Courses

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in East Asian History. May be taken more than once.

A survey of 1,800 years of premodern East Asian history, beginning with the rise and fall of the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) in China and ending with the devastating Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592–1598 CE, a conflict recently dubbed “the first Great East Asian War. Topics include: Buddhism’s spread in East Asia and its influence on politics and culture; the origins of Japan’s samurai warrior class; the rise of the Mongol world empire and its impact on East Asia; and the beginnings of European commercial and missionary activity in East Asia.

Crosslisting: EAST 141.

A survey of the history of China, Korea, and Japan from 1600 to the early twenty-first century. We begin with the last two centuries of the early modern era, during which East Asian states managed relations with the rest of the world on terms of their own choosing. We then move on to East Asia’s traumatic nineteenth-century confrontation with the newly industrialized and seemingly invincible Western powers, who now insisted on dictating new, “modern” terms of interaction. The sweeping political, cultural, social, and economic changes that sprang from that encounter have dramatically shaped East Asia’s fortunes in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Topics covered will include early modern and modern empire-building; nationalist and Communist revolutions; the Sino-Japanese, Pacific, and Korean wars; globalization and economic miracles; and movements for democracy and human rights.

Crosslisting: EAST 142.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in Middle Eastern History. May be taken more than once.

A survey of the history of the Islamic World from the rise of Islam to the 1800's. Beginning with the revelation of Islam and the emergence of the first Islamic Empire in the seventh century A.D., the course will examine the formation and development of Islamic Societies through a study of religion, political theory and practice, social structure, art, literature and the sciences.

Crosslisting: MENA 121.

This course will cover the major political, cultural, and social features of the modern Middle East, from the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Among the transformations this course will examine are the rise of colonialism/imperialism and nationalism, as well as other major political and religious ideologies. Covering a geographic area that stretches from North Africa to Iran, this course will highlight case-studies with an emphasis on the diversity of political, social, and economic life across the region.

This course is a survey of the social, economic, political, and cultural interactions between the Middle East and the United States from the late eighteenth century to the contemporary period. The main goal of the course is to explore the different ways in which the policies of the U.S. have influenced the states and societies of the Middle East in the modern era.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in African History. May be taken more than once.

This survey course will introduce students to the history of Africa from the earliest times to 1880 - also known as pre-colonial African history. Though the focus is on Africa south of the Sahara, North Africa will be featured from time to time. Topics include the earliest human settlements in Africa, empires and kingdoms in East, West, and Southern Africa, Islam and Christianity in Africa, slavery, and the partitioning of the continent by powers in the mid 1800s.

Crosslisting: BLST 171.

This course examines myths about Africa, the history of colonialism on the continent in the 19th and 20th centuries, the rise of primary resistances to colonialism in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and how this fed the secondary and tertiary resistance movements from the 1930s through to the 1990s when the apartheid regime collapsed in South Africa. Through close readings of the historiography, students will grapple with the history of colonialism and the postcolonial era in Sub Saharan Africa.

Crosslisting: BLST 172.

This course grapples with a basic but fundamental question that has been at the heart of much scholarship on Africa: how is southern Africa's history distinct from the history of the rest of the African continent? To address this issue, this course takes a sweeping approach, covering major developments in southern Africa from the mid-17th century through the era of formal colonization and subsequent independence. We will be particularly interested in exploring the foundations and growth of a racial order in southern Africa, and more broadly examining the role that race has played in this region through the colonial and postcolonial eras. Major themes will include cultural contacts between Africans and non-Africans; the slave trade and its consequences; Shaka and myths surrounding the Zulu Empire; economic transformations in the colonial era; and the struggle for independence in different southern African countries.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in Latin American History. May be taken more than once.

A survey course on Latin America from Conquest through Independence. Topics include exploration of: 1) how Spain and Portugal conquered and colonized the Americas, 2) how they managed to maintain control over those colonies, 3) how the colonized (Indians, Africans, and mixed races) responded to the imposition of colonial rule, 4) the role of women and gender in colonial settings, and 5) the implications of colonialism for the study of modern Latin America.

Crosslisting: LACS 211.

A survey course on Latin America from Independence to the present focused on attempts to construct politics based on nation states and the evolution of capitalist economies; and, how social movements both reflected and drove these two major transformations. Topics include the social implications of various models of economic development; issues resulting from economic ties to wealthy countries; changing ethnic, gender, and class relations; and, the diverse efforts of Latin Americans to construct stable and equitable socio-political systems.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in Ancient, Medieval, or Early Modern History. May be taken more than once.

A survey of the culture, thought, politics, religion, economics, and society of the late antique world. This course will examine the Mediterranean world and northern Europe from the late Roman Empire (200 CE) to the Christianization of Iceland (c1000 CE), integrating the history of Western Christendom, Byzantium, and the early Islamic world.

A survey course on European civilization during the high and later Middle Ages, 1000-1453. Topics will include urbanization, religious and social reform, popular devotion, the crusades, scholasticism and universities, the rise of monarchies, the institutionalization of the Catholic Church, art and architecture, and the Black Death.

A survey of the political, religious, social, cultural, and intellectual developments in European history from the 1400s to the late 1700s. Topics will include European expansion, the Reformation and Wars of Religion, the Scientific Revolution, absolute and constitutional monarchies, the Enlightenment, and the anti-slavery movement.

An examination of the political, social, cultural, and intellectual developments in Italy during the Renaissance. Topics will include the politics of the Italian city-states, mercantile culture, humanism, religious life, art and architecture, patronage, the impact of print, and diplomacy and war.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Western Europe were a period when traditional ideas and new ways of thinking about the world clashed with each other in many different ways, from the trial of Galileo in the 1630's to discussions of women's rights in the late 1700's. This course examines the social, political, and intellectual contexts of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment in order to better understand how the ideas of these periods emerged, how they were received by political and religious officials as well as by the general population, and what were some of the key impacts of these movements on Europeans' worldviews and understandings of their own societies.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in Comparative History. May be taken more than once.

The processes initiated by Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492 brought four continents and three “races” into interaction where there had been little or no communication before. Those contacts, in many ways, profoundly shaped the world in which we live today. Drawing together the histories of Europe, Africa, and the Americas, this course explores the origins, development, and meanings of this new Atlantic World. Topics will include imperial expansion and colonization, the Colombian Exchange, European-Amerindian relations, slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the establishment of an Atlantic capitalist economy, and the struggles for autonomy and national independence in Euro-American societies.

Crosslisting: LACS 212.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in Modern European History. May be taken more than once.

A survey course on the history of Europe from the Enlightenment to the present which examines the major forces and dominant ideologies of the modern Western world. Topics include the industrial revolution, war, revolution and counter-revolution, nationalism, the development of European social movements, and the struggle between freedom and order.

This course examines German history from the events leading up to the unification of the German state in 1871 through reunification in 1990. The course focuses on the shifting constructions of German national identity through 19th century expansion, defeat in two world wars, the Weimar and Nazi eras and Cold War division.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in the early history of the United States. May be taken more than once.

A survey of the American past from colonization through the Civil War.

This course explores the history of African Americans in the United States from their origins in North America to the end of the Civil War 1865. It is organized chronologically, beginning with the arrival of the first Africans in North America and proceeding through the evolution of slavery in tandem with the growth of the United States, the development of ideas and laws about race, the struggle for freedom and equality, and the creation of African American identity, community, and culture. We will study the contributions that African Americans have made to the economic, political, and cultural development of the United States. We will also pay special attention to the processes by which African Americans – even under slavery – demonstrated agency and resisted racism, subjugation, and enslavement. This course is designed to present an introduction to African American history and lay a foundation for further study.

Intensive study of selected periods or topics in the history of the United States since the Civil War. May be taken more than once.

This course surveys the history of women in the United States from 1848 to the present. We will explore the lived experiences of many different kinds of women and analyze the ways in which other categories of identity -- race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sexual orientation, age, etc. -- affect those experiences. We will also explore the development of feminist consciousness among U.S. women, and analyze attempts to expand that consciousness both nationally and globally.

Crosslisting: WGST 223.

This course will examine the history of African Americans in the United States from the end of Civil War to the beginning of the 21st century. Beginning with the ways in which formerly enslaved peoples made the transition to freedom and culminating with the election of the first African American president, this course will analyze the evolution of Black politics, labor, activism, and culture. We will explore the contributions that African Americans have made to the political, cultural, and social development of the United States. We will also pay special attention to the processes by which African Americans have navigated U.S. race relations, became a political force, and fought for equality, inclusion, and justice.

What does it mean to be a U.S. citizen? Who decides who gets to be one? How have some people sought to keep others from enjoying full and equal citizenship? These are some of the questions we will explore as we trace the changing nature of U.S. citizenship from 1787 to the present. Along the way we will focus on citizenship as a legal status, particularly as it has affected Native Americans, African Americans, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, and analyze the ways in which members of those groups fought for justice using the language of citizenship.

The purpose of this course is to compel students to think critically about the role of the United States in the world. We will trace the history of U.S. engagement with the world since 1890 - including foreign policies, economic policies, wars, trade relations, cultural exchanges, travel and tourism, etc. Students will be introduced to some of the more traditional dichotomies of diplomatic history, such as idealism versus realism, exceptionalism versus universalism, and unilateralism versus multilateralism. We will also be exploring innovative approaches to international relations history, especially those that weave class, race, culture, and gender into historical narratives of U.S. foreign relations.

This course explores the history of Chicanas/os, people of Mexican descent in the United States, from the Spanish colonization of North America to the present. It is organized chronologically, proceeding through the geopolitical and social processes that created and shaped the Mexican American community. Themes will include, but are not limited to, the creation and shifting of borders and borderlands, the development of Chicana/o identity, race and mestizaje, gender dynamics, labor and power, migration and citizenship, activism, politics, and religion and culture. We will pay special attention to the processes by which Mexican Americans demonstrated agency and resistance in the face of racial and ethnic discrimination and erasure.

This course offers a survey of the history of medical theory, practice, and institutions. We will learn about changing understandings of health and disease, track the formation of the medical profession, and discuss the development of medical technologies. At the same time, we will explore historical efforts to reform medicine in the name of anti-racism, gender equality, disability rights, and social justice. By studying these complex histories, we will ask questions about the relationship between health, power, bodies, and knowledge. While this course focuses primarily on the history of medicine in Europe and the United States, we will occasionally touch upon non-Western models of the body and historical encounters between Western and non-Western approaches to health and healing.

A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.

This course serves as an introduction to the study of history for majors and minor. Each seminar will focus on a special field, theme, or topic, but all students will be introduced to certain critical skills of historical analysis, distinctive approaches, schools, or methods of historical writing and the nature of historical synthesis. History 201 also develops the skills of historical writing and fulfills the Writing (W) competency.

This seminar, aimed largely at non-majors, serves as an introduction to historical thinking and writing and is designed to allow students to continue to develop the skills and habits of mind associated with successful written and oral communication. Each seminar will focus on a special historical theme or topic, but all students will receive instruction specific to the crucial skills of non-fiction, expository college writing and oral communication as well as critical thinking and historical analysis. This course fulfills the Writing (W) and the Oral Communication (R) competencies.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in East Asian History. May be taken more than once.

This seminar covers in depth the history of East Asia in 1937–1953, a period characterized by violence, upheaval, suffering, and death on an almost unimaginable scale. The Japanese empire’s cataclysmic clash with the Republic of China and (eventually) the United States left Japan in ruins and under American occupation, China on the verge of a Communist revolution, and Korea divided between American and Soviet spheres of influence. The consequences of these events led to America’s war in Vietnam and still define and bedevil East Asia’s geopolitics today. Our readings will include some of the most significant recent scholarship on four conflicts: the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. Although we will read much about politics, diplomacy, and military campaigns, our focus will just as often be on the experiences and stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinarily harrowing times.

Crosslisting: EAST 211.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in Middle Eastern History. May be taken more than once.

This course will examine the early modern (16th to 18th century) Ottoman Mediterranean world as one historical landscape with a focus on the issues of identity, conversion, and captivity in the context of sea-based piracy, slavery, and migration. We will ask: What part did loyalty, economic incentives, religious conviction, and coercion play in the decisions that communities, captives, sailors, and commanders made in the pursuit of their interests? By taking a wider view of these historical phenomena and studying them as forms of economic, cultural, and violent exchange, we will have the opportunity to look at the Mediterranean world as a place of both interaction and conflict. This class will have a digital humanities component. As a result, one of the central focuses of this class is using visualizations of historical information as an analytical tool to gain insights about the past and communicate those insights in clear and innovative ways.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in African History. May be taken more than once.

This course surveys the history of women in the United States from 1870-1980. We will emphasize the experience of women of all races, classes and sexual orientation - women who entered the paid labor force in increasing numbers at the turn of the century and non-wage earning women who performed work integral to the survival of their families.

This course examines how the peoples of Latin America have lived with, utilized, and transformed the environments in which they lived over time. Environmental History is a fascinating way to study the past and to understand the present. Many ideas that we may think of as static or unchanging – such as those about nature, wilderness, landscape, science, technology, land-use planning, and conservation emerged from historical relations with our physical environment. Yet these ideas about the environment are always embedded in power structures and social relations. Nature, as we will see, is as much cultural, social, political, and economic as it is natural or ecological. We will explore how human-nature interactions have shaped human history through the exploration of how natural disasters, ecological zones, natural resources, livestock and wildlife, and epidemic diseases (among other things) influence peoples' lives in various historical moments with a focus on Latin America.

This course critically examines gender and sexuality in Latin America. Particularly it will explore the various attempts by the ruling elite to define acceptable and deviant gender roles and sexual identities, how the non-elite resisted the imposition of those elite notions of propriety to create their own codes of conduct, and how those conflicts have changed over time.

Crosslisting: WGST 383.

This course critically examines the history of the social construction of race and ethnicity in Latin America. In it, we will explore how historians have employed race and ethnicity as methodological categories in order to elucidate the histories of Latin America from the pre-Hispanic era through the modern period. Particularly we will focus on the various attempts by the ruling elite to deploy race in the ordering of society; and, how the non-elite resisted the imposition of those elite conceptions of racial and ethnic hierarchies to create their own codes of conduct, and how those conflicts have changed over time.

Crosslisting: BLST 384.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in Ancient, Medieval, or Early Modern European History. May be taken more than once.

A seminar that studies the crusading movement from different contemporary perspectives: crusader, eastern Christian, Muslim, and Jewish. The course examines some of the approaches that historians have taken to studying the crusades and the interpretive challenges they face. Topics include: who the crusaders were and what inspired them; how the ideas and practices of crusading were extended from the Levant to the Iberian peninsula, Constantinople, the Baltic, and even to those within Europe who were considered heretics and enemies; and how the Crusades have been understood in the modern world. Students may take either HIST 251 or HIST 351, but not both, for credit.

A seminar that examines the relationship between Jews and Christians in medieval Europe. Through a wide range of primary sources, written by medieval Christians and Jews, we will attempt to reconstruct how Christians and Jews imagined each other and what motivated them to act in the way that they did. We will examine some of the contexts for Jewish-Christian interaction and will explore the interdependence of Jews and Christians, economically, politically, and psychologically. Topics will include the medieval church and Jews, the legal status of Jews in the medieval state, economic roles, biblical exegesis, forced disputation, conversion, the crusades, accusations of host desecration and ritual murder, and expulsion. Students may take either HIST 255 or HIST 355, but not both, for credit.

The Protestant and Catholic Reformations were major movements in early modern Europe with far-reaching effects still felt globally today. In the sixteenth century, religious arguments interacted with political concerns, economic fluctuations, and social tensions to transform European states and societies. In 1500, the idea of a unified European Christendom, though imperfect, could still be defended. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, while Europeans as a group still believed in God, the influence of the Roman Church and of Christianity more generally had begun to change. This course examines the religious ideas and arguments that burgeoned in the sixteenth century, the social and political contexts in which they developed, and the transformations in European society, culture and religious practices that resulted. Course materials focus especially on examining the relationships between ideas and actions/practices in order to understand the wide-ranging social impacts of the religious changes during the Reformation.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in Comparative History. May be taken more than once.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in Modern European History. May be taken more than once.

Reading seminar on selected periods or topics in the early history of the United States. May be taken more than once.

This course is a hands-on, experimental, learn-as-we-go experience that introduces both students to the use of digital tools and sources to conduct original historical research, formulate historical arguments, and communicate historical ideas in digital formats. In order to focus our efforts, we will apply what we learn to a particular area of historical study: runaway slave advertisements and runaway slave narratives from nineteenth-century Ohio.

Prerequisite(s): N/A.

Reading seminar on selected period or topics in the history of the United States since the Civil War. May be taken more than once.

This course explores the history of what has come to be known as reproductive justice—the efforts of women and other people who can become pregnant to control their own reproductive lives, to choose whether and when to have children, and to ensure that they can bear and raise children in safe and healthy ways. We will survey this history from the colonial era to the present, with a particular eye toward how hierarchies of power based on race, gender, and other categories of identity have shaped women’s experiences. We will examine how women’s reproductive autonomy was circumscribed in the past by enslavement, eugenic ideologies, forced sterilization programs, and other practices, as well as how it has been affected more recently by factors like anti-choice campaigns and Supreme Court decisions. We will also learn, however, about women’s knowledge of the functioning of their own bodies, about how they have maintained some degree of autonomy over their bodies even under oppressive circumstances, and about how people have collectively struggled to ensure that everyone can determine the course of their own reproductive lives.

Prerequisite(s): None.

Crosslisting: WGST 292.

This course explores the history of the ideology of Black Power and its various dimensions and incarnations from its origins in the early 20th century to its significance in the present. Topics to be addressed may include, but are not limited to: definitions of Black Power, applications of this ideology to politics and economics, artistic aesthetics, gender dynamics, key figures and organizations, current manifestations, meanings for the African-American community, and reactions from the larger American society.

Crosslisting: BLST 337.

A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.

This course is an in-depth introduction to the history and culture of the Tang empire (618–907), widely regarded as China’s “golden age.” Modern Chinese historical memory idealizes the Tang as an age of great military conquests, exotically “cosmopolitan” tastes in art and music, religious tolerance and cultural diversity, brilliant poets, and free-spirited, polo-playing women. A primary goal of the class is to enable students to take an informed and critical perspective on this romanticized popular image by studying a wide range of historical scholarship and translated primary sources, which they will use to write a major research paper on a topic of their choice.

Crosslisting: EAST 342.

Reading seminar on and research in selected periods or topics in Middle Eastern History. May be taken more than once.

This course will look at the role women have played in the Middle East since the nineteenth century. We will start the course by examining the interpretative methods and sources that historians use to explore this history. Then, after an introduction to the study of women and gender in the Middle East, we turn to several of the major factors that have impacted the role of women in Middle Eastern societies: the Islamic tradition, the colonial period, the rise of nation-states, and various strands of feminism. Our examples will draw from several of the principle countries and regions in and around the Middle East including Iran, Turkey, Egypt, the Levant, and North Africa. As we proceed, students will develop their own research question, bibliography, and ultimately, research paper.

Crosslisting: MENA 321.

Reading seminar on and research in selected periods or topics in African History. May be taken more than once.

Reading seminar on and research in selected periods or topics in Ancient, Medieval, or Early Modern European History. May be taken more than once.

A seminar that explores and interrogates the roles, purposes, impacts, and views of violence in early modern European societies (1500–1800). The notion that early modern Europeans gradually repressed societal violence through a “civilizing process” continues to shape Western perceptions of the world and decisions regarding geopolitics today. The overarching goal of this course is to interrogate those assumptions about early modern European societies by examining a wide variety of categories of violence including: legitimate/illegitimate, domestic, gendered, state/official, popular, religious, intercultural/imperial, and military/wartime.

A seminar that examines ideas and practices regarding the divine, the demonic, and the supernatural in early modern Europe, with a particular focus on understanding early modern conceptions and treatments of people (largely but not only women) believed to be saints and/or witches. Readings and assignments explore how these beliefs and practices were tied to religious, social, political, legal, and economic developments, and how they changed (and did not change) over the early modern period.

Reading seminar on and research in selected periods or topics in Comparative History. May be taken more than once.

For many, the history of slavery is synonymous with the Southern United States. But slavery was not limited to the U.S. and by approaching slavery from a comparative perspective, we will deepen our understanding of slavery as an institution, slaves as historical actors, and therefore the legacies of slavery throughout the Americas. We will explore regional differences within slaves' opportunities to form families, to create cultures, to rebel, and to labor for their own benefits; as well as the interactions of African cultural visions and Christianity.

Crosslisting: BLST 391 and LACS 300.

Reading seminar on and research in selected periods or topics in Modern European History. May be taken more than once.

This course explores the complex relationship of ethnic and national identity in Central and Eastern Europe from World War II to the present. This region experienced a tumultuous history during this time period, afflicted by war, occupation, dictatorship, and the displacement of populations. The late twentieth-century also witnessed a period of revolution and was at the centerpiece of the demise of the Cold War. In this context, questions of national belonging loomed large. Ethnicity played and continues to play a central role in the development of nationalism and historical memory. This course explores the experience and meaning of ethnicity in the context of shifting political realities and national contexts. Course topics include the impact of World War II on Central and Eastern European ethnic groups, the experience of ethnic minorities in USSR-dominated Cold War Europe, late twentieth-century revolutions in the region, and the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

Reading seminar on and research in selected period or topics in the history of the United States since the Civil War. May be taken more than once.

Since 1868, Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment has served as the principal benchmark for legal debates over the meanings of equality in the United States. This course explores the origins of the amendment in the post-Civil War period and the evolution of its meanings throughout the late nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries. We will examine closely the contested interpretations of equal protection and due process; the rise, fall, and rebirth of substantive due process; and the battles over incorporating the Bill of Rights. We will pay particular attention to how struggles for racial and gender equality have influenced debates over the amendment, and how the amendment has reshaped the parameters of U.S. citizenship.

Crosslisting: BLST 332.

Sport in the United States is far more than a source of leisure, entertainment, or fitness. Rather, sport – particularly when played on a college or professional level – has become an institution that, in becoming embedded in our culture, both reflects and shapes our society. Through readings, class discussions, and the writing of a 15-20 page research paper based on the analysis of historical documents and scholarship, this course will explore the intersection of race and sport in U.S. history. While college and professional sports have often been viewed as vehicles for obtaining equality and upward mobility, sports have also reflected and perpetuated inequality in American society. We will interrogate the construction and significance of race in American sports, including its intersections with class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Paying special attention to the experiences of athletes of color in a variety of sports, we will explore the ways that they navigated the world of sports and thought about and utilized their positions to advocate for social change. We will also use sport as a space to think about concepts of identity, community, and nationalism. Note that this course is not eligible to fulfill a Social Sciences General Education requirement. If taken as under the History cross-listing, it will fulfill a Humanities GE. If taken under the BLST cross-listing, it will fulfill an Interdivisional GE.

Crosslisting: BLST 393.

A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.

Required of senior history majors. The senior seminar will provide students with a significant research experience culminating in the writing of a substantial research paper and the public presentation of their work.

Prerequisite(s): HIST 201.

Research in selected topics of History.

Research in selected topics in History.