Department of History
Last updated: August 24, 2023 at 9:41 AM
Programs of Study
- Minor
- Major (BA)
- Master of Arts
- Doctor of Philosophy
Objectives
Undergraduate Major
Over the centuries, the study of history has stood at the heart of a liberal education. In the twenty-first century – as human societies the world over become ever more closely interconnected and historical time itself seems to accelerate – a well-informed and well-reasoned understanding of the past has become all the more vital.
In its sweeping subject matter and wide-ranging methodologies, history is an unusually robust field of inquiry. Historians employ methods as diverse as the kinds of evidence they study – from geological traces to the archival manuscripts of dynasties long gone to the digital information of the modern world. Whatever the subject, the study of history involves the student in all of the most essential elements of liberal learning, including the acquisition of knowledge, the development of critical thinking skills, and the strengthening of oral and written communication. Whether the past being examined is that of a foreign country or one’s own, history involves a recognition of the central importance of sequence and context – the crucial differences of time and place that shape the possibilities of human endeavor and the meanings of community. Reflecting a broader concern for human values and needs, historians seek the universal in the particular, the global in the local, the breadth of human experience in the details of the everyday.
The History major is flexible, enabling students to devise individual programs tailored to their specific needs and interests. In consultation with their faculty advisors, students should design a major that makes sense in terms of their other course work and career plans. The strategy will be different for each student. A student planning a professional career in history, for example, will certainly want to take a broad variety of courses, undertake substantial research projects through the History Lab or independent study (HIST 98a/98b), and pursue one of the two paths to departmental honors. Students interested in other careers, such as law, business, or computational sciences, will design programs of study that complement their course work in other departments and programs (for example, legal studies, economics, environmental studies, or computer science). The department strongly recommends that students acquire geographical and chronological breadth, which is best provided by our surveys in American, Asian, European, Latin American, and World history. Students should also select appropriate offerings from our more advanced courses that are thematic or national in scope and that permit more intensive analysis. The department is deeply committed to the development of writing and analytical skills, which are invaluable and transferable, regardless of future career—be it higher education, teaching, law, business, information technology, or public service. The advanced courses, with smaller class sizes, provide an ideal opportunity to develop those skills. Internships in History (HIST 92a) and History Research Internships (HIST 93a) allow students to gain work experience and to improve their writing and analytical skills in real-world settings with faculty guidance.
Graduate Program in History
The Brandeis History graduate program trains students to research, write and teach history at a professional level in order to explore the past and explain it to audiences that range from the purely academic to the broadest public. The program emphasizes the need for a thorough and in-depth knowledge of the past as a way to develop broad, critical perspectives on compelling problems in the past and the present. Through courses, supervised research, teaching fellowships, pre-professional internships, and training in long-familiar and new digital methods alike, History faculty at Brandeis support future historians as they prepare for diverse careers that rely on historians’ skills. As part of their graduate experience, students will also meet with historians working in higher education, policy institutes, museums, archives, educational organizations, information sciences and technologies, archives, publishing, industry, and more.
Learning Goals
Undergraduate Major
The Brandeis History major seeks to introduce students to the broad sweep of human experience in the past. By design, the major is flexible, enabling students to devise programs guided by their individual interests and goals. All students of history will acquire an expanded appreciation of the scope of human achievements in the past, together with their legacies of beauty and horror.
Knowledge
Students completing the major in history will come away with a strong understanding of:
- The cultures, economies, social structures, and governmental systems of past civilizations. To this end, the department’s flexible requirements for the major direct students to take courses covering the more familiar histories of North America and Europe, as well as Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and their global interconnections
- The diverse sources and methods that historians use to study the past
- The perspective afforded by studying events, ideas, and actions in historical context and sequence
- Different forms of historical explanation, argument, and narrative
Core Skills
The history major teaches core skills in research, critical thinking, oral communication, and written expression. The study of history teaches students to strive for a higher appreciation of the world around them, and to understand that to effectively address contemporary problems requires a full understanding of the origins and causes of those problems.
Upon Graduating
A Brandeis student with a history major will be prepared to:
- Use the knowledge, perspectives, and skills gained from their historical studies to pursue (as many of our majors have done) careers in law, business, journalism, public service, or numerous other fields
- Organize, evaluate, and communicate a critical assessment of competing and often conflicting sources of information about the past
- Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in history
The department is deeply committed to the development of writing and analytical skills that are invaluable and transferable, regardless of future career. And it is our belief that the knowledge and skills our major provides will lay the foundation for a fuller, more productive, and engaged life after college.
General Education Learning Goals and Requirements for History Majors
I. Digital Literacy (DL)
Increasingly, the practice of history involves the purposeful use of digital resources—databases, digital research tools, and digital modes of presentation. Digital resources are useful for learning the elemental historical literacies, including the ability to distinguish and work with primary vs. secondary sources, to identify the provenance of a source, to put trends, events, and ideas in chronological sequence, and to make original arguments based upon strong evidence. As part of the Major experience, Brandeis History Majors will be exposed to a wide variety of digital resources and will pursue wide-ranging Digital Learning Goals, which may include:
- The ability to evaluate the validity of digital sources
- The ability to find and use appropriate digital tools (including software and databases).
- The ability to create original scholarly work in a digital medium
- The ability to discover, create, analyze, present, and reason about large sets of data relevant to the discipline.
II. Oral Communication (OC)
History Majors will receive instruction in widely transferrable Oral Communication skills. Majors will learn to listen effectively and to critically evaluate orally presented information and arguments. In OC- designated History courses, students will also learn (through practice and feedback) how to create and deliver effective oral presentations.
III. Writing-Intensive (WI)
Since ancient times, writing has been a central medium for historical reasoning, argument, and story-telling. Writing-intensive courses in History involve frequent writing assignments, opportunities for rewriting, and consultations about writing with the instructor. History Majors will learn how to craft clear and concise prose to effectively present their own ideas, interpretations, and arguments about the past with well-organized pieces of writing supported by appropriate historical evidence.
Graduate Program in History
I. Learning Goals for the Master’s Degree in History
Core Skills
- Critical thinking, research, and writing.
- Analysis, including written and oral discussions, of major problems in history and historiography.
- Analysis of primary historical sources within their social, cultural, economic, and political contexts.
- Design and execute original historical research projects, culminating in a capstone project.
Knowledge
- Understand major problems and methodologies in the discipline of history.
- Develop an interdisciplinary perspective on history, rooted in a thorough and in-depth knowledge of the past.
- Develop a transnational perspective of history.
Social Justice
An understanding of history’s relationship to questions of social justice.
II. Learning Goals for the PhD in History
Core Skills
- Critical thinking, research, and writing at a professional level.
- Analysis, including written and oral discussions, of major problems in history and historiography.
- Original empirical research based in primary historical sources, including a critical analysis of their social, cultural, economic, and political contexts.
- Design and completion of original historical research projects.
- Teaching history at the college level.
Knowledge
- Understand major problems and methodologies in the discipline of history.
- Build a broad and deep foundation of knowledge in a major field of historical interest.
- Develop an interdisciplinary perspective of history, rooted in an in-depth knowledge of the past.
- Develop a transnational perspective of history.
Social Justice
An understanding of history’s relationship to questions of social justice.
How to Become a Major
Students normally begin their studies with one of the general courses in historical studies and then go on to more advanced courses. To declare and design a major, the student should first see the undergraduate advising head; together they will select as advisor a faculty member who seems best suited to that student's areas of interest and future work. The advisor and student will then select a course of study that gives greatest coherence to the student's other course work and career plans.
How to Be Admitted to the Graduate Program
MA Program
The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences given in an earlier section of this Bulletin apply to candidates for admission. Students should have a strong undergraduate record that includes at least some history courses. For specifics of applying to the MA program, see the GSAS website.
PhD Program
The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School given in an earlier section of this Bulletin apply. Students may enter the doctoral program with an MA degree (usually from another university), or earn an MA in history en route to the doctoral degree. The deadline for PhD applications is January 15. For specifics of applying to the PhD program, see the GSAS website.
Faculty
Gregory Freeze, Chair
Modern Russia, Central Asia, and modern Germany. Social history, religion, and globalization.
Gregory Childs
African diaspora studies, Latin America and Caribbean history, Critical theories (race, social, legal), history of psychiatry, alterity and difference, philosophy of history and historiography, Atlantic world history, graffiti and hip hop studies.
Emilie Connolly (on leave fall 2023)
North American Indigenous history, history of capitalism and nineteenth-century United States history.
Abigail Cooper
U.S. history, slavery and emancipation, civil war and reconstruction, American religions and culture, 19th-century U.S., social history of marginalized peoples.
Yuri Doolan
Asian-American history, Transnational U.S. history, modern Korea, women’s history, gender and sexuality, oral history, critical mixed race studies.
Xing Hang
East Asian world order, maritime East Asia, Eurasian comparative history, Ming-Qing transition, overseas Chinese, Chinese nationalism and identity.
William Kapelle, Undergraduate Advising Head
Roman and medieval history.
David Katz
History of ideas in the long early modern period (1500-1900), early modern English history, early modern European religious history.
David Katz
History of religion and ideas in the long early modern period (1500-1900), especially England.
Alice Kelikian
Modern European history, social history, Italian cinema and culture.
Wangui Muigai (on leave academic year 2022-2023)
Race and health, history of medicine and science, African American cultural and intellectual history, history of childhood.
Hannah Muller
Britain and the British Empire.
AJ Murphy
Cold War U.S., military history, business history, and the history of gender and sexuality.
Máté Rigo
Modern Eastern, East-Central and Western Europe, history of capitalism.
Amy Singer, Director of Graduate Studies
Ottoman and Turkish studies, charity and philanthropy in Islamic history, agrarian history, Ottoman Jerusalem and Palestine, food in history.
Avinash Singh
Modern Indian history, South Asian culture, literature and film, religion and politics, Asian digital cultures, global history of sport, postcolonial Caribbean literature.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
Modern Middle East history, modern Iran history, nationalism, historiography, comparative revolutions.
Early modern European history, especially Germany, world history.
Michael Willrich
United States social, legal, and political history.
Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum and advising and administration in the department)
ChaeRan Freeze (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Leah Gordon (Education)
Rachel L. Greenblatt (Judaica Librarian)
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom (Classical Studies and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Laura Jockusch (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Daniel Thomas Kryder (Politics)
Jehuda Reinharz (emeritus, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Jonathan Sarna (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Eugene R. Sheppard (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Chad Williams (African and Afro-American Studies)
Requirements for the Minor
All minors are expected to complete five semester courses in history from among the HIST and cross-listed offerings. At least three courses counted toward the minor must be HIST-designated and taken at Brandeis. The approval of one course transferred from study elsewhere is subject to the approval of the department's undergraduate advising head. No course grade below a C nor any course taken pass/fail will be given credit toward the minor. Students should declare the minor in history no later than the beginning of their senior year.
Requirements for the Major
All majors are expected to complete satisfactorily at least nine semester courses in history from among the HIST and cross-listed offerings. At least five courses counted toward the major must be HIST-designated and taken at Brandeis. No course grade below a C nor any course taken pass/fail will be given credit toward the major requirement of nine courses.
Students must take courses in at least three different geographic regions - United States, Europe (including Russia), Africa/Middle East, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia, and Global/Transregional. At least one course presented for the major, normally taken in the sophomore or junior year, must require independent written research work totaling 12 or more pages in length.
Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the History major, students must:
- Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: Any HIST course approved for WI or HIST 99d.
- Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing one of the following: Any HIST course approved for OC or HIST 99d with an oral defense of the thesis.
- Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing one of the following: HIST 173b or any HIST course approved for DL, or a senior thesis HIST 99d incorporating a project based-experience with a significant digital history dimension, approved by a faculty advisor.
Students may double-count a single course toward the area and the research paper requirements.
Transfer students and those taking a year's study abroad may offer up to four semester courses taught elsewhere. To apply such transfer courses to the History major, a student must obtain the approval of the department advising head.
In addition, History offers a variety of independent study options, where a student's work is guided, in tutorial fashion, by a particular faculty member. HIST 98a and 98b (Readings in History) may be taken by students on a subject of particular interest to them that is not covered in the regular curriculum One internship in History (HIST 92a) may be taken for credit in the major.
The History Department offers two tracks for attaining departmental honors through work completed in addition to the regular nine-course requirement for the major. Students may complete a Senior Honors Thesis by enrolling in HIST 99d (Senior Research) for two course credits over two semesters. Alternatively, students may complete a major research papers (20-25 pages in length) in each of two additional single-semester courses. These papers may be completed as part of an Independent Study course (HIST 98a), a History internship course (HIST 92a), or in another HIST course. In addition to the Thesis or major research papers, to achieve departmental honors, students must also maintain a 3.5 GPA in courses for the major, and must take courses in four (not three) of the geographic areas noted above.
The major can be combined with other programs of study, such as Latin American and Latino Studies or Russian and East European Studies. Students should consult their advisors to design a major that best complements the requirements of other programs.
Special Note About Courses
History and cross-listed courses that meet the area requirements:
US History
AAAS 70a, 130b, 131a, 154b, 155b, 156a; AAPI/HIS 163a; AMST 30b, 35a, 105a, 150a; ED 120a; HIS/HSSP 142a; HIST 50b, 51a, 149a, 151a, 152a, 153b, 156a, 157b, 158b, 159b, 160a, 160b, 161a, 162a, 164a, 164b, 166b, 168b, 169a, 171b, 174b, 195a, 196a; LGLS 145b; NEJS 162a, 162b; POL 113b, 163a
Europe (including Russia)
CLAS 100a, 115b, 120a; HIST 52b, 103a, 110a, 110b, 112b, 113a, 120a, 121a, 123a, 123b, 126a, 128b, 131a, 133a, 133b, 137b, 138a, 140a, 142a, 142b, 145a, 147a, 147b, 150b, 170a, 181b, 183b, 186a, 192b; NEJS 37a, 140b, 142a, 148a
Africa/Middle East
AAAS 115a, 120a, 135a; CLAS 155a; HIST 111a, 111b, 112a, 114a, 134b, 135b, 140b, 165a, 172b, 173b, 185b; IMES 104a; NEJS 109a, 145a, 185a, 185b, 188a
Latin America/Caribbean
ANTH 119a, HIST 71a, 71b, 162a, 167a, 174a, 175b
Asia
HIST 66a, 80a, 80b, 146a, 176b, 179b, 182b, 183a, 184a, 184b, 185a, 187b; IGS 165a, 171a
Global/Transregional
AAAS 135a, 168b; HIST 8a, 10a, 56b, 61a, 62a, 106b, 136b, 167a, 178b, 179a, 180a; NEJS 135a, 138a, 140a, 149b
Research Courses
AAAS 70a, 115a, 131a, 146b, 156a, 162a, 168b; AMST 30b, 150a; ANTH 119a; CLAS 120a; HIST 131a, 133b, 136b, 137b, 140a, 140b, 142a, 142b, 145a, 147a, 147b, 149a, 151a, 152a, 153b, 156a, 159b, 160a, 160b, 161a, 164b, 167a, 168b, 170a, 174a, 176b, 178b, 179b, 180a, 181b, 183a, 183b, 185a, 186a, 187b, 192b, 195a, 196a; NEJS 37a, 142a, 150a, 162a, 162b; POL 113b
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
Master of Arts in History
This one-year full-time program is designed to provide students with a graduate-level understanding of the discipline of history and to enhance their mastery of historical research and writing.
Program of Study
A flexible program of study allows students to work closely with the faculty in ways that best suit each student’s particular goals, whether preparing for future doctoral study or for careers in writing, teaching, or public history.
A. In consultation with their advisors, students select a program of six courses at the 100- or 200-level that fall within their areas of historical interest. At least two of the courses must be 200-level graduate history seminars. One of these must be HIST 205a Introduction to Doctoral Studies, which is taken during the fall semester.B. In addition to these six courses, students must write either:
- A double-credit Master’s thesis. Students writing a thesis will register for one thesis credit each semester (HIST 301D). The Master’s thesis requires a thesis defense at the end of the year with a committee consisting of the thesis advisor and one other member of the department, or
- Two single-credit one-semester research papers supervised by two different professors.
Residency Requirement
Students admitted to the MA program must fulfill the Graduate School in-person residency requirement of one full year of course work. A student may take an additional one or two semesters to complete the program as an Extended Master's student.
Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the terminal master’s degree.
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History
Program of Study
The doctoral program in history embraces the eclectic nature of the discipline and the initiative of graduate students to design flexible courses of study that advance their unique interests. The first two years in the PhD program are devoted to coursework intended to provide the foundation of knowledge and experience necessary for embarking on a dissertation.
- Students normally take a total of sixteen semester courses over these two years. These courses include Directed Research, regional colloquia, thematic seminars, courses in specific fields, and pedagogy.
- The sine qua non of preparation for dissertation work is primary-source research, realized in two double-credit (two-course, 8-credit) Directed Research papers. Students work with a different Brandeis historian on each paper, chosen in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. Each paper will be about 25-40 pages in length, the first written in the fall semester of the first year and the second during the fall or spring semester of your second year.
In addition to their Directed Research, all students normally complete:
- HIST 205B Introduction to Doctoral Studies in History in the first year
- At least one additional 200-level graduate History seminar in the first year
- At least two 200-level graduate History seminars in the second year
- At least one regional colloquium currently offered in American, European, and World History
- At least one thematic seminar, broad, transnational courses of interest to historians irrespective of regional specialization
- A course outside the discipline of history, whether at Brandeis or within the Graduate Consortium
- Additional courses are selected in consultation with faculty members to best meet the specific needs and interests of individual students. These electives may include courses devoted to in-depth study of a particular era or methodological approach in the field.
- Pedagogy courses are taken in the second year, tied specifically to the initial Teaching Assistant assignments of each student.
Residency Requirement
The in-person residency requirement for doctoral students in History is three years.
Language Requirement
All students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language by the end of their second year. In specializations requiring proficiency in two or more foreign languages, proficiency must be demonstrated in at least one language by the end of the first year, and in all requisite languages by the end of the second year. Proficiency is normally tested by a written translation exam, scheduled through the department office and the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may use alternative means of demonstrating proficiency by agreement with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Comprehensive Oral Examination
These two exams (major field and outside field) are normally taken at the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth semester. Before taking them, students should have completed their coursework, language requirement and outside field requirement. For the outside field exam, all doctoral students must take a course in either (a) a discipline outside of history that complements historical studies, such as anthropology, sociology, or literary studies, or (b) the history of a country or region outside of their main research focus. The selection of a course should be made in consultation with the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Details about the exams themselves are found in the History department's graduate handbook. Questions should be addressed to the Director of Graduate Studies.
Teaching Requirement
Doctoral students must serve as Teaching Assistants in History, in accordance with the requirements of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, normally in years two through four. With the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, a student may apply to teach a University Writing Seminar in lieu of one of these TA-ships. Please see the GSAS section on Teaching Requirements and the program handbook for more details.
Dissertation
Working with a primary advisor and a second reader (both from in History unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies), students prepare a proposal of 15-30 pages describing the dissertation's topic, source base, and historical significance. This prospectus will be presented publicly to the faculty and graduate students in the History Department. After the proposal is presented and accepted, the student will be considered advanced to candidacy.
When ready to defend their completed dissertation, students consult with their primary advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies to constitute, formally, the dissertation committee. Normally that committee includes the primary advisor, the second reader, and an outside reader drawn from the faculty of another university. At least one member of the committee must be a voting member of the History Department. A second member may be either a voting member or an affiliated member of the History Department. With the approval of their committees, students arrange a public dissertation defense. Students must electronically deposit their dissertation to ProQuest ETD. For instructions on how to do this, visit the Thesis and Dissertation Guide.
Annual Academic Performance Review and Progress to the Graduate Degree
Every student, whether or not currently in residence, must register at the beginning of each term. All graduate students will be evaluated by the program each spring. At this evaluation the records of all graduate students will be carefully reviewed with reference to the timely completion of coursework and non-course degree requirements, the quality of the work and research in progress and the student’s overall academic performance in the program.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
HIST
50b
Race and America: Perspectives on United States History, Origins to the Present
[
dl
ss
]
Investigates U.S. history in a wider world, from its origins to the present, starting with the premise that American History itself is a construct of modern empire. Only by investigating the roots of power and resistance can we understand the forces that deeply influence our world as we live it today. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
52b
Europe in the Modern World
[
oc
ss
]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
56b
Rethinking World History (to 1960)
[
djw
nw
ss
]
An introductory survey of world history, from the dawn of "civilization" to c.1960. Topics include the establishment and rivalry of political communities, the development of material life, and the historical formation of cultural identities. Usually offered every year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
66a
History of South Asia (2500 BCE - 1971)
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Introduces South Asian history from the earliest civilizations to the independence of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Surveys the formation of religious traditions, the establishment of kingdoms and empires, colonialism and its consequences, and post-independence political and economic development. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
71a
Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[
djw
hum
nw
ss
]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
80a
Introduction to East Asian Civilization
[
djw
dl
hum
nw
ss
]
A selective introduction to the development of forms of thought, social and political institutions, and distinctive cultural contributions of China and Japan from early times to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
80b
East Asia in the Modern World
[
hum
nw
ss
]
Surveys East Asian history from the 1600 to the present. Compares Chinese, Korean, and Japanese encounters with forces of industrial capitalism, including colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, resulting in East Asia's distinctive cultural and social modernity. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
92a
Internship in History
History internships allow students to gain work experience and to improve their writing and analytical skills. Although non-credit internships are an option, students seeking course credit must obtain approval from the History internship supervisor in advance, and normally complete some written work under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. Students may count one HIST 92a toward completion of the major or minor. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
HIST
95a
History Research Internship
Yields half-course credit.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
98a
Readings in History
Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
98b
Readings in History
Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
99d
Senior Research
Seniors who are candidates for degrees with honors in history must register for this course and, under the direction of a faculty member, prepare an honors thesis on a suitable topic. Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
AAAS/HIS
131a
African Americans and Health
[
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AAAS 131a in prior years.
Examines African American health experiences from the 17th century to the present, with a focus on the strategies and practices African Americans have employed to improve their health. Explores the historical development of 'racial' diseases and inequalities. Topics include: slave health, the black hospital movement, eugenics, midwifery, and the crack and opioid epidemics. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAAS/HIS
154b
Race, Science, and Society
[
deis-us
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AAAS 154b in prior years.
Traces scientific concepts of race from the 18th century to today, interrogating their uses and transformations over time. It explores how science has defined race, how people have challenged such conceptions, and alternate ways for understanding human difference. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAPI/HIS
163a
Asian American History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
Explores the history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States with a focus on their lived experiences and contributions to U.S. society. Course culminates in a final AAPI digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AAPI/HIS
171a
The United States in the Pacific World
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
How have U.S. imperial ventures'cultural, military, political, and economic'reconfigured local societies and geographies? What are the afterlives of those ventures and how have they reverberated between American society and the Pacific World? To answer these questions, this course explores the history of American incursion into places such as China, Hawai'i, the Philippines, Guam, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Samoa from the nineteenth century to present. We explore issues such as orientalism, empires and militarism, labor and commerce, race and inequality, intimacy and sex, as well as migration, culture, family formation, and identity both in and across the Pacific Ocean. In focusing on the lasting legacies and human consequences of this contact, this course deepens our understanding of the multiracial history and character of the United States and also provides an opportunity to place the American experience within a larger global context. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AAPI/HIS
186b
Legacies of the Korean War
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
Explores the lasting legacies and human consequences of the Korean War in a transnational context. Course culminates in a final digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
HIS/HSSP
142a
Health Activism
[
deis-us
oc
ss
]
Formerly offered as HSSP 142a.
Examines the history of health activism in the U.S. over the past 125 years, from late 19th century debates over compulsory vaccination to contemporary public health campaigns around gang violence and incarceration. Usually offered every third year.
Wangui Muigai
HIST
103a
Roman History to 455 CE
[
hum
ss
]
Survey of Roman history from the early republic through the decline of the empire. Covers the political history of the Roman state and the major social, economic, and religious changes of the period. Usually offered every year.
William Kapelle
HIST
106b
The Modern British Empire
[
djw
ss
]
Surveys British imperial history from the Seven Years' War through the period after decolonization. Explores economic, political, and social forces propelling expansion; ideologies and contradictions of empire; relationships between colonizer and colonized; and the role of collaboration and resistance. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
109b
A Global History of Sport: Politics, Economy, Race and Culture
[
deis-us
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines soccer, boxing, baseball, cricket and other sports to reflect on culture, politics, race, and globalization. With a focus on empire, gender, ethnicity, this course considers sport as the battleground for ideological and group contests. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
110a
The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of medieval history from the fall of Rome to the year 1000. Topics include the barbarian invasions, the Byzantine Empire, the Dark Ages, the Carolingian Empire, feudalism, manorialism, and the Vikings. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
110b
The Civilization of the High and Late Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of European history from 1000 to 1450. Topics include the Crusades, the birth of towns, the creation of kingdoms, the papacy, the peasantry, the universities, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
111a
History of the Modern Middle East
[
djw
nw
ss
]
An examination of the history of the Middle East from the nineteenth century to contemporary times. Focuses on political events and intellectual trends, such as imperialism, modernity, nationalism, and revolution, that have shaped the region in the modern era. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
111b
The Iranian Revolution in Global Context
[
djw
dl
nw
ss
]
An examination of the roots of the Iranian revolution of 1979, the formation of the Islamic Republic, and its evolution over the past 30 years. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
112b
The Crusades and the Expansion of Medieval Europe
[
ss
]
Survey of the relationships between medieval Europe and neighboring cultures, beginning with the decline of Byzantium. Topics include a detailed look at the Crusades, the Spanish reconquista, the Crusader kingdoms, economic growth, and the foundations of imperialism. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
113a
English Medieval History
[
ss
]
Survey of English history from the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the fifteenth century. Topics include the heroic age, the Viking invasions, and development of the English kingdom from the Norman conquest through the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
113b
Crazy Rich Europeans: Wealth and Inequality in Modern History
[
djw
oc
ss
]
Brings together insights from modern European and Asian history, business, economics, and sociology. We will investigate the changing role, power, and composition of social elites in history and how they impacted workers, colonial populations, women, and urban landscapes in the past two centuries. We will study how actors as diverse as fashion models, Russian oligarchs, and powerful bankers gain their status and influence. We will also discuss the origins of global social inequality, including the ‘great divergence’ debate on Chinese and European modernization. How do we get from ‘Crazy Rich Europeans’ to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
114b
Histories of American Capitalism
[
deis-us
ss
wi
]
Explores the history of American capitalism as it developed from the colonial period to the near present. We will follow three main analytical themes through the centuries: racial capitalism; the role of the state in shaping economic development; and the function of social reproduction and other unwaged work in commercial societies. As we engage central historiographic debates about the timing and location of the transition to capitalism in the United States, we will use the concept of capitalism as a tool to better understand and differentiate the wide range of economic systems that have existed in the nation’s history. Topics include: the rise of wage labor and the expansion of markets; slavery and emancipation; territorial conquest; technological and infrastructural development; the rise of big business and organized labor; alternative labor regimes and the experience of work; the economic dimensions of gender, race, and other categories of social difference; social welfare policy; and recent developments in deindustrialization, globalization, and income inequality. Usually offered every year.
A. J. Murphy
HIST
116b
The History and Politics of Infrastructure in the United States
[
deis-us
ss
]
Infrastructure is meant to recede into the background of civic life. But seemingly innocuous projects like roads, railways, electric grids, or even schools arose across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they became crucial nodes of colonial power, sites of enslavement and racial segregation, and of the policing of gender. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, states started to cede infrastructure to capitalist firms, privatizing key utilities and, increasingly, demurring from the responsibility to regulate these firms. By digging up the hidden history of infrastructural development, this class will reframe how we conceptualize the role of government in laying out the foundations for social activity, and give us the tools to intervene in contemporary debates over who should build, control, and maintain our infrastructure. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
117b
The History of Modern Christianity, 1700-2022
[
ss
]
Christianity is the common culture of about a third of the world’s population. The evolution of Christianity is a wonderful illustration of the history of ideas, and the way an ideology adapts itself to the needs of its followers. Usually offered every second year.
David Katz
HIST
120a
Britain in the Later Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Exploration of the critical changes in government and society in the British Isles from the late fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Topics include the Black Death, the lordship of Ireland, the Hundred Years' War, the Scottish War of Independence, economic change, the Tudors, and the Reformation. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
121a
Breaking the Rules: Deviance and Nonconformity in Premodern Europe
[
djw
ss
wi
]
Explores the ways in which "deviant" behavior was defined and punished by some, but also justified and even celebrated by others in premodern Europe. Topics include vagrancy, popular uprisings, witchcraft, religious heresy, and the status of women. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
123a
The Renaissance
[
ss
]
Culture, society, and economy in the Italian city-state (with particular attention to Florence) from feudalism to the rise of the modern state. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
123b
Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[
ss
wi
]
Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
124b
Universities and Colonialism
[
deis-us
ss
]
Brandeis, like every university or college in North America, sits on Native land. This course provides a primer to the history of that land and its people, while inviting your original research on a specific question: How have universities played a role in colonialism? To answer this question, you will undertake an independent or small-group research project on a topic of your choosing related to universities and colonialism, preferably (but not mandatorily) one located in New England. The audience for your research will be your campus community: peers, staff, and faculty who might seek context when crafting a land acknowledgment for Brandeis’ Indigenous hosts. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
125b
Europe in the Global Cold War
[
deis-us
ss
]
Offers a thematic overview of the history of the post-1945 period in Europe’s East and West, and situates these histories in their global contexts, such as decolonization, environmental change (Chornobyl catastrophe) the struggle of the USSR and the US, the Vietnam War, and debates on the “end of history” around 1989. We will study how events that started in Eastern and East-Central Europe, such as the Russian Revolution, World War II, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union triggered political and social changes in China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. Through reading diplomatic correspondence, pamphlets, memoirs and literature written by dissidents, party members, and politicians, as well as by watching and reflecting on media footage, we will examine how the Cold War and 1989 ushered in a new world order that is here with us up to the present. The course also focuses on how European states East and West rebuilt ties with the “Global South” through socialist solidarity, development aid and investments, and how the Cold War shapes the institutions and politics of the European Union up to the present. Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
126a
Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[
oc
ss
]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
130b
Crime and Punishment in U.S. History
[
deis-us
ss
]
The United States incarcerates more of its people per capita than any other nation on the planet. How did this come to be? This course examines how Americans have defined, represented, and punished crime, from the birth of the penitentiary to the present day. We will discuss an eclectic mix of historical texts and genres ' criminal codes, trial records, true-crime journalism, historical studies, social theory, urban sociology, and films. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
134b
The Ottoman Empire: From Principality to Republic by way of Empire
[
ss
]
The Ottomans in history: how did a tiny principality grow from 1300 to be a global empire by 1550 and become a modern nation state by 1923? Who were the Ottomans? What are their legacies in today's world? Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
135b
Get Up, Stand Up: A Century of Revolutions in the Middle East
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
An examination of the various revolutions that have shaped the modern Middle East since the late 19th century. The course focuses on four different revolutionary moments: The constitutional revolutions of the turn of the century, the anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century, the radical revolutions of the 1970's, and most recently, the Arab Spring revolutions that have affected the region since 2011. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
136b
Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[
djw
oc
ss
wi
]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
137b
World War I
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the opening global conflict of the twentieth century. Topics include the destruction of the old European order, the origins of total war, the cultural and social crisis it provoked, and the long-term consequences for Europe and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
138a
The World Between the Wars, 1919-1939
[
ss
]
Explores links between the First and Second World Wars, including the rise of fascism, Soviet communism, the world economic depression, the collapse of collective security, and the crisis of world empires. Usually offered every other year.
Staff
HIST
140a
A History of Fashion in Europe
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
140b
Charity and Poverty in Islamic Societies
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Charity and poverty are universal aspects of human societies, culturally specific and historically contingent. This course studies charitable giving as a fundamental aspect of Muslim belief and practice, reflecting change over time and space, offering comparisons with non-Muslim societies. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
142a
Crime, Deviance, and Confinement in Modern Europe
[
ss
]
Examines the crisis of law and order in old regime states and explores the prison and asylum systems that emerged in modern Europe. Surveys psychiatry and forensic science from the Napoleonic period until World War II. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
144b
Native North America
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores the history of peoples Indigenous to Turtle Island, or the lands known today as the United States. Over five hundred years, settlers carried out an invasion of the Native Old World, a place in which diverse Indigenous people developed robust civilizations and dealt with complex geopolitical rivalries. Contrary to settler assumptions, however, Indigenous peoples did not disappear in the face of European encroachment, nor did they consolidate into a singular stereotyped Indian figure. For this reason, our course will trace the diverse evolutions of distinct Indigenous societies as a result of their ordeals with colonization. In short, we will encounter the many Native New Worlds that emerged and endure today. Usually offered every year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
145a
War in European History
[
ss
]
Introduces students to the changing nature of war and warfare in European history since the Middle Ages. Explores the reciprocal influence of armies and societies and the ways in which wars reflect the cultures of the polities waging them. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
146a
An International History of Japan
[
ss
]
Japan from prehistory to today, focusing on the archipelago's relationship to its Asian neighbors and the wider world. Topics include early Chinese influence, the introduction of Buddhism from Korea, the samurai, Westernization, and the rise and fall of imperial Japan.
Staff
HIST
147a
Russian Empire: Gender, Minorities, and Globalization
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
150b
Reading the Writing of European History
[
ss
]
Is history a science or an art, just another form of literature? Whether history repeats itself, historians do repeat each other, as we see by reading selections from famous and forgotten historians addressing these questions over the past 250 years. Usually offered every third year.
David Katz
HIST
152b
The European Occult Tradition, 1200-2021
[
ss
]
Is the universe alive? Yes...according to the European occult tradition, a coherent intellectual stream that has roots in religion, philosophy and history and the more supernatural elements of conventional religion, such as providence, prophecy and messianism. Usually offered every third year.
David Katz
HIST
153b
Slavery and the American Civil War: #1619 Project
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
A hard look at American slavery from the Middle Passage to Mass Incarceration, plus an investigation into the Civil War through the lens of Black self-emancipation. Uses the tools and insights from #1619 Project. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
157b
Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
wi
]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
158b
Social History of the Confederate States of America
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
An examination of the brief life of the southern Confederacy, emphasizing regional, racial, class, and gender conflicts within the would-be new nation. Usually offered every third year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
159b
Modern African American History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Introduces students to some of the key social, political, economic, and cultural moments that defined the African American experience in the United States, 1865 through the present. Through the use of primary and secondary source materials, critical surveys, lectures, and guided discussion, this class highlights the richness and significance of the African American history. This course covers a diverse array of key themes and topics including: Reconstruction and segregation; the Great Migration; the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Feminist movements; black political power; mass incarceration and the surveillance state; and Hip Hop culture. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
HIST
160a
American Legal History I
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys American legal development from colonial settlement to the Civil War. Major issues include law as an instrument of revolution, capitalism and contract, invention of the police, family law, slavery law, and the Civil War as a constitutional crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
160b
American Legal History II
[
deis-us
ss
]
Survey of American legal development from 1865 to the present. Major topics include constitutionalism and racial inequality, the legal response to industrialization, progressivism and the transformation of liberalism, the rise of the administrative state, and rights-based movements for social justice. Usually offered every year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
161b
American Political History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Development of American party politics, the legal system, and government. Special attention paid to the social and cultural determinants of party politics, and economic and social policymaking. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
162a
Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[
djw
dl
ss
]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
164a
Recent American History since 1945
[
ss
]
American politics, economics, and culture underwent profound transformations in the late twentieth century. Examines the period's turmoil, looking especially at origins and legacies. Readings include novels, memoirs, key political and social documents, and film and music excerpts. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
165a
Starting from Food: New Perspectives on the Middle East and Islam
[
djw
ss
]
Studying food - consumption, production, distribution, regulation, representation - illuminates every aspect of human history. This course explores texts, images, objects, local supermarkets and your experience to consider questions of power, identity, faith, taste, and more in Middle Eastern and Islamic history. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
166a
History of Crises: Europe's Twentieth Century
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Systematically tackles the main turning points of Western and Eastern Europe’s modern history and their global impact. The focus is on the first half of the twentieth century, and the histories of the First and Second World Wars that still shape contemporary world politics today. We will also touch on the histories of colonialism, totalitarianism, the Ukrainian famine under Stalin, the Holocaust, and "moral panics" around changing gender roles. Analyzes both primary sources and the most recent scholarly debates. Requirements include a book review and a short research paper. Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
168b
America in the Progressive Era: 1890-1920
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys social and political history during the pivotal decades when America became a "modern" society and nation-state. Topics include populism, racial segregation, social science and public policy, the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, environmental conservation, and the domestic impact of World War I. Usually offered every fourth year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
172b
Historicizing the Black Radical Tradition
[
djw
ss
]
Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppression by formulating theories, philosophies, and practices of liberation rooted in their experiences and understandings of labor, capitalism, and modernity. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
173a
What's the Big Ideas? People and Concepts You Should Know About from Darwin to Derrida
[
ss
]
The history of ideas stands at the intersection of several disciplines: philosophy, literature, religion and history. Beliefs and their expression drive action in the real world, and grasping how they connect sparks an intellectual excitement that can literally be life-enhancing. Usually offered every third year.
David S. Katz
HIST
173b
Digital History, Digital Historians: What's it All About?
[
dl
ss
]
"Digital Humanities" are becoming widespread as a research approach to history. These qualitative and quantitative methods offer historians new research insights and efficiencies. This course explores Digital Humanities through reading, discussion, and experimentation to discover their strengths and weaknesses. Usually offered every year.
Amy Singer
HIST
174b
History Lab: Research and Writing in History
[
dl
ss
]
Topic for Fall 2023: Ottoman Diasporas in New England
Offers a unique opportunity to engage in real historical research. With your participation, this project will identify, organize, map and assess the written, material and cultural sources for understanding the diaspora communities of Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Turks and others who arrived in New England from the later 19th through the early 20th centuries. Develops your ability to understand and use sources, scholarship, and digital humanities tools. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
175b
Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistance movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
176a
Haiti and the Modern Caribbean
[
djw
ss
]
Studies how Haitian political thought traveled throughout and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the themes we will thus encounter include: race and the formation of nation-states in the 19th century Caribbean; the place of Haiti in the world economy; Haiti-US diplomatic relations; and interactions, antagonisms, and entwined histories of Haiti with other Caribbean societies. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
178a
The Middle East and the West: Historical Encounters
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines Middle Eastern and Western encounters from nineteenth century to the present. Topics include: travel, Orientalism, modernity, spectacles and world fairs, gender and sexuality, notions of sovereignty, and the immigrant experience. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
179a
Labor, Gender, and Exchange in the Atlantic World, 1600-1850
[
deis-us
ss
]
An examination of the interaction of cultures in the Atlantic World against a backdrop of violence, conquest, and empire-building. Particular attention is paid to the structure and function of power relations, gender orders, labor systems, and exchange networks. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
179b
India and the Superpowers (USA, USSR, and China): 1947 and Beyond
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Examines the history of modern India through its relationships with the "superpowers," USA, USSR, and China. Covering the period between 1947-2018, the course analyzes ideological, economic, foreign policy shifts and subcontinental conflict in a constantly changing geo-political scene. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
180b
Modern India: From Partition to the Present
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Examines the history, culture, and economy of modern India (1947-2019) with a focus on key concerns, such as the environment, urbanization, gender/sexual relations, and the transformations of democratic politics. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
181b
Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxism vs. Anarchism, 1845-1968
[
ss
]
From Marx's first major book in 1845 to the French upheavals of 1968, the history of left-wing politics and ideas. The struggles between Marxist orthodoxy and anarchist-inspired, left Marxist alternatives. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
182b
Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Surveys Chinese history from the Ming to Mao, with an emphasis on political, social, cultural, and literary trends; and attention toward ethnic minorities and overseas communities and diaspora. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
183a
Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores Ming and Qing China's frontiers with Japan, Korea, Inner Asia, Vietnam, and the ocean from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, examining the role of borderlands in forging the present-day multiethnic Chinese state and East Asian national identities. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
184a
Silk, Silver, and Slaves: China and the Industrial Revolution
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines why industrial capitalism, which underpins the current world order, first developed in Western Europe rather than China. Comparative treatment of commercialization, material culture, cities, political economies, and contingencies on both ends of Eurasia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
184b
Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores the commercial role, political economy, social structure, and national imaginations of the Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in comparison to "piracies" elsewhere. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
185a
The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Studies the history of Chinese outside Mainland China, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Siberia and Africa, from fifteenth century to present day. Ambivalence to ancestral and adopted homelands made these communities valuable agents of transnational exchange and embodiments of Chinese modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
185b
Turkey: From Ataturk to Erdogan
[
djw
ss
]
Examines the history of the Turkish Republic, from its founding in the wake of World War I until the beginning of the 21st century. Through discussions of politics, economics, society and culture, the course studies the forces that shaped and reshaped Turkey. Like the Ottoman Empire from which it emerged, Turkey has attracted the attention of admirers and detractors alike. Meanwhile, it has played key roles and continues to be an important economic, political and cultural hub in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
186a
Europe in World War II
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
187a
Frenemy States: Identity and Integration in East Asia
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the emergence and development of distinct national identities in East Asia. We focus upon key transformative moments and events in the histories of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the dawn of time to the early twentieth century. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
188b
The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1350-1900
[
ss
]
How do you talk about religion after Darwin, when science has replaced religion as the authoritative discourse, but most people everywhere adhere to some sort of religious belief? By reading together The Varieties of Religious experience (1902) by William James. Usually offered every third year.
David S. Katz
HIST
192b
Romantic and Existentialist Political Thought
[
ss
]
Readings from Camus, Sartre, Beckett, and others. Examination and criticism of romantic and existentialist theories of politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
195a
American Political Thought: From the Revolution to the Civil War
[
ss
]
Antebellum America as seen in the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Adams, the Federalists and Antifederalists, the Federalists and Republicans, the Whigs and the Jacksonians, the advocates and opponents of slavery, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
196a
American Political Thought: From the 1950s to the Present
[
ss
]
Covers the New Left of the 1960s, its rejection of the outlook of the 1950s, the efforts of liberals to save the New Left agenda in the New Politics of the 1970s, and the reaction against the New Left in the neoconservative movement. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST/SOC
170b
Gender and Sexuality in South Asia
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or permission of the instructor.
Explores historical and contemporary debates about gender and sexuality in South Asia; revisits concepts of "woman," "sex," "femininity," "home," "family," "community," "nation," "reform," "protection," and "civilization" across the colonial and postcolonial periods. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller and Gowri Vijayakumar
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
(200 and above) Primarily for Graduate Students
HIST
200a
Colloquium in Early American History
An examination of major themes in the historiography of the North American colonies and the United States before the Civil War. Topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every second year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
200b
Colloquium in Modern U.S. History
An examination of major themes in the historiography of the United States since the Civil War. Topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
201a
Major Problems in American Legal History
[
ss
]
An advanced readings seminar on major interpretive issues in the field of American legal history. The seminar examines the different ways historians have interpreted law, political culture, and governing institutions, and their historical relationship to broader social, economic, cultural, and political processes. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
205b
Introduction to Doctoral Studies
Examines major problems in the study of history. Usually offered every year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
209b
Empires: Boundaries and Belonging
Explores the diverse ways that the boundaries of overseas empires were constructed and asserted between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Topics include: possession, sovereignty, treaties, passports, mapping, captivity, gender, family intimacies, and conceptions of difference. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
212b
Refugees and Comparative States of Statelessness
This graduate readings seminar examines refugees and displaced persons as well as the sovereignty of the modern nation-state in comparative contexts from early modern period to the present. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
215a
Colloquium in World History
Designed to introduce students to the methods, sources, and writings about global and non-Western histories. Taught collectively by specialists in Latin American, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern history. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
221a
Colloquium in European Comparative History since the Eighteenth Century
Designed for first-year graduate students. Comparative examination of major historical issues in Europe from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
223a
Quantifying Globalization: Methods and Metrics
Seeks to develop a quantitative global perspective for research and teaching. The sessions provide hands-on training in the abundant transnational datasets that abound not only for the current period, but for modern history and earlier periods as well. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
225b
Twentieth-Century Christianity: Secularization and Globalization
offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of twentieth-century Christianity, the goal being to elucidate the patterns and dynamics of expansion and crisis. It draws upon the profusion of new cutting-edge research in multiple fields, all directed toward elucidating how secularization (and desecularization) as well as globalization have reconfigured and transformed what was once primarily European Christianity. Usually offered every fourth year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
230a
Capital Cities in History
Open only to graduate students.
What is a capital city? Most people have no problem naming several capital cities, whether they are county, state, national or imperial, contemporary or historical, official or unofficial. You may have heard of summer and winter capitals. Yet when we stop to consider what 'capital' means, what makes a capital exactly that, many possibilities emerge. Does anything unite them? And what roles did they play in the history of the places for which they were capital? This seminar explores the idea and phenomenon of 'capital city' in order to problematize and defamiliarize this term, that is, to cast doubt on the assumption that it is a universal concept whose meaning, form and role are shared across polities and cultures.
Amy Singer
HIST
300e
Directed Research for PhD Students
Students will normally elect one research topic in the fall term and the spring of the first year. Each is designed to provide experience in designing, researching, and writing a substantial essay of a monographic character, based on extensive use of sources. Each is the equivalent of two full courses. Specific research topics are selected by the student in consultation with the adviser. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
301c
PhD Dissertation Writers' Seminar
Prerequisites: ABD status, at least one drafted dissertation chapter ready to share.
Advances doctoral student training through the medium of shared dissertation chapters. Participants practice close reading, critical thinking, attentive editing, and lucid writing. Usually offered every year.
Amy Singer
HIST
301d
Directed Research for MA Students: Master's Thesis
Year-long research project designed to provide experience in designing, researching, and writing a substantial essay of a monographic character, based on extensive use of primary sources. Students select a specific research topic in consultation with the adviser. The course covers two semesters, with one course credit given in each term. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
302a
Directed Research for MA Students: Master's Essay
Semester-long research project culminating in a Master's essay. Students select a specific research topic in consultation with the adviser. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
HIST
320a
Readings in History
Usually offered every term. Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff
HIST
320b
Readings in History
Usually offered every term. Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff
HIST
340a
Teaching in History
Usually offered every term. Supervised graduate teaching in history.
Staff
HIST
340b
Teaching in History
Usually offered every term. Supervised graduate teaching in history.
Staff
HIST
401d
Dissertation Research
Usually offered every semester. Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff
HIST Digital Literacy
AAPI/HIS
163a
Asian American History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
Explores the history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States with a focus on their lived experiences and contributions to U.S. society. Course culminates in a final AAPI digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
HIST
50b
Race and America: Perspectives on United States History, Origins to the Present
[
dl
ss
]
Investigates U.S. history in a wider world, from its origins to the present, starting with the premise that American History itself is a construct of modern empire. Only by investigating the roots of power and resistance can we understand the forces that deeply influence our world as we live it today. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
80a
Introduction to East Asian Civilization
[
djw
dl
hum
nw
ss
]
A selective introduction to the development of forms of thought, social and political institutions, and distinctive cultural contributions of China and Japan from early times to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
111b
The Iranian Revolution in Global Context
[
djw
dl
nw
ss
]
An examination of the roots of the Iranian revolution of 1979, the formation of the Islamic Republic, and its evolution over the past 30 years. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
140a
A History of Fashion in Europe
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
147a
Russian Empire: Gender, Minorities, and Globalization
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
153b
Slavery and the American Civil War: #1619 Project
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
A hard look at American slavery from the Middle Passage to Mass Incarceration, plus an investigation into the Civil War through the lens of Black self-emancipation. Uses the tools and insights from #1619 Project. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
157b
Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
wi
]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
158b
Social History of the Confederate States of America
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
An examination of the brief life of the southern Confederacy, emphasizing regional, racial, class, and gender conflicts within the would-be new nation. Usually offered every third year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
162a
Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[
djw
dl
ss
]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
173b
Digital History, Digital Historians: What's it All About?
[
dl
ss
]
"Digital Humanities" are becoming widespread as a research approach to history. These qualitative and quantitative methods offer historians new research insights and efficiencies. This course explores Digital Humanities through reading, discussion, and experimentation to discover their strengths and weaknesses. Usually offered every year.
Amy Singer
HIST
174b
History Lab: Research and Writing in History
[
dl
ss
]
Topic for Fall 2023: Ottoman Diasporas in New England
Offers a unique opportunity to engage in real historical research. With your participation, this project will identify, organize, map and assess the written, material and cultural sources for understanding the diaspora communities of Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Turks and others who arrived in New England from the later 19th through the early 20th centuries. Develops your ability to understand and use sources, scholarship, and digital humanities tools. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
186a
Europe in World War II
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
HIST Oral Communication
HIST
52b
Europe in the Modern World
[
oc
ss
]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
66a
History of South Asia (2500 BCE - 1971)
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Introduces South Asian history from the earliest civilizations to the independence of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Surveys the formation of religious traditions, the establishment of kingdoms and empires, colonialism and its consequences, and post-independence political and economic development. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
106b
The Modern British Empire
[
djw
ss
]
Surveys British imperial history from the Seven Years' War through the period after decolonization. Explores economic, political, and social forces propelling expansion; ideologies and contradictions of empire; relationships between colonizer and colonized; and the role of collaboration and resistance. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
109b
A Global History of Sport: Politics, Economy, Race and Culture
[
deis-us
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines soccer, boxing, baseball, cricket and other sports to reflect on culture, politics, race, and globalization. With a focus on empire, gender, ethnicity, this course considers sport as the battleground for ideological and group contests. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
113b
Crazy Rich Europeans: Wealth and Inequality in Modern History
[
djw
oc
ss
]
Brings together insights from modern European and Asian history, business, economics, and sociology. We will investigate the changing role, power, and composition of social elites in history and how they impacted workers, colonial populations, women, and urban landscapes in the past two centuries. We will study how actors as diverse as fashion models, Russian oligarchs, and powerful bankers gain their status and influence. We will also discuss the origins of global social inequality, including the ‘great divergence’ debate on Chinese and European modernization. How do we get from ‘Crazy Rich Europeans’ to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
126a
Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[
oc
ss
]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
135b
Get Up, Stand Up: A Century of Revolutions in the Middle East
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
An examination of the various revolutions that have shaped the modern Middle East since the late 19th century. The course focuses on four different revolutionary moments: The constitutional revolutions of the turn of the century, the anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century, the radical revolutions of the 1970's, and most recently, the Arab Spring revolutions that have affected the region since 2011. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
136b
Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[
djw
oc
ss
wi
]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
147a
Russian Empire: Gender, Minorities, and Globalization
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
IGS
165a
Revolution, Religion, and Terror: Postcolonial Histories
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines religious conflict, revolutionary violence, and civil war in modern South Asia. It looks at Jihad, Maoist militancy, rising fundamentalism, and the recent refugee crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
175a
Digital Asia: Democracy in the Internet Age
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Analyzes the transformative potential of the internet as an agent of development and as a mechanism for disrupting social and political orders in Asia, home to the world's largest democracy and also the world's largest authoritarian regime. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST Writing Intensive
HIST
114b
Histories of American Capitalism
[
deis-us
ss
wi
]
Explores the history of American capitalism as it developed from the colonial period to the near present. We will follow three main analytical themes through the centuries: racial capitalism; the role of the state in shaping economic development; and the function of social reproduction and other unwaged work in commercial societies. As we engage central historiographic debates about the timing and location of the transition to capitalism in the United States, we will use the concept of capitalism as a tool to better understand and differentiate the wide range of economic systems that have existed in the nation’s history. Topics include: the rise of wage labor and the expansion of markets; slavery and emancipation; territorial conquest; technological and infrastructural development; the rise of big business and organized labor; alternative labor regimes and the experience of work; the economic dimensions of gender, race, and other categories of social difference; social welfare policy; and recent developments in deindustrialization, globalization, and income inequality. Usually offered every year.
A. J. Murphy
HIST
121a
Breaking the Rules: Deviance and Nonconformity in Premodern Europe
[
djw
ss
wi
]
Explores the ways in which "deviant" behavior was defined and punished by some, but also justified and even celebrated by others in premodern Europe. Topics include vagrancy, popular uprisings, witchcraft, religious heresy, and the status of women. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
123b
Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[
ss
wi
]
Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
136b
Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[
djw
oc
ss
wi
]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
137b
World War I
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the opening global conflict of the twentieth century. Topics include the destruction of the old European order, the origins of total war, the cultural and social crisis it provoked, and the long-term consequences for Europe and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
140a
A History of Fashion in Europe
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
157b
Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
wi
]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
175b
Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistance movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
178a
The Middle East and the West: Historical Encounters
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines Middle Eastern and Western encounters from nineteenth century to the present. Topics include: travel, Orientalism, modernity, spectacles and world fairs, gender and sexuality, notions of sovereignty, and the immigrant experience. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
183a
Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores Ming and Qing China's frontiers with Japan, Korea, Inner Asia, Vietnam, and the ocean from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, examining the role of borderlands in forging the present-day multiethnic Chinese state and East Asian national identities. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
184a
Silk, Silver, and Slaves: China and the Industrial Revolution
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines why industrial capitalism, which underpins the current world order, first developed in Western Europe rather than China. Comparative treatment of commercialization, material culture, cities, political economies, and contingencies on both ends of Eurasia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
184b
Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores the commercial role, political economy, social structure, and national imaginations of the Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in comparison to "piracies" elsewhere. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
185a
The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Studies the history of Chinese outside Mainland China, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Siberia and Africa, from fifteenth century to present day. Ambivalence to ancestral and adopted homelands made these communities valuable agents of transnational exchange and embodiments of Chinese modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
186a
Europe in World War II
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
187a
Frenemy States: Identity and Integration in East Asia
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the emergence and development of distinct national identities in East Asia. We focus upon key transformative moments and events in the histories of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the dawn of time to the early twentieth century. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang
HIST US History
AAAS
155b
Hip Hop History and Culture
[
ss
]
Examines the history of hip hop culture, in the broader context of U.S., African American and African diaspora history, from the 1960s to the present. Explores key developments, debates and themes shaping hip hop's evolution and contemporary global significance. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
AAAS
156a
#BlackLivesMatter
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores the evolution of the modern African American civil rights movement through historical readings, primary documents, films and social media. Assesses the legacy and consequences of the movement for contemporary struggles for black equality. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
AAAS
160b
If We Must Die: War and Military Service in African American History
[
ss
]
Traces African American participation in the nation's military from the American Revolution to Afghanistan. Examines the relationship between African Americans and warfare, paying particular attention to the relationship between race and military service. Students will re-conceptualize the meaning of African American military history by addressing themes such as slavery and freedom, the meaning of citizenship, nationalism and imperialism, war and civil rights activism, manhood and respectability, and violence and trauma. Usually offered every third year.
Chad Williams
AAAS
170a
Black Childhoods
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores historical experiences of growing up black in America. We will examine the role of race in shaping experiences and meanings of childhood from slavery to the present day, including studies of black girlhood and boyhood. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAAS/HIS
131a
African Americans and Health
[
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AAAS 131a in prior years.
Examines African American health experiences from the 17th century to the present, with a focus on the strategies and practices African Americans have employed to improve their health. Explores the historical development of 'racial' diseases and inequalities. Topics include: slave health, the black hospital movement, eugenics, midwifery, and the crack and opioid epidemics. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAAS/HIS
154b
Race, Science, and Society
[
deis-us
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AAAS 154b in prior years.
Traces scientific concepts of race from the 18th century to today, interrogating their uses and transformations over time. It explores how science has defined race, how people have challenged such conceptions, and alternate ways for understanding human difference. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAPI/HIS
163a
Asian American History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
Explores the history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States with a focus on their lived experiences and contributions to U.S. society. Course culminates in a final AAPI digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AAPI/HIS
171a
The United States in the Pacific World
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
How have U.S. imperial ventures'cultural, military, political, and economic'reconfigured local societies and geographies? What are the afterlives of those ventures and how have they reverberated between American society and the Pacific World? To answer these questions, this course explores the history of American incursion into places such as China, Hawai'i, the Philippines, Guam, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Samoa from the nineteenth century to present. We explore issues such as orientalism, empires and militarism, labor and commerce, race and inequality, intimacy and sex, as well as migration, culture, family formation, and identity both in and across the Pacific Ocean. In focusing on the lasting legacies and human consequences of this contact, this course deepens our understanding of the multiracial history and character of the United States and also provides an opportunity to place the American experience within a larger global context. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AAPI/HIS
186b
Legacies of the Korean War
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
Explores the lasting legacies and human consequences of the Korean War in a transnational context. Course culminates in a final digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AAPI/WGS
126a
Asian American and Pacific Islander Women
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores race, gender, and U.S. history from the perspective of Asian American and Pacific Islander women. Course culminates in a final AAPI women's digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AMST
30b
American Environmental History
[
ss
wi
]
Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST
35a
Hollywood and American Culture
[
ss
]
This is an interdisciplinary course in Hollywood cinema and American culture that aims to do justice to both arenas. Students will learn the terms of filmic grammar, the meanings of visual style, and the contexts of Hollywood cinema from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to last weekend's top box office grosser. They will also master the major economic, social, and political realities that make up the American experience of the dominant medium of our time, the moving image, as purveyed by Hollywood. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty
AMST
150a
The History of Childhood and Youth in America
[
ss
]
Examines history, cultural ideas, and policies about childhood and youth, as well as children's literature, television, and other media for children and youth. Includes an archival-based project on the student movement in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Krasner
AMST/ED
120a
History of Higher Education in the U.S.
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores the history of higher education in the United States from the nation's formation to the present. Readings outline the competing purposes Americans envisioned for colleges and universities, as well as student life, institutional access, and visions of the relationship between excellence and equity. The course explores patterns of inclusion and exclusion based on race, class, ethnicity, religion, and gender and how universities served as sites where class was produced and contested. Students explore the post-World War II democratization of American higher education, the politics of college admissions, and recent movements to make college more affordable. The course also raises questions about the power universities came to hold as centers of knowledge-making networks and universities as sites of political activism. Usually offered every third year.
Leah Gordon
AMST/ED
121a
Education and Equity in Modern American History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Prerequisite: Instructor permission required.
Focusing on educational inequities related to race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status, this course examines twentieth century American efforts to make schools more equal, and in the process to make the social, economic, and racial order more just and fair. The course focuses on the ways Americans have addressed three core questions: What is educational equity? What is the relationship between school desegregation and equalization? Can equal schools create an equal society? By exploring how Americans thought about and sought to institutionalize their answers to these questions, the course investigates the promise and pitfalls of treating schooling as an egalitarian tool. Usually offered every third year.
Leah Gordon
HIS/HSSP
142a
Health Activism
[
deis-us
oc
ss
]
Formerly offered as HSSP 142a.
Examines the history of health activism in the U.S. over the past 125 years, from late 19th century debates over compulsory vaccination to contemporary public health campaigns around gang violence and incarceration. Usually offered every third year.
Wangui Muigai
HIST
50b
Race and America: Perspectives on United States History, Origins to the Present
[
dl
ss
]
Investigates U.S. history in a wider world, from its origins to the present, starting with the premise that American History itself is a construct of modern empire. Only by investigating the roots of power and resistance can we understand the forces that deeply influence our world as we live it today. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
116b
The History and Politics of Infrastructure in the United States
[
deis-us
ss
]
Infrastructure is meant to recede into the background of civic life. But seemingly innocuous projects like roads, railways, electric grids, or even schools arose across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they became crucial nodes of colonial power, sites of enslavement and racial segregation, and of the policing of gender. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, states started to cede infrastructure to capitalist firms, privatizing key utilities and, increasingly, demurring from the responsibility to regulate these firms. By digging up the hidden history of infrastructural development, this class will reframe how we conceptualize the role of government in laying out the foundations for social activity, and give us the tools to intervene in contemporary debates over who should build, control, and maintain our infrastructure. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
130b
Crime and Punishment in U.S. History
[
deis-us
ss
]
The United States incarcerates more of its people per capita than any other nation on the planet. How did this come to be? This course examines how Americans have defined, represented, and punished crime, from the birth of the penitentiary to the present day. We will discuss an eclectic mix of historical texts and genres ' criminal codes, trial records, true-crime journalism, historical studies, social theory, urban sociology, and films. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
144b
Native North America
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores the history of peoples Indigenous to Turtle Island, or the lands known today as the United States. Over five hundred years, settlers carried out an invasion of the Native Old World, a place in which diverse Indigenous people developed robust civilizations and dealt with complex geopolitical rivalries. Contrary to settler assumptions, however, Indigenous peoples did not disappear in the face of European encroachment, nor did they consolidate into a singular stereotyped Indian figure. For this reason, our course will trace the diverse evolutions of distinct Indigenous societies as a result of their ordeals with colonization. In short, we will encounter the many Native New Worlds that emerged and endure today. Usually offered every year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
153b
Slavery and the American Civil War: #1619 Project
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
A hard look at American slavery from the Middle Passage to Mass Incarceration, plus an investigation into the Civil War through the lens of Black self-emancipation. Uses the tools and insights from #1619 Project. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
157b
Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[
deis-us
dl
ss
wi
]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
158b
Social History of the Confederate States of America
[
deis-us
dl
ss
]
An examination of the brief life of the southern Confederacy, emphasizing regional, racial, class, and gender conflicts within the would-be new nation. Usually offered every third year.
Abigail Cooper
HIST
159b
Modern African American History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Introduces students to some of the key social, political, economic, and cultural moments that defined the African American experience in the United States, 1865 through the present. Through the use of primary and secondary source materials, critical surveys, lectures, and guided discussion, this class highlights the richness and significance of the African American history. This course covers a diverse array of key themes and topics including: Reconstruction and segregation; the Great Migration; the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Feminist movements; black political power; mass incarceration and the surveillance state; and Hip Hop culture. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
HIST
160a
American Legal History I
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys American legal development from colonial settlement to the Civil War. Major issues include law as an instrument of revolution, capitalism and contract, invention of the police, family law, slavery law, and the Civil War as a constitutional crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
160b
American Legal History II
[
deis-us
ss
]
Survey of American legal development from 1865 to the present. Major topics include constitutionalism and racial inequality, the legal response to industrialization, progressivism and the transformation of liberalism, the rise of the administrative state, and rights-based movements for social justice. Usually offered every year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
161b
American Political History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Development of American party politics, the legal system, and government. Special attention paid to the social and cultural determinants of party politics, and economic and social policymaking. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
162a
Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[
djw
dl
ss
]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
164a
Recent American History since 1945
[
ss
]
American politics, economics, and culture underwent profound transformations in the late twentieth century. Examines the period's turmoil, looking especially at origins and legacies. Readings include novels, memoirs, key political and social documents, and film and music excerpts. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
168b
America in the Progressive Era: 1890-1920
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys social and political history during the pivotal decades when America became a "modern" society and nation-state. Topics include populism, racial segregation, social science and public policy, the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, environmental conservation, and the domestic impact of World War I. Usually offered every fourth year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
179a
Labor, Gender, and Exchange in the Atlantic World, 1600-1850
[
deis-us
ss
]
An examination of the interaction of cultures in the Atlantic World against a backdrop of violence, conquest, and empire-building. Particular attention is paid to the structure and function of power relations, gender orders, labor systems, and exchange networks. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
195a
American Political Thought: From the Revolution to the Civil War
[
ss
]
Antebellum America as seen in the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Adams, the Federalists and Antifederalists, the Federalists and Republicans, the Whigs and the Jacksonians, the advocates and opponents of slavery, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
196a
American Political Thought: From the 1950s to the Present
[
ss
]
Covers the New Left of the 1960s, its rejection of the outlook of the 1950s, the efforts of liberals to save the New Left agenda in the New Politics of the 1970s, and the reaction against the New Left in the neoconservative movement. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
NEJS
162a
American Judaism
[
hum
ss
wi
]
American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Sarna
NEJS
162b
It Couldn't Happen Here: American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective
[
hum
]
A close examination of three American anti-Semitic episodes: U.S. Grant's expulsion of the Jews during the Civil War, the Leo Frank case, and the publication of Henry Ford's The International Jew. What do these episodes teach us about anti-semitic prejudice, about Jews, and about America as a whole? Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna
POL
113b
The American Presidency
[
ss
]
Philosophical and historical origins of the presidency, examining the constitutional role of the chief executive. Historical development of the presidency, particularly the emergence of the modern presidency during the twentieth century. Contemporary relationships between the presidency and the electorate, as well as the other branches of government. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Kryder
POL
163a
Seminar: The United Nations and the United States
[
djw
dl
ss
wi
]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Investigates the United Nations organization and charter, with an emphasis on the integral role of the United States in its founding and operation. Using archival documents and other digitized materials, explores topics such as UN enforcement actions, the Security Council veto, human rights, and the domestic politics of US commitments to the UN. Usually offered every second year.
Kerry Chase
HIST Europe (including Russia)
CLAS
100a
Survey of Greek History: Bronze Age to 323 BCE
[
hum
]
Surveys the political and social development of the Greek city-states from Bronze Age origins to the death of Alexander. Usually offered every second year.
Cheryl Walker
CLAS
115b
Topics in Greek and Roman History
[
hum
]
Topics vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Topics include the Age of Alexander the Great, the Age of Pericles, the Greekness of Alexander, and Imperialism in Antiquity. See the Schedule of Classes for the current topic. Usually offered every year.
Cheryl Walker
CLAS
120a
Age of Caesar
[
hum
wi
]
The life and times of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) viewed through primary texts in a variety of genres: from Caesar himself to contemporaries Cicero and Catullus and biographers Plutarch and Suetonius. Usually offered every third year.
Cheryl Walker
HIST
52b
Europe in the Modern World
[
oc
ss
]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
103a
Roman History to 455 CE
[
hum
ss
]
Survey of Roman history from the early republic through the decline of the empire. Covers the political history of the Roman state and the major social, economic, and religious changes of the period. Usually offered every year.
William Kapelle
HIST
110a
The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of medieval history from the fall of Rome to the year 1000. Topics include the barbarian invasions, the Byzantine Empire, the Dark Ages, the Carolingian Empire, feudalism, manorialism, and the Vikings. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
110b
The Civilization of the High and Late Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of European history from 1000 to 1450. Topics include the Crusades, the birth of towns, the creation of kingdoms, the papacy, the peasantry, the universities, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
112b
The Crusades and the Expansion of Medieval Europe
[
ss
]
Survey of the relationships between medieval Europe and neighboring cultures, beginning with the decline of Byzantium. Topics include a detailed look at the Crusades, the Spanish reconquista, the Crusader kingdoms, economic growth, and the foundations of imperialism. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
113a
English Medieval History
[
ss
]
Survey of English history from the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the fifteenth century. Topics include the heroic age, the Viking invasions, and development of the English kingdom from the Norman conquest through the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
113b
Crazy Rich Europeans: Wealth and Inequality in Modern History
[
djw
oc
ss
]
Brings together insights from modern European and Asian history, business, economics, and sociology. We will investigate the changing role, power, and composition of social elites in history and how they impacted workers, colonial populations, women, and urban landscapes in the past two centuries. We will study how actors as diverse as fashion models, Russian oligarchs, and powerful bankers gain their status and influence. We will also discuss the origins of global social inequality, including the ‘great divergence’ debate on Chinese and European modernization. How do we get from ‘Crazy Rich Europeans’ to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
120a
Britain in the Later Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Exploration of the critical changes in government and society in the British Isles from the late fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Topics include the Black Death, the lordship of Ireland, the Hundred Years' War, the Scottish War of Independence, economic change, the Tudors, and the Reformation. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle
HIST
121a
Breaking the Rules: Deviance and Nonconformity in Premodern Europe
[
djw
ss
wi
]
Explores the ways in which "deviant" behavior was defined and punished by some, but also justified and even celebrated by others in premodern Europe. Topics include vagrancy, popular uprisings, witchcraft, religious heresy, and the status of women. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
123a
The Renaissance
[
ss
]
Culture, society, and economy in the Italian city-state (with particular attention to Florence) from feudalism to the rise of the modern state. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle
HIST
123b
Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[
ss
wi
]
Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
126a
Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[
oc
ss
]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
137b
World War I
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the opening global conflict of the twentieth century. Topics include the destruction of the old European order, the origins of total war, the cultural and social crisis it provoked, and the long-term consequences for Europe and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
138a
The World Between the Wars, 1919-1939
[
ss
]
Explores links between the First and Second World Wars, including the rise of fascism, Soviet communism, the world economic depression, the collapse of collective security, and the crisis of world empires. Usually offered every other year.
Staff
HIST
140a
A History of Fashion in Europe
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
142a
Crime, Deviance, and Confinement in Modern Europe
[
ss
]
Examines the crisis of law and order in old regime states and explores the prison and asylum systems that emerged in modern Europe. Surveys psychiatry and forensic science from the Napoleonic period until World War II. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
145a
War in European History
[
ss
]
Introduces students to the changing nature of war and warfare in European history since the Middle Ages. Explores the reciprocal influence of armies and societies and the ways in which wars reflect the cultures of the polities waging them. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
147a
Russian Empire: Gender, Minorities, and Globalization
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
150b
Reading the Writing of European History
[
ss
]
Is history a science or an art, just another form of literature? Whether history repeats itself, historians do repeat each other, as we see by reading selections from famous and forgotten historians addressing these questions over the past 250 years. Usually offered every third year.
David Katz
HIST
152b
The European Occult Tradition, 1200-2021
[
ss
]
Is the universe alive? Yes...according to the European occult tradition, a coherent intellectual stream that has roots in religion, philosophy and history and the more supernatural elements of conventional religion, such as providence, prophecy and messianism. Usually offered every third year.
David Katz
HIST
166a
History of Crises: Europe's Twentieth Century
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Systematically tackles the main turning points of Western and Eastern Europe’s modern history and their global impact. The focus is on the first half of the twentieth century, and the histories of the First and Second World Wars that still shape contemporary world politics today. We will also touch on the histories of colonialism, totalitarianism, the Ukrainian famine under Stalin, the Holocaust, and "moral panics" around changing gender roles. Analyzes both primary sources and the most recent scholarly debates. Requirements include a book review and a short research paper. Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
181b
Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxism vs. Anarchism, 1845-1968
[
ss
]
From Marx's first major book in 1845 to the French upheavals of 1968, the history of left-wing politics and ideas. The struggles between Marxist orthodoxy and anarchist-inspired, left Marxist alternatives. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
186a
Europe in World War II
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
192b
Romantic and Existentialist Political Thought
[
ss
]
Readings from Camus, Sartre, Beckett, and others. Examination and criticism of romantic and existentialist theories of politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
NEJS
37a
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
[
hum
]
Open to all students. May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 137a in prior years.
Why and how did European Jews become victims of genocide? A systematic examination of the planning and implementation of Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Laura Jockusch
NEJS
129b
Debating Jesus: Diverse Beliefs in the Early Church
[
hum
wi
]
Examines the nature of Jesus, the Trinity, and scripture, both canonical and non-canonical, in the first four centuries of early Christianity. Students analyze material culture and written documents related to a wide array of diverse Christian voices. The course explores scandals, heresies, and dissension along with points of unity and changing alliances within the Early Church in a diverse religious and political landscape. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
NEJS
136b
Revenge, Justice, and Reconciliation: Mass Atrocity Trials in the Long Shadow of Nazi Crimes
[
djw
hum
]
Can crimes of the magnitude of the World War II and the Holocaust be redressed by legal means? This course explores the complex history of prosecuting Nazi crimes and how the political contexts and the legal frameworks have changed over time. It also studies the extra-judicial implications of mass atrocity trials: the societal discourse they stir, the educational lessons they teach, and historical records they create. Moreover, the course analyzes how the history of prosecuting Nazi crimes has impacted the legal redress of other gross human rights violations in the more recent past and whether the lessons learned from prosecuting Nazi crimes can be applied to the quest for racial justice in America today. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch
NEJS
140b
Gender, Ghettos, and the Geographies of Early Modern Jews
[
hum
]
Examines Jewish history and culture in early modern Europe: mass conversions on the Iberian peninsula, migrations, reconversions back to Judaism, the printing revolution, the Reformation and Counter Reformation, ghettos, gender, family, everyday life, material culture, communal structure, rabbinical culture, mysticism, magic, science, messianic movements, Hasidism, mercantilism, and early modern challenges to Judaism.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard
NEJS
148a
Inside Nazi Germany: Social and Political History of the Third Reich
[
hum
]
Provides an overview on the social and political history of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) covering the most significant topics pertaining to the ideological basis, structure and functioning of the regime as well as the social and political mechanisms that led millions of Germans to perpetrate war and genocide. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch
HIST Africa/Middle East
AAAS
115a
Introduction to African History
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Explores the history of African societies from their earliest beginnings to the present era. Topics include African participation in antiquity as well as early Christianity and preindustrial political, economic, and cultural developments. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray
AAAS
120a
African History in Real Time
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
This information literacy-driven course equips students with the skills to place current events in Africa in their historical context. Collectively the class builds 5-6 distinct course modules which entail sourcing and evaluating current news stories from a range of media outlets, selecting those that merit in-depth historical analysis, and developing a syllabus for each one. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray
AAAS
151b
Africa: A Reggae Anthology
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Draws on the genre of reggae music as a course of understanding how Africa, its people, its history, and its contemporary circumstances are imagined, understood, represented, and engaged by African descended people in Jamaica and in the broader African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray
CLAS
117b
Unmasking Cleopatra: Gender, Power, and A Legacy
[
djw
hum
]
A close examination of the history and world of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and her later reception. Usually offered every third year.
Darlene Brooks-Hedstrom
CLAS
155a
Mummies, Myths, and Monuments of Ancient Egypt
[
hum
wi
]
Surveys Egyptian archaeology and culture and provides a critical examination of the reception and (mis)use of Ancient Egypt in popular culture over time. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
CLAS
156b
Living and Dying in Roman and Byzantine Egypt
[
djw
hum
wi
]
Examines the lived experiences of the Roman and Byzantine inhabitants of Egypt from the Nile valley to the desert oases. Topics include bioarchaeology, childhood, education, religious life, papyrology, important archaeological discoveries/collections, colonial archaeology, mortuary arts, and the journey from childhood to death in antiquity. Class will visit area museums to also examine the artifactual evidence of Roman and Byzantine Egypt. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks-Hedstrom
HIST
111a
History of the Modern Middle East
[
djw
nw
ss
]
An examination of the history of the Middle East from the nineteenth century to contemporary times. Focuses on political events and intellectual trends, such as imperialism, modernity, nationalism, and revolution, that have shaped the region in the modern era. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
111b
The Iranian Revolution in Global Context
[
djw
dl
nw
ss
]
An examination of the roots of the Iranian revolution of 1979, the formation of the Islamic Republic, and its evolution over the past 30 years. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
134b
The Ottoman Empire: From Principality to Republic by way of Empire
[
ss
]
The Ottomans in history: how did a tiny principality grow from 1300 to be a global empire by 1550 and become a modern nation state by 1923? Who were the Ottomans? What are their legacies in today's world? Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
135b
Get Up, Stand Up: A Century of Revolutions in the Middle East
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
An examination of the various revolutions that have shaped the modern Middle East since the late 19th century. The course focuses on four different revolutionary moments: The constitutional revolutions of the turn of the century, the anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century, the radical revolutions of the 1970's, and most recently, the Arab Spring revolutions that have affected the region since 2011. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
140b
Charity and Poverty in Islamic Societies
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Charity and poverty are universal aspects of human societies, culturally specific and historically contingent. This course studies charitable giving as a fundamental aspect of Muslim belief and practice, reflecting change over time and space, offering comparisons with non-Muslim societies. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
172b
Historicizing the Black Radical Tradition
[
djw
ss
]
Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppression by formulating theories, philosophies, and practices of liberation rooted in their experiences and understandings of labor, capitalism, and modernity. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
178a
The Middle East and the West: Historical Encounters
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines Middle Eastern and Western encounters from nineteenth century to the present. Topics include: travel, Orientalism, modernity, spectacles and world fairs, gender and sexuality, notions of sovereignty, and the immigrant experience. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
HIST
185b
Turkey: From Ataturk to Erdogan
[
djw
ss
]
Examines the history of the Turkish Republic, from its founding in the wake of World War I until the beginning of the 21st century. Through discussions of politics, economics, society and culture, the course studies the forces that shaped and reshaped Turkey. Like the Ottoman Empire from which it emerged, Turkey has attracted the attention of admirers and detractors alike. Meanwhile, it has played key roles and continues to be an important economic, political and cultural hub in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
NEJS
104b
Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[
hum
nw
]
Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year.
Carl El-Tobgui
NEJS
145a
History of the State of Israel
[
hum
]
Examines the development of the State of Israel from its foundation to the present time. Israel's politics, society, and culture will be thematically analyzed. Usually offered every year.
Staff
NEJS
157b
Arab-Jewish Modern Thought and Culture
[
djw
hum
]
Against the backdrop of the partition of the 'Jew' from the 'Arab' in the modern national era, this course focuses on the Arab-Jewish borderland cultural world which simultaneously embodies Arab and Jewish histories, traditions, and identities. It traces different manifestations of Arab-Jewish culture from the early 20th century to today and explores the complex relationship between culture and politics in relation to questions of language, identity, nationality, borders, exile and memory. Usually offered every second year.
Yuval Evry
NEJS
195b
Early Islamic History from Muhammad to the Mongols
[
hum
nw
]
Introduces Islamic history from the birth of Islam in the 7th century to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Students will examine trends in political, social, and intellectual history, focusing on three main periods; Islamic Origins, The High Caliphate, and Fragmentation/Efflorescence. Readings will include primary sources in translation, as well as academic analyses from traditional, critical, and revisionist perspectives. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST Latin America/Caribbean
ANTH
119a
Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines the continuing negotiation of identity and power that were at the heart of tragedy and triumph for indigenous peoples in colonial Mexico and Central America, and which continue in the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden
HIST
71a
Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[
djw
hum
nw
ss
]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
162a
Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[
djw
dl
ss
]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
175b
Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistance movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST
176a
Haiti and the Modern Caribbean
[
djw
ss
]
Studies how Haitian political thought traveled throughout and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the themes we will thus encounter include: race and the formation of nation-states in the 19th century Caribbean; the place of Haiti in the world economy; Haiti-US diplomatic relations; and interactions, antagonisms, and entwined histories of Haiti with other Caribbean societies. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs
HIST Asia
AAPI/HIS
186b
Legacies of the Korean War
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
Explores the lasting legacies and human consequences of the Korean War in a transnational context. Course culminates in a final digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
HIST
66a
History of South Asia (2500 BCE - 1971)
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Introduces South Asian history from the earliest civilizations to the independence of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Surveys the formation of religious traditions, the establishment of kingdoms and empires, colonialism and its consequences, and post-independence political and economic development. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
80a
Introduction to East Asian Civilization
[
djw
dl
hum
nw
ss
]
A selective introduction to the development of forms of thought, social and political institutions, and distinctive cultural contributions of China and Japan from early times to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
80b
East Asia in the Modern World
[
hum
nw
ss
]
Surveys East Asian history from the 1600 to the present. Compares Chinese, Korean, and Japanese encounters with forces of industrial capitalism, including colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, resulting in East Asia's distinctive cultural and social modernity. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
146a
An International History of Japan
[
ss
]
Japan from prehistory to today, focusing on the archipelago's relationship to its Asian neighbors and the wider world. Topics include early Chinese influence, the introduction of Buddhism from Korea, the samurai, Westernization, and the rise and fall of imperial Japan.
Staff
HIST
179b
India and the Superpowers (USA, USSR, and China): 1947 and Beyond
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Examines the history of modern India through its relationships with the "superpowers," USA, USSR, and China. Covering the period between 1947-2018, the course analyzes ideological, economic, foreign policy shifts and subcontinental conflict in a constantly changing geo-political scene. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
180b
Modern India: From Partition to the Present
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Examines the history, culture, and economy of modern India (1947-2019) with a focus on key concerns, such as the environment, urbanization, gender/sexual relations, and the transformations of democratic politics. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
182b
Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Surveys Chinese history from the Ming to Mao, with an emphasis on political, social, cultural, and literary trends; and attention toward ethnic minorities and overseas communities and diaspora. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
183a
Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores Ming and Qing China's frontiers with Japan, Korea, Inner Asia, Vietnam, and the ocean from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, examining the role of borderlands in forging the present-day multiethnic Chinese state and East Asian national identities. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
184a
Silk, Silver, and Slaves: China and the Industrial Revolution
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines why industrial capitalism, which underpins the current world order, first developed in Western Europe rather than China. Comparative treatment of commercialization, material culture, cities, political economies, and contingencies on both ends of Eurasia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
184b
Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
[
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores the commercial role, political economy, social structure, and national imaginations of the Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in comparison to "piracies" elsewhere. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
185a
The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Studies the history of Chinese outside Mainland China, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Siberia and Africa, from fifteenth century to present day. Ambivalence to ancestral and adopted homelands made these communities valuable agents of transnational exchange and embodiments of Chinese modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
165a
Revolution, Religion, and Terror: Postcolonial Histories
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines religious conflict, revolutionary violence, and civil war in modern South Asia. It looks at Jihad, Maoist militancy, rising fundamentalism, and the recent refugee crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
171a
The Asian Wave: Global Pop Culture and its Histories
[
djw
ss
]
Asia is not only remaking itself but also exporting images and ideas across the world. This course analyzes the impact of Asian pop culture on global modernity as Asian countries project their aspirations and belief-systems, via an increased connectivity, to a worldwide audience. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
175a
Digital Asia: Democracy in the Internet Age
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Analyzes the transformative potential of the internet as an agent of development and as a mechanism for disrupting social and political orders in Asia, home to the world's largest democracy and also the world's largest authoritarian regime. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST Global/Transregional
AAAS
168b
The Black Intellectual Tradition
[
ss
wi
]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
AAPI/HIS
186b
Legacies of the Korean War
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
Explores the lasting legacies and human consequences of the Korean War in a transnational context. Course culminates in a final digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
HIST
52b
Europe in the Modern World
[
oc
ss
]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
56b
Rethinking World History (to 1960)
[
djw
nw
ss
]
An introductory survey of world history, from the dawn of "civilization" to c.1960. Topics include the establishment and rivalry of political communities, the development of material life, and the historical formation of cultural identities. Usually offered every year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
106b
The Modern British Empire
[
djw
ss
]
Surveys British imperial history from the Seven Years' War through the period after decolonization. Explores economic, political, and social forces propelling expansion; ideologies and contradictions of empire; relationships between colonizer and colonized; and the role of collaboration and resistance. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
109b
A Global History of Sport: Politics, Economy, Race and Culture
[
deis-us
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines soccer, boxing, baseball, cricket and other sports to reflect on culture, politics, race, and globalization. With a focus on empire, gender, ethnicity, this course considers sport as the battleground for ideological and group contests. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
124b
Universities and Colonialism
[
deis-us
ss
]
Brandeis, like every university or college in North America, sits on Native land. This course provides a primer to the history of that land and its people, while inviting your original research on a specific question: How have universities played a role in colonialism? To answer this question, you will undertake an independent or small-group research project on a topic of your choosing related to universities and colonialism, preferably (but not mandatorily) one located in New England. The audience for your research will be your campus community: peers, staff, and faculty who might seek context when crafting a land acknowledgment for Brandeis’ Indigenous hosts. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Connolly
HIST
125b
Europe in the Global Cold War
[
deis-us
ss
]
Offers a thematic overview of the history of the post-1945 period in Europe’s East and West, and situates these histories in their global contexts, such as decolonization, environmental change (Chornobyl catastrophe) the struggle of the USSR and the US, the Vietnam War, and debates on the “end of history” around 1989. We will study how events that started in Eastern and East-Central Europe, such as the Russian Revolution, World War II, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union triggered political and social changes in China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. Through reading diplomatic correspondence, pamphlets, memoirs and literature written by dissidents, party members, and politicians, as well as by watching and reflecting on media footage, we will examine how the Cold War and 1989 ushered in a new world order that is here with us up to the present. The course also focuses on how European states East and West rebuilt ties with the “Global South” through socialist solidarity, development aid and investments, and how the Cold War shapes the institutions and politics of the European Union up to the present. Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
136b
Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[
djw
oc
ss
wi
]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
179a
Labor, Gender, and Exchange in the Atlantic World, 1600-1850
[
deis-us
ss
]
An examination of the interaction of cultures in the Atlantic World against a backdrop of violence, conquest, and empire-building. Particular attention is paid to the structure and function of power relations, gender orders, labor systems, and exchange networks. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
185b
Turkey: From Ataturk to Erdogan
[
djw
ss
]
Examines the history of the Turkish Republic, from its founding in the wake of World War I until the beginning of the 21st century. Through discussions of politics, economics, society and culture, the course studies the forces that shaped and reshaped Turkey. Like the Ottoman Empire from which it emerged, Turkey has attracted the attention of admirers and detractors alike. Meanwhile, it has played key roles and continues to be an important economic, political and cultural hub in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
NEJS
138a
Genocide and Mass Killing in the Twentieth Century
[
hum
]
An interdisciplinary seminar examining history and sociology of the internationally punishable crime of genocide, with the focus on theory, prevention, and punishment of genocide. Case studies include Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, Stalin's Russia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch
HIST Research
AAAS
115a
Introduction to African History
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Explores the history of African societies from their earliest beginnings to the present era. Topics include African participation in antiquity as well as early Christianity and preindustrial political, economic, and cultural developments. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray
AAAS
156a
#BlackLivesMatter
[
deis-us
ss
]
Explores the evolution of the modern African American civil rights movement through historical readings, primary documents, films and social media. Assesses the legacy and consequences of the movement for contemporary struggles for black equality. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
AAAS
160b
If We Must Die: War and Military Service in African American History
[
ss
]
Traces African American participation in the nation's military from the American Revolution to Afghanistan. Examines the relationship between African Americans and warfare, paying particular attention to the relationship between race and military service. Students will re-conceptualize the meaning of African American military history by addressing themes such as slavery and freedom, the meaning of citizenship, nationalism and imperialism, war and civil rights activism, manhood and respectability, and violence and trauma. Usually offered every third year.
Chad Williams
AAAS
168b
The Black Intellectual Tradition
[
ss
wi
]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
AAAS/HIS
131a
African Americans and Health
[
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AAAS 131a in prior years.
Examines African American health experiences from the 17th century to the present, with a focus on the strategies and practices African Americans have employed to improve their health. Explores the historical development of 'racial' diseases and inequalities. Topics include: slave health, the black hospital movement, eugenics, midwifery, and the crack and opioid epidemics. Usually offered every second year.
Wangui Muigai
AAPI/HIS
186b
Legacies of the Korean War
[
deis-us
djw
ss
]
Explores the lasting legacies and human consequences of the Korean War in a transnational context. Course culminates in a final digital oral history project. Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AMST
30b
American Environmental History
[
ss
wi
]
Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST
150a
The History of Childhood and Youth in America
[
ss
]
Examines history, cultural ideas, and policies about childhood and youth, as well as children's literature, television, and other media for children and youth. Includes an archival-based project on the student movement in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Krasner
ANTH
119a
Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Examines the continuing negotiation of identity and power that were at the heart of tragedy and triumph for indigenous peoples in colonial Mexico and Central America, and which continue in the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden
CLAS
120a
Age of Caesar
[
hum
wi
]
The life and times of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) viewed through primary texts in a variety of genres: from Caesar himself to contemporaries Cicero and Catullus and biographers Plutarch and Suetonius. Usually offered every third year.
Cheryl Walker
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
136b
Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[
djw
oc
ss
wi
]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
137b
World War I
[
ss
wi
]
Examines the opening global conflict of the twentieth century. Topics include the destruction of the old European order, the origins of total war, the cultural and social crisis it provoked, and the long-term consequences for Europe and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
140a
A History of Fashion in Europe
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
140b
Charity and Poverty in Islamic Societies
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Charity and poverty are universal aspects of human societies, culturally specific and historically contingent. This course studies charitable giving as a fundamental aspect of Muslim belief and practice, reflecting change over time and space, offering comparisons with non-Muslim societies. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer
HIST
142a
Crime, Deviance, and Confinement in Modern Europe
[
ss
]
Examines the crisis of law and order in old regime states and explores the prison and asylum systems that emerged in modern Europe. Surveys psychiatry and forensic science from the Napoleonic period until World War II. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
145a
War in European History
[
ss
]
Introduces students to the changing nature of war and warfare in European history since the Middle Ages. Explores the reciprocal influence of armies and societies and the ways in which wars reflect the cultures of the polities waging them. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
159b
Modern African American History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Introduces students to some of the key social, political, economic, and cultural moments that defined the African American experience in the United States, 1865 through the present. Through the use of primary and secondary source materials, critical surveys, lectures, and guided discussion, this class highlights the richness and significance of the African American history. This course covers a diverse array of key themes and topics including: Reconstruction and segregation; the Great Migration; the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Feminist movements; black political power; mass incarceration and the surveillance state; and Hip Hop culture. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams
HIST
160a
American Legal History I
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys American legal development from colonial settlement to the Civil War. Major issues include law as an instrument of revolution, capitalism and contract, invention of the police, family law, slavery law, and the Civil War as a constitutional crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
160b
American Legal History II
[
deis-us
ss
]
Survey of American legal development from 1865 to the present. Major topics include constitutionalism and racial inequality, the legal response to industrialization, progressivism and the transformation of liberalism, the rise of the administrative state, and rights-based movements for social justice. Usually offered every year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
161b
American Political History
[
deis-us
ss
]
Development of American party politics, the legal system, and government. Special attention paid to the social and cultural determinants of party politics, and economic and social policymaking. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
168b
America in the Progressive Era: 1890-1920
[
deis-us
ss
]
Surveys social and political history during the pivotal decades when America became a "modern" society and nation-state. Topics include populism, racial segregation, social science and public policy, the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, environmental conservation, and the domestic impact of World War I. Usually offered every fourth year.
Michael Willrich
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
179b
India and the Superpowers (USA, USSR, and China): 1947 and Beyond
[
djw
nw
ss
]
Examines the history of modern India through its relationships with the "superpowers," USA, USSR, and China. Covering the period between 1947-2018, the course analyzes ideological, economic, foreign policy shifts and subcontinental conflict in a constantly changing geo-political scene. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
181b
Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxism vs. Anarchism, 1845-1968
[
ss
]
From Marx's first major book in 1845 to the French upheavals of 1968, the history of left-wing politics and ideas. The struggles between Marxist orthodoxy and anarchist-inspired, left Marxist alternatives. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
183a
Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Explores Ming and Qing China's frontiers with Japan, Korea, Inner Asia, Vietnam, and the ocean from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, examining the role of borderlands in forging the present-day multiethnic Chinese state and East Asian national identities. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
185a
The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
[
djw
nw
ss
wi
]
Studies the history of Chinese outside Mainland China, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Siberia and Africa, from fifteenth century to present day. Ambivalence to ancestral and adopted homelands made these communities valuable agents of transnational exchange and embodiments of Chinese modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
186a
Europe in World War II
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
192b
Romantic and Existentialist Political Thought
[
ss
]
Readings from Camus, Sartre, Beckett, and others. Examination and criticism of romantic and existentialist theories of politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
195a
American Political Thought: From the Revolution to the Civil War
[
ss
]
Antebellum America as seen in the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Adams, the Federalists and Antifederalists, the Federalists and Republicans, the Whigs and the Jacksonians, the advocates and opponents of slavery, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
196a
American Political Thought: From the 1950s to the Present
[
ss
]
Covers the New Left of the 1960s, its rejection of the outlook of the 1950s, the efforts of liberals to save the New Left agenda in the New Politics of the 1970s, and the reaction against the New Left in the neoconservative movement. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
NEJS
37a
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
[
hum
]
Open to all students. May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 137a in prior years.
Why and how did European Jews become victims of genocide? A systematic examination of the planning and implementation of Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Laura Jockusch
NEJS
162a
American Judaism
[
hum
ss
wi
]
American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Sarna
NEJS
162b
It Couldn't Happen Here: American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective
[
hum
]
A close examination of three American anti-Semitic episodes: U.S. Grant's expulsion of the Jews during the Civil War, the Leo Frank case, and the publication of Henry Ford's The International Jew. What do these episodes teach us about anti-semitic prejudice, about Jews, and about America as a whole? Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna
POL
113b
The American Presidency
[
ss
]
Philosophical and historical origins of the presidency, examining the constitutional role of the chief executive. Historical development of the presidency, particularly the emergence of the modern presidency during the twentieth century. Contemporary relationships between the presidency and the electorate, as well as the other branches of government. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Kryder