2019-2020 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2019-2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses


 
  
  • HIST 128 - History of Modern Israel


    This course surveys the history of modern Israel, from the emergence of Zionism in the late-nineteenth century to contemporary questions about peace, politics, religion, and culture in Israeli society. Examining historical writing, literature, and a range of other primary sources, we will trace the development of the Jewish national idea as a source of social criticism, as the basis for collective action and personal discipline, and as the inspiration for religious and artistic innovation. Assessing Israeli history in its local, Middle Eastern, and global contexts, we will explore the making of Israeli politics, state, and government; the role of religion in society; the impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict; gender in Israeli society; and Israeli literature, music, food, and art. 

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered bi-annually

  
  • HIST 130 - Introduction to History of Genocide


    In this course, we will provide students with a comparative perspective that highlights both theory and concrete examples of genocide.  After surveying different approaches to genocide, we will explore different cases of mass killing that took place over the course of centuries and across several continents: 1) Genocide in early history, 2) Genocide in modern time before Holocaust - Colonial Genocide, 3) Ottoman Genocide, 4) the destruction of European Jewry during the Holocaust, 5) Yugoslavia, 6) Cambodia, 7) Africa, Great Lake Region with a focus on Rwanda Darfur and Congo.  Finally, we will discuss the problem of prevention of Genocide.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

  
  • HIST 133 - Women during the Holocaust


    The aim of this introductory level course is to familiarize students with the history of the Holocaust by analyzing the experiences of women.  Women are often viewed as the objects of history - things happen to them; they don’t make things happen.  Certainly, the application of Nazi policy, derived and carried out primarily by men inside Germany and throughout occupied Europe, falls into this category.  Nazi policy affected various groups of women in diverse ways.  But always, women crafted their lives in response to Nazi policy:  some embraced it, others rejected it outright, and many did whatever they could just to get by.  In this course, students will analyze women’s agency within varying degrees of constraint and why women’s experiences are important.  Students will read a variety of texts that explore the experiences of women as victims, perpetrators, rescuers and resisters.  Lecture/Discussion

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually Fall and/or Spring

  
  • HIST 135 - History of Armenia


    Introduces the history of Armenia from antiquity to the modern times. Examines the formation of the Armenian state as an independent entity, the role of the major powers (eg, Byzantium, Persia), and the social and political institutions under the Armenian monarchies (eg, Bagratuni, Cilicia). Covers the history of modern Armenia from the late-18th to the 20th century, including the development of modern Armenian culture and political life in Ottoman and Russian Armenia. The course examines the emergence of the Armenian national movements, the events leading to the genocide, and the creation of the Republic of Armenia, Soviet Armenia, the re-emergence of the Republic of Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the current issues confronting the Republic.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 145 - U.S. History through the Novel


    Introduces American history with a distinctive and unconventional approach, resting on the assumption that we can gain access to the past by reading fiction. Students learn how to approach imaginative literature from an historical perspective and to appreciate the historical insight of writers who were keen observers of aspects of the making of modern America. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 152 - Jews in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America


    Between ca. 1400 and ca. 1800, the rights of most European Jews were severely restricted. Their story can only be told if we take into account the actions and measures of “gentiles” vis-a-vis the Jews. Having established what these conditions were, we will direct our attention to Jewish cultural and religious practices. The course starts with late medieval Christian myths and stories about Jews, scapegoating mechanisms and outright persecution. The course will end with the extension of greater freedom to the Jews in the Age of Democratic Revolutions, which made the question of assimilation an important issue.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 153 - Europe in the Age of Extremes: the 20th Century


    This course serves as an introduction into the political, social and cultural history of Europe from the beginning to the end of the 20th century. The survey is concerned with World War I and World War II, and with the nature of postwar stabilization and recovery. It focuses on the rise of dictatorships and the radicalization of mass violence during the first half of the century, as well as on the developments toward democracy, peace and civil society since 1950. The course will conclude with an evaluation of the remaking of Eastern and Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, the return of war and genocide to Europe, and present debates on the future of Europe.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 162 - The History of the Modern Middle East 1800 -1925


    The collapse of the Soviet Union, the Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War have rocked the political landscape in the world and the Middle East. Today’s nation-states and their boundaries in the region are in question and new nation-states are seeming to emerge. Contours of the region were first shaped by World War I and the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 which dismantled the Ottoman Empire some hundred years ago. This is a crucial point in the history of the region - one that continues to affect it to this day. This course will explore the history of the Middle East from the decline of the Ottoman Empire (early 19th century) until 1925. Major themes include the emergence of revolutionary nationalism among Armenians, Arabs, Kurds and Turks before and after World War I, massacres, ethnic cleansings and genocides against various people of the region; as well as the rise of Zionism and the ensuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the emergence of different nation-states in the region. The parameters that were set up in the 1920’s are the origin of today’s problems. Without understanding this period, we cannot understand the Middle East of today.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.

  
  • HIST 165 - Nazi Germany and the Holocaust


    Introduces students to the rise, the fabric, and the fall of the “Third Reich.” It starts with an investigation in how the Nazis came into power and why the first German democracy failed. The course then focuses on two related issues. Both are revolving around the success and the impact of Nazi politics in Germany and in Europe: How could Hitler and the Nazi Party establish its power in a country which was seen as a heart of Western culture? And: Why did so few Germans oppose Hitler and his racially based, terrorist regime?

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 175 - Holocaust: Agency and Action


    This course is an introductory, gateway course to the history of the Holocaust. It aims to provide a foundation for more specialized seminars and lecture courses in this field (many of which are offered by the History Department), and is required for the concentration in Holocaust and genocide studies. The Holocaust was not a natural disaster, nor is history predetermined. Looking at a range of people, from national leaders to army generals to local religious figures to student activists, to victims, we will examine the choices they confronted and the actions they took. This course spans many centuries and covers the continent of Europe. Our primary focus, however, is the National Socialist era and the Holocaust.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 181 - Chinese Civilization


    Focuses on Chinese life, institutions and culture from the earliest times through the mid-19th century. Creative literature, philosophical writings and selected primary documents supplement information presented in interpretive texts and lectures. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 182 - Modern China


    Introduces events, personalities and concepts of importance for understanding China’s history from the early-19th century to the present. Readings that present the Chinese view of events supplement interpretative studies by Western scholars. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP, DI

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 185 - The Russian Revolution, 1890-1938


    In the twentieth century, the Russian Revolution shook the world; the reverberations of the cataclysm of 1917 continue to be felt in our own time. What were the roots of the political, cultural, social and economic crisis that brought the Russian monarchy to an end and swept the party known as the Bolsheviks into power? Who were the Bolsheviks? What did they want? How did popular conceptions of direct democracy evolve into a dictatorship and why did so many revolutionaries end up as victims of the system they created? How did the new state mobilize the conscience of so many people, including the members of different national and religious communities? Looking at the long history of 1917 from a variety of perspectives – including that of the leaders, as well as those of ordinary men and women, soldiers, peasants, intellectuals and artists – this course will examine the breathtaking events that radically transformed the fate of the world’s largest country from the end of the tsarist empire to the creation of the Soviet Union. Course assignments will include Boris Pasternak’s master-novel of the revolution, DR.ZHIVAGO(to be read over the course of the entire semester) as well as very short (1-5 pp.) weekly readings drawn from primary sources in translation. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually

  
  • HIST 191 - Pirates and Smugglers in the Atlantic World


    This course examines piracy and its cousin, privateering - - vital weapons of the latecomers in the Atlantic world. The French, English, and Dutch relentlessly targeted Iberian ships, hoping to harm the enemy and receive a share of the riches shipped from the New World. Privateering was also successfully practiced by the Barbary states of North Africa, which captured many European ships and enslaved their crews. In Atlantic waters, especially the Caribbean, the scope for both piracy and smuggling was much wider than in Europe. Even more pervasive than piracy, smuggling was initially an alternative way for the northern Europeans to get hold of American crops and precious metals. Eventually, it gave rise to a distinct way of life in vast parts of the Americas.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually

  
  • HIST 201 - Era of the American Revolution


    Studies the origins, character and consequences of the American Revolution, from the erosion of imperial authority in the 1760s and 1770s to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Emphasizes relation of ideology and political ideas to social development.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 202 - The Early American Republic


    Studies formation and testing of the early United States from the adoption of the Constitution through the Jacksonian era. Emphasizes ideology, public policy and the problem of national integration during an age of extraordinary territorial and economic expansion.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 204 - Special Topics in American History


    Content varies with the interest of the instructor.  The title of this seminar for Fall 2019 is Gender and Women Workers Since 1945.

    Seminar: Gender and Women Workers Since 1945

    This seminar will examine the history of gender and women’s paid work in the context of the U.S. and its global reach since 1945. In this perspective, “U.S.” does not denote only the bordered mainland United States, but also a political, economic, and cultural hub for currents of labor and capital. While women have always worked, ideas about “woman’s work” shift across race, class, region, and citizenship as well as time. Readings will include histories of women laboring for U.S. businesses from home piecework and agriculture to care work and IT. We will discuss influential theories in the field of women’s labor studies, gender, and the body and how they apply to such history. All students interested in gender as a category of historical analysis as well as history majors will benefit from the seminar.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 205 - The Reformation: Violence and Reform in the Sixteenth Century


    By focusing on both theology and social history, this course details the main features of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations that swept across Europe in the sixteenth century. Questioning received wisdom, the doctrines of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin provided the foundation for a new relationship between the individual believer and God in areas that became Protestant. Unintentionally, the doctrines also spawned radical social movements that threatened the status quo. The Catholic Reformation led to the acceptance of the Bible as a source of truth, the establishment of seminaries to train priests, and the confirmation of the Pope as the head of the Church.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 206 - Africans in the Americas, 1500-1888


    The European enslavement of Africans in the early modern period was closely connected to the colonization of the New World. Although slavery was their condition, this course presents Africans as more than just bonded workers. The transformations of their identities, ethnicities, religions and gender roles are key to understand the lives of African-Americans. The African experience will be studied in a hemispheric framework that routinely compares structures and events throughout the Americas. The focus will be on African agency, from the African impact on the transatlantic slave trade, via the cultural practices that slaves transferred from their homelands, to African assertiveness in the New World as expressed in protest and marronage.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 207 - Exploring Public History through Old Sturbridge Village


    This seminar will use Old Sturbridge Village as a case-study to discover the variety of ways history museums can engage and teach the public. Students will not only gain an understanding of the museum and the time period that it seeks to recreate, but a larger conception of public history, history museums, and methods for teaching the public. A major component of the course will be hands-on work with primary source documents and objects from the museum’s collection. Every class will be held at Old Sturbridge Village, which will allow us to utilize the museum and members of its staff to further our discussions of the topics covered each week.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 209 - Marriage & the Meanings of America


    Often viewed as a personal decision, marriage is also a public act and institution. Marriage resides at the nexus of private life and community authority. It is simultaneously an emotional and economic arrangement tied to the production of value and the reproduction of the family. More than only a rite, marriage is a right capable of conferring other rights and societal benefits while policing the boundaries of gender, race, and citizenship. This course explores important themes in and approaches to the history of marriage in the United States from the 18th century to the present through an examination of recent scholarship and primary source material. 

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: In rotation with other advanced seminars

  
  • HIST 210 - Research Seminar Special Topic: Colonialism in the Atlantic World


    Fall 2018 Topic:  Colonialism in the Atlantic World - designed especially for graduate students and advanced History majors, this seminar focuses on a variety of aspects of the Atlantic world in the period from the 15th through the 19th century, including empire, disease, missions, syncretism, gender, migration, slavery, capitalism, and revolt and revolution. How have historians made sense of the numerous changes that occurred in these centuries, and which topics have led to debates?

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 211 - American Consumer Culture


    Investigates the nature and meaning of the consumer experience in American history. Draws upon studies of advertising, domestic life and urban institutions, and examines the varied ways in which historians have defined and interpreted the importance of consumption within American life. Introduces students to the process of primary historical research.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 212 - History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present


    Covers the history of sexuality from the Enlightenment to the present focusing on Western Europe. Students will examine how different societies in different times determined what was licit and what was illicit sexual behavior. Considers the efforts of governments, religious bodies, moralists, the medical profession and interest groups to regulate, repress or indeed encourage certain behaviors and attitudes. Specific topics include marriage, prostitution, birth control, the emergence of homosexual subcultures, and sexuality as identity.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 213 - Gender and the American City


    This course considers how the experiences and spaces of nineteenth-century urban life were shaped by and, in turn, shaped gendered assumptions about men and women.  How did men and women experience the city differently?  What aspects of urban life defined or reinforced gender differences?  Did city life create opportunities to transform gender roles? How did city dwellers use their gendered values and concerns to shape the city through reform, leisure, or work?  Specific topics for discussion will include: gendered spaces in the city, the symbolic role of gender in the urban landscape, the interaction of sexual and racial identities with the city’s gendered terrain, and the place of gender in urban leisure and cultural institutions.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 214 - The American Civil War


    This combination lecture/large discussion course will examine the origins, character, and meaning of the single greatest crisis in American history, the Civil War of 1861-1865.  The lectures, discussions, and readings will focus on both the long and short-term background to the outbreak of the war and ultimately on the combat and civilian experiences of Americans during four of the deadliest, most trying years in the history of the United States.  The course will conclude with a brief consideration of the legacy of the Civil War for the nation, and especially for the South and African-Americans.

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 215 - The Age of Lincoln


    This seminar will focus on an extraordinary individual and his times.  In terms of his personal character, his public vision, and his influence on American history, Abraham Lincoln deserves our closest scrutiny.  Put simply, had he never lived and acted as he did, our world today would surely be quite different.  As we attempt to take the measure of this man and his lasting significance, we will place appropriate emphasis on biography, and on the relationship between the private and the public in Lincoln’s life and career.

    Our attention will hardly be limited to this single individual, however, since any informed assessment of Lincoln must place him firmly in a number of relevant and precise historical contexts.  To this extent we will also be using our focus on Lincoln as a vehicle for understanding better the distinctive shape and character-and hence the central problems and concerns–of American society, culture, and politics from approximately 1815 through the Civil War.  Given Lincoln’s significance to the single greatest crisis in American national history, our ultimate focus will be on the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the crisis of the Union, and the ensuing war for American nationality.  And given the timeless moral issues at stake in that national project, we will surely want to engage even larger concerns and questions.  What is the relationship between private character and public leadership?  Can politics and morality, especially in the context of war, be effectively conjoined?  What constitutes responsible leadership in a democracy?  Can Lincoln’s leadership enlighten and even inspire Americans (and others) in the twenty-first century as we confront our own challenges and crises?

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 216 - Special Topics in US History


    Content & topics vary by semester and instructor; May be repeated one time for credit.

    SPRING 2020 TOPIC: SEM: TELEVISION, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY

    Since the 1950s, television has been an important medium for political discourse and a powerful venue for shared cultural experiences. News programs, talk shows, and comedy-variety shows have raised awareness of injustices through different ways of informing and entertaining their audiences. Sitcoms, science fiction, and dramas, from the 1970s search for social “relevance” to HBO’s more recent serials, have sparked conversation by presenting complicated and controversial issues to broad audiences. Children’s programs like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood have tried to enact different visions for an ideal American future. In this course, we will consider ways in which television has promoted and hindered social justice through the content and aesthetics of programs, how they have presented social groups and issues, and how they reflected and affected public discourse. We will also look behind the scenes, to see how television producers, corporate sponsors, government regulators, media critics, and social activists have tried to use television as a tool to change American society. This course will have a collaborative public history component: creating an exhibit and research guide for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. As a class, we will be among the first scholars to study some of the thousands of public television programs that WGBH and the Library of Congress have recently digitized, and we will create a publicly available resource to help researchers, educators, journalists, and activists better understand and use television for social justice.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 217 - Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, 1865-1877


    Examines American history in the post-Civil War period, from 1865 to 1877, a period of national redefinition and political and social experimentation. Explores how Americans struggled with the consequences of the Civil War and emancipation. Grounds students in the historical literature of the Reconstruction era while emphasizing original student research in local sources.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 219 - History of American Women


    This course moves through the chronology of American history to examine the broad themes that have shaped women’s lives in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 222 - History of the American South


    Explores the history of the South from the colonial period to the present, focusing on how the South developed as a distinctive region of the United States. Examines development of slavery; impact of slavery on the economy, politics and culture of the South; race, class and gender in the Old and New South; myth and reality of the New South; the South in the 20th century.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 223 - The Civil Rights Movement


    Examines roots and evolution of the civil-rights movement from the 1930s to the present. Includes civil rights as a grassroots movement; the New Deal, World War II and civil rights; emergence of Martin Luther King; women and the civil-rights movement; black power; the disintegration of the movement; the meaning of civil rights today.

    Course Designation/Attribute: DI

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 224 - Russian Visual Culture


    Eisenstein, Malevich, Chagall. Every movie buff and every student of modern art is familiar with these Russian names and their contribution to the great twentieth-century upheaval in visual culture that transformed the way we look at images today. How did Russia–which had no tradition of painting comparable to Italy and France–come to be associated with radical innovation in painting, photography, film, book illustration, and lithography? This course examines the history of Russian visual culture against the background of Russian history. We will discuss the role that images play in Russian Orthodoxy; the impact of Western regimes of representation on the native tradition of image making; the secularization of painting in the nineteenth century and the search for authenticity in pictorial styles; the role of revolutionary politics and Bolshevik ideology in the creation of still and moving images; the connection between the avant-garde theory of world creation and totalitarian art; and, finally, the emergence of non-conformist art in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, and its relationship to post-modernism.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: NA

  
  • HIST 226 - Comparative Colonialism


    Seeks to examine the ways in which Spanish, Dutch and English societies evolved in the New World from 1492 to 1824. Topics include the motives and backgrounds of settlers, encounters with natives, syncretism, the search for crops and precious metals, contacts with the mother countries, the contributions of Africans, and the revolutions that made an end to the mainland empires.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 228 - Early Modern Britain


    This course will cover the major political, economic, cultural, social, religious and intellectual developments in Britain from rise of the Tudor dynasty in the fifteenth century through the eighteenth century, at which time the British Empire dominated world politics. We will pay particular attention to the emergence of modern monarchy, the Protestant Reformations, the English Civil War, the Financial Revolution, and the beginnings of empire. We will examine how the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland came to be Britain and how a British identity emerged. We will also examine the relationships between major events and shifts in English society and culture, including the changing roles of women, the increasing dominance of the middle class and its affect on elite society and culture.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 230 - The Topics in Armenian Genocide


    The course will discuss some of the distinctive features of the Armenian Genocide and compare it with other genocides.  Some of the topics will be reviewed are the following: the origin of the Armenian “question”; Armenian reform attempts in 1894-96 and 1909 and its relation to genocide of 1915-7; Great Power policies during the Genocide - concentrating especially on German and American policies; question of humanitarian intervention and humanitarian relief efforts during Genocide; the experience of concentration camps during the Armenian genocide in comparison with other cases; Armenian Revolutionary Movements - their importance during the genocidal process; gender and the Armenian Genocide (especially the policies towards women and children and the question of orphans); resistance and the genocide; the legal process of economic plunder and confiscation of Armenian properties; the American response to Armenian Genocide in the post-genocidal period and finally the denial of genocide by successive Turkish governments and society and the question of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation are some of these topics that we will finish off the course with. Each case will be discussed in a comparative perspective. Throughout the course we also cover some of the current debates in the field such as the debate around “Captain Torossian” (an Armenian soldier in the Ottoman Army and his memoirs).

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 231 - Origins of Modern America, 1877-1914 (formerly America in the Gilded Age)


    Focuses on a especially volatile era, encompassing Gilded Age excess and Progressive Era reforms, that gave birth to modern America. Among the many topics explored are the nation’s emergence as a world power, the rise of industrial capitalism, immigration, urbanization, Populism, popular culture, and trans-Atlantic reform movements.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 232 - Judaism and the Origins of Christianity


    Most people think of Christianity as having descended from Judaism.  In this course, we will see that what we know as Judaism and Christianity both claimed ownership of the same textual tradition.  Both developed within the same political and religious landscape of the eastern Mediterranean in the first century CE and both drew heavily on contemporary Greek philosophy and literature.  Through close readings of the  principal sources of Christian literature, such as Paul’s letters to the first communities of Christian believers and the Gospel accounts of the life and death of Jesus, we will examine how Christianity first came to claim the title of  “New Israel” and how its controversial messianic interpretation of ancient Israelite prophecy shaped the evolution of rabbinic Judaism.  Focusing on the historical context of the  original  Jewish-Christian rivalry, we will see how their momentous split continues to shape our own social commitments, perceptions of divine and human justice, and attitudes toward family, community and self.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 233 - Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: Intellectual History of China


    Explores the three major intellectual traditions of China, with special emphasis on the ethical values of each tradition and their historical and contemporary relevance. Fulfills the Values Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

  
  • HIST 234 - History of Racism in Modern Europe


    The category of “race” has been used since about 1500–when Europe’s Renaissance met with the exploration of “other” human beings in different continents–to naturalize inequality among groups of people based on certain ideas of their bodies. The seminar focuses on the scientific foundation of modern racism in the Enlightenment, the origins of the cult of health and beauty at about 1900, and the globalization of western body ideals until now.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 235 - The Atlantic World


    A course that deliberately moves away from the traditional focus on nation-states and continents, concentrating instead on the Atlantic world that was created in the wake of the Portuguese explorations and Columbus’ voyages. The emphasis will be on the flow of people, commodities, germs, and ideas between the Old World (Europe and Africa) and the New.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 236 - Gender, War and Genocide in 20th Century


    Boys become real men through military service and by participation in war, by killing and dying for the fatherland, while giving birth to and raising children-motherhood–serves as central marker of womanhood. Gender stereotypes such as these were questioned but also reinforced throughout the wars of the 20th century. These wars mobilized men as well as women, and they increasingly blurred the boundaries between men and women. On all fronts and sites, however, concepts of masculinities and femininities structured propaganda and emotions, fighting morals and antiwar movement, the preparation of minds for mass violence, and its remembrance. We will discuss the impact of gender on mass violence and vice versa from World War I to World War II, from the Holocaust to the genocidal wars in former Yugoslavia, and from America’s “Good War” to Americans’ twisted coping with the Vietnam War to the rise of a ‘gender-neutral’ army. Focusing on European and American wars, the course includes comparative views on other regions of the world and puts emphasis on regional differences and peculiarities, such as transformation of a deeply gendered war culture in Europe into a peace culture after 1945. Special attention will be paid to various approaches to gender history, such as the analysis of discourses and images, or the analysis of gender practices. We will do this by critically analyzing scholarly work, written testimonies, literature, films, and propaganda materials.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.

  
  • HIST 237 - The Holocaust Perpetrators


    This course explores the main parts of the German and Central European society that committed the Holocaust, that is the desktop perpetrators like Adolf Eichmann, the physicians who carried used Jews for medical experiments, the concentration-camps guards, and the killing units as the hard core of the SS elite, but also “ordinary” Germans and soldiers who served in police battalions or in the drafted army, on women who served as guards or as part of the occupational regime, and not least on non-German collaborators or volunteers. The course focuses on the interrelation of individual and biographical backgrounds, mental and ideological orientations, and social and institutional arrangements: What are the reasons that made “normal” human becoming mass murderers?

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually

  
  • HIST 238 - America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1917-1991


    This course will focus on the Russian-American rivalry at the center of world politics from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Major topics include the escalating nuclear arms race, recurrent crises in Vietnam, Cuba and other parts of the Third World, and important personalities from Harry Truman and Josef Stalin to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

  
  • HIST 239 - Special Topics Course in Global History


    The content of this course will vary by instructor.

    SPRING 2019 Topic: The Making of Modern Iran, 1500 - 2009

    Twentieth century Iranian history was characterized by revolutions (in 1906 and 1978), military occupation, and coups. This period demonstrated tensions between competing visions of modern Iran, forged over the preceding four centuries; the emergence of Khomeinism and Guardianship of the Jurists was never a foregone conclusion. This course will examine the history of the Iranian state and society, beginning with the emergence of a Shi’i Safavid Empire in 1501 and ending with Green Movement protests following the 2009 Presidential Election. Rejecting approaches to Iran that reduce its history to the origins of the Islamic Revolution, the course will explore the complexity of modern Iranian history, from Sufi-ruled empire to a politically fragmented monarchy to a centralizing national state. Iran has been home to diverse cultural, religious, and ideological currents. It will trace the rise of Iranian nationalism, in inclusive and exclusive forms, regional separatism, secularism, and the Islamist and left-wing opposition into and through the twentieth century. The course will seek to nuance and complicate students’ impressions of Iran by including views from Iranian women and religious and linguistic minorities. Finally, it will place this society in contexts of the Middle East, Persianate Eurasia, and global modernity.

    May be repeated for credit (2 times)

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every other year

  
  • HIST 243 - American Antiquarian Society Seminar in American Studies


    Given at the American Antiquarian Society (about two miles from Clark); students conduct original research in the society’s unique holdings. Students apply in the spring through Professor McCoy, History Dept.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: na

  
  • HIST 245 - U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East since 1945


    This course explores America’s stormy relationship with the Middle East from World War II through 9/11 and the war in Iraq, with special emphasis on oil, the Cold War, and the rise of radical Islam. Among the key topics will be the Arab-Israeli conflict, the battle for control of the Persian Gulf, and the impact of the Middle East on American popular culture.

    Course Designation/Attribute: NA

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

  
  • HIST 250 - A Perfect Game: Baseball as History and Literature


    Baseball has often been cited as “America’s game,” in that it is thoroughly interwoven into the history of American culture.  Baseball’s history reflects important themes and developments in American culture, including immigration and assimilation, race and civil rights, and globalization.  At the same time, baseball is a metaphor to which American writers return over and over to express their sense of American identity and culture.  This interdisciplinary course looks at “America’s game” from the perspectives of both history and literature and asks, what can baseball tell us about the United States and its people?  For undergraduate English majors this course satisfies the Period (D-3) post 1900 literature requirement.

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 252 - The Holocaust Through Diaries and Letters


     

    The aim of this course is to engage in a bifocal understanding of history: from the perspective of those who experienced events as they unfolded, and from our vantage point today. Our goal is to recognize anew the potentiality of an unfolding present when many options are available, and to analyze the factors that conduced to the decisions and choices we now know were taken. 

     

    What did people know, and when did they know it? What role did denial and silence play? What, if any, patterns of daily life choices emerge? Do specific human traits or values loom large when life is lived in extremis?

    Prerequisites: Any HGS course

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 253 - Beauty, Gender, and Power around the World, 1800 to the Present


    This course examines changing and multifaceted beauty standards around the world (Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania) with the aim of deconstructing them in order to understand the power dynamics embedded in ideal appearances.  Positioning beauty at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality, we will examine its construction through political and cultured readings on the meanings of body parts and body languages (i.e. hair, face, teeth, skin, smile, and feet).  This course encourages students to problematize contemporary beauty templates in various countries and cultures.  We will also use our examination of beauty as a way to further develop student’s skills in historical research, reasoning, and writing.

    Prerequisites: Course open to junior and senior students only.

    Course Designation/Attribute: DI

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

  
  • HIST 254 - The Age of Atlantic Revolutions


    The half-century after 1776 was a period marked by the violent pursuit of political liberty and economic opportunity on both sides of the Atlantic. In North America, the Thirteen Colonies were transformed into the United States of America informed by an Enlightenment ideology of rationalism, secularism and democracy, which had long been cultivated in Europe. Tapping the same sources, the French rebels soon saw their revolution degenerate into a bloody spectacle. Another consequence of the French Revolution was the rebellion in the Caribbean colony of St. Domingue, in the course of which slavery was abolished and independence achieved.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 256 - The British Empire


    By the early 20th century, one in five people in the world lived in the British Empire, a vast territory that covered a quarter of the globe. This class will examine the evolution of this empire from the very first colonies to the present day. We will explore India and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, Canada–and, of course, the origins of the United States. In doing so, we will consider issues of immigration, emigration, settlement, race, religion, politics, revolution, violence, war, culture, literature, and just what it means to be an empire.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • HIST 259 - Special Topics in European History


    Content & topics vary by semester and instructor.  May be repeatable for credit.

    SPRING 2019 Topic: THE BLACK DEATH: MEDICINE, CULTURE, AND CRISIS IN MEDIEVAL EURASIA  What disease was the Black Death of the later Middle Ages? How many people died and how did the survivors rebuild their lives and societies? Thanks to recent, revolutionary advances in paleogenetics, bioarcheology, and epidemiology, we can now answer these questions definitively: the Black Death was indeed plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, and it killed roughly half of all people in Europe, the Near East, and Central Asia during the fourteenth century. But these scientific discoveries demand that historians reevaluate the primary sources and historiography of the Black Death with a new understanding, now informed by genetic and genomic data. Students in this seminar will do just that, as we closely read and discuss the latest analyses of plague as both a pathogen and a historical actor, and explore the consequences of applying both historical and scientific methods to diseases of the past. (No previous experience in biology or genetics is required.)

    Special Topics:  Fall 2018:  Crusade and Jihad: Medieval Holy Wars.  The Crusades remain one of the best known, most controversial, and least understood events in Western history, as the imagery of crusading has been embraced and manipulated by presidents, terrorists, artists, and teachers. In this course students will explore the creation of the idea of “holy war” and jihad in Christian and Muslim societies and the key events and players of the medieval crusades to the Near East from the launch of the First Crusade in 1095 to the end of the Middle Ages. You will read primary sources from Christian and Muslim perspectives and examine some of the key historical arguments about the crusades, crusading, and their impact on European and Middle Eastern societies. The class will also explore the cultural memory of the Crusades in Western society and its impact on our interactions with the Islamic Middle East in modern society.

     

     

    Prerequisites:  

     


    Corequisites:  

     


    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

    Placement Guidelines
     

     


  
  • HIST 260 - Rescue and Resistance During the Holocaust


    Investigates rescue and resistance activities during the second World War. Our aim will be to come to a critical understanding of what we mean by “rescue” and “resistance,” and to analyze how these undertakings were organized, who participated in them and why people felt compelled to do so. Looks at the role and function (if any) of age, gender, degree of religious observance, political affiliation and social class in our attempts to understand not only what activities were undertaken, but the motivation for such actions.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 262 - Genocide, Denial, Facing History and Reconciliation


    After the term “Genocide” was coined for macro crimes in 1948 by the United Nations, the word became not only one of the most important legal, social and political terms, but also an important inter-disciplinary field in the Social Sciences. History, sociology, political science, international law, and psychology, among others, have developed their own fields of genocide specialization. The usage or non-usage of the term for certain macro crimes in recent years has become an important political problem of our time. Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur are only some examples. This course considers the emergence, definition and meaning of the term genocide - particularly the development of the concept of genocide in International Law and how was the term created by Raphael Lemkin. Special place is given to the discussions in the UN leading to the final adoption and definition of the UN Convention in 1948 and the problems arising from the 1948 definitions. In addition to legal concepts, the course concentrates on the different sociological concepts of genocide, taking a closer look at theoretical explanations of genocide. Other topics include: question of premeditation in decision-making process, genocide denial, prevention of genocide, and problems of the comparative approach to case studies. Finally, the course examines why societies should deal with atrocities in their past, the meaning of facing history, and the different forms of dealing with past (amnesia, retributive justice, restorative justice, truth and reconciliation committees, etc.).

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 264 - Modern European History through the Novel


    Introduces the intellectual and political history of Europe through the novel.  Reading the masterworks of European fiction, students will explore some of the most contentious issues in modern European thought, and develop aunique perspective on imaginative literature as an indispensable source of our knowledge about the past.  Course approaches the modern novel as a sensitive register of a culture’s moral and social climate, and the locus of the modern struggle to reconcile public responsibility and personal desire. 
    Former title: European Mind: History and Theory

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually

  
  • HIST 266 - Refugees


    The aim of this course will be to investigate and analyze the history of the “Refugee Question” in Europe and America, and to explore the impact of these international and national debates on the lives of the asylum seekers.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 268 - Special Topics:


    Content & topics vary by semester and instructor.  May be repeated for credit (2 times)

    SPRING 2020 Topic: BORDERLANDS: VIOLENCE AND COEXISTENCE

    A border is a line separating two sovereign entities-crossing a border means switching into a different state. But borderlands are also spaces of interaction. They are characterized by diversity, malleable identities, and-at times-violence. This course explores the modern history of borderland regions, including case studies in Central and East Central Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the US-Mexico border. Looking at these examples we will consider how populations in these regions coexist, as well as the processes that transform groups in the borderlands into perpetrators and objects of intense violence.

     

    FALL 2019 Topic: HOLOCAUST MEMORY 

    This seminar will examine the development of Holocaust memory after 1945, with a special emphasis on communist and post-communist Europe and the role Holocaust memory has played in European integration. Together we will explore the relationship between Holocaust memory as individual experience, family history, national project, and a transnational discourse of European identity and human rights. How have individual and family memories challenged, shaped, or conformed to national, European, or global representations of the Holocaust? Students will think about how the memory of the Holocaust is framed, mediated, and performed through readings of important secondary scholarship, eyewitness reports, postwar testimonies, memoirs, and relevant works of fiction and film. Students with an interest in the memory of genocide and violence in other geographical regions and chronologies are encouraged to attend and bring their different perspectives to the discussion.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: yearly

  
  • HIST 269 - The History and Culture of Business in East Asia


    Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi, Alibaba: Where did these giants of industry come from, and where are the economies of East Asia headed?  This course will approach the successes of business in East Asia from a historical viewpoint.  In it, we will approach “business” not as a single game with universal set of rules, but rather as commercial activities that is the result of specific historical and cultural processes that precede this century and our own lifetimes.  We will first look at how business was conceptualized and regulated in Confucian society, and then examine contemporary questions or issues concerning the practice of business in East Asia.  In the final phase of the course, participants will form teams that will collaborate in research, reviewing the history of a specific trade, and finally pitching business plans to the class.

    Prerequisites: Sophmores, Juniors and Seniors only.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP and DI

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

  
  • HIST 276 - Collective Memory and Mass Violence


    There is no present and no future without the past. This is true not least when it comes to mass violence: the way societies decide about whether to engage in war or even genocide depends on their collective experiences with events of mass violence in the past, and on which lessons they have drawn from these experiences. This seminar examines how societies, nations, and political movements fabricate, transmit, and consume collective memory of war, genocide, and terror. It will inquire into different theories of, and approaches to, the concept of collective memory and apply them to major events of mass violence and political terror in the 20th century, such as World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, Apartheid, and the recent wars and the genocide in former Yugoslavia. The course will explore a broad range of different dimensions, issues, and mediums of collective memory, such as war trials, traumas, memoirs and testimonies, fictional literature and popular culture, memorials and museums and other representations of collective memory. Particular attention will be paid to how national identities shape and rely on the memory of mass violence. Fulfills the historical perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually

  
  • HIST 277 - America’s Founding Fathers: Memory and Meaning


    Using the “Founding Fathers” paradigm as its focus, this pro-seminar in American political and cultural history explores the transmission of Revolutionary values and institutions across generations in the United States. Students will first explore the eighteenth-century world of the Founders before assessing how their legacies continue to influence present-day institutions and values. We will focus our attention in the latter part of the course on issues and controversies of urgent concern, including the Second Amendment and gun control, the Constitutional provisions for impeachment, and the complicated relationship among region, race, and American nationality.

     

     

    Prerequisites: Juniors or Seniors, or permission of the instructor.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

  
  • HIST 279 - Massacres, Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention: Western Powers in the Balkans and the Middle East


    Course begins with a general introduction to the subject of Humanitarian Intervention and will examine the Western powers’ policy towards the Balkans and the Middle East with the establishment of the Concernt of Europe in 1815.  The different case studies will be:  Ottoman Greeks in 1821-33; Lebanon and Syria (1860-61); Crete (1866-69), Serbia and Bulgaria (1875-78) and Macedonia (1903-08) and analyze the different types of intervention and non-intervention policies of the Great Powers.  Seminar

    Prerequisites: The student should have taken at least one course in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Concentration.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring annually

  
  • HIST 281 - China since 1949: State, Economy and Family in the People’s Republic


    This course explores China’s historical development from the founding of the People’s Republic (PRC) in 1949 through the early years of the 21st century. Rather than attempting to cover all aspects of PRC history, the course focuses on three interconnected themes: the nature of the modern state, the shift from a socialist to post-socialist economy, and the changing dynamics of family life. Topics include agrarian revolution and land reform in the 1950s, the impact of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, the economic reform program of the 1980s and 1990s, political protest, family change, and the role of migrant labor in China’s growing economy. We shall investigate these issues through a variety of sources: scholarly monographs, primary documents, fiction, ethnography, memoir, feature film, and documentaries. While there are no formal prerequisites, some background in Asian studies and/or 20th century history is highly recommended.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 286 - The Vietnam War


    Explores the Vietnam War, emphasizing American involvement in Vietnam in the decade 1965 to 1975. Includes a survey of the history and culture of Vietnam, French experience in Vietnam, and American involvement with Vietnam from World War II to the present.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 288 - Sem: Public History


    The content of this Public History course can vary each time it is offered. May be repeated for credit (taken a max of 2 times).

    In Spring 2017 the topic will be Public History: Race, Photography and Community. This course is devoted to research and preparation for the photography exhibition, “William Bullard: Reimagining an American Community of Color, 1897-1917,” which will be open at the Worcester Art Museum in October 2017.  The exhibition will feature 80 photographs of people of color taken in Worcester.  In addition to gaining hands-on experience by preparing wall text for the exhibition and contributing to an accompanying website, students will learn about the larger contexts of African American history and people of color in Worcester at the turn of the twentieth century; about nineteenth century portraiture; the use of photography by black Americans for both personal and political purposes; and the many challenges of interpreting and presenting these images to the public.  Taught with Nancy Burns, Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Worcester Art Museum.

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 289 - Dying for God: Martyrdom in Early Judaism & Christianity


    This course examines the beginnings of martyrdom in the ancient Mediterranean, the cradle of Judaism and Christianity.  Looking closely at the historical context - the intellectual, social and political developments - that gave rise to the iconic figure of the martyr in the world of late antiquity, we will explore how men and women came to embrace the opportunity of “dying for God,” and why the cult of martyrdom became a public institution.  Ancient people viewed the spectacle of martyrdom with an equal measure of admiration and alarm; looking closely at evidence of their ambivalence, we will gain some perspective on our own mixed feelings about this deeply disconcerting phenomenon/

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 290 - Honors Forum


    The Honors Forum is a class designed to support honors students as they go through the process of writing their honors theses. It meets every other week and is intended to be a two-course sequence, each semester worth ¼ credit. Support consists of developing skills specific to writing history at an advanced undergraduate level. These include but are not limited to: time management for a year-long project, developing a research question,finding primary and second sources, managing the ups and downs of the research process, putting together an historiography, working with bibliographic management software, and crafting strong prose. Support also includes presenting one’s own work and providing constructive those of others.This class is meant to support, not supplant, the work honors students do with their advisors. Must be taken with HIST 297.

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semester

  
  • HIST 291 - Advanced Topics


    Content & topics vary by semester and instructor.  May be repeated for credit (2 times).

    SPRING 2019 Topic: AMERICA CONFRONTS RADICAL ISLAM This course will explore America’s uneasy encounter with the Muslim world from the late 18th century to the present, with special emphasis on the Cold War and the post-Cold War era. Among the issues to be addressed are the rise of Arab nationalism, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the emergence of Islamic radicalism. We will examine not only well publicized topics such as the Iranian Revolution and civil wars in Afghanistan but also lower profile matters such as the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah. Here is the overarching question that will preoccupy us this spring: “Is the clash between America and the Muslim world the product of fundamental ideological, strategic, and economic disagreements, or is it the result of cultural misunderstanding and mutual misperception?”

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 293 - African American Social and Political Movements


    This course will examine the African American struggle against social and political oppression in America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specifically, students in this course will explore black American involvement in the Antislavery Movement, the Women’s Club movement, the Harlem Renaissance, Anti-colonial activities, and the rise and fall of the Black Power and Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. By the end of the course, students will understand how black-led organizational efforts helped to transform America’s social and political landscape.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered bi-annually.

  
  • HIST 295 - Dangerous Women


    This course will explore the history of dangerous women from Bible through the present, concentrating most heavily on early modern Europe. We will focus primarily on England, France and Germany (though occasionally we will draw on scholarship about the U.S. and other regions). We will examine discourses of dangerous women developed in religious writings, myth, literature and fairy tales, medicine, crime reporting, social science and legal texts in order to interrogate the very concept of the dangerous woman and ask why certain women at certain times were considered dangerous. We will also look at the experiences and treatment of women labeled dangerous specifically examining saints, heretics, prostitutes, witches, step-mothers, queens, lesbians, criminals, mentally-ill women and women’s rights activists.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.

  
  • HIST 297 - Honors


    Students receive variable credit for advanced research and readings in the honors program.  Co-requisite, students are required to also register for HIST 290, Honors Forum.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 298 - Internship


    An Academic internship is a practical work experience with an academic component that enables a student to gain knowledge and skills within an organization, industry, or functional area that reflects the student’s academic and professional interests while earning credit. Maybe repeatable for credit.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Semester

  
  • HIST 299 - Directed Study


    Undergraduates, typically juniors and seniors, construct an independent study course on a topic approved and directed by a faculty member. Offered for variable credit.

    Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

  
  • HIST 301 - Era of the American Revolution


    Studies the origins, character and consequences of the American Revolution, from the erosion of imperial authority in the 1760s and 1770s to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Emphasizes relation of ideology and political ideas to social development.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 302 - The Early American Republic


    Studies formation and testing of the early United States from the adoption of the Constitution through the Jacksonian era. Emphasizes ideology, public policy and the problem of national integration during an age of extraordinary territorial and economic expansion.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 304 - Special Topics in American History


    Content varies with the interest of the instructor. The title of the course for Fall 2019 is Gender and Women Workers Since 1945.

    This seminar will examine the history of gender and women’s paid work in the context of the U.S. and its global reach since 1945. In this perspective, “U.S.” does not denote only the bordered mainland United States, but also a political, economic, and cultural hub for currents of labor and capital. While women have always worked, ideas about “woman’s work” shift across race, class, region, and citizenship as well as time. Readings will include histories of women laboring for U.S. businesses from home piecework and agriculture to care work and IT. We will discuss influential theories in the field of women’s labor studies, gender, and the body and how they apply to such history. All students interested in gender as a category of historical analysis as well as history majors will benefit from the seminar.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 305 - The Reformation: Violence and Reform in the Sixtreenth Century


    By focusing on both theology and social history, this course details the main features of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations that swept across Europe in the sixteenth century. Questioning received wisdom, the doctrines of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin provided the foundation for a new relationship between the individual believer and God in areas that became Protestant. Unintentionally, the doctrines also spawned radical social movements that threatened the status quo. The Catholic Reformation led to the acceptance of the Bible as a source of truth, the establishment of seminaries to train priests, and the confirmation of the Pope as the head of the Church.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 306 - Africans in the Americas, 1500-1888


    The European enslavement of Africans in the early modern period was closely connected to the colonization of the New World. Although slavery was their condition, this course presents Africans as more than just bonded workers. The transformations of their identities, ethnicities, religions and gender roles are key to understand the lives of African-Americans. The African experience will be studied in a hemispheric framework that routinely compares structures and events throughout the Americas. The focus will be on African agency, from the African impact on the transatlantic slave trade, via the cultural practices that slaves transferred from their homelands, to African assertiveness in the New World as expressed in protest and marronage.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 307 - Exploring Public History through Old Sturbridge Village


    This seminar will use Old Sturbridge Village as a case-study to discover the variety of ways history museums can engage and teach the public. Students will not only gain an understanding of the museum and the time period that it seeks to recreate, but a larger conception of public history, history museums, and methods for teaching the public. A major component of the course will be hands-on work with primary source documents and objects from the museum’s collection. Every class will be held at Old Sturbridge Village, which will allow us to utilize the museum and members of its staff to further our discussions of the topics covered each week.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 308 - The Idea of History


    This graduate seminar provides an advanced introduction to the development of modern historiography and its methods.  Focusing on the evolution of historical writing and its contribution to the pursuit of human knowledge, the course addresses the following topics:  1) the professionalization of historical research; 2) the relationship between historical understanding and the formation of critical consciousness; 3) differences in approaches to representing the past and the attendant debate about the value of historical scholarship; 4) the impact of globalization and interdisciplinary on the subject of history; and 5) the implications of the “historical turn” in the humanities and social sciences.  Students will be expected to analyze the connection between works of history and their contemporary social, political and philosophical context and to demonstrate an ability to discern and articulate the principal themes, problems and controversies which inform the field of historical study.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 309 - Marriage & the Meanings of America


    Often viewed as a personal decision, marriage is also a public act and institution. Marriage resides at the nexus of private life and community authority. It is simultaneously an emotional and economic arrangement tied to the production of value and the reproduction of the family. More than only a rite, marriage is a right capable of conferring other rights and societal benefits while policing the boundaries of gender, race, and citizenship. This course explores important themes in and approaches to the history of marriage in the United States from the 18th century to the present through an examination of recent scholarship and primary source material. 

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: In rotation with other advanced seminars

  
  • HIST 310 - Special Topics Seminar: Colonialism in the Atlantic Worl


     

    Fall 2018 Topic: Colonialism in the Atlantic World


    Designed especially for graduate students and advanced History majors, this seminar focuses on a variety of aspects of the Atlantic world in the period from the 15th through the 19th century, including empire, disease, missions, syncretism, gender, migration, slavery, capitalism, and revolt and revolution. How have historians made sense of the numerous changes that occurred in these centuries, and which topics have led to debates?

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 311 - American Consumer Culture


    Investigates the nature and meaning of the consumer experience in American history. Draws upon studies of advertising, domestic life and urban institutions, and examines the varied ways in which historians have defined and interpreted the importance of consumption within American life. Introduces students to the process of primary historical research.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 312 - History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present


    Covers the history of sexuality from the Enlightenment to the present focusing on Western Europe. Students will examine how different societies in different times determined what was licit and what was illicit sexual behavior. Considers the efforts of governments, religious bodies, moralists, the medical profession and interest groups to regulate, repress or indeed encourage certain behaviors and attitudes. Specific topics include marriage, prostitution, birth control, the emergence of homosexual subcultures, and sexuality as identity.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 313 - Gender and the American City


    This course considers how the experiences and spaces of nineteenth-century urban life were shaped by and, in turn, shaped gendered assumptions about men and women.  How did men and women experience the city differently?  What aspects of urban life defined or reinforced gender differences?  Did city life create opportunities to transform gender roles? How did city dwellers use their gendered values and concerns to shape the city through reform, leisure, or work?  Specific topics for discussion will include: gendered spaces in the city, the symbolic role of gender in the urban landscape, the interaction of sexual and racial identities with the city’s gendered terrain, and the place of gender in urban leisure and cultural institutions.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 314 - The American Civil War


    This combination lecture/large discussion course will examine the origins, character, and meaning of the single greatest crisis in American history, the Civil War of 1861-1865.  The lectures, discussions, and readings will focus on both the long and short-term background to the outbreak of the war and ultimately on the combat and civilian experiences of Americans during four of the deadliest, most trying years in the history of the United States.  The course will conclude with a brief consideration of the legacy of the Civil War for the nation, and especially for the South and African-Americans.

     

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 315 - The Age of Lincoln


    This seminar will focus on an extraordinary individual and his times.  In terms of his personal character, his public vision, and his influence on American history, Abraham Lincoln deserves our closest scrutiny.  Put simply, had he never lived and acted as he did, our world today would surely be quite different.  As we attempt to take the measure of this man and his lasting significance, we will place appropriate emphasis on biography, and on the relationship between the private and the public in Lincoln’s life and career.

    Our attention will hardly be limited to this single individual, however, since any informed assessment of Lincoln must place him firmly in a number of relevant and precise historical contexts.  To this extent we will also be using our focus on Lincoln as a vehicle for understanding better the distinctive shape and character-and hence the central problems and concerns–of American society, culture, and politics from approximately 1815 through the Civil War.  Given Lincoln’s significance to the single greatest crisis in American national history, our ultimate focus will be on the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the crisis of the Union, and the ensuing war for American nationality.  And given the timeless moral issues at stake in that national project, we will surely want to engage even larger concerns and questions.  What is the relationship between private character and public leadership?  Can politics and morality, especially in the context of war, be effectively conjoined?  What constitutes responsible leadership in a democracy?  Can Lincoln’s leadership enlighten and even inspire Americans (and others) in the twenty-first century as we confront our own challenges and crises?

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 316 - Special Topics in US History


    Content & topics vary by semester and instructor; May be repeated one time for credit.

    SPRING 2020 Topic: SEM: Television, Social Justice, and Modern American History

    Since the 1950s, television has been an important medium for political discourse and a powerful venue for shared cultural experiences. News programs, talk shows, and comedy-variety shows have raised awareness of injustices through different ways of informing and entertaining their audiences. Sitcoms, science fiction, and dramas, from the 1970s search for social “relevance” to HBO’s more recent serials, have sparked conversation by presenting complicated and controversial issues to broad audiences. Children’s programs like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood have tried to enact different visions for an ideal American future. In this course, we will consider ways in which television has promoted and hindered social justice through the content and aesthetics of programs, how they have presented social groups and issues, and how they reflected and affected public discourse. We will also look behind the scenes, to see how television producers, corporate sponsors, government regulators, media critics, and social activists have tried to use television as a tool to change American society. This course will have a collaborative public history component: creating an exhibit and research guide for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. As a class, we will be among the first scholars to study some of the thousands of public television programs that WGBH and the Library of Congress have recently digitized, and we will create a publicly available resource to help researchers, educators, journalists, and activists better understand and use television for social justice.

    FALL 2019 Topic: Puerto Rico and the U.S.  

    People often call Puerto Rico “the oldest colony” because the U.S. occupied the islands in 1898 and have governed them for over a century. This intermediate course studies the island and its dynamics as an “unincorporated possession” of the United States. Rather than a simple U.S./Puerto Rico binary, readings track intersecting lines of power, which include the U.S. military but also insular criollos, various independistas and political activists, and international investors. Puerto Rico celebrates a rich history and cultural heritage, and it has a modern role in the economic, military, and demographic developments of the U.S. Narratives of its backwardness or marginality have obscured this vital role. Primary sources and literature as well as secondary articles will also explore experiences of the Puerto Rican diaspora and consistencies and changes over time, like the recent shift of migration from the Northeast to the South and the “braindrain” caused by the 2014-2015 fiscal crisis and 2017 Hurricane Maria.

     

     

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 317 - Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, 1865-1877


    Examines American history in the post-Civil War period, from 1865 to 1877, a period of national redefinition and political and social experimentation. Explores how Americans struggled with the consequences of the Civil War and emancipation. Grounds students in the historical literature of the Reconstruction era while emphasizing original student research in local sources.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 318 - London and Paris: the Making of the Modern City


    London and Paris are two of the great cities of the world.  This class will explore the foundation and development of these capitals as they grew from small medieval centers to the vast metropolises that they are today.  Along the way we will consider major events (the Black Death, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the World Wars); the development of urban culture and politics; and the everyday life of ordinary Londoners and Parisians.  You will hear from writers from Geoffrey Chaucer to Gertrude Stein; you will see works of art from Abbot Suger to Banksy; you will hear music from Gregorian chant to the Clash.  From the London Bridge to the Eiffel Tower, from Notre Dame to the London Eye, we will explore the making of the modern city through the stories and perspectives of these great cities.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

  
  • HIST 319 - History of American Women


    This course moves through the chronology of American history to examine the broad themes that have shaped women’s lives in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • HIST 322 - History of the American South


    Explores the history of the South from the colonial period to the present, focusing on how the South developed as a distinctive region of the United States. Examines development of slavery; impact of slavery on the economy, politics and culture of the South; race, class and gender in the Old and New South; myth and reality of the New South; the South in the 20th century.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 323 - The Civil Rights Movement


    Examines roots and evolution of the civil-rights movement from the 1930s to the present. Includes civil rights as a grassroots movement; the New Deal, World War II and civil rights; emergence of Martin Luther King; women and the civil-rights movement; black power; the disintegration of the movement; the meaning of civil rights today.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • HIST 324 - Russian Visual Culture


    Eisenstein, Malevich, Chagall. Every movie buff and every student of modern art is familiar with these Russian names and their contribution to the great twentieth-century upheaval in visual culture that transformed the way we look at images today. How did Russia–which had no tradition of painting comparable to Italy and France–come to be associated with radical innovation in painting, photography, film, book illustration, and lithography? This course examines the history of Russian visual culture against the background of Russian history. We will discuss the role that images play in Russian Orthodoxy; the impact of Western regimes of representation on the native tradition of image making; the secularization of painting in the nineteenth century and the search for authenticity in pictorial styles; the role of revolutionary politics and Bolshevik ideology in the creation of still and moving images; the connection between the avant-garde theory of world creation and totalitarian art; and, finally, the emergence of non-conformist art in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, and its relationship to post-modernism.

  
  • HIST 326 - Comparative Colonialism


    Seeks to examine the ways in which Spanish, Dutch and English societies evolved in the New World from 1492 to 1824. Topics include the motives and backgrounds of settlers, encounters with natives, syncretism, the search for crops and precious metals, contacts with the mother countries, the contributions of Africans, and the revolutions that made an end to the mainland empires.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 328 - Early Modern Britain


    This course will cover the major political, economic, cultural, social, religious and intellectual developments in Britain from rise of the Tudor dynasty in the fifteenth century through the eighteenth century, at which time the British Empire dominated world politics. We will pay particular attention to the emergence of modern monarchy, the Protestant Reformations, the English Civil War, the Financial Revolution, and the beginnings of empire. We will examine how the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland came to be Britain and how a British identity emerged. We will also examine the relationships between major events and shifts in English society and culture, including the changing roles of women, the increasing dominance of the middle class and its affect on elite society and culture.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 330 - The Topics in Armenian Genocide


    The course will discuss some of the distinctive features of the Armenian Genocide and compare it with other genocides.  Some of the topics will be reviewed are the following: the origin of the Armenian “question”; Armenian reform attempts in 1894-96 and 1909 and its relation to genocide of 1915-7; Great Power policies during the Genocide - concentrating especially on German and American policies; question of humanitarian intervention and humanitarian relief efforts during Genocide; the experience of concentration camps during the Armenian genocide in comparison with other cases; Armenian Revolutionary Movements - their importance during the genocidal process; gender and the Armenian Genocide (especially the policies towards women and children and the question of orphans); resistance and the genocide; the legal process of economic plunder and confiscation of Armenian properties; the American response to Armenian Genocide in the post-genocidal period and finally the denial of genocide by successive Turkish governments and society and the question of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation are some of these topics that we will finish off the course with. Each case will be discussed in a comparative perspective. Throughout the course we also cover some of the current debates in the field such as the debate around “Captain Torossian” (an Armenian soldier in the Ottoman Army and his memoirs).

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 331 - Origins of Modern America, 1877-1914 (formerly America in the Gilded Age)


    Focuses on a especially volatile era, encompassing Gilded Age excess and Progressive Era reforms, that gave birth to modern America. Among the many topics explored are the nation’s emergence as a world power, the rise of industrial capitalism, immigration, urbanization, Populism, popular culture, and trans-Atlantic reform movements.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • HIST 332 - Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: Intellectual History of China


    Explores the three major intellectual traditions of China, with special emphasis on the ethical values of each tradition and their historical and contemporary relevance. Fulfills the Values Perspective.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

  
  • HIST 334 - History of Racism in Modern Europe


    The category of “race” has been used since about 1500–when Europe’s Renaissance met with the exploration of “other” human beings in different continents–to naturalize inequality among groups of people based on certain ideas of their bodies. The seminar focuses on the scientific foundation of modern racism in the Enlightenment, the origins of the cult of health and beauty at about 1900, and the globalization of western body ideals until now.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: -

 

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