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History Department Advising Guide Spring 2021

***For Spring 2021 courses, the modality (i.e., remote, Flex, or in-person sessions) that currently appears in PAWS may change prior to the start of the semester based on CDC guidelines, State of NJ guidelines, and/or local health conditions.***

Course Number Class Number Class Name Professor Days Time Pre-Modern? Regions Liberal Learning*
HIS100-01/ CLS170-01 42318 Warfare in Greek and Roman Antiquity Dr. Emyr Dakin Tuesday/ Friday 9:30am-10:50am Yes None Global
HIS100-02/ CLS170-02 42319 The Hellenistic World Dr. Arthur Jones Monday/ Wednesday 5:30pm-6:50pm Yes None Global
HIS100-03/ CLS170-03 42320 Greek and Roman Society Dr. Arthur Jones Monday/ Wednesday 7:00pm-8:20pm Yes None Global
HIS108-01 42321 Late Antiquity Dr. Dobrinka Chiekova Monday/ Thursday 12:30pm-1:50pm Yes None
HIS113-01 42322 Medieval Saints and Sinners Dr. Celia Chazelle Tuesday/ Friday 2:00pm-3:20pm Yes None
HIS120-01 42323 Gendering European History Dr. Cynthia Paces Monday/ Thursday 11:00am-12:20pm No None Gender
HIS120-02 42324 Children of the Holocaust Dr. Barbara Krasner Monday/ Thursday 8:00am-9:20am No None
HIS120-03 42325 Modern European History Dr. Joseph Campo Monday/ Thursday 12:30pm-1:50pm No None
HIS130-01 42326 History of Modern South Asia Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty Monday/ Thursday 2:00pm-3:20pm No None Global
HIS138-01 42327 The Land Below the Winds Dr. Jodi Weinstein Monday/ Thursday 2:00pm-3:20pm No None
HIS165-01 42328 US in the Atlantic World Dr. Christopher Fisher Tuesday/ Friday 2:00pm-3:20pm No None
HIS165-02 42329 Disease and Health in American History Dr. Simon Finger Tuesday/ Friday 9:30am-10:50am No None
HIS165-03 42330 Disease and Health in American History Dr. Simon Finger Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm No None
HIS165-04 42331 America and the Holocaust Dr. Barbara Krasner Monday/ Thursday 9:30am-10:50am No None
HIS165-05 42332 Gendering US History Professor Caitlin Wiesner Tuesday/ Friday 9:30am-10:50am No None
HIS165-06 42333 Gendering US History Professor Caitlin Wiesner Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm No None
HIS165-07 42538 The Vietnam War Dr. Michael Zvalaren Tuesday/ Thursday 5:30pm-6:50pm No None
HIS177-01 42334 20th Century US History Dr. Michael Zvalaren Tuesday/ Thursday 7:00pm-8:20pm No None Global
HIS187-01 42335 Memory and WWII Dr. Joseph Campo Monday/ Thursday 9:30am-10:50am No None
HIS190-01 42336 US Race Relations Dr. Christopher Fisher Tuesday/ Friday 9:30am-10:50am No None Race and Ethnicity
HIS190-02 42337 US Race Relations Dr. Christopher Fisher Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm No None Race and Ethnicity
HIS210-01 42338 The Craft of History Dr. Jodi Weinstein Monday/ Thursday 12:30pm-1:50pm No None Global
HIS220-01 42342 Early World History and Geography: A Pilgrim's Journey Dr. Dina Boero Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm Yes None Global
HIS220-02 42343 Early World History and Geography: A Pilgrim's Journey Dr. Dina Boero Tuesday/ Friday 2:00pm-3:20pm Yes None Global
HIS220-03 42344 Witches and Witchcraft in Film and Fact Dr. Roman Kovalev Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm Yes None Global
HIS220-04 42345 Witches and Witchcraft in Film and Fact Dr. Roman Kovalev Tuesday/ Friday 3:30pm-4:50pm Yes None Global
HIS300-01 42339 Medieval Christianity Dr. Celia Chazelle Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm Yes Europe
HIS301-01 42340 Classical Greek Civilization Dr. Dobrinka Chiekova Monday/ Thursday 9:30am-10:50am Yes Europe
HIS339-01 42348 Modern South Asia Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty Monday/ Thursday 3:30pm-4:50pm No Asia/ South Asia Global; Race and Ethnicity
HIS365-01 42346 Gendering United States History Dr. Ann Marie Nicolosi Tuesday/ Friday 11:00am-12:20pm No North America Gender
HIS370-01 42349 The US in the World Dr. Robert McGreevey Monday/ Thursday 2:00pm-3:20pm No North America Global
HIS370-02 42537 The US in the World Dr. Robert McGreevey Monday/ Thursday 3:30pm-4:50pm No North America Global
HIS372-01 42341 The Early American Republic Dr. Craig Hollander Monday/ Thursday 2:00pm-3:20pm No North America
HIS373-01 42350 Slavery and Black Womanhood Dr. Mekala Audain Monday/ Thursday 11:00am-12:20pm No North America Gender; Race and Ethnicity
HIS374-01 42347 Civil War America Dr. Craig Hollander Monday/ Thursday 3:30pm-4:50pm No North America
HIS387-01 42356 Medicine, Science and Empire Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty Wednesday 5:30pm-8:20pm No World Global, Gender
HIS388-01 42354 Environmental History Dr. Matthew Bender Monday/ Thursday 11:00am-12:20pm No World
HIS390-01 42357 Trenton Research Seminar Dr. Robert McGreevey Monday/ Thursday 11:00am-12:20pm No North America
HIS450-01 42358 The City in Modern China Dr. Qin Shao Tuesday 3:30pm-6:20pm No East Asia
HIS453-01 42361 Sufism Dr. Jo-Ann Gross Tuesday 5:00pm-7:50pm Yes Middle East
HIS460-01 42359 The African Slave Trade Dr. Craig Hollander Monday 5:30pm-8:20pm No North America
HIS461-01 42363 Jewish History in Prague Dr. Cynthia Paces Monday 2:00pm-4:50pm No Europe
HIS461-02 42558 Every Day Life in Early Modern Europe Dr. Roman Kovalev Tuesday/ Friday 2:00pm-3:20pm Yes Europe
HIS499-01 42368 Senior Capstone Seminar Dr. Qin Shao Wednesday 5:30pm-8:20pm No None None
HIS499-02 42369 Senior Capstone Seminar Dr. Mekala Audain Monday/ Thursday 11:00am-12:20pm No None None
HIS499-03 42370 Senior Capstone Seminar Dr. Mekala Audain Thursday 5:30pm-8:20pm No None None

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

HIS100-02 The Hellenistic World- Dr. Arthur Jones
This course will trace the history of the Mediterranean in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquest down to the Roman conquest of Egypt. We will explore the rise of Rome amidst the wars between the kingdoms arising out of Alexander’s brief empire. This course will also briefly examine artistic, philosophical, and other cultural developments that occurred during this time period. 

HIS100-03 Greek and Roman Society- Dr. Arthur Jones
“What have [the Romans] ever given us in return?” is the question posed by the People’s Front of Judaea in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. As enumerated by the responses given in the scene, we see that the Romans have influenced many aspects of culture around the Mediterranean in the ancient world as well as in our society today. This course will explore the Romans in their own words and those of their contemporaries around the Mediterranean. Through their writings we will trace the growth of Rome from village to empire (c. 800 BCE to 300 CE) and examine their ideas on the military, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, government, religion, entertainment, and life in a bustling metropolis.

HIS120-01 Gendering European History- Dr. Cynthia Paces
This course will examine Modern Europe through a gendered lens. Covering the period from the Enlightenment through World War I, we will investigate how norms for men and women evolved in a period that historians have looked at as the beginning of the ‘modern’ era. The course will use primary sources from the era, including novels, art, and political writings. An important focus will be the intersection of gender with race and social class.

HIS120-02/ HGS270-01 Children of the Holocaust- Professor Barbara Krasner
This course examines strategies used by Nazi Germany to target children (Jews, Roma/Sinti, and others) for persecution and extermination as well as resistance and rescue strategies in occupied countries throughout Europe to help children survive. Attention will be given to occupation, ghettos, camps, and hiding through a variety of primary sources including diaries, memoirs, and oral history testimonies. We will also explore the Hitler Youth and breeding programs in Germany to produce “Aryan” children.

HIS120-03 Modern European History- Dr. Joseph Campo
This course is designed to give students an appreciation for how the history of Europe unfolded from the Enlightenment to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  More so than traditional “western civ” surveys, my course seeks to explore the contact, interactions, connections, and influence Europe had with the rest of the globe.  I pay particular attention to three themes: the role of chance and contingency is history, the power of social forces, ideologies, and economic developments have in changing our world, and the profound ways in warfare have acted as dynamic of change.

HIS130-01 Modern South Asia- Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty
This course is an introduction to the history of South Asia, from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Home to a quarter of the world’s population, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have a shared and connected past although they are separate nation-states today. What does the history of modern South Asia teach us about Islamic empires, European empires, colonial capitalism and religious nationalism? In this course, we will move from historical events to historiographical debates and from politico-economic to socio-cultural narratives that have shaped South Asian past and present. Proceeding chronologically from the Mughals to the East India Company, to the British crown and finally to post-independent nation-states, this course pays particular attention to the role played by gender, caste, class, religion, and race in shaping modern South Asia. We will not only look at the policies of Mughal rulers, European administrators and Indian/Pakistani nationalist leaders, but we will also learn about the lives of ordinary people – slaves, concubines, indentured laborers, peasants and craftsmen.  Exploring a range of historical sources – maps, miniature paintings, legal codes, memoirs, testimonies and films – we will look at how history continues to shape contemporary political and cultural debates in South Asia. Throughout the course, we will also analyze how contemporary politics, especially the rise of Hindu nationalism, shapes the way history continues to be re-interpreted and re-written in South Asia. 

HIS165-01: The US in the Atlantic World- Dr. Christopher Fisher
This course examines the development of the Atlantic region into the late-nineteenth century. The course begins with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the people who populated the four surrounding continents and cycles through the societal, political, and economic transformations that produce what scholars call the Atlantic System. It ends at the dawn of the US’s rise to hegemony, enabling its eclipse of the Atlantic Community and ushering in the age of globalism.

HIS 165-02 and -03:Disease & Health in American History- Dr. 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.

HIS165-04/HGS270-02 America and the Holocaust- Professor 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.

HIS165-05 and -06: Gendering United States History- Professor Caitlin Wiesner
This course examines the historical development of the United States from the early colonial period to the present day through the lens of gender. While the actions, words, and lives of American women will form the basis of our inquiry, we will also explore the construction of manhood and womanhood in the past. Though often treated as immutable facts, the meaning of manhood and womanhood in the United States has fluctuated significantly over the course of four centuries. These categories are crosscut by other identities, such as race, class, sexuality, language, and national origin. Students will use primary sources and secondary readings to understand the how gender informed the historical experience of a diverse group of Americans and shaped the meaning of citizenship, politics, social roles, identity and national belonging.

HIS 165-07: The Vietnam War- Dr. 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.

HIS187-01 Memory and the Second World War- Dr. 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.

HIS220-01 and -02 Early World History and Geography: A Pilgrim’s Journey- Dr. Dina Boero
This class is designed as a “sophomore seminar” focusing on pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey, often a long one, made to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion. For example, each year, over 200,000 Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca. 5 million people visit Lourdes, France annually to honor St. Bernadette’s vision of the Virgin Mary and bathe in Lourdes’ healing waters. Yet pilgrimage is not simply a modern phenomenon. People have traveled to holy places for thousands of years. This seminar uses modern anthropological approaches to study the journeys of pilgrims, pilgrim’s experiences at pilgrimage sites, and the people who run pilgrimage sites in the pre-modern world (1500 CE and earlier). Students examine secondary source studies on pilgrimage from around the globe, analyze primary source case studies from the pre-modern Mediterranean, and produce their own research paper on a pilgrimage site. One important goal of the course is for students to practice writing a research paper in the field of history. Students marry historiography, argumentation, and primary source analysis to shed light on a pilgrim or pilgrimage site of their choosing from the pre-modern world.    

HIS220-03 and HIS220-04 Witches and Witchcraft in Film and Fact- Dr. Roman Kovalev

Based on the close study of primary sources and secondary literature, students shall explore and evaluate a number of films about the pre-modern phenomena of “Witches” and “Witchcraft” for their historical accuracy and context of material and intellectual culture of the period.

HIS300-01 Medieval Christianity- Dr. Celia Chazelle
This course examines the history of Christianity from the beginning of the Roman Empire to the late Middle Ages. We will investigate how this religion was transformed in Europe and the Mediterranean through the collapse of Roman imperial power in the west during the fifth century, the migration of barbarian tribes into areas formerly controlled by the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, and the growth of papal power in the later Middle Ages. 

HIS339-01 Modern South Asia- Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty

This course is an introduction to the history of South Asia, from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Home to a quarter of the world’s population, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have a shared and connected past although they are separate nation-states today. What does the history of modern South Asia teach us about Islamic empires, European empires, colonial capitalism and religious nationalism? In this course, we will move from historical events to historiographical debates and from politico-economic to socio-cultural narratives that have shaped South Asian past and present. Proceeding chronologically from the Mughals to the East India Company, to the British crown and finally to post-independent nation-states, this course pays particular attention to the role played by gender, caste, class, religion, and race in shaping modern South Asia. We will not only look at the policies of Mughal rulers, European administrators and Indian/Pakistani nationalist leaders, but we will also learn about the lives of ordinary people – slaves, concubines, indentured laborers, peasants and craftsmen.  Exploring a range of historical sources – maps, miniature paintings, legal codes, memoirs, testimonies and films – we will look at how history continues to shape contemporary political and cultural debates in South Asia. Throughout the course, we will also analyze how contemporary politics, especially the rise of Hindu nationalism, shapes the way history continues to be re-interpreted and re-written in South Asia. 

HIS387- Medicine, Science, and Empire- Dr. Satyasikha Chakraborty

Are discourses of science and medicine always as objective as we like to believe? How have colonialism, racialized slavery, and cultural understandings of gender historically shaped scientific and medical knowledge? This course explores the relationship between power and knowledge production, with a particular focus on the history of medicine & biological sciences. We will look at how colonial contacts with Asian, African and native-American people, specimens, and knowledge-systems shaped European science in the age of scientific revolution and Enlightenment. How did imperialism impact the emerging scientific disciplines of anatomy, gynecology, taxonomy, zoology and even botany? How did Western bio-medicine compete with local medical/healing knowledge and develop its global hegemony? Was medicine a “tool of empire”? Why was medicine integral to colonial “civilizing mission”? The professionalization of science also entailed masculinization of science/reason and the marginalization of women and indigenous healers. We will look at how science provided credence to colonial labor regimes and race and gender hierarchies, just as “hygiene” scientifically legitimized segregation. Yet, colonial bio-medicine was enthusiastically adopted by colonized people, although it also provoked anti-colonial nationalist resistance. This course will enable us to understand how the history of medicine and science is integrally linked with the history of imperialism.To make the course more relevant to the public health crisis we are living in, we will pay special attention to the history of diseases and colonial epidemics.

HIS390-01 20th Century Trenton- Dr. Robert McGreevey
This seminar explores the history of Trenton as a window onto the major patterns of development in modern America. Focused on the methods of historical research, analysis, and writing, we will begin by examining recent works by established scholars, paying particular attention to how historians build an archive of primary sources, interpret evidence, and develop and sustain arguments. Students will then practice these skills in an independent research project by, exploring archives at the College as well as Trenton Public Library and the State Archives in order to research topics of local and national significance, including: urbanization, migration, deindustrialization, civil rights, white flight, urban renewal, and the rise of conservatism.

HIS450-01 The City in Modern China- Dr. Qin Shao
This seminar studies recent scholarship on the thriving field of Chinese urban studies and the dynamic change of urban China since the early 20th century. It examines large urban centers such as Shanghai and small towns, urban institutions of sociability such as the teahouse, city people from the elite to beggars, migrants, and protesters. It focuses on the impact of modern China on the making of the Chinese city and the role the city played in the making of modern China.  

HIS453-01 The Spiritual Dimension of Islam: SUFISM- Dr. Jo-Ann Gross
This course explores the history, literature and culture of Sufism, the inner, spiritual dimension of Islam. Although an important aspect of Islam, it is rarely recognized, particularly in light of the prevalent Islamophobic lens through which the West often views Islam. We will examine the history of Sufism and its
doctrines, practices, institutions, and literature, investigate the theological, literary, socio-political, and cultural aspects of Sufism as it developed and was and is practiced in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and West Africa, and examine the significance of spiritual values as a basis of tolerance and understanding, political legitimacy, and communal and religious identity. Through readings and interpretations of primary and secondary sources, including sacred biography, Sufi poetry and art, and the built environment of shrines, we will consider multiple approaches to understanding the meaning of Sufism and the related sacred landscape that communities create over time. This course meets the distribution requirements for History majors and the Religion minor, the Interdisciplinary Concentration in Religious Studies, the International Studies major concentration in Middle East Studies, and the minor in Middle East Studies. It also satisfies the pre-modern requirement in History.

HIS460-01 The African Slave Trade- Dr. Craig Hollander
Between 1500 and 1870, European and American slave traders shipped more than 10 million Africans across the Atlantic to toil as slaves in the New World. Millions died in the process. This course will explore the African, European, and American involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, as well as the economic, political, and sociological impact of the traffic on various Atlantic communities.

HIS461-01 Jewish History of Prague- Dr. Cynthia Paces

Prague, the current capital of the Czech Republic, is known for its beauty and rich cultural history. The city has also housed a diverse community of Czechs, Germans, and Jews for over one thousand years. This course will examine the history of the Jews of Prague, from the Middle Ages to today. Prague had one of the longest-sustained Jewish community in the world until the Holocaust devastated the population. Until then, Jewish writers, philosophers, scientists, and rabbis shaped the city’s culture and history. Our course will examine topics such as early Jewish settlements, medieval pogroms, Jewish residents’ contributions to art, architecture, and philosophy, the work of Franz Kafka and other Prague-Jewish writers, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and the experience of Jewish survivors under Communism.

HIS461-02 Structure of Everyday Life in Early Modern Europe- Dr. Roman Kovalev

The course shall focus on the structure of everyday life in early Modern Europe (ca. 1500-ca. 1750) or the era that witnessed the rise and development of capitalism as a Global system. Its advent by the turn of the sixteenth century led to a period of crisis in nearly every aspect of European life: religious, gender, social, economic, political, cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic. The crisis led Europeans to seek various novel conflict resolutions, all of which, in innumerable ways, impacted their everyday lives. This course shall define and examine the new practices of everyday life that came into being during this key formative era of European history. 

 

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