History Department Offerings- Fall 2021
| Course Number | Class Number (PAWS) | Class Name | Professor | Days | Times | Pre-Modern? | Region | Liberal Learning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIS109-01 | 82068 | Ancient Egypt and Neighbors | Arthur Jones | Monday/ Wednesday | 5:30pm-6:50pm | Yes | None | None |
| HIS120-01 | 82073 | Rescue and Resistance | Barbara Krasner | Monday/ Thursday | 9:30am-10:50am | No | No | None |
| HIS165-01 | 82074 | Women and Violence in US History | Caitlin Wiesner | Monday/ Thursday | 9:30am-10:50am | No | None | Gender |
| HIS165-02 | 82075 | Women and Violence in US History | Caitlin Wiesner | Monday/ Thursday | 11:00am-12:20pm | No | None | Gender |
| HIS165-03 | 82076 | America and the Holocaust | Barbara Krasner | Monday/ Thursday | 8:00am-9:20am | No | None | None |
| HIS165-04 | 82077 | The Vietnam War | Michael Zvalaren | Tuesday/ Thursday | 5:30pm-6:50pm | No | None | None |
| HIS165-05 | 82258 | Disease and Health in US History | Simon Finger | Tuesday/ Friday | 9:30am-10:50am | No | None | None |
| HIS165-06 | 82259 | Disease and Health in US History | Simon Finger | Tuesday/ Friday | 11:00am-12:20pm | No | None | None |
| HIS165-07 | 82513 | Gender, US History and Film | Zakiya Adair | Tuesday/ Friday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | None | Gender |
| HIS165-08 | 82514 | Gender, US History and Film | Zakiya Adair | Tuesday/ Friday | 3:30pm-4:50pm | No | None | Gender |
| HIS177-01 | 82079 | 20th Century US History | Michael Zvalaren | Tuesday/ Thursday | 7:00pm-8:20pm | No | None | Global |
| HIS179-01/ AAS179-01 | 81879 | African American History to 1865 | Mekala Audain | Monday/ Thursday | 11:00am-12:20pm | No | None | Race and Ethnicity |
| HIS180-01/ AAS180-01 | 82081 | African American History 1865- Present | Christopher Fisher | Tuesday/ Friday | 9:30am-10:50am | No | None | Race and Ethnicity |
| HIS180-02/ AAS180-02 | 82082 | African American History 1865- Present | Christopher Fisher | Tuesday/ Friday | 11:00am-12:20pm | No | None | Race and Ethnicity |
| HIS187-01 | 82083 | Memory and World War 2 | Joseph Campo | Monday/ Thursday | 9:30am-10:50am | No | None | None |
| HIS189-01 | 82573 | World History from the Margins | Satyasikha Chakraborty | Tuesday/ Friday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | None | Global |
| HIS210-01 | 81880 | The Craft of History | Robert McGreevey | Monday | 2:00pm-4:50pm | No | None | Global |
| HIS210-02 | 81881 | The Craft of History | Robert McGreevey | Thursday | 2:00pm-4:50pm | No | None | Global |
| HIS210-03 | 82069 | The Craft of History | Jodi Weinstein | Monday/ Thursday | 12:30pm-1:50pm | No | None | Global |
| HIS230-01 | 82085 | Imperialism and Colonialism 1500-Present | Satyasikha Chakraborty | Tuesday/ Friday | 3:30pm-4:50pm | No | None | None |
| HIS230-02 | 82086 | Pirates and Piracy in Film and Fact | Roman Kovalev | Tuesday/ Friday | 11:00am-12:20pm | No | None | None |
| HIS230-03 | 82087 | Pirates and Piracy in Film and Fact | Roman Kovalev | Tuesday/ Friday | 3:30pm-4:50pm | No | None | None |
| HIS300-01 | 82093 | The Trojan War and the World of Homer | Dobrinka Chiekova | Monday/ Thursday | 12:30pm-1:50pm | Yes | Europe | None |
| HIS303-01 | 82089 | The Roman Republic | Arthur Jones | Monday/ Wednesday | 7:00pm-8:20pm | Yes | Europe | None |
| HIS305-01 | 82091 | Ancient Christianity | Dina Boero | Tuesday/ Friday | 11:00am-12:20pm | Yes | Europe, Eurasia, Middle East | World Views and Ways of Knowing |
| HIS305-02 | 82092 | Ancient Christianity | Dina Boero | Tuesday/ Friday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | Yes | Europe, Eurasia, Middle East | World Views and Ways of Knowing |
| HIS325-01 | 82094 | Modern Germany | Joseph Campo | Monday/ Thursday | 12:30pm-1:50pm | No | Europe | Global |
| HIS326-01/ HGS326 | 82580 | Holocaust and Genocide | Lindsay Warren | Tuesday | 5:30pm-8:20pm | No | Europe | None |
| HIS367-01 | 82096 | From Civil Rights to Human Rights | Christopher Fisher | Tuesday/ Friday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | United States | Race and Ethnicity |
| HIS372-01 | 82097 | The Early American Republic | Craig Hollander | Monday/ Thursday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | United States | None |
| HIS450-01 | 82099 | Japanese Imperialism, 1860-1945 | Jodi Weinstein | Monday/ Thursday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | Asia | None |
| HIS456-01 | 82106 | Genocide in Rwanda | Matthew Bender | Thursday | 2:00pm-4:50pm | No | Africa | None |
| HIS460-01 | 82100 | Revolutionary America | Craig Hollander | Monday | 5:30pm-8:20pm | No | United States | None |
| HIS462-01 | 82098 | Staging Politics: Theatre and Democracy in Ancient Athens | Dobrinka Chiekova | Monday/ Thursday | 9:30am-10:50am | Yes | Europe | None |
| HIS463-01 | 82102 | Secrets, Knowledge, and Secret Knowledge of the Early Modern World | Roman Kovalev | Tuesday/ Friday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | World | None |
| HIS498-01 | 82107 | Honors Senior Capstone Seminar | Dina Boero | Tuesday | 3:30pm-6:20pm | No | None | None |
| HIS499-01 | 81882 | Senior Capstone Seminar | Mekala Audain | Monday/ Thursday | 2:00pm-3:20pm | No | None | None |
| HIS499-02 | 82108 | Senior Capstone Seminar | Satyasikha Chakraborty | Thursday | 5:30pm-8:20pm | No | None | None |
Recommended Liberal Learning Courses for the History Major
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History Course Descriptions
HIS120-01 Rescue and Resistance in the Nazi Era- Barbara Krasner
This course analyzes various types of resistance and rescue during the Holocaust. Resistance ranges from cultural, religious, social, and educational activities to armed resistance in the ghettos, concentration camps, and forests. Rescue is a form of resistance, too. Throughout Europe, many non-Jews risked their lives to save and/or hide friends and strangers. In certain instances, Jews, too, managed to save their own. We’ll examine individuals and organizations that made a difference in saving Jewish lives.
HIS165-01 and -02- Women and Violence in US History Caitlin Wiesner
Since 2010, concurrent protests against sexual assault and police brutality have erupted on college campuses. Calls to hold men accountable for abuse collide with demands to dismantle a police state that inflicts unconscionable violence upon Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). At decade’s end, the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements ask seemingly conflicting questions with mounting urgency. How can Americans parse the overlap between racial and sexual violence, as well as interpersonal and state violence? This course strives to answer this question by analyzing the relationship between gender, race, and violence in the American past. It takes as its premise the fact that American women have historically been victimized by gender, racial, and state violence, while alternately perpetuating these same forms of violence. Through readings and discussions, students will examine how groups in the United States with competing and converging interests defined violence as a social problem and determined appropriate solutions. Together we will come to understand how these violences coevolved and interlocked to produce new meanings about race, the body, the law, and the body politic.
HIS165-03 America and the Holocaust- Barbara Krasner
In this course, we examine the roles of various branches of the American government, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his advisors, Congress, the State Department, and other Cabinet secretaries, and their understanding of what was happening to the Jewish population of Europe.
Students will analyze the impact of public opinion, the press, religious groups, and private agencies on governmental policies related to rescue. Particular emphasis will be placed on the American Jewish community’s reaction to the tragedy, and the factors influencing that reaction.
HIS165-04 The Vietnam War- Michael Zvalaren
This course will cover the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1975, beginning with the French occupation following World War Two and concluding with the final phase in 1975 and the war’s aftermath in the American consciousness. The reading material will cover a broad spectrum, from autobiography to journalism to fiction. Particular attention will be paid to the socioeconomic status of the soldiers, the political climate in the United States during the era, and the cultural texts produced about the war. This course will seek to enhance the understanding and appreciation of students for one of the more contentious moments in American history.
HIS165-05 and-06 Disease and Health in American History- Simon Finger
This course will explore changing American understandings of what it means to be healthy or sick, and how the quest to promote healthiness and avoid disease shaped American history and culture from the colonial era to the 21st century. Using a variety of sources and an interdisciplinary approach, we will examine the relationship of health and environment, disease outbreaks and the responses to them, and battles over health policy. Topics will include the role of disease in American aboriginal depopulation, the catastrophic outbreaks of Yellow Fever and Cholera in the Early Republic, the doctor-patient relationship, the role of medicine in sustaining slavery, movements for dietary and health reform, the effects of urbanization on American health, debates over quarantine and immigration policy, and the role of the media in spreading information and misinformation about preserving health.
HIS187-01 Memory and World War Two- Joseph Campo
This course is designed to give students an appreciation for how the history of the Second World War unfolded and to explore how different groups of peoples at different periods after 1945 have contested the memories of those events. It pays particular attention to three themes: those wars and experiences that history seemingly forgot, crucial/controversial developments that have competing interpretations, and how even after the war was “over,” it has been (and still is) very much a central part in many people’s lives. Its main objective is to get students to comprehend that this was indeed a world war, that is, it had an impact on the entire globe.
HIS230-01 Imperialism and Colonialism 1500-Present- Satyasikha Chakraborty
How did empire-building, colonialism, trans-oceanic trade and migrations transform the world into the globalized space we inhabit today? How have notions of the world itself changed in the last six centuries? This course offers a broad historical foundation of the modern world from the late 1400s, while trying to curtail Eurocentric assumptions from the narrative of world history and the history of empires. We will begin by exploring the powerful Islamic gunpowder empires such as the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, and their struggles with rising European powers hungry for colonial expansion. What made European colonialism and global hegemony eventually possible, and how did various local cultures respond? Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and British imperialists not only imposed European norms and systems on the new territories they colonized, but also adapted to American, African and Asian forms of science and governance, and forged domestic ties with local people. This hierarchical cultural interaction not only changed the political, economic and knowledge structures of non-Western societies, but in the process also transformed Europe.
In this course, we will look at the crucial role played by ideologies of race, gender, class, religion, sexuality and morality in sustaining imperialism and colonialism. How were these ideologies naturalized by colonial science? Both Western and non-Western imperialism were legitimized through cultural products which permeated the everyday lives of ordinary people. We will explore how imperialism led to the world wars and how colonized people were dragged into the wars. We will look at anti-colonial nationalist struggles that led to decolonization, as well as transnational collaborations against Western imperialism and neo-colonialism. This course will not only enable us to understand imperial motives and methods, but also how ordinary people experienced empire. Finally, this course will help us think over the relationship between imperial history and memory – why certain events/individuals are remembered and memorialized, while others are forgotten.
HIS230-02 Pirates and Piracy in Film and Fact- Roman Kovalev
HIS300 The Trojan War and The World of Homer- Dobrinka Chiekova
The myth and heroes of the Trojan War, the rage of Achilles and the resourcefulness of Odysseus continue to fascinate and inspire scholars and artists. In this course we will examine the origins of Ancient Greek culture in the Bronze Age, the archaeological search for the cities of Troy and Mycenae, the 8th century BCE world reflected in the Homeric poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, modern literary and artistic receptions of the famous poems and stories.
HIS365-01 American Religious History- Richard Evans
American Religious History introduces students to the history of religion as practiced in North America from 1500 to the present. Special attention will be payed to the American metaphysical tradition, Evangelicalism, Catholicism, Judaism, Eastern Religions, and African American religious movements. This is a lecture based course that will also include in class group projects and primary source analyses.
HIS450-01 Japanese Imperalism 1860-1945- Jodi Weinstein
The Meiji Restoration of 1863 launched a series of political, economic, and military reforms that transformed Japan from a relatively isolated society into a colonial empire. By the 1930s, Japan controlled Korea, Taiwan, and large areas of northeastern China. By the early 1940s, Japan’s empire extended to Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. This seminar will explore the economic, political, and cultural, and gendered dimensions of Japan’s overseas expansion. By examining a combination of historical monographs, primary sources, personal memoirs, and films, we will analyze the following issues: Japanese national identity and its effect on colonial policies; Japan’s competition and occasional cooperation with Western imperial powers; Japan’s role in the First World War and the long-term implications for empire-building; the experience of colonialism for both Japanese settlers and local residents in Korea, Taiwan, and China; and transnational perspectives on the Asia-Pacific Theater of the Second World War.
HIS456-01 Genocide in Rwanda- Matthew Bender
On April 6, 1994, genocide broke out in the African nation of Rwanda. Over the next 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandan were killed, most of whom belonged to an ethnicity known as the Tutsi. The genocide, planned by members of the Hutu political elite but largely perpetrated by everyday Hutus, had drastic, devastating, and long-term impacts not only on Rwanda, but also the region as a whole. This course, marking the 25th anniversary of this tragedy, will
examine the origins, events, and implications of Rwanda’s genocide. Some of the specific issues to be examined include the development of ‘Hutu’, ‘Tutsi’ and ‘Twa’ as ethnic categories, the racialization of these categories, the implications of colonial rule, the Rwandan Civil War, the rise of refugee populations in neighboring countries, the onset of genocide, the memories of both victims and perpetrators, the redevelopment of Rwanda post-genocide, the response of the United States and the United Nations, and the impact of the genocide on neighboring countries.
HIS460-01 Revolutionary America- Craig Hollander
This course will examine the political rupture between Great Britain and its North American colonies. We will study the economic, political, and ideological origins of this epic break, as well as the ensuing War of Independence. This course will also explore how the Revolution shaped the social, political, and legal structure
of the United States. In the process, we will breathe new life into age-old questions about the American Revolution: When did it begin and end? What made it “revolutionary”? And just how “revolutionary” was it?
HIS462-01 Staging Politics: Theatre and Democracy in Ancient Athens- Dobrinka Chiekova
Democracy (the rule of the demos) and theater (performance of tragedies and comedies at the annual festival in honor of Dionysus) are among the most
famous achievements of ancient Greek culture. In ancient Athens democracy and theatre went hand in hand. We will read ancient plays, both tragedies and
comedies, including Aeschylus’s Persians and The Eumenides, Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Medea, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, as well as modern
scholarship. Our discussions will focus on the cultural and political context of the plays and their reception by ancient and modern artists and audiences.
HIS463-01 Secrets, Knowledge, and Secret Knowledge of the Early Modern World- Roman Kovalev
The course seeks to explore the advent of empirical and rational (“scientific” or “factual”) knowledge that was used to construct early modern European (1500-1750) states and their empires. It shall examine how early modern ruling elites created information and disinformation derived from surveillance, espionage, intelligence gathering, mapping, drawing-painting, cataloging, indexing, academic research, and experimentation with the larger goals of gaining political, diplomatic, economic, military, technological, and scientific/medical advantages over their competitors.