This page contains the Spring 2024 course guide. Click here for the summer 2024 course guide
Meeting the Requirements
Each semester, numerous history department courses fulfill one or more General Education requirements, including Historical Studies (HS), United States Diversity (DU), Global Diversity (DG), and Interdisciplinary (I). Some courses are cross-listed with other departments, such as Economics and Legal Studies. These courses and others may count toward major requirements in other departments. We advise you to contact your major advisor to determine whether a history course may count for a non-history major.
This semester's courses also fulfill various requirements for history majors and minors, including:
- Non-Western - The following courses will automatically satisfy the non-western requirement: HIST 111: World History Since 1600; HIST 112H: Intro to World Religions, Honors; HIST 115: Modern China; HIST 120: Colonial Latin America; HIST 131: Middle East 1500-Present; HIST 161: Africa Since 1500; HIST 346: China in the 20th and 21st Centuries; HIST 347: Traditional Japan; HIST 357: Women and Revolutions
- Pre-1500 - The following courses will automatically satisfy the pre-1500 requirement: HIST 112H: Intro to World Religions, Honors; HIST 300: Ancient Greece; HIST 302: Early Middle Ages 300-1100. Note, there are courses being offered this semester that may satisfy the non-western requirement or the pre-1500 requirements that are not on this list. The courses listed above will automatically count towards these requirements, but if you are taking a class that you believe meets either requirement, and it’s not listed here, inquire with the Undergraduate Program Coordinator at undergrad@history.umass.edu.
- Integrative Experience - The following courses will satisfy the Gen Ed Integrative Experience Requirement (affects primary history majors): HIST 394AI: The Age of Crusades; HIST 394RI: Comparative Revolutions in the Modern Era
- Junior Year Writing - The following courses will satisfy the Junior Year Writing requirement: HIST 450-01: The Enlightenment in Europe and America; HIST 450-02: History Writing and Political Engagement; HIST 450-03: Maps, Politics, and Power; HIST 450-04: Monsters, Foreigners, and Outsiders
SPRING 2024 UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
HIST 101 Western Thought Since 1600 (HS)
Jon Olsen | 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, and other related themes. Of these themes, nationalism will serve as a connective tissue running throughout the course as we investigate the different ways in which it has been expressed and how it has functioned in different contexts, the impact that it has had in different areas, and the way in which it has interacted with and influenced other important ideologies.
HIST 111 World History Since 1500 (HS, DG)
Brian 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.
HIST 112H Intro to World Religions, Honors (I, DG)
Susan Ware | TuTh 11:00-12:15pm
This class introduces students to the history, geography, beliefs, rituals, 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.
HIST 115 Modern China (HS, DG)
Steve Platt | MW 11:15-12:05, Friday discussions
This is a four-credit survey of Chinese history from 1600 to the present day. We will cover topics including: the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty; Chinese-Western encounters; internal threats to the Confucian state; transformations of Chinese thought and culture in the 19th century; the revolutions of the 20th century; the rise of Mao Zedong; the People’s Republic of China; the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution; and the dramatic transformations China is undergoing today as a result of economic and political reforms since Mao’s death.
HIST 120 Colonial Latin America (HS, DG)
Heidi V. Scott | MW 11:15-12:05
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.
HIST 131 Middle East 1500-Present (HS, DG)
Mohammad Ataie | TuTh 8:00-8:50am, Friday discussions
This course aims to give you the tools to enable you to think, read, and write critically about the modern Middle East. We begin with the rise of the Safavid Empire in Iran and the Ottoman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia. We then look at the shifting balances of power within these empires which were caused by both internal and external forces. Next, we move into the era known as the “Modern” Middle East, exploring both the essential role of European imperialism in shaping this period and trans-regional reactions to it. We continue on towards our final destination, the present day, examining particular events and longer trends that have fundamentally shaped the region. We end our course with a look at the rise of Islamic resistance movements and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
HIST 151 US Survey, Reconstruction to the Present (HS)
Sam 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 19th century through the late 20th 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.
HIST 155 Empires to Nations: The making of the Atlantic World (1400-1800) (HS, DG)
Asheesh 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.
HIST 161 Africa Since 1500 (HS, DG)
Elizabeth Jacob | TuTh 11:30-12:45pm
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 African-authored texts, art, music, and film, we will explore how 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?
HIST 170H Indigenous Peoples of North America, Honors (HS, DU)
Alice Nash | TuTh 1:00-2:15pm
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 tension between history as understood and experienced by indigenous peoples and history as recorded and written by Europeans. Throughout, we will consider how “history” bears on the present day.
HIST 181 History of Western Science and Technology II (HS)
Emily Hamilton | MW 9:05-9:55am, Friday discussions
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 influenced 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.
HIST 190STA Drugs and Capitalism in Global History
Matt Wormer | TuTh 4:00-5:15pm
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.
HIST 201 Imperial America: The U.S. and the World, 1898-Present
Christian Appy | MW 9:05-9:55am, Friday discussions
This four-credit GenEd course examines the assertion of U.S. power from the conquest of the Philippines to the “Global War on Terror.” Some of the key questions we consider are: How do we define U.S. imperialism? What are its institutions, resources, practices, goals, justifications, and consequences? Can imperialism and democracy co-exist? How does U.S. imperialism benefit or harm different groups at home and abroad? What ideas and forces have opposed U.S. imperialism? How have U.S. leaders described and justified their foreign policies? How do their official explanations compare to historical realities? What principles and interests have been most decisive in moving the U.S. toward military action? There are no prerequisites required to take this course.
HIST 204 Ancient Rome (HS)
Timothy Hart | TuTh 2:30-3:45pm
This course, which satisfies the GenEd requirement for Historical Studies (HS), is a survey of Roman history covering over a millennium, from the city’s earliest beginnings in the 6th century BCE until the emergence of its political heirs during the 5th through 7th centuries CE. In this course you will learn about the major social processes and events that shaped the Mediterranean world into a single political entity for the first - and only - time in history. While this course follows a roughly chronological path, your journey through Roman history will be guided by three enduring, thematic questions:
- What did it mean to be a Roman, over time? What characteristics/beliefs did Romans consider crucial to their identity? How did Romans think about and identify non-Romans? What were the social and political duties of a Roman citizen? What were the benefits? How could one become a Roman? Could someone stop being a Roman?
- How do we know what we know about the Romans? What kinds of evidence do we use to reconstruct the Roman past? How do we understand and evaluate ancient texts and other types of evidence? How have modern scholars and others thought about the Romans? What does it mean to be an historian?
- Why is the Roman Empire important? What, if anything, set the Romans apart from other ancient societies? Why was the “Roman project” so successful for so long? What factors ultimately led to the collapse of the imperial system? How does the legacy of Rome impact our contemporary world?
As we discuss topics such as Rome’s transition from republic to empire, the administration of a Mediterranean empire, the impact of Christianity, and the so-called “barbarian invasions,” you will read a wide range of ancient texts, and develop skills in critical analysis and written expression. This course requires no prior knowledge and is open to all.
HIST 241 The Irish Experience (HS)
Laura 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?
HIST 242H American Family in Historical Perspective, Honors
Martha Yoder | TuTh 2:30-3:45pm
Since the 1960s, Americans have experienced rapid and potentially disorienting changes in marriage and reproduction, in expectations of the family, and in the relationship between work life and home life. In this course we will take an historical and cross-cultural approach to studying these changes. Exploring the ways in which economic and political structures have affected the family since the period of European colonization, we will also examine the roles played by race, ethnic origin, immigration, and structural inequality in shaping familial differences. In the final weeks of the semester, we will employ this historical perspective as we examine questions about new definitions of family, the household division of labor, and the relationship between society and family in the postindustrial and increasingly politicized and globalized environment of the late-20th/early-21st centuries.
HIST 275 The Craft of History
Asheesh Siddique | MW 2:30-3:45pm
This course provides history majors with an introduction to the philosophy of history, historical methodology, and general schools of historiography. We will consider how historians inside and outside the academy pose questions, and how they find, select, evaluate, interpret, and analyze evidence in order to propose answers to those questions. Finally, we will reflect as well upon questions about the purposes and goals of both studying and writing history.
HIST 280 History of Baseball (HS)
Joel Wolfe | MW 1:25-2:15pm, Wednesday 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.
HIST 282 Global History of Sport
Brian Bunk | MW 2:30-3:45pm
The Global history of Sport is devoted to the modern history of international sport. The course examines the ways that sport has influenced and been influenced by important social, political, and economic institutions or ideologies. Class material will address the emergence of international sporting institutions and tournaments such as the Olympic games and the World Cup while also examining several individual case studies including soccer and boxing. Students analyze historically important events, developments, and processes as a way of gaining an awareness of and appreciation for an historical perspective. The readings of the course include a variety of 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 and assignments include short essays and collaborative projects. 3 credits.
HIST 300 Ancient Greece
Timothy Hart | TuTh 4:00-5:15pm
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.
HIST 302 Early Middle Ages 300-1100
Anna Taylor | MW 2:30-3:45pm
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.
HIST 321 Shi’i Islam, A Historical Approach
Hadi Jorati | MW 4:00-5:15pm
What is Shi'ism? Is it an ideology, a sect, a cult, or something else? How is Shi’i Islam different from other Islamic sects, and how did it come to be? Who are the Shi’is? What do we know about Shi’i Societies in the past or present or about their beliefs and practices? Where are these societies located and how did they develop?
From its inception to various steps of transformation and in its many manifestations in history and in the modern world, the many misrepresentations and misinformation have created a sense of mystery about this topic. This course does not aim at providing a final and definitive answer to the above questions or similar ones. Instead, we will together approach this topic methodically and critically and discuss various issues in light of the available information and in connection with the current discourse. This course is aiming to present the student with a nuanced and critiqued understanding of development of islamic societies and various ramifications of major historical events. We will start with the issue of succession to the Prophet, and disputations about the role of Ali, to the revolt of Hussein and its aftermath, culminating in the emergence of the new Shi’i identity and its solidification in Iraq during the period of the Imamate. Then we tackle the issue of the relation between the office of the Imamate and the Abbasid Empire, and concurrent with it the career of the later Imams in the Twelver tradition, and the issue of the Ghayba. Afterwards we focus on the role of Shi’i societies in the peripheries of the empire, and the relation between Shi’i orthodoxies and heterodoxies in those societies, and how it led to the rise of Safavid twelver Shi’ism, and the establishment of a new orthodoxy in Iran. Parallely we will also briefly discuss the Zaydis and Isma’ilis, as well as the principles of Imami Doctrine (Aqida).
HIST 325 First World War
Andy Donson | TuTh 8:30-9:45am
This courses teaches you to take another person’s view in oral and written debate through two curated historical role-playing games: July Crisis, 1914 and Peacemaking, 1919, both published by Barnard College, Columbia University, in their Reacting to the Past (RTTP) series. Students play them over several weeks. In the first four weeks, students in their historical role decide whether to declare war on Germany or the Allies. In the next five weeks, they review Germany’s conduct during the First World War. In the last weeks of the course, they decide on how to make peace with Germany: stabilize, punish, or both? Assignments include two speeches, two papers, and seven quizzes.
HIST 334 Tudor England
Jessica Keene | MW 2:30-3:45pm
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.
HIST 337 City, Industry, and Labor in Colonial India
Priyanka Srivastava | TuTh 10:00-11:15am
This course examines economic and social developments in India during the period of British imperialism (1757-1947) with a specific focus on the histories and political economy of urban and industrial development, and factory and non-factory work. The course begins with broad discussions of the transformation engendered by colonial policies, which integrated India into a global imperial economy. We then discuss the makings of colonial cities; 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 the two cities. We will conclude this course with a brief analysis of Indian economy in the post-independence period.
HIST 339 British Empire Since 1783
Matt Wormer | TuTh 2:30-3:45pm
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 pivotal role of imperial phenomena – slavery, settler colonialism, indigenous dispossession, and more – in the rise of Britain as a global power. Key themes will include empire and industrialization; liberal imperialism; resistance movements; and the legacies of empire in a world of nation states.
HIST 346 China in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Bing Xia | 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.
HIST 347 Traditional Japan
Garrett Washington | MW 2:30-3:45pm
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 17th-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.
HIST 356 U.S. Empire and Solidarity in Central America
Diana Sierra Becerra | TuTh 10:00-11:15am
This course will examine the role of U.S. imperialism in the region and the revolutionary organizing of Central Americans to build a world free of exploitation and state violence. As a diverse group of people, Central Americans have practiced solidarity to unite their movements across class, racial, and geographic borders. Why has the United States intervened in the region? What common interests have national elites and imperialists shared? How have working-class people transformed the region and confronted empire? The solidarity practices of Central Americans have much to teach us in an age in which many of us feel alone and heavy with despair. This history can help us chart a path forward. It can offer us important lessons, and even nourish our connections, dreams, and struggles for collective liberation.
HIST 357 Women and Revolutions
Diana Sierra Becerra | TuTh 1:00-2:15pm
In the twentieth-century, working-class women have built revolutions to dismantle oppressive systems and create a free society. They organized workers, waged armed struggle, and built alternative institutions. Why did women join revolutionary movements? How did gender shape their participation? How did women define the theories and practices of revolutionary movements? We will consult diverse sources to understand the experiences and dreams of radical women. Historical case studies from Latin America will be our main focus. These histories offer critical lessons that can inform our present-day struggles to get free.
HIST 363 Civil War Era
Sarah Cornell | MW 9:05-9:55am, Friday discussions
This course examines the history of the era of the U.S. Civil War. We will investigate the causes of the war, tracing the development of the conflict over slave labor versus free labor, the destruction of national political parties, and the creation of sectional political parties. However, we will also attend to other important historical tensions during this era, including those between capitalists and workers in the North, conflicts between enslavers and enslaved people in the South, and conflicts between enslavers and non-slaveholding whites in the South. We will examine the social, political, and military history of the war itself, examining closely the transition from a civil war to a revolution that entailed emancipation and more. Then we will study the outcomes of the war, highlighting the conflicts over the meanings of freedom and citizenship among freedpeople, white and black northerners, black and white suffragists, and white southerners in the postbellum period. While this course's focus is the United States, we will also pay close attention to the international context. At various points during the semester, we will reflect critically upon the ways in which experiences of the war and its aftermath have been remembered and represented in history and popular culture. The course will conclude with an assessment of the legacies of the era. NOTE WELL: This is not a course solely devoted to military history.
HIST 378 Sex and the Supreme Court
Jennifer L. 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).
HIST 378J Social Justice Lawyering
Jennifer L. Nye | Th 1:00-3:30pm
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.
HIST 378R History of Reproductive Rights Law
Jennifer 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.
HIST 387 The Holocaust
Jonathan Skolnik | TuTh 2:30-3:20, 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.
HIST 390 STF African History through Literature and Film
Elizabeth Jacob | TuTh 2:30-3:45pm
This course approaches modern African history through the lens of literature and film, with a focus on cultural production from twentieth-century West Africa. How do artistic forms shape popular perceptions of Africa? How do they influence how we remember and interpret historical events? Can we use them as historical sources? Why or why not? Topics include resistance to and collaboration with European colonialism, marriage and motherhood, neocolonialism and corruption, civil war, and migration.
HIST 390STG The Iranian Revolution in Global Perspective
Mohammad Ataie | MW 4:00-5:15pm
This course examines the roots of the 1979 Iran revolution, the nature of the state and society that resulted from it within a broader global context, and the revolution's transnational impact. The first unit focuses on pre-revolutionary Iran, examining national and global forces that laid the groundwork for the revolution. The second unit covers the global ramifications of the revolution in the 1980s, a crucial decade in the formation of the Islamic Republic and today's Middle East. In the final unit, the course looks at the long-term ramifications of the revolution in the Middle East and the specific historical developments that led to tensions between Iran and the US.
HIST 392AH A Poisoned Well: Ancient Heritage and Modern Racism
Jason Moralee and Johannes Wietzke | TuTh 4:00-5:15pm
Ancient Greeks and Romans thought about the world and its inhabitants in racialized categories. Climate, diet, bloodlines, and other factors supposedly made some peoples inherently superior and others immutably inferior. The writings and assumptions behind this racialized thinking were taken up and used by European intellectuals from the Renaissance forward, becoming a poisoned well that laid the basis for the formation of racist ideologies, regimes, and policies in the twentieth century. This seminar explores the entanglement between ancient racialized thinking and modern expressions of racism—and even resistance against racism. We will explore this topic by reading recent books, articles, and media reports on the following topics: ancient strategies of othering, the encounter between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the New World, the valorization of Greek and Roman texts and artifacts in European colonial projects and Nazi Germany, and the use of Greek and Roman imagery in contemporary ethno-nationalist movements in Europe and the United States.
HIST 392E The U.S. in Latin America
Kevin Young | TuTh 1:00-2:15pm
Why has the U.S. government intervened so constantly in Latin America, and with what consequences? How have Latin Americans responded? This course examines U.S. motives and actions in Latin America, which for our purposes includes the Caribbean as well. We will assess the role of the U.S. government and military but also that of corporations, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the U.S. public. While these foreign actors have wielded tremendous power in the region, they have always operated within contexts partially defined by Latin Americans – an incredibly diverse population including presidents, dictators, militaries, landlords, clergy, industrialists, the middle class, wage workers, slaves, peasant farmers, women community leaders, LGBTQ activists, shantytown dwellers, migrants, and hundreds of ethnic groups. U.S. experiences with Latin America have often helped to shape both U.S. society and its interactions with the rest of the world, making this history of vital importance for understanding much of global history. The course places a special focus on close readings of primary source documents, including declassified government memos, speeches, newspaper reports, political cartoons, and the voices of some of the people who have opposed U.S. policies.
HIST 394AI Age of Crusades (IE)
Anne Broadbridge | MWF 10:10-11:00am
You will gain an understanding of the history of the Age of the Crusades (1090s-1290s). You will investigate the eight major crusades to the Levant and North Africa, including their history, the key male and female personalities involved on both sides, the ideologies that spurred participants into action, and the most important military and logistical challenges that each side faced. You will study the European Crusaders and those Muslims, Christians and Jews who were “Crusaded Against” in the Middle East, as well as cultural interactions and exchanges among all sides. We will also investigate European Crusades against other Europeans, and will sum up with Crusades of later centuries. By the end of the course, you will be able to discuss all of this complicated history with confidence and flair, and you will be brilliant additions to parties and gatherings. Fulfills the IE requirement for History majors, Middle Eastern Studies majors.
HIST 394RI Comparative Revolutions in the Modern Era
Dan Gordon | TuTh 10:00-11:15am
Students will learn about the French and American Revolutions and also embark on the study of a third revolution of their choice. The focus will be on revolutionary ideas--visions of change--as expressed in political pamphlets and other primary sources. We will also learn about how historians and social scientists "compare" revolutions. Is there a single model or is it more important to draw out contrasts. Are some revolutions more "radical" than others? More "successful"? Finally, throughout the course, attention will be paid to the place of violence in revolution thought and action. Fulfills the IE requirement for History majors.
HIST 396W Navigating Washington
Bob LaRussa (Jessica Keene is instructor of record on SPIRE) | F 12:00-2:00pm
This independent study is designed to give students preliminary understanding of how history, politics, economics, and the legislative and administrative processes in Washington shape US public policy, and the impact this has on US international relations. Students will be asked to analyze the impact of recent international trade decisions by the Trump Administration, with a focus on what and who drove these decisions, both inside of Washington and out. The course will focus on events that are happening now, including how the politics of the mid-term congressional elections have shaped policy. In the process, students will discover who influences these policies and a range of potential career paths in this area.
NOTE: Interested students should email Jessica Keene for enrollment at @email.
Junior Year Writing Seminars
HIST 450-01 The Enlightenment in Europe and America
Dan Gordon | TuTh 2:30-3:45pm
This Junior Year Writing Seminar focuses on politics, philosophy, and literature in the eighteenth century. Major figures covered include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Baron Montesquieu, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Olaudah Equiano, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Immanuel Kant. Students will read works by these authors as well as competing scholarly interpretations of the era. What is the relationship between the Enlightenment and the revolutions of the late eighteenth century? Did the Enlightenment critique of religion have the effect of secularizing European and American culture? How did the French Enlightenment differ from the Enlightenment in America? Why do scholars and political leaders still consider the Enlightenment to be important? In accordance with guidelines for all Junior Year Writing courses in the History department, students will write a research paper of 18-20 pages.
HIST 450-02 History Writing and Political Engagement
Sigrid Schmalzer | Tu 2:30-5pm
This seminar will challenge the notion that good historical writing must be politically neutral. We will read different types of historical writing that pursue explicit political agendas or advocate for specific causes, and we will discuss how the authors manage (or fail) to take a stand while upholding rigorous standards of evidence and argument. Students will write several papers (including a short opinion piece, a historiographical essay, and a longer argument paper with primary sources) on topics political interest to themselves in a historical context they have previously studied or are currently studying. Success in the class will depend on the student's willingness to complete weekly assignments in a timely manner, recognition of the need for both political passion and scholarly responsibility, and ability to identify a promising topic and pursue it on a semi-independent basis (with guidance from the professor).
HIST 450-03 Maps, Politics, and Power
Heidi V. Scott | MW 2:30-3:45pm
In the 21st century we tend to take maps for granted. Even as paper maps become increasingly rare in everyday life, many of us interact with digital maps on a regular basis (think, for example, of Google Maps, Google Earth, and Apple Maps), and it has become increasingly easy for “ordinary” people to create their own maps using digital tools. But what is a map? How have maps, and the purposes they serve, varied over time and in different places and societies? Why should historians be concerned with the study of maps? And in what ways are maps “political”? We begin by discussing these broad questions and then go on to explore a range of case studies of how maps and map-making have been connected to politics and the exercise of power in society between pre-modern times and the twenty-first century.
A central purpose of this seminar, in addition to learning about maps and their role in history and society, is to develop and improve your skills in writing and research. Compared to many 400-level seminars, the required reading for class is relatively light. You will, however, complete numerous writing assignments, ranging from 500-word essays to an exploratory paper that is based on your individual research. We also dedicate time to reflecting on the processes of reading, writing, and research in class. Peer review – that is, reading and commenting constructively on the written work of your class peers – is another key feature of this course.
HIST 450-04 Monsters, Foreigners, and Outsiders
Anna Taylor | MW 4:00-5:15pm
Idealized and despised, outsiders, both real and imagined, define a society through negative and positive examples. By placing primary sources in their historical contexts, we will examine the ways that a society represents and uses its outsiders. The structure of the class will be roughly chronological, but will also proceed thematically to examine different kinds of outsiders. The subjects of our inquiry will be the fantastic – such as zombies, revenants, and wild men – but we will also consider the related representations of real peripheral groups and individuals. We will also take comparative approaches, examining the representations and uses of the monstrous in various cultures. In the first part of the course, you will become grounded in the topic while working on aspects of research and written style. During the last section of the semester, you will research and write a long paper (5000 words plus footnotes and bibliography) on a topic of your choosing related to monsters and the monstrous (topic is subject to professor’s approval).