Course Offerings Spring 2013

Visit the Registrar’s webpage or Webadvisor for additional information

PLEASE NOTE THAT COURSE AVAILABILITY AND TIMES CHANGE FREQUENTLY. CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR UPDATES.

HIST 121: Modern European History
TTH 9:40-11:10 AM
Maureen Healy
Social, intellectual, political, and economic elements of European history, 1648 to the present. The scientific revolution, Enlightenment, national political revolutions, capitalism, industrial development, overseas imperial expansion. The formation of mass political and social institutions, avant-garde and popular culture, the Thirty Years’ War of the 20th century, bolshevism, fascism, the Cold War, and the revolutions of 1989.
Prerequisites: None 

HIST 142: Modern Latin American History
TTH 9:40-11:10 AM
Elliott Young
Confrontation with the complexity of modern Latin America through historical analysis of the roots of contemporary society, politics, and culture. Through traditional texts, novels, films, and lectures, exploration of the historical construction of modern Latin America. Themes of unity and diversity, continuity and change as framework for analyzing case studies of selected countries.
Prerequisites: None

HIST 209: Japan at War
MWF 10:20-11:20 AM
Andrew Bernstein
In-depth study of the causes, dynamics, and outcomes of the wars fought by Japan in Asia and the Pacific from the late 19th century through World War II. The trajectories of Japanese imperialism, sequence of events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor, social impact of total war. Japan’s wartime culture as seen through diaries, newspaper articles, propaganda films, short stories, government documents. Short- and long-term effects of the atomic bomb and the American occupation of Japan.
Prerequisites: None 

HIST 227: Medieval Europe, 800-1400
TTH 9:40-11:10 AM
Benjamin Westervelt
Social, intellectual, political, and cultural elements of European life during the period from about 800 to 1400. Emphasis on Christianity as a dominant aspect of public life; feudalism and other forms of economic and social life; developing conflicts between secular and ecclesiastical institutions; emergence of European nation-states; contacts with the non-European world; high medieval culture.

Prerequisites: None. History 120 recommended.

HIST 234A: U.S. Revolution to Empire
MWF 9:10-10:10 AM
Staff
Introduction to United States. How the young American nation coped with major changes and adjustments in its first century. Emergence of political parties; wars with Indians and Mexico, and expansion into a continental nation; the lingering problem of slavery; the rise of industry and urbanization; immigration; the development of arts and letters into a new national culture.
Prerequisites: None.

HIST 239: Constructing the American Landscape
M 3:00-4:30 PM, TH 3:30-5:00 PM
Staff

Political, social, economic, and aesthetic forces that have helped shape ordinary built environments: farms, fast food restaurants, theme parks, sports stadiums, highways, prisons, public housing. Patterns of economic growth and decline, technological innovation, segregation, gentrification, capital migration and globalization, historic preservation, and changing ideologies about nature and the city.
Prerequisites: None.

HIST 240: Race/Ethnicity in the United States
TTH 9:40-11:10 AM
Staff
Prerequisites: None.

HIST 259: India: Age of Empire
MWF 9:10-10:10 AM
David Campion
The political, cross-cultural, and social development of the Indian subcontinent from the classical civilizations of late antiquity to the beginnings of colonial rule in the 18th century. The artistic and architectural achievements of Indo-Islamic civilization; the Mughal Empire and regional polities; religious and cultural syncretism; the influence of contact with the West. Special emphasis on the historical antecedents of contemporary debates about regional identities, state formation and fragmentation, and the origins of colonial rule.
Prerequisites: None 

HIST 300: Historical Materials
TTH 9:40-11:10 AM

Andrew Bernstein

Materials and craft of historical research. Bibliographic method; documentary editing; use of specialized libraries, manuscripts, maps, government documents, photographs, objects of material culture. Career options in history. Students work with primary sources to develop a major editing project. Topical content varies depending on instructor’s teaching field.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. 

HIST 310: China Discovers the West

MWF 1:50-2:50 PM

Susan Glosser

The nature and extent of China’s contact with other countries, including the silk roads to Middle Asia in the first millennium B.C.E., Jesuits and the influx of Spanish-American silver in the 16th century, British tea and opium trade, and Chinese intellectual experiments with social Darwinism, anarchism, communism, and the nuclear family ideal. Primary sources showing foreign and Chinese perceptions of the content and significance of these exchanges.

Prerequisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor.

HIST 324: Saints and Bureaucrats
MWF 10:20-11:20
Benjamin Westervelt

Charism and bureaucracy in the careers of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and Teresa of Avila, of the Discalced Carmelites. Ignatius and Teresa as mystics, theologians, founders and/or reformers of religious orders, believers. Impact of national origin, social status, gender on their careers and on early modern Catholicism.

Prerequisites: None. History 120 or Religious Studies 373 recommended.

HIST 325: History of Islam in Europe 
TTH 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Maureen Healy
The history of Islam in Europe from the medieval period to the present, focusing on various encounters between European Christians and Muslims. The crusades, Christian and Muslim presence in Iberia, Ottoman conquest in southeastern Europe, European colonial conquest, the role of Islam in post-1945 decolonization, and questions about Muslim immigration and European identity.
Prerequisites: None.

HIST 347: Modern Mexico: Culture, Politics, Economy
TTH 1:50 - 3:20 PM
Elliott Young
Origins and development of the modern Mexican nation from independence to the contemporary economic and political crisis. 1811 to 1940: liberal-conservative battles, imperialism, the pax Porfiriana, the Mexican Revolution, industrialization, and institutionalizing the revolution. 1940 to the present: urbanization, migration to the United States, the student movement, neoliberal economics and politics, disintegration of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), and the new social rebellions (Zapatistas, Popular Revolutionary Army, Civil Society). Constructing mexicanidad in music, dance, film, and the cultural poetics of the street and the town plaza.
Prerequisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor. History 141 or 142 recommended.

HIST 400: Reading Colloquium
TTH 11:30 AM-1:00 PM
Staff
Reading and critical analysis of major interpretive works. Organized around themes or problems; comparative study of historical works exemplifying different points of view, methodologies, subject matter. Focus varies depending on instructor’s teaching and research area.
Prerequisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor. 

HIST 450: History Seminar
W 6:00-9:00 PM
Susan Glosser

Work with primary documents to research and write a major paper that interprets history. Topical content varies depending on instructor’s teaching field. Recent topics: the Americas; the United States and Asia; European intellectual history since 1945; women in American history; Indian policy on the Pacific Slope; World War II, the participants’ perspectives; the British Raj; cultural nationalism in East Asia.

Prerequisites: History 300. Consent of instructor.