Spring 2027 Course Guide

Each student must take at least two courses focusing on history outside of the west. The following courses will automatically satisfy the non-western requirement:

• HIST 111 World History Since 1500
• HIST 112 Intro to World Religions
• HIST 112H Intro to World Religions (Honors)
• HIST 120 Latin America: The Colonial Period
• HIST 131 Middle East History II
• HIST 161 History of Africa Since 1500
• HIST 203 The Ancient Near East and Egypt
• HIST 346 China in the 20th and 21st Centuries
• HIST 347 Ancient Japan
• HIST 354 History of Mexico

NOTE: Newer courses that focus on non-Western history will not automatically count towards this requirement due to technical difficulties. Please contact @email if you enroll in a non-western course not listed here and want it to count for your requirement. Such classes include but are not limited to HIST 390STF and HIST 391EN. 

Each major must take at least one class that examines history prior to the year 1500. The following courses will automatically satisfy the pre-1500 requirement: 

• HIST 112 Intro to World Religions
• HIST 112H Intro the World Religions, Honors
• HIST 203 Ancient Near East and Egypt
• HIST 300 Ancient Greece
• HIST 302 Early Middle Ages 300-1100
• HIST 303 The Later Middle Ages 1100-1350
• HIST 347 Traditional Japan

The following courses will satisfy the Gen Ed Integrative Experience Requirement for students for whom history is their primary major. Non-majors interested in taking these courses may contact the instructor for permission. 

• HIST 394PI History and Its Publics
• HIST 394RI Comparative Revolutions in the Modern Era

The following courses will satisfy the Junior Year Writing requirement for history majors (required for both primary and secondary majors):

• HIST 450-01: Dictators in History
• HIST 450-02: Truth, Dissent, and the Life of Daniel Ellsberg
• HIST 450-03: Journalism in Modern History
• HIST 450-04: Trials in European History

S. Hough

MW 11:15-12:05pm, Friday discussions

The purpose of this class is to look back on the past 400+ years and analyze how Western society developed in order to better understand phenomena such as revolution, romanticism, nationalism, industrialization, war, empire, and other related themes that have shaped the modern Western World. We will explore some key foundational ideas, creative expressions, movements, and texts central to these themes, and the way in which they interacted with and influenced important ideologies of modern Europe and the Americas. Nationalism, along with empire and race, will serve as a connective themes running throughout the course as we investigate the different ways in which they have been expressed and how they functioned in different contexts, the impacts that they have had in different areas, and the way in which they have interacted with and influenced other important ideologies. 

B. Bunk

MW 9:05-9:55am, Friday discussions

The goal of the course is to understand the development of key aspects of world history from the late fifteenth to the late twentieth centuries. The course examines human interaction in specific situations developing through time, including the development of significant social, political, or economic institutions or ideologies. Students are exposed to historically important events, developments, or processes as a way of teaching them to understand the present and direct their futures as well as gain an awareness of and appreciation for an historical perspective. The readings of the course include a variety of primary and secondary sources in order to better analyze and understand the diversity of global norms and values and the way they change over time. The course work emphasizes the development of critical thinking and writing skills. This course fulfills the non-western requirement for history majors and the historical studies in global perspective (DG) portion of the General Education program. 

J. Moralee

TuTh 2:30-3:45pm

A brief survey of western scholarship’s attempt to understand religion. Initially, special attention will be directed towards cultural fashions in the 18th and 19th centuries that influenced the study of religion. This course also introduces students to present methods of research and theories on religion from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and history of religions (sometimes called comparative religion or phenomenology). In lectures, we will come across several examples of religious symbolization from around the world and in the last half of the course focus on some of the world’s major religions. Students develop a descriptive methodology to study and understand religious phenomena intellectually. This course neither advocates becoming religious nor denigrates religion. On the contrary, we take the subject of religion seriously and have fun in the process. We begin by examining creation myths from different religious traditions from around the world, as well as critically reading the secondary sources. Religion is never wholly experienced through texts. As such, we will also view several ethnographic and documentary films in class in their entirety and perhaps also short clips from others.

S. Ware

MW 5:30-6:45pm

This class introduces students to the history, geography, beliefs, daily life, Scripture, and architecture of religions around the world. We will study closely the most historically dominant religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) -- getting acquainted briefly with smaller faiths that they encounter in their historical trajectories: Sikhism, Jainism, Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism.  

The class will consider each tradition as not only a deliberate implementation of an initial vision, but also a product of forces in a particular place and time. We will see them become agents of change affecting outsiders as they spread geographically on the tails of military, economic, and philosophical conquests. The major religions will be studied as related parts of the two families in which they have arisen: first Indus Valley traditions, then Middle Eastern traditions. Students will be responsible for learning detailed maps of countries in the Middle East, north Africa, central Asia, and east Asia. 

H. Scott

TuTh 10:00-11:15

This course surveys the history of colonial Latin America, examining the encounters between Iberians, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and African peoples over the course of three centuries. The class explores the reciprocal effects of this contact. What effects did the conquest have on the peoples, cultures, environments, and demography of the Americas? What were the characteristics of the societies, cultures, and environments that emerged from this ongoing process of contact, conflict, and colonialism? We examine, among other themes, experiences and portrayals of conquest, the formation of colonial communities, the role of the Catholic Church, slavery and the formation of racialized caste systems, everyday life in colonial society, and the collapse of empire in the early nineteenth century. Opposing viewpoints and historiographical debates set the tone for at least some lectures and discussions. We make frequent use of textual and visual primary source materials throughout the semester. Assignments for the course include a midterm exam, an assignment based on the analysis of historical sources, a book review, and active participation.

J. Wolfe

MW 12:20-1:10pm, Friday discussions

Discussions of Latin America usually fall back upon facile generalizations that emphasize recent changes to explain "current events." This course will examine in detail the creation of modern Latin America. We will concentrate on the struggles over land and labor, the creation of nation-states, and the conflicts within those states over issues of citizenship and social justice. The course will also address the contentious role the United States has played in the region. The class fulfills general education requirements in history (HS) and global diversity (DG).

F. Lorenz

MW 12:20-1:10pm, Friday Discussions

How did the modern Middle East become the region we know today? From the transformation of powerful empires to the emergence of modern nation-states, this course explores the people, events, and developments that shaped the Middle East from the late eighteenth century to the present. Beginning with the late Ottoman Empire and the political transformations of the nineteenth century, we examine how imperial reform, trade, migration, and encounters with Europe reshaped the region. We then explore the rise of nationalism, European colonialism, the collapse of empires, and the creation of new states and political identities. Along the way, we investigate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the politics of oil, authoritarianism and resistance, and the growing involvement of the United States. The course concludes with the Global War on Terror, the Arab uprisings, and their continuing consequences. Through historical accounts, literature, and other primary sources, students will explore how ordinary people experienced these transformations and how history helps us understand the Middle East today.

S. Cornell 

Online asynchronous lecture, in-person Friday discussions

This course is a broad survey designed to introduce you to the major themes and events of early United States history. We will treat the early history of the United States as a story of migration, contact, and conflict. First, we will study indigenous Americans, then we will attend to the political and economic circumstances that brought people from different societies of North America, Africa and Europe into contact with one another, exploring the substances of these early encounters. Next we will trace the development of the United States into an independent nation-state, investigating the formation of its political and economic structures and various cultural and religious practices. We will conclude the course with a close examination of the factors that led to the US Civil War and evaluate the outcome of Reconstruction. Along the way, we will explore conflicts among various groups of historical actors: Native Americans and Europeans, enslaved peoples and enslavers, Great Britain and the colonists, workers and capitalists, native-born white Americans and immigrants, Northerners and Southerners.  

This course is also designed as an introduction to the general discipline of history. As you are exposed to the contours of the major historiographical debates in early American history, you will become acquainted with the different approaches, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies that historians utilize in order to investigate historical topics.

S. Redman

TuTh 1:00-1:50pm, Friday discussions

This course will provide students with an understanding of American political, social, and economic history from the period of Reconstruction in the late 19^th century through the late 20^th century.  The course explores politics and culture, as well as the interactions of race, class, and gender in U.S. history.  Particular attention will be paid to struggles for justice, African American history, and women’s history.  Primary source readings will be emphasized.  

A. Siddique

MW 10:10-11:00am, Friday discussions

This course will examine the transformation of the Atlantic World from a world of empires into one of nation-states through examining the interactions between Africans, American Natives, and Europeans from the fifteenth through the end of the eighteenth century. We will explore the role of people, pathogens, plants, animals, ideas, and institutions in forming societies and cultures across a vast geographic expanse, and how the transformation of these communities across four centuries through migration, settlement, war, and trade helped forge the modern world. How did the Atlantic world transform from a world of empires – both native and European – into one of nation-states during the period from the 1400s to 1800s? Students will read both complex primary sources and key historiographical interventions, practicing the skills of interpreting evidence in both oral and written contexts in both class discussions and through essay assignments. Other assignments will include a midterm exam and a final exam, and evaluation of active participation during discussion meetings.

E. Jacob

MW 11:15-12:05pm, Friday discussions

This survey course examines African history from the 16th century to the present. It focuses on three major developments in African history: slavery and the rise of global capitalism; colonial conquest and rule; and decolonization and the end of empire. As we study speeches, letters, essays, film, and literature, we will explore how African women and men experienced these periods of complex political, economic, and cultural change. Throughout, we will pay particular attention to the “making” of African history. Who writes African history? Whose voices are centered? Whose voices are marginalized? 

This course will feature case studies from across the continent, with examples from what are now Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Key themes will include enslavement and emancipation; gender and generation; European colonialism and African resistance; nationalism and postcolonial politics; and economic dependency and development

A. Nash

TuTh 4:00-4:50pm, Friday discussions

This course is an introduction to the history of Indigenous peoples within the present-day borders of the U.S.A. and Canada. While we will only be able to cover a few culture groups in any depth, the major themes of the course relate to all groups: colonization, trade, land loss, sovereignty, religion and missionaries, treaties, war and peace, and identity. Another theme that runs throughout the course is the tension between history as understood and experienced by Indigenous peoples versus mainstream narratives “about” them. Throughout, we will consider how history bears on the present day.

E. Hamilton

TuTh 8:30-9:45am

This sequel to History 180 surveys Western science and technology in their cultural context from the Scientific Revolution to the Cold War. The course introduces students to key scientific ideas of the modern age. Important subjects include the social organization of science, the creation of the laboratory as the key site for the production of scientific knowledge, and the development of the “techno science” that gave rise to industrial R & D and produced the technological infrastructure of modern life. No prerequisites, although previous exposure to a course in modern European or American history is helpful.

This course satisfies the Gen Ed requirements by using historical methods of analysis to explore course content and develop analytical and critical thinking through inquiry and synthesis of concepts in the history of science. Students will develop written and oral communication skills through short assignments and a longer research paper, as well as gain experience with collaborative work through a semester-long group project organizing a timeline. Broader themes in science will be explored, situating the practice of science within society. Students will be exposed to historically important events, developments, and processes, examining science as a human endeavor influences by social, political, and economic factors. Students will use a variety of primary and secondary materials to examine the social context of science and important people and ideas in Western science, as well as to reflect on the contemporary role of science as understood through understanding its origins.

M. Wormer

TuTh 1:00-2:15pm

This class explores the relationship between drugs and capitalism from 1500 to the present. From coffee and tobacco to opium and cocaine, addictive commodities have remade labor regimes, trade networks, and consumer cultures around the world, a ?psychoactive revolution? that some scholars consider key to understanding the making of modern capitalism. Students will examine this topic through a series of chronological case studies that will allow them to situate debates over drugs and society in their global historical context.

T. Hart

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course explores the history of the Ancient Near East and Egypt from the development of agriculture and settled society (c. 9000 BCE) to the rise of the Achaemenid Persian empire (c. 500 BCE). The societies that developed along the Nile and in the so-called Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia and the Levant gave rise to some of the world’s earliest cities, invented writing systems for bureaucracy, business, and literature, and created religions and principles of law with far-reaching influence. Covering the major civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, this class is for any student interested in the process of state formation, and also offers crucial background for those intending to pursue future study of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean or the later societies of Persia and the Islamic world.

L. McNeil

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course will examine the economic, political, and social developments in Ireland, from the 1798 Rebellion to the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland.  In particular, we will look at the rise of revolutionary, constitutional, and cultural nationalism in Ireland and Irish-America. 

The course fulfills General Education objectives in History (HS) by asking fundamental questions about the past and applying the ideas we study in real contexts.  Students will examine both primary and secondary sources (i.e. those created at the time and those written by modern scholars) to assess different historical interpretations of critical events and people in modern Irish history. The course also emphasizes communicating those historical assessments effectively, both in bluebook exams and take-home essays. 

Specifically as a four-credit class, this class asks you to not only look closely at documents from the past, but also to read and critically assess several monographs about Irish history by professional historians. You will need to think not only about the information they offer, but also about the ways in which they present the past. 

Similarly, it also asks you to look closely at several documentaries and films about Irish and Irish-American history, and to think about the interpretations they offer.  For documentaries, think especially about the ways they put together interviews, oral histories, visual materials, re-enactments, etc., to convey both information and understandings of history.  For movies, think about them as historical fiction: What visions of Irish history do they give us? Where do you think they are likely to be accurate, and where might they be taking liberties for a more dramatic story?

R. Chu

TuTh 1:00-2:15

Ever wonder what groups constitute the Asian American communities in the state of Massachusetts and in the Pioneer Valley/Western Massachusetts, and what they are doing to empower and help themselves? This course combines the methods of historical inquiry and community engagement, and is designed for students who are willing to learn more about Asian Americans both inside and outside the classroom. In the first half of the course, students will be introduced to concepts of community engagement, and required to report on the general history of specific Asian subgroups (e.g. Chinese, Korean, Indian, Japanese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Hmong, Filipino, Tibetan, or Bhutanese). In the second half of the course, students will apply the concept of community engagement as they conduct research (that would include community visitations and/or interviews) on the different Asian subgroups found in the Five Colleges/Pioneer Valley/Western Massachusetts, focusing on their history of and reasons for migration, their demographic make-up (based on government census records and other studies), community needs and issues, and different activities and organizations. 

• Section 1: J. Heuer - TuTh 11:30-12:45pm
• Section 2: H. Scott - TuTh 4:00-5:15pm

This course is designed to introduce you to different ways of approaching and understanding the past. Rather than focus on the history of a particular place or time, we’ll look at what it means to do history. We will explore how historians pose questions, and how those questions can differ depending on the kinds of history you choose to do. We’ll also examine some ways to find, select, evaluate, interpret, and analyze evidence in order to propose answers to those questions. Finally, we will reflect on the purposes and goals of studying, writing, and presenting history for different audiences, especially in the current world.

J. Wolfe

MW 1:25-2:15pm, Friday discussions

This class examines the history of baseball from its earliest days as a game for young men in New York City in the mid-19th century to the present and its professional leagues in the United States and elsewhere in the world.  The class studies the rise of sport as a leisure activity and then industry, the creation of the major leagues, the racial integration of baseball, the rise of free agency, the steroid era and beyond.

B. Bunk

MW 2:30-3:45

Soccer is without question the world's most popular sport. Its impact reaches beyond entertainment to influence and reflect cultural values and identities, economic interests and power relationships between peoples and nation states. The course takes a historical approach by surveying important developments within the game and how they impacted people at the local, national and international level. Select case studies examine in detail the particular ways the sport has promoted and/or challenged significant global phenomena such as the expansion and resistance to imperialism and authoritarianism, the development of racial and national identities and gender relationships.

S. Cornell

TuTh 11:30-12:45pm

More than one in four American adults today have a disability yet only a handful of states mandate teaching disability history. This course serves as an introduction to American disability history, exploring the social and cultural history of various forms of disability and highlighting the lived experience narrated by the disabled themselves. We will also study constructions of the normal body, medical understandings and treatment of disability, and government policy. The course concludes with disability rights and justice movements and their limits.

T. Hart

TuTh 2:30-3:45pm

History 300 is a survey of ancient Greek history from the Bronze Age until the coming of Rome (c. 1500 to 146 BCE). In this course we will follow the example of the Greek historian Herodotus and investigate the past (historia in ancient Greek originally meant to investigate or inquire). Using the writings of the ancient Greeks themselves, we will discuss a wide range of topics, including the political development of the Greek city-state (polis) and the concurrent tensions between local identities and a common sense of “Greekness.” Our survey will deconstruct the political rivalries between the Greek cities (especially Athens and Sparta), while also exploring Greek ideas about gender, sexuality, freedom and slavery, and what it meant to be part of a political community. Throughout the semester, we will approach these topics with a critical eye towards the ways in which modern thinkers (both scholarly and not) have looked to the ancient Greeks to further their own social/political agendas. In this course you will not only learn about the history of ancient Greece, but will also emerge better equipped to evaluate what the Greeks might mean for us today, and how ancient civilizations functioned more generally.

A. Taylor

TuTh 11:30-12:45pm

Focusing on the religious and intellectual history of Western Europe, this course explores aspects of medieval culture in western and northern Europe up to about the end of the eleventh century. Topic and themes include the synthesis of Christian and pagan traditions, competing sources and forms of authority, and the development of religious movements. Most early medieval documentary sources from the region were written by elite Christian men, but we will also try to reconstruct the voices and experiences of other groups. The Middle Ages are weird, barbaric, fascinating and perplexing. We will not be looking at some glorious past full of knights, kings, and heroes. 

A. Taylor

TuTh 11:30-12:45pm

We will examine the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of Western Europe in the High and Later Middle Ages, focusing on the diverse experiences of its inhabitants. We will read a variety of primary sources, including documentary evidence, literary sources, and art.  We will explore themes such as individualism, authority, religious transformation, heresy, and the appropriation of the medieval past by the modern alt-right.

A. Semyonov

MW 4:00-5:15

In the course of almost 500 years, the Russian Empire evolved from a backwater principality at the crossroad of Eastern Europe and Eurasia into one of history’s largest polities. By exploring the evolution of the Russian Empire, we will learn about different regions, religions, peoples, and cultures in Northern Eurasia; understand the role of the Russian Empire in shaping the European and global system of international relations; and consider why the first socialist revolutionary state established after 1917 took the shape of a federation.

H. Jorati

MW 4:00-5:15pm

You hear about the Shi’i-Sunni rivalry or sectarian opposition in Islam a lot in the news lately. But how did Shi’ism (and Sunnism) emerge? In this course we focus on the earliest period of Islamic History and the development of Shi’ism as a distinct Islamic sect, and how it took shape under the early Islamic Caliphate. This course is widely accessible and open to all levels.

J. Olsen

MW 11:15-12:05, Friday discussions

This course surveys the troubled history of the modern German nation-state. It traces how the loose federation of German monarchies and duchies coalesced in the late nineteenth century into a European powerhouse. Topics include absolutism, the old regime, the Enlightenment, the Napoleonic occupation, the 1848 revolution, unification and rule under Bismarck, German Jews before 1914, mass politics under Wilhelm II, the First World War, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the Second World War and the Holocaust, the divided Germanys, and the Federal Republic since 1989. 

This course fulfills the 4-credit general-education requirements with designations HS and DG (historical studies and global diversity). As an HS course, it covers a broad period of history, from the eighteenth century to the present. It also helps students develop their critical thinking by teaching how to read a variety of primary-source texts, including ethnologies, statistics, memoirs, diaries, speeches, letters, monographs, newspaper articles, and political-party programs. It develops writing skills through five short papers and weekly writing assignments. Finally, and most of it all, the course teaches the main skill of the historian: the ability to place events and ideas in their historical context and draw conclusions about causes and consequences. 

As a DG course, it introduces you to the viewpoints of a variety of people, such as socialists, reformers, aristocrats, workers, scholars, liberals, and conservatives. In their papers, students will draw on a diverse set of primary sources that reflect a variety of perspectives and emphasize change over time. The course pays special attention to the underprivileged, including workers, women, Catholics, and Jews.

A. Donson

TuTh 11:30-12:45pm

The First World War was “the great seminal catastrophe” of the twentieth century that ended fifty years of peace, prosperity, and optimism by killing ten million soldiers and another ten million civilians.  This course explores the First World War as a total war that involved all citizens of the combatant nations and a world war that affected countries on all continents. The course looks at the war’s origins, the everyday life of soldiers, the Ottoman fronts, the neutrals, colonial and minority subjects, genocide, civil war, children and women, rural people, peacemaking, and fascism. It gives special emphasis to German social and political history. 

J. Keene

TuTh 1:00-2:15

This course traces the history of England in the era of the Tudor dynasty, from the early reign of Henry VII through the "Golden Age" of the English Renaissance under Elizabeth I. Students will examine the leading personalities and legacies of the Tudor monarchs and transformations in politics, religion, the economy, the social order, and the gender order in sixteenth century England that occurred during their reigns. Key topics of study include the establishment of England as an “early modern” state, the English Reformation, England's evolving geopolitical relationship with Continental Europe, and the beginnings of English overseas exploration and expansion into the Atlantic World.

P. Srivastava

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course examines economic and social developments in India during the period of British imperialism (1757-1947). It specifically focuses on the histories and political economy of urban and industrial development, and factory and non-factory work in colonial times. The course begins with broad analyses of the transformation engendered by colonial policies, which integrated India into a global imperial economy. Other topics will include: the environmental costs of colonial urban development; the patterns of rural-urban migration; the workings of racial capitalism; the foundation and expansion of jute and cotton textile industries in the two most prominent industrial cities of British India: Calcutta and Bombay; and working and living conditions in these two cities. We will conclude this course with a brief analysis of Indian economy in the post-independence period.

M. Wormer

TuTh 4:00-5:15

This class traces the history of the British Empire from the Age of Revolutions to the anticolonial struggles of the twentieth century. We will explore the key role of imperial phenomena – slavery, settler colonialism, indigenous dispossession, and more – in the rise of Britain as a global power. Themes will include capitalism and industrialization; imperial ideologies; resistance movements; and the legacies of empire in a world of nation states.

Y. Hua

TuTh 4:00-5:15pm

The personalities, events, and forces that shaped China during the last century: collapse of the imperial order; warlordism, foreign invasion; political and cultural revolutions; Mao and the Chinese Communist Party; the struggle to "modernize" China's economy, society, and culture; role of China in today's world.

G. Washington

TuTh 1:00-2:15

This course traces the history of Japan from the distant past through the centralization and prosperity of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). It will focus on social, political, cultural, and religious history and will place familiar figures like the Japanese samurai, sumo wrestler, geisha, haiku poet, and Buddhist monk in their proper historical context. Through a variety of primary sources, from the performance piece to the autobiography to the legal edict, a textbook, activities such as a Tea Ceremony and virtual visits to an ancient temple and a 17^th-century merchant house, and a GIS-based class project, students will learn about the diversity, constant reinvention, and conflict, but also the harmony that characterized traditional Japan.  

K. Young

MW 2:30-3:45pm

This course explores Mexico’s society, economy, politics, and culture, with a focus on the last two centuries. We will analyze pre-Hispanic societies and the legacies of Spanish colonialism, the 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico, land conflicts of the 19th century, the famous Revolution of 1910, the consolidation of an authoritarian state, the “Mexican miracle” of the 1940s-1960s, the adoption of neoliberalism starting in the 1980s, and the ongoing struggles of workers, peasants, women, students, Indigenous people, and other groups. Since the formal transition to democracy circa 2000, Mexicans have continued to face high poverty levels, environmental destruction, an authoritarian and pro-business state, and massive levels of drug-related violence – factors that help explain the high rate of migration. We will use our historical knowledge to help make sense of these problems.  

S. Cornell

TuTh 8:30-9:45am

This course examines the social, political, economic, and cultural history of the era of Reconstruction and Reunion. We will investigate the forces that drove Reconstruction in the North, South, West, and abroad during and after the U.S. Civil War and the destruction of slavery. We will especially attend to conflicts over the meanings of freedom and the workings of democracy among freedpeople, white and black northerners, suffragists, white southerners, western farmers, and Native Americans in the postbellum period. The course concludes with the North's withdrawal from the South, convict leasing, the rise of legal segregation, legal disfranchisement, racial terror lynching, and white sectional reunion during theimperial wars of 1898. As this impossible situation was painstakingly built, African Americans responded in a variety of ways, which we will study in detail. At various points during the semester, we will reflect critically upon the ways in which Reconstruction and Reunion have been remembered and represented in history and popular culture.

HIST 364 Gender and Race in US Social Policy History

L. Sharrow

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

What are the problems associated with developing equitable and just policy? Why does social policy in the United States continue to be marked by tensions between the principle of equality and the reality of inequalities in social, political, and economic realms? How do cultural assumptions about social difference come to be reflected in social policy? How might policy subvert or reinforce these differences and inequalities?

This class examines the politics of social policy in the United States, particularly those regarding gender, race, and class. We will examine a wide range of social policies, focusing on those affecting groups such as: women, racial and ethnic minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and low-income people. We look at primarily empirical scholarship, while asking questions about how political culture, interest groups, social movements, government institutions and other factors influence U.S. social policy.

Students should be well-versed in the operations of American political institutions and would be best prepared for this class by having already enrolled in POLISCI 101 or 181. There is no formal pre-requisite. This is an upper level course on U.S. Social Policy and presumes that students have knowledge of the basic operations and interactions of the U.S. Congress, the president and executive bureaucracy, and the judicial system.

J. Fronc

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course examines aspects of American social and cultural history from the period of Reconstruction to the recent past. In addition to the assigned readings, this course will focus on mass and popular culture (films, television shows, music) as venues for political and social commentary. 

J. Nye

Tu 1:00-3:30pm

This course focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court and its rulings regarding sex and sexuality. We will examine several hot button issues confronted by the Supreme Court, such as reproduction (sterilization/contraception/abortion); marriage (polygamous/interracial/same sex); pornography/obscenity; sodomy; sexual assault on college campuses; and sex education in public schools. 

Some questions we will consider include: What is the constitutionality of government regulation of sexual behavior, sexual material, reproduction, and sexuality and how and why has this changed over time? What is or should be the Court’s role in weighing in on these most intimate issues? In ruling on these issues, is the Court interested in liberty, equality, privacy, dignity, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or something else? We will consider how the Court and advocates framed these issues, used or misused historical and scientific evidence, and how the argument and/or evidence changed depending on the audience (i.e. the Court or the general public).

Prior law-related coursework helpful, but not required. History 378 is an additional and upper-level course for the Five College Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Certificate and a law related liberal arts course for the Legal Studies major

J. Nye

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

Audre Lorde famously said that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and yet social justice movements and marginalized people continue to turn to litigation to advance their social justice goals. From fighting Jim Crow segregation to challenging the Muslim travel ban and the separation of refuge children at the border, judicial review has historically been used as a strategy to reign-in executive and legislative over-reach and protect Constitutional rights. 

This course will examine how lawyers, social movements, and everyday people have used litigation to advocate for social justice in the United States. Through reading in-depth studies of important civil and criminal cases, we will explore such questions as: What is the history of social justice lawyering in the United States and how, why and when have social movements turned to litigation to advance their causes? What are the pros and cons of using litigation to achieve social justice, versus other tools like direct action, lobbying for political change, and community organizing? How effective is litigation in achieving the goals originally envisioned by lawyers, activists, and litigants? How have lawyers constrained or expanded the vision of social justice movements? What dilemmas do lawyers—who are ethically bound to zealously advocate for the interests of individual clients—face when they are additionally interested in advancing “a cause”? Cases explored may include issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, disability rights, environmental justice, poverty and people’s lawyering, immigration rights, and the rise of conservative social movement lawyering.

Students will also be provided an opportunity to attend the Rebellious Lawyering Conference at Yale Law School, the largest student run public interest law conference in the country.  https://reblaw.yale.edu/  History 378J is a is a law related liberal arts course for the Legal Studies major.

J. Nye

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course will explore the history and development of reproductive rights law in the 20th and 21st century United States, centering primarily on the reading of statutes, court decisions, amicus briefs, and law review articles. 

We will look at the progression of cases and legal reasoning involving a wide variety of reproductive rights and justice issues, including forced/coerced sterilization, contraception, abortion, forced pregnancy/c-sections, policing pregnancy (through welfare law, employment policies and criminal law), and reproductive technologies. We will pay particular attention to how differently situated women were/are treated differently by the law, especially based on age, class, race, sexual orientation, relationship status, immigration status, and ability. 

We also will examine the role lawyers have historically played in advancing (or constraining) the goals of the reproductive rights and justice movement(s) and will explore the effectiveness of litigation as a strategy to secure these rights. Finally, we will explore the relationship between reproductive rights and reproductive justice and consider whether reproductive justice can be obtained through advocating for reproductive rights.

Prior law related coursework helpful, but not required.  History 378R is a foundational and upper-level course for the Five College Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Certificate, is a WGSS elective, and is a law related liberal arts course for the Legal Studies major.

E. Hamilton

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

This course will examine the nexus of science, technology, and war in the 20th century United States and Europe. This course will cover topics such as the development and use of chemical and biological warfare; scientific, political, medical, and philosophical implications of nuclear technology; the Manhattan Project and Big Science; Nazi science; Cold War technology and the Space Race; missile technology; and psychological research and the military. As a unifying theme we will consider the impact of technological determinism and the centrality of science and technology in wartime politics and practice. Readings will consist of primary and secondary sources as well as historical and contemporary films. Requirements will include writing short research papers as well as a longer historiographical essay; in addition two presentations will be required. 

H. Pollin-Galay

TuTh 2:30-3:20pm, Friday discussions

This course explores the long-term origins of the Holocaust in European racism and antisemitism, and the more immediate origins in the dynamics of the Nazi state and the war against the Soviet Union. Particular attention will be given to debates and controversies, including the motivations of German and non-German perpetrators, bystanders, and collaborations; the place of the Jews and non-Jews in Holocaust historiography; the continuities of racism and genocide and their comparability; and the consequences of the Holocaust for memory and world politics. 

This course fulfills the 4-credit general-education requirements with designations HS and DG (historical studies and global diversity). As an HS course, it engages a broad period of history, examining, for example antisemitism from antiquity to the present. It helps students develop their critical thinking by teaching how to read a variety of texts. It develops writing skills through a paper and weekly writing assignments. Finally, and most of it all, the course teaches the main skill of the historian: the ability to place events and ideas in their historical context and draw conclusions about causes and consequences. As a DG course, it introduces students to a variety of perspectives through readings, and lectures focus on controversies, interpretations, and debates among Holocaust scholars. Much of the content is about minority groups. Related to the study of the history of the Holocaust, the course introduces students to other genocides, including in Armenia and Namibia as well as investigating issues of racism and the demonization of minorities in U.S. history. As a 300-level history course, it is also reading-intensive. 

E. Jacob

MW 2:30-3:45pm

This course approaches modern African history through the lens of literature and film, with a focus on twentieth-century West Africa. In place of sensationalist media depictions of civil war, famine, and poverty, this course will present more holistic narratives of Africa, emphasizing themes of love, loss, ambition, and resilience. Through novels by writers Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and films by directors Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty, we will consider how ordinary people navigated, resisted, and often overcame challenges of racism, violence, and empire. Throughout, we will consider the relationship between artistic forms and popular perceptions of the continent. How can literature and film help audiences to visualize Africa and interpret its history? Can we use these materials as sources for historical writing? Why or why not? Topics will include resistance to and collaboration with European colonialism; marriage and motherhood; neocolonialism and corruption; civil war; and migration.

F. W. Lorenz

MW 8:30-9:45am

How did the modern Middle East emerge from the Ottoman Empire? How did an empire that governed much of the region for centuries give way to the countries, borders, and political conflicts we recognize today? This course explores the dramatic transformations that reshaped the Middle East from the late eighteenth century through the twentieth century and beyond. We will investigate Ottoman reforms, migration and refugees, nationalism, language and identity, European colonialism, genocide, Palestine and Zionism, World War I, and the formation of modern states. Through historical documents, maps, literature, and firsthand accounts, students will examine how imperial institutions, political movements, and local communities shaped the region's modern history. The course offers an opportunity to explore the historical roots of contemporary Middle Eastern politics and conflicts. No prior knowledge of Ottoman or Middle Eastern history is required.

K. Young

TuTh 11:30-12:45pm

On January 3, 2026, the US government bombed Venezuela, abducted the president, and declared it would impose a naval blockade to ensure the government “does what we want.” A similar US blockade of Cuba is attempting to strangle the island into submission. How did we get to this point? And is an alternative future possible? This course explores the long history of US imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Presidents before Donald Trump had also tried to control Latin America, if rarely with such undisguised contempt for international law. We will look at US motives and the consequences of US interventions. We will also investigate how Latin Americans have responded to imperialism. While US capitalists and government officials have wielded tremendous power in the region, they have always operated within contexts partially defined by Latin Americans – a diverse population including presidents, dictators, militaries, landlords, clergy, industrialists, wage workers, enslaved people, peasant farmers, middle classes, women community leaders, LGBTQ activists, shantytown dwellers, migrants, and hundreds of ethnic groups. Latin American reactions to US empire have ranged from active collaboration to armed resistance. In addition to studying US policymakers and their allies, we will give special attention to the people who have opposed US policies.

A. Grim

TuTh 8:30-9:45am

Fulfills the IE requirement for History majors

History is a tightly woven “bundle of silences.” This course will examine how public history—a practice that makes history accessible to broader audiences—can tighten or unravel those bundles. Who benefits from historical erasure and how does it work? How do institutions, public spaces, and everyday practices, construct our understanding of the past? This course will highlight public history practices that confront colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. Workers, survivors of state violence, activists, and academics, have used public history to intervene in political debates. Some have gone further, using history to identify strategies for how we get free.

D. Gordon

TuTh 10:00-11:15am

Fulfills the IE requirement for History majors. 

This course compares the American, French, Russian, Turkish, Iranian and other revolutions. Emphasis is on revolutionary leaders and their rhetoric and ideologies: visions of injustice and justice, dreams of an ideal society. The place of religion in the different revolutions. The place of women. Frequent in-class quizzes and essays and a final take-home exam.

Instructor Consent required to enroll

J. Keene

Th 4:00-5:15pm

This 2-credit class is designed to help students prepare for life after the BA by acquiring important professional skills and perspectives. The class will explore a variety of subjects, including the different qualifications history majors bring to the job market, the importance of internships, networking and career fairs, customizing resumes and cover letters, job and internship search strategies, and interviewing skills. The course is focused on each student's individual path allowing the instructor to provide personal attention to topics broadly discussed in the classroom.

S. Schmalzer

Th 2:30-5:00pm

This course will examine the global history of social and political movements on issues related to science, technology, and medicine. Examples include movements for organic agriculture, against nuclear energy, promoting science literacy, opposing genetic determinism, for climate justice, and much more. We will adopt a historically grounded, interdisciplinary approach to explore the different forms science activism has taken?from intellectual debates, to professional movements of practicing scientists, to state-directed campaigns, to grassroots community organizing?and the different historical contexts in which they have emerged. These explorations will help shed new light on the current political climate: we will ask what it means to "defend science" and to what extent scientists, scholars, and activists have succeeded in developing an analysis of the power relations involved in so-called "attacks" on science. Students will read a wide variety of secondary and primary sources, present regularly during class meetings, write two papers rooted in analysis of the assigned materials, and pursue a final project that examines the historical and global contexts of some aspect of science activism (specific topic and format to be freely chosen). Students may opt to incorporate a community engagement component into their final project if they desire. 

D. Gordon

TuTh 2:30-3:45pm

The course is about dictators from ancient Rome to the present. Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Simon Bolivar, Lincoln, Mussolini, Hitler, Khomeini, and others.  Focus will be on the dictators' ideas and writings. The course is about "dictators" as persons, not "dictatorships" as systems. A more biographical approach rather than social scientific. How does one become a dictator? Many dictators were the leading masters of their country's language and used their mastery of speech to gain power. Frequent in-class mini-essays and a final research paper required.

C. Appy

Tu 2:30-5:00pm

This junior writing seminar explores the life and times of Daniel Ellsberg by researching his vast collection of papers recently acquired by the UMass archives. Ellsberg?s remarkable conversion from war planner to peace activist led him in 1971 to turn over 7000 pages of top-secret documents about the history of the Vietnam War to the press and public?the Pentagon Papers. Students will write research papers on various topics that engaged Ellsberg, including nuclear war planning, antinuclear activism, the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the legacy of whistleblowing.

A. Donson

TuTh 2:30-3:45pm

Students use secondary and primary sources to trace how two or more newspapers covered an unfolding, contingent event like an election campaign, a popular uprising, an economic downturn, a natural disaster, or an act of war.

J. Heuer

TuTh 4:00-5:15pm

This writing seminar focuses on controversial trials in European history.  Our case studies may range from sixteenth-century civil suits over identity theft to litigation demanding freedom for men and women enslaved in the European empires, from Victorian era poisonings to Oscar Wilde’s trials for libel and sodomy, and from the Dreyfus Affair (in which a French Jew was falsely accused of treason in the nineteenth century), to war crime trials. We will look not only at accusations of guilt or proclamations of innocence, but also at how historians can use such materials to explore ideas about identity and power, race, gender and sexuality, the role of media in shaping public perceptions of crime, and competing ideas of justice. Work includes regular short writing assignments with varying creative approaches and a substantial research project.

D. Sierra Becerra

MW 4:00-5:15pm

Witches, ghosts, priestesses, healers, catechists, and other beings have been driving forces in the destruction of oppressive worlds. This course will explore the role of magic, religion, and spirituality in liberation movements. It will center the histories of women and other groups whose bodies, labor, and knowledge have been exploited to accumulate capital. In their everyday and collective forms of resistance, these groups have built an otherworldly power to hex heteropatriarchy, racial capitalism, and imperialism. We will learn how practices such as witchcraft, hauntings, spiritual cursing, ancestor veneration, root work, collective ritual, mourning, and more, have been used to birth new worlds.

J. Fronc

TuTh 1:00-2:15pm

In this course we will investigate and analyze major trends in the history of policing, broadly conceived, in the 20th century United States. This course is not meant as a chronological survey of U.S. history; instead, we will take a thematic approach, each week studying an issue or set of issues through a historical perspective. We will begin with an introduction to general theoretical approaches to the study of policing and the state, then turn to study the development of several different kinds of police forces in their historical contexts; private police in labor conflicts; the Bureau of Prohibition; and the Border Patrol. The course will also explore how evolving ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality have shaped understandings of what qualifies as criminal behavior in need of policing.