability and echo catastrophes of the past.
This class will have four main themes. The first is to consider this period of history as postwar history, an era unmistakably shaped by legacies, memories, and narratives of the Second World War. Second, this period is Cold War history, a story of dividing Europe into conflicting political and cultural spheres. Third, Europeans in this era did a great deal of work to redefine themselves and we will focus on efforts of reinvention, political purges, conflicts with the past, social mobilizations, and political cooperations both before and after 1989. Finally, European history since 1945 has been global history, driven by advanced globalization, decolonization, and migration.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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You can find a link to the History Major Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
You can find a link to the History Minor Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
Online (U800, U700) Classes: Online History Courses are set up through The College of Professional Studies (formerly known as University College or UC), not through the History Department. The majority of the seats in these classes are reserved for College of Professional Studies Students. Any other available seats can be taken on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to enroll in the course during the enrollment period, you will have to wait until the first day of class, when any remaining reserved seats are released. We are unable to offer permissions or increase enrollment caps at this time.
| Course | Day/Time | Professor | Description | |||||||
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HST 101: American History to 1865 *This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture. | M/W 9:30-10:25 | Murphy | This introductory course will survey American history from the pre-colonial era to the Civil War. We will approach this period of history through a discussion of three themes. The first covers the period from the founding down to the middle of the eighteenth century and focuses on how Europeans from a medieval culture became Americans. The second theme explores the political, social and economic impact the Revolution had upon American society. And finally, we will focus on the modernization of American society in the nineteenth century and how that modernization was a major factor in causing the sectional crisis. In addition to the two lecture classes a week, you will attend a small discussion class taught by one of the teaching assistants once each week. Concentration: U.S. / Period: Pre-Modern | |||||||
HST 111: Early Modern Europe *This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture. | M/W 11:40-12:35 | Kyle | This course covers the history of Europe from the Black Death, which marked the end of the Middle Ages, to the French Revolution – the beginning of the modern world. While it will cover the major events of the period – the Renaissance, the Reformation, the English, French and scientific revolutions, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the growth of the modern state – the emphasis will be on changes in the lives of ordinary men and women. There will be a mid semester, a final, and two short (c. 5 page) papers. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
HST 121: Global History to 1750 *This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture. | M/W 11:40-12:35 | G. Kallander | This course introduces students to global history from the thirteenth century through 1750 by focusing on social, economic, political, intellectual, and religious developments in major regions of the world: Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Beginning with the Mongol’s Eurasian empire, their transformation of the continent, and the spread of Islamic empires from Central Asia to the Atlantic, it traces the historical patterns of different world regions in the fifteenth century through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and European imperialism. What types of exchanges were facilitated by maritime trade and trade diasporas? How were human interactions with their environment circumscribed by climate change and disease? The latter part of the course looks at global connections and local particularities facilitated by the spread of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Course themes include empire, disease, environment, slavery, religion, state-formation, and the rise of global trade. Topics will be covered thematically in general chronological order. Lectures will be supplemented by maps, visual materials, music, documentaries and films. All students are required to attend lectures and one discussion a week. Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
| HST/MES 208: Middle East Since the Rise of Islam | M/W 12:45-2:05 | Cheta | This course is an introductory survey of Middle East history from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to 1900. It discusses major empires in Middle East covering topics such as culture and society, science and technology, and women and politics. We will approach the Middle East through the theme of exchange, considering the connections between Southwest Asia and North Africa and neighboring regions, as the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Other prominent themes include multiculturalism, reform, and modernization. The course meets twice each week. There is no discussion section. Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
HST 210: The Ancient World *This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture. | M/W 10:35-11:30 | Diem | This course surveys the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, and explores the classical roots of modern civilization. We will begin with the first civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the roots of western religion in ancient Israel; then proceed through Bronze Age, archaic and classical Greece, the Persian wars, the trial of Socrates, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic world, the rise of Rome, and end with the fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity. The course will treat political, social, cultural, religious and intellectual history. We will focus on issues that the ancients themselves considered important – good and bad government, the duties of citizens and the powers of kings and tyrants – but we will also examine those who were marginalized by the Greeks and Romans: women, slaves, so-called "barbarians." The course will emphasize reading and discussion of primary sources, in order to provide a window into the thought-worlds and value systems of past societies. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
| HST 213: Africa: Ancient Times to 1800 | T/TH 11:00-12:30 | Shanguhyia | This course is a survey of pre-modern African history, presenting an overview of the main themes and chronology of the development of African culture and society. It provides an exposition of the regional and continental diversity and unity in African political, economic, social and cultural histories with special emphasis on major African civilizations, processes of state formation, encounters with the Euro-Asia world, Africa’s role in the international Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean and Atlantic trades, ecology, and urbanization. Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
| HST 300, M001: Early Modern Globalization 1453-1815 | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | Takeda | This is a research and writing seminar in which students will produce a 20 to 25 page paper on a particular aspect of early modern globalization. During the first several weeks of the course, we will discuss what historians mean by globalization, and analyze textual material to understand the various ways in which material, cultural, technological and biological exchanges across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia played a central role in the development and destruction of empires, states, and local communities. The seminar will allow students to appreciate the complex dynamics of early modern migration, slavery, religious globalization, conquest and colonialism, economic expansion, technological development, epidemics and disease. In the latter half of the course, students will focus on identifying and analyzing a set of archival and printed primary sources to develop and complete a research paper. Assignments will include outlines, bibliographies, short writing assignments, and rough drafts. | |||||||
| HST 300, M002: Food in Modern Europe | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | Terrell | ||||||||
| HST 300, M003: Cultural Images in History | M/W 3:45-5:05 | Lasch-Quinn | Selected ideas/movements/episodes concentrated on American/European cultural history, ancient and modern, as seen in images. Close-reading of texts, images, cultural artifacts. Representations of the self, emotion, ideas, and art of living as reflected in a range of primary sources including philosophy, literature, art, architecture, and film. Discussion of extensive common readings, art works, documentary films, and other materials, as well as individual original research. Hands-on visual workshop component. Reading/viewing journal, short writing assignments, presentations, and semester research paper related to cultural history in images. Students use common readings as a springboard to in-depth examination of a particular image as the centerpiece of their semester project. Students at any level from any program welcome. Concentration: U.S./Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern | |||||||
| HST 300, M004: Native History from Pre-Colonial Era to 1830 | M/W 12:45-2:05 | Luedtke | ||||||||
HST 300, M005: Native America and the World | M/W 2:15-3:35 | Luedtke | ||||||||
| HST 300, M006: History of Development in Africa | T/TH 2:00-3:20 | Shanguhyia | This course is about the history of development in Modern Africa from 1800 to the present. Development here is defined as the quest for progress/improvement in human economic and social conditions. Focus is on the origins, meaning, and implementation of development as an idea and practice in modern Africa. Readings challenge the students to develop a critical assessment of these processes. The readings examine roles of several agencies and institutions in Africa’s development history, particularly states, administrators, international institutions, knowledge regimes, as well as geography, natural resources, labor, policy frameworks of postcolonial states. What has motivated these institutions and agencies to engage in development in Africa? What has been the vision of ordinary Africans regarding developments? Assignments include critical writing reflections and tests. The course is relevant to students interested in the historical, political, and international contexts of Africa’s development question. Students of history, economics, development, political science, international relations will particularly find the course relevant to their fields. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 300, M007: The Life of the Mind, Ancient and Modern | M/W 12:45-2:05 | Lasch-Quinn | Intellectual life—the life of the mind—has taken strikingly different forms throughout history, depending on where and when, yielding particular ideas we can situate in particular times and places. This course centers on a selection of key episodes, figures, and forms in European and American intellectual and cultural history, from ancient to modern, to immerse students some of the conceptions, practices, and quandaries of the life of the mind. Besides a set of episodes and ideas we will compare and contrast in depth, we will follow particular themes, starting with ideas circulating among ancient Greco-Roman philosophers on how to live (Stoicism, Platonism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and the like) and tracing their reemergence in subsequent currents such as early Christian thought, Renaissance humanism, transcendentalism, and existentialism. We will see ideas in formation as part of conversations taking place in specific venues, real and virtual, from the ancient Athenian agora to the existentialist discussion in Parisian café culture, dissenting communities around the 20th-century New York intellectuals and the “little magazines,” and new forms and expressions up to the present. Questions will include what forces and structures encourage or impede free and open intellectual inquiry, the debate over the decline of the public intellectual today, the impact of social media, and other current issues. Concentration: US/Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern | |||||||
| HST/IRP 300, M008: International Relations in Antiquity | T/TH 8:00-9:20 | Champion | This course explores interstate systems of ancient Greece and Rome through international relations theory. The theoretical framework is applied to two famous historical narratives: Thucydides' portrayal of the great Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, and Polybius' account of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and its arch nemesis Carthage, led by the commander Hannibal. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern | |||||||
| HST 300, M009: Religion in South Asian Politics | T/TH 2:00-3:20 | Kumar | Religion has been an explosive issue in recent South Asian politics. Commencing with a look at contemporary events, such as the Rohingya refugee crisis, the consolidation of a Hindu nationalist state in India, and the recently concluded Civil War in Sri Lanka, this course will work its way back through the twentieth and nineteenth centuries to understand their historic roots. Key themes discussed will include the gendered nature of religious violence; majoritarian politics and religious identities; colonial rule and enumerated communities; everyday and extraordinary violence. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 301: Practicum in the Study of History | M/W 2:15-3:35 | Diem | What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects. | |||||||
| HST 301: Practicum in the Study of History | T/TH 11:00-12:20 | Kutcher | This course will survey the history of China from the seventeenth century to the present. Our focus will be on revolution and reform: the primary means through which Chinese people responded to the challenges of a new world, and, most particularly, to Western encroachment and invasion. Topics to be considered in depth include: politics and society under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911); the end of the dynastic system and the continuing quest for a viable political system; reform of Chinese culture through revolution; the challenge of changing old attitudes about gender roles; conflicting visions for the new nation; the critique of communism by dissident Chinese; the persistence and resurgence of traditional ways, and the renewed interest in Maoism during the 2000’s. Assigned readings include a slim textbook to provide chronology and a variety of historical materials including memoirs, fiction and poetry. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | HST/SAS 329: Making of Modern IndiaKumar | What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects. | |||||
| HST 304: The Age of Jefferson and Jackson | M/W 2:15-3:35 | KumarSchmeller | This course | surveys the history of modern South Asia from the beginnings of British colonial rule in the eighteenth century to the formation of independent India and Pakistan in the mid-twentieth century.HST 330: Slavery and Freedom in the Americas | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | Murphy | ||||
| HST 333: African American History After 19th Century | T/TH 9:30-10:50 | Ruffin | This course will examine the complex and varied African American experiences from Reconstruction to the present period. The course’s goal is twofold: first, to introduce you to the history and culture of African Americans; and second, to determine the manner in which these experiences relates to the contemporary world. Specifically, this course emphasizes Black people lives and quests for freedom through a thorough examination of: Reconstruction; de jure and de facto racial discrimination; race, class, and gender; political expression; community formation; migration; sociogeographical place; culture and representation; Black freedom movement; and current affairs. Concentration: US / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 353: History of Ancient Rome examines the period between 1787 and 1848 as a distinctive era in United States history. From the adoption of the Federal constitution to the Mexican war and the Gold Rush, the early American republic offers a vivid case study in historical irony: how a revolutionary republic inched towards nationalism and imperialism; how declared principles of liberty and equality could coexist with (and occasionally create new modes of) racial, gendered, and economic oppression and inequality; how a people who praised the virtues of rural life became progressively urban and industrial. Readings and lectures will juxtapose the traditional scholarly focus on statecraft, presidential politics, and diplomacy with more recent research in social, cultural, and economic history. Concentration: US / Period: Modern | ||||||||||
| HST 311: Medieval Civilization | M/W 12:45-2:05 | Herrick | This course explores European civilization from about 800 to about 1200. We will study kings, saints, and villains; faith and violence, love and hatred; ideas and beliefs. Our questions include: how did these people make sense of their world? How did they respond to crisis and opportunity? How did their civilization work? What was life like in medieval Europe? To answer these questions, we will mainly read primary sources that show us what medieval people themselves had to say about their world. Our goal will be to understand the past on its own terms. We will also emphasize the skills of close reading, strong argumentation, and clear expression of ideas. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
| HST/MES 317: Arab Revolutions | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | A. Kallander | From revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, to mass protests in Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen, to the overthrow of the regime in Libya, this course offers an historical introduction to the Arab Revolutions of 2011. Was it a Facebook revolution? Who was Tweeting in Tahrir? What role did women play? And where exactly is Tunisia? Beginning with extensive case studies of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia since the 1950s followed by shorter case studies of Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, this course explores the social, economic, and political histories of each country to understand the contexts and reasons for the revolutions. Topics include postcolonial politics, anti-imperialism, socialism and socialist development, state feminism, neoliberalism and economic restructuring. Readings, lectures, and discussions consider the impact of broader transformations on rural communities, women, and the poor. Turning to the 2011 protests, we will discuss topics such as the demographic and social bases of these movements, their mobilization and communication through the internet, the dynamics of armed revolt, and the complexities of foreign intervention. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 320: Traditional China | T/TH 11:00-12:20 | Kutcher | In this course we will survey Chinese history from earliest times to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644. This seemingly remote time witnessed the formation of a complex government and society whose influence extended to much of East Asia. Ranging over the centuries, the class will explore some of the main currents in Chinese political, cultural, social, and intellectual history. These include: Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Legalism as competing and sometimes intersecting philosophies; the imperial system and major changes in its form over time; the changing roles of women in society; popular rebellion and heterodox religion; and the place of science and technology in the Chinese past. We will read a variety of texts in addition to a concise textbook. Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern | |||||||
| HST/JSP 362: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust | T/TH 9:30-10:50 | Champion | A comprehensive survey of ancient Roman political, economic, social and cultural history based on the interpretation of primary sources, both literary and archaeological, from the foundation of the city through the dissolution of the Empire in the west. Special focus is given to important topics and themes in Roman history, including Roman foundation legends, the interrelationship of Roman statecraft and Roman religion, Roman aristocratic ethical values and imperialism, the Roman reaction to Greek culture and literature, the imperial cult of the Roman emperor, the position of women in Roman society, the Roman institution of slavery, the origins and early growth of Christianity, the third century CE military and economic crises, and modern ideas on Rome's transformation into medieval Europe. Short paper, mid-term and final examinations.Terrell | In 1933, a radical and dictatorial regime came to power in Germany, remade the German state, and went on to orchestrate a vast program of mass murder in pursuit of a vision of biological purity and to launch a war of world conquest, ultimately killing millions. This course examines the history of German fascism, the Nazi state, and the Holocaust according to three primary lines of inquiry. In the first part of the course, we will address the question of how the Nazis came to power. What was Nazism, and why did it gain a popular following? Why did the Weimar Republic, the parliamentary democracy founded in 1918, fall (first to dictatorship and then to Nazism) in the early 1930s? In the second part of the course, we will examine the politics of Nazism in power. What was everyday life like for various Germans under the Nazi state, and why did many Germans come to support the regime? The course’s third section addresses war, genocide, and the legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust. How did Nazi genocide policies develop, and how was it possible to implement them? What can the history of Nazi Germany teach us about other state-run mass murder programs? How have Germans grappled with the aftermath of Nazi Germany? Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modernModern | ||||||
| HST 357364: Early The Origins of Modern EnglandRussia | T/TH 29:0030-310:2050 | Kyle | This course examines the political, cultural and social history of Early Modern England. Topics covered will include the power and image of the monarchy (cases studies - Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I); the role of the printing press in both ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture; the impact of crime and the treatment of criminals; the importance of London as a center of commerce and culture; the myth and reality of Shakespeare and the role of the theater; witchcraft and the dominance of religion in everyday life; and the role of women in a patriarchal society. The course will emphasize reading, discussion, visual culture and the use of primary sourcesHagenloh | The Russian Empire emerged relatively late in the modern era, but it quickly rose to dizzying heights of military power, cultural prestige, and influence on international politics. Powerful rulers like Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, literary giants like Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoevsky, radical socialists like Alexander Herzen and Vladimir Lenin – these figures placed Russia at the center of trends that transformed European society for five hundred years. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire was in the midst of a period of precipitous decline, which led to the collapse of the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty during the First World War. This course examines the history of Russia from the emergence of the Tsarist autocratic system in the 1400s to the revolutions of 1917, focusing on the Russian state, serfdom, the Russian intellectual tradition, Russia’s imperial policies, and nineteenth-century working-class activism. We will also examine the lived experiences of various social groups within the Empire, including peasants, urban women, ethnic minorities, factory workers, and the intelligentsia. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre- Modern | ||||||
| HST 358: Democracy Ancient and Modern | T/TH 11:00-12:20 | Champion | Among the ancient world’s most enduring legacies, democracy continues to exert a powerful influence over the modern political imagination. This course examines forms of ancient democracy and democratic participation in government to help understand and problematize today's so-called democracies. Throughout the course, we probe questions like why democracy arose, what factors limited participation, who benefited most from it, and why twenty-first century versions of it are failing. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern | HST 377: History of Venice | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | Brege | This course will examine the history of one of the world’s most famous cities. Today the city is known as a major tourist destination. But for many centuries, Venice was one of the economic powerhouses of Europe and on the frontlines of the conflict between Western Latin Christendom and Islam. Venice was also duly famous throughout the late medieval and early modern periods for its republican form of government. After a brief introduction to the origins of Venice as a Byzantine outpost in the lagoons of the northwestern Adriatic, this course will examine the development of Venice as a colonial and trading power, the evolution of its republican form of government, the peculiar configuration of its society, and the role of art and ritual in Venetian life. The final part of the course will be devoted to a consideration of Venice’s role in the world after its fall as an independent republic. Among other topics we will consider are the Romantic preoccupation with Venice, the development of mass tourism, and the city’s response to looming ecological catastrophes370: American Military | T/TH 11:00-12:30 | Allport | Is there, as some historians have claimed, a distinctive ‘American way of war’ traceable over the four centuries since the beginning of the European colonization of North America? If so, what are its characteristics, how has it changed over time, and what does it reveal about a peculiar American attitude to state violence and the relationship between military and civilian society? In this course, we will examine the ‘small’ and ‘big’ wars of the United States from the colonial period to the recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Class meetings will be a mixture of lectures and discussion. Students will complete a number of primary and secondary source readings. Assessment will be based on class discussion and several reading and writing assignments. Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern |
| HST/WGS 379: Gender, Race and Colonialism | T/TH 9:30-10:50 | A. Kallander | This course will explore the intersection of gender, race, and colonialism in colonial ideologies and imperial practices in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Beginning with a theoretical approach to the study of gender (as distinct from the study of either women or men), colonialism, and Orientalism, themes include the role of gender and race in discourses of modernity, civilization, and domesticity, the construction of national identity, imperial masculinity, race and science in colonial empires, the representation of women in consumer culture and imperial propaganda and contemporary issues relevant to the understanding of race, gender, and power. The readings concentrate on British and French colonialisms in the Middle East, India, and the Caribbean in comparison American and Japanese imperialism. These include the examination of how colonial expansion and racial ideologies influenced gender and social relations within Europe. Though our focus is on the historical contexts of colonialism, our readings represent a variety of disciplines including anthropology, literature, feminist theory, and cultural studies, in addition to history. Concentration: Europe / Period: | Pre-modernModern | ||||||
| HST 383: Foundations of American Political Thought391: Mary Magdalen: History of a Legend | M/W 23:1545-35:3505 | Rasmussen | American political thought from the Puritans to Lincoln. American Revolution, establishment of the Constitution, and Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian systems. Concentration: U.S / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 387: Women, Abolition and Religion | T 3:30-6:15 | Robinson | The role that religion may have played in women’s understandings of themselves as abolitionists and social reformers. A selected group of women will be studied, with considerable attention given to Frances Harper. Concentration: U.S / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST/IRP 400: Gender and International Social Movements | T/TH 11:00-12:20 | Faulkner | This course examines the way women and gender have shaped international movements for social change since 1945. Students will study international social movements, including feminism/#Metoo, anti-apartheid, student movements, and AIDS activism, and explore how these movements have shaped international relations. Students will conduct original research on women or gender in an international social movement of their choice. Concentration: U.S/Global / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 401: China in Western Minds | W 3:45-6:15 | Kutcher | This course examines the history of Western attitudes towards China. In particular, we will focus on experts: the relatively small group of individuals we have relied upon for our knowledge of China. Among their numbers have been journalists, historians, missionaries, fiction writers, poets, and philosophers. Some have been famous, such as Pearl Buck and Marco Polo; and some infamous, such as the forger Sir Edmund Backhouse. One famous expert even boasted he’d never been to China. Why, he asked, should he permit the real China to interfere with the more glorious China of his mind? How experts have seen China has been determined in some sense by how they wanted to see it, and by how they wanted to convey it to the people back home. Students choose a China expert to research in depth, and prepare a substantial research paper based on original sources. Herrick | This course examines the legends that evolved around the Biblical figure of Mary Magdalene. It begins with the New Testament, then traces the development of her legends through the early Christian and medieval eras and into such modern day versions as The Da Vinci Code. We will pursue the development of the legends by reading primary sources, from the Bible to Christian writers, saints' lives, plays, and miracle collections. We will also engage with scholarship surrounding Mary as saint, legend and historical puzzle. Emphasis will be on discussion analyzing readings. We will also give attention to developing skills of close reading, solid argumentation and clear writing. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern | ||||||
| HST 395: Modern Japan | M/W 2:15-3:35 | G. Kallander | Through a thematic and chronological approach, this course examines the changing nature of Japanese society from early modern times (1600-1868) through the modern period (1868-1945) and postwar Japan (1945-today). We begin in 1600 when the battle of Sekigahara ushered in more than two centuries of “great peace” and “isolation” that only ended in 1868 with the fall of the Togukawa shogunate. We follow developments through the founding of the new Meiji government, when political leaders and ordinary citizens set out to create a modern nation-state, which resulted in great social, political and economic changes, while internationally Japan’s quest for an oversea empire brought the country into conflict with its neighbors and ultimately the U.S. In the final section of the course, we study Japan’s successful post-war economic “miracle,” and consider the Tokyo governor and nationalist Ishihara Shintarô’s publication of the best-selling book "The Japan That Can Say No," which argues that the West has much to learn from Japan. Class topics range from urbanization, mass culture and nationalism, popular protest, imperialism, colonialism and empire to gender, war and occupation, memory, apology politics, and globalization. The course will also pay particular attention to the contested nature of modernity. Primary sources, secondary scholarship, film clips and short story translations allow us to explore the changing nature of Japanese politics and society, as well as Japan’s interaction with East Asia and the world. Course requirements include weekly reading assignments, class discussion, a take-home midterm, an in-class final exam and a research paper. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 401: Conspiracy Theories in US HistoryT 9:30-12China in Western Minds | W 3:45-6:15 | Schmeller | Americans have frequently resorted to conspiracy theories for simple explanations of complex events and social developments, to demonize "outsiders" or expose "insiders," and to rouse popular anger for political gain. Through lectures, discussions of assigned readings, and research projects, this course examines conspiratorial thinking and its consequences across the broad span of American history, from the witch hunts of colonial New England, to revolutionary-era fears of British plots against American liberties, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century anxieties over the conspiratorial designs of Freemasons, Roman Catholics, abolitionists, the "slave power" and the "money power," Mormons, Jews, communists, and "the media." Particular attention will be devoted to the question of what a "conspiracy theory" is and what distinguishes it from other modes of explanation, especially in its peculiar use of evidence. Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 401: Hermits, Lepers, Heretics...Minorities and Marginal People in the Middle Ages | W 9:30-12:15 | Diem | How diverse and inclusive were medieval societies? How did they deal with people of different believes, sick or disabled people, queer people or non-conformists? Was the medieval world a world of repression and structural violence against minorities or were there also spaces that fostered diversity and tolerance? Can observations on the Middle Ages help us understanding and resisting modern forms of othering and discrimination? We will discuss these questions and develop individual research projects that are based on studying and contextualizing medieval primary sources and engaging with recent scholarship on medieval diversity. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern | |||||||
| HST/MES 407: Iraq: Modern Nation to US Occupation | T/TH 12:30-1:50 | A. Kallander | Kutcher | This course examines the history of Western attitudes towards China. In particular, we will focus on experts: the relatively small group of individuals we have relied upon for our knowledge of China. Among their numbers have been journalists, historians, missionaries, fiction writers, poets, and philosophers. Some have been famous, such as Pearl Buck and Marco Polo; and some infamous, such as the forger Sir Edmund Backhouse. One famous expert even boasted he’d never been to China. Why, he asked, should he permit the real China to interfere with the more glorious China of his mind? How experts have seen China has been determined in some sense by how they wanted to see it, and by how they wanted to convey it to the people back home. Students choose a China expert to research in depth, and prepare a substantial research paper based on original sources. Concentration: Global / Period: Modern | ||||||
| HST 401: US Civil War | M 9:30-12:15 | Cohen | This is a research seminar on the history of the United States Civil War. Students will write 25-30 page papers, utilizing primary sources. Subjects considered will include politics, military strategy and tactics, memory, slavery, reconstruction, race, and gender. Concentration: US / Period: Modern | |||||||
| HST 401: What If? Counterfactual History | T 12:30-3:15 | Allport | How diverse and inclusive were medieval societies? How did they deal with people of different believes, sick or disabled people, queer people or non-conformists? Was the medieval world a world of repression and structural violence against minorities or were there also spaces that fostered diversity and tolerance? Can observations on the Middle Ages help us understanding and resisting modern forms of othering and discrimination? We will discuss these questions and develop individual research projects that are based on studying and contextualizing medieval primary sources and engaging with recent scholarship on medieval diversity. Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern | |||||||
| HST 495/496: Distinction in History | Instructor Consent Required Students doing the thesis will take 3 credits of HST 495 the first semester and 3 credits of HST 496 the second semester (2 semesters for a total of 6 credits), which may begin in their junior or senior year. Students should register for HST 495 and 496 upon approval from the faculty advisor and Undergraduate Director. |
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For any questions regarding the History Program please contact:
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Mark Schmeller at mschmell@syr.edu or
Office/Undergraduate Coordinator: Christina Cleason at cmcleaso@syr.edu or 315-443-2210
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