2023-2024 University Catalog 
    
    May 28, 2024  
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2023-2024 University Catalog archived

Course Descriptions

 

History
  

  • HIST 211 - Scandal, Crime, and Spectacle in the 19th Century


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course examines the intersection between scandal, crime, and spectacle in 19th-century France and Britain. We discuss the nature of scandals, the connection between scandals and political change, and how scandals and ideas about crime were used to articulate new ideas about class, gender, and sexuality. In addition, this class covers the rise of new theories of criminality in the 19th century and the popular fascination with crime and violence. Crime and scandal also became interwoven into the fabric of the city as sources of urban spectacle. Students are introduced to text analysis and data mining for the humanities.
  

  • HIST 212 - Crime and Punishment in Medieval and Early Modern Europe


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    An exploration of the history of crime, law enforcement, and punishment during the period of 1200-1650. Our central project is to investigate the deep problems of writing history from a paucity of very biased sources: the criminal records of a world of the past. We begin with the central historical questions: What counted as criminal when, who defined it, and with what authority? What could count as proof of guilt? What constituted acceptable punishment (torture, imprisonment, spectacle executions, penance) and how did this change over time? What role did politics, religion, class, gender, or marginal status play?
  

  • HIST 213 - Germany, 1815-1914


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The impact of the French Revolution on Germany, the onset of industrialization, the revolution of 1848, the career of Bismarck and Germany’s wars of national unification, the Kulturkampf between Protestants and Catholics, the rise of the socialist labor movement, liberal feminism and the movement for women’s rights, the origins of Imperialism in foreign policy, and Germany’s role in the outbreak of the First World War.
  

  • HIST 214 - Dictatorship and Democracy in Germany, 1914-2000


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The failure of Germany’s first attempt at democracy in the Weimar Republic, the interaction between art and politics, the mentality of the Nazis, the institutions of the Third Reich, the Second World War and Holocaust, the occupation and partition of Germany in 1945, the reasons for the success of democratic institutions in the Federal Republic, the origins of modern feminism, the economic collapse of the German Democratic Republic, and the process of national reunification in 1989-91.
  

  • HIST 215 - From Weimar to Hitler: Modernism and Anti-Modernism in German Culture after the First World War


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 4
    Germany adopted an admirably democratic constitution after the First World War, and the Weimar Republic became a center of bold experimentation in literature, the arts, theater, cinema, and scholarship, but it also became a hotbed of radical nationalism and xenophobia. This course analyzes the relationship between art and politics through case studies in the debates provoked by anti-war films and poetry, the Bauhaus international style of architecture, the plays of Bertolt Brecht, expressionist art, and films and paintings to celebrate the advent of the “New Woman.” Why did modernism inspire so much anxiety in Germany in the 1920s? To what extent did cultural experimentation contribute to the popularity of Adolf Hitler? What lessons did Weimar intellectuals in exile learn from the Nazi seizure of power?
  

  • HIST 216 - The Making of Modern Scotland: Braveheart to Brexit


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    A surveys of the history of the Scottish people from the medieval period up to the current debates surrounding the possibility of Scottish Independence and the future of Great Britain. Along the way, we examine the Wars of Independence, the Renaissance and Reformation, the Scottish Enlightenment, the Highland clearances, emigration to North America, involvement in the British Empire, and the development of Scottish nationalism. Students confront two interrelated questions: How has the history of Scotland been made, manipulated, and romanticized over the last seven centuries, and why do we remain fascinated by this small country across the Atlantic? This class, then, is both an introduction to Scottish history, and an exploration of the thin lines between history, myth, and reality.
  

  • HIST 217 - History of the British Isles to 1688: Power, Plague, and Prayer


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The history of the British Isles to 1688 tells the story of how an island remote from the classical world came to dominate much of the modern one. This course ventures from Britain during Roman occupation and Anglo-Saxon migration, to the expansion of the Church and tales of chivalry during the Middle Ages, then finally to exploration and conflict during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties. Topics include the development of Christianity, Viking invasions, the Scottish wars of independence, the evolution of parliament, the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation, the beginnings of Empire, and the 17th-century revolutions.
  

  • HIST 218 - Rule Britannia, 1688- 1990: The History of Britain from the Glorious” Revolution to the Iron Lady”


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course explores three centuries of British history, from the Revolution of 1688 to the era of Margaret Thatcher. Between these years, Britain became the world’s pre-eminent industrial and imperial power; one that has had a profound influence on the history of America. Though only a small collection of islands in the North Atlantic, throughout these centuries Britain created, for good and for ill, an empire upon which the sun never set. At the same time, British society at home had to come to grips with the dark underbelly of urban, industrial life - crime, disease, prostitution, unrest, etc. We examine the themes of revolution, economic growth, imperialism and decolonization, geopolitics, modern warfare, race and gender, and above all, ideas of Britishness across time and space.
  

  • HIST 219 - Seminar: The Age of the Witch Hunts


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: at least sophomore class standing. This course introduces students to one of the most fascinating and disturbing events in the history of the Western world: the witch hunts in early-modern Europe and North America. Between 1450 and 1750, more than 100,000 individuals, from Russia to Salem, were prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft. Most were women and more than half were executed. In this course, we examine the political, religious, social, and legal reasons behind the trials, asking why they occurred in Europe when they did and why they finally ended. We also explore, in brief, global witch hunts that still occur today in places like Africa and India, asking how they resemble yet differ from those of the early-modern world.
  

  • HIST 220 - Imperial Russia, 1682 to 1917


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    From the rise to power of Peter the Great, Russia’s first emperor, through the fall of the Romanov dynasty.
  

  • HIST 221 - Soviet Russia, 1917 to 1991


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The revolutions of 1917, the emergence of the Soviet system, the Stalinist period, Stalin’s successors, and the eventual collapse of the USSR.
  

  • HIST 222 - Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union and the Resurgence of Russia


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course analyzes the reasons for the decline of the Soviet Union commencing in the latter part of the Brezhnev era and its collapse under the weight of the failed reforms of Gorbachev. It further traces the fragmentation of the USSR into 15 republics and the simultaneous devolution of authority within the Russian Republic under Yeltsin. The course concludes with the remarkable reassertion of state power under Putin up to the present. Substantial attention will be devoted to Russia’s war against Ukraine over the past year.
  

  • HIST 223 - International Relations, 1815-1918: Europe and the World


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Topics include the Metternich system for maintaining peace, strains in that system caused by the rise of nationalism, European relations with Africa and Asia during the era of Free Trade, the dramatic expansion of Europe’s colonial empires in the late-19th century (with special emphasis on the partition of Africa), the development of rival alliance systems within Europe, and the causes of the First World War. Our goal is to understand the causes of international conflict and the most successful strategies for maintaining peace.
  

  • HIST 224 - International Relations, 1919-2000: The End of European Hegemony


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: at least sophomore class standing. Topics include the Versailles peace settlement of 1919, the spread of the British Empire to the Middle East and birth of Palestinian nationalism, the impact of the Great Depression and totalitarianism on international relations, the outbreak of the Second World War, the Holocaust and foundation of the State of Israel, the Nuremberg Trials, decolonization in Africa and Asia, the origins of the Cold War, and the foundation of the European Economic Community. What have Europeans learned about conflict resolution from their experience of two world wars and numerous colonial wars?
  

  • HIST 225 - The Reformation in Britain: Blood, Sex, and Sermons


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The Reformation of the 16th century shattered the once unitary religious cultures of England and Scotland. Although important continuities remained, the introduction of Protestantism wrought dramatic effects in both countries, including intense conflict over nature of salvation, the burning of martyrs, the hunting of witches, religious migrations, a reorientation of foreign policy, changes in baptismal and burial practices, and more. Students explore these changes and the lives and legacies of some of history’s most fascinating figures, from Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in England to Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox in Scotland, while also constantly asking how ordinary English and Scottish men and women experienced the Reformation and its aftermath.
  

  • HIST 226 - Pillage, Peddling and Piety: Travel in the Middle Ages


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Perhaps contrary to expectation, Medieval people traveled extensively for trade and profit, pilgrimage and piety, conquest and gain, and even for pleasure. These motives cut across the cultures of the medieval world to encompass Muslims, Christians, and Jews and led these people to places both proximate to and far distant from Europe. We explore the medieval world as a world that moved. To that end, in addition to some more traditional academic exercises, students create a group mapping project using a host of digital tools that can communicate movement, exchange, and interaction. Topics include pilgrimage, trade, economic systems, holy war, gender, race, and chivalry.
  

  • HIST 227 - Discover Scotland: History and Culture through Theater


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4
    Spring Term Abroad. Same as THTR 227. For a small nation of just over 5 million, Scotland looms remarkably large in our historical, cultural, and artistic imagination. This course travels to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Highlands to allow students to go beyond the mythologizing and romance to discover Scotland as it has been experienced and performed by the Scottish people. Using Scotland’s vibrant and remarkably political theater scene as our jumping-off point, we study this country’s history and culture, examining the powerful intersections of myth and reality that shape Scottish identity past and present. We pay particular attention to the dichotomies – Highland and Lowland; urban and rural; separatist and unionist; poor and rich; Protestant and Catholic, etc. – that make modern Scotland such a fascinating subject of historical and artistic inquiry.
  

  • HIST 228 - Women in Russian History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Students read many accounts by and about Russian women to gain an understanding of how Russian women have been affected by wars, revolutions, and other major events and, simultaneously, how they have been agents of change from the beginnings Russian history up to the present.
  

  • HIST 229 - Topics in European History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3-4
    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. A course offered from time to time depending on student interest and staff availability, on a selected topic or problem in European history.
  

  • HIST 230 - Discovering W&L’s Origins Using Historical Archaeology


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Not open to students who have taken SOAN 181 with the same description. Same as SOAN 230. This course introduces students to the practice of historical archaeology using W&L’s Liberty Hall campus and ongoing excavations there as a case study. With archaeological excavation and documentary research as our primary sources of data. we use the methods of these two disciplines to analyze our data using tools from the digital humanities to present our findings. Critically, we explore the range of questions and answers that these data and methods of analysis make possible. Hands-on experience with data collection and analysis is the focus of this course, with students working together in groups deciding how to interpret their findings to a public audience about the university’s early history. The final project varies by term but might include a short video documentary. a museum display, or a web page.
  

  • HIST 231 - Darwin and His Critics: The Theory of Evolution from 1755 Till Today


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    One of the most influential scientific theories is the theory of organic evolution. Its history has largely been written by Darwin and his followers. In this course, we look at the “Darwin industry” but then additionally explore a revisionist history that incorporates the non-Darwinian approach to the origin of life and species. Giving close attention to the scientific facts and the different theories, we also raise the questions “Where were these theories situated?” “What socio-political purposes did they serve?” and “Which religious connotations did they have?” We will end by bringing the historical perspective to bear on today’s ongoing controversies about evolution theory.
  

  • HIST 232 - Popular Culture in Latin America


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course explores Latin America’s diversity in cultures, focusing on the everyday expressions and experiences of working-class, Indigenous, Black, and Asian descent peoples. The course will first examine how economic and social relationships related to class, race, gender, and religion are experienced through labor, dance, dress, and forms of worship. The second half of the course examines the cultural
    expressions of those relationships by scrutinizing themes such as music, sports, beauty, film, protest culture, and the internet. We will analyze the syncretic reality of cultural mixing, as well as the tension between the desire to maintain an authentic popular culture and the pressure to conform to the global culture industry.
  

  • HIST 233 - U.S.-Latin American Relations from 1825 to Present


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Examines the historical interaction between Latin America and the United States from Spanish American Independence in 1825 to the present. Explores the political, social, cultural, economic, and ecological dimensions of this relationship, focusing on such key themes as imperialism, development, military-state relations, the environment, the war on drugs, science and technology, and human rights.
  

  • HIST 235 - Historical Memory in Latin America


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course will examine the complex role of historical memory in the 19th and 20th c. Latin America. We will study collective, official, counter, and living memory as analytical concepts, as well as specific memory battles and historical trauma. Readings explore the impact of Holocaust memory studies in Latin America and the erasure of indigenous and African stories from national histories. However, a special focus will be given to how historical memory is used to remember the military regimes of the 1970s and 1980s and why historical memory has emerged as the political language of expanding democratic rights.
  

  • HIST 236 - The Indigenous South


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course is about the history of Indigenous people and nations in the Southeast from the pre-contact period to the present. Comprised of diverse peoples, speaking different languages, and with a range of customs and beliefs, the people of the Native South nevertheless share common cultural traditions, social systems, and histories. In this course, we will cover the Mississippian mound building civilizations; Native southerners encounters with Europeans; the American Revolution, Civil War, and Jim Crow as experienced in the Native Southeast; and contemporary struggles over for Native sovereignty and identity. Students will be introduced to the methodologies used by archeologists, historians, ethnohistorians and those working in the discipline of Native American and Indigenous Studies, to recover Indigenous perspectives and history. Students will develop a research project of their choosing about the Native Southeast that examines issues of Indigenous sovereignty, representation, erasure, resistance, cultural adaptation, and resilience. 
  

  • HIST 237 - Gender and Sexuality in Latin America


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course examines how gender and sexuality shaped Latin American history from the late colonial period to the current day. Class materials cover themes such as femininity, masculinity, queerness, machismo, and transgender experiences that intersect with topics of nation-building, suffrage, racial equality, religion, authoritarian governments, and revolutions. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students will learn about regional patterns as well as specific case studies. Students will study gender-related laws that highlight local developments as well as regional conversations about gender and sexuality, culminating in a gender code group project.
  

  • HIST 238 - Anthropology of American History


    SOAN 238 FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Same as SOAN 238. This course explores issues within historic American communities that ethnographers often investigate among living groups, including cultural values, religious ideologies, class structures, kinship networks, gender roles, and interethnic relations. Although the communities of interest in this course ceased to exist generations ago, many of their characteristic dynamics are accessible through such means as archaeology, architectural history, and the study of documents. Case studies include early English settlement in Plymouth, Mass.; the 18th-century plantation world of Virginia and South Carolina; the post-Revolutionary Maine frontier and 19th-century California.
  

  • HIST 239 - Collective Memory: Society, Culture, Identity and Power


    SOAN 239 FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Why do some places, events, objects, symbols, and individuals become central to understandings of heritage, while others seem ignored or forgotten? How do people use material objects - including landscapes, monuments and artifacts - in negotiations of memory and history, identity and belonging, or debates about good and evil? This course examines cultural, social, political, and economic processes of shared remembrance through case studies from regional, national, and global contexts. We aim to expand understandings of ways that our own society as well as those distant from us in time and space have selectively incorporated their past into the present with an eye to the future. This exploration of collective, contested memory considers heritage tourism, dark tourism, memorialization as witnessing, ethics of remembrance, and relationships between memorialization and power.
  

  • HIST 240 - Early American History to 1788


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    An intensive study of the political, constitutional, economic and social development of British North America from European discovery through the American Revolution and the years of the Confederation government.
  

  • HIST 241 - Empire of Liberty? Revolutionary America 1763-1830


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Thomas Jefferson famously referred to the fledgling United States as an “empire of liberty,” a seemingly contradictory characterization. But was it? To explore this question and many others, this course examines the causes, character, and consequences of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States. We will focus on the key events, people, documents, and interpretations of the Revolutionary era but also on the experiences and perspectives of those who sometimes appear only at the margins of this story: loyalists, women, African Americans, Indigenous nations, artisans, and others. In addition to reading historical scholarship, each week we will scrutinize a variety of primary sources, not only to improve your understanding of the history of Revolutionary America but to develop your own ability to interpret the past. 
  

  • HIST 242 - The United States, 1789-1840


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The political, constitutional, economic and social history of the United States from the beginning of Washington’s first term as president to the end of Van Buren’s only term. Launching the Republic; Hamiltonian economic program; the first party system; the Revolution of 1800, the second war for independence; the second party system; westward expansion; Nullification; the Bank War; and the second Great Awakening.
  

  • HIST 243 - The Evolution of American Warfare


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course examines U.S. military history from the colonial period to the post-9/11 American military experience. Since this is a period of more than four hundred years, the course limits its focus to major topics and central questions facing the men and women who have fought in American wars. We trace the course of American military history by focusing on three themes: the early development of American military institutions, the evolution of military policy toward civilian populations, and the changing face of battle in which Americans have fought. All three of these themes relate to the central goal of this course, which is to gain a better understanding of how America’s military developed in conjunction with and sometimes in conflict with American democracy.
  

  • HIST 244 - The Art of Command during the American Civil War


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 4
    Prerequisite: instructor consent. This seminar examines the role of military decision-making, the factors that shape it and determine its successes and failures, by focusing on four Civil War battles: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Wilderness. Extensive reading and writing. Battlefield tours. Most appropriate for students who have completed HIST 245 or HIST 269. Additional course fee required, for which the student is responsible after Friday of the 7th week of winter term.
  

  • HIST 245 - The American Civil War


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The sectional crisis. The election of 1860 and the secession of the southern states. Military strategy and tactics. Weapons, battles, leaders. Life of the common soldier. The politics of war. The economics of growth and destruction. Emancipation. Life behind the lines. Victory and defeat.
  

  • HIST 246 - American Experience with Guerrilla Warfare and Insurgency


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course dives headlong into the chaotic, destructive, and brutally violent world that has been American Involvement with irregular warfare. Over the past 400 years, Americans have trained guerrillas, fought as irregulars, and sparked armed insurrections. This course looks at the broad typology of violence known as irregular warfare, including insurrections, violent revolutions, partisan and guerrilla warfare, U.S. Army/Native American conflict, and 20th-century insurgency and low-intensity conflict.
  

  • HIST 247 - America in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    A survey of the transformation of American society under the impact of industrialization and urbanization. It examines how business leaders, workers, farmers, and the middle class attempted to shape the new industrial society to their own purposes. Emphasis is given to social, intellectual, and cultural experiences and to politics.
  

  • HIST 249 - The Scientist as National Hero


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    In this course we discuss the place of scientists in Western society, from the time of the Victorian professionalization of science till today, and we pay attention to the formation of a twentieth-century elite of Nobel Laureates and their role in national politics as well as, to a lesser extent, in international affairs. The course begins by discussing issues of historiography, giving special attention to scientific biography and metabiography. We thus “locate” science by looking at it as an embodied phenomenon, not just as a set of ideas and theories. The practitioners of science are dealt with, their institutions, their image in society and their role in contributing to politics and the public good. How/why have some scientists gained extraordinary leadership status in our culture; how/why have some become national heroes, a few even international ones? Can scientists provide the moral and political leadership to deal with the challenges in society that their very successes have created?
  

  • HIST 250 - Saints and Sinners in the Puritan Atlantic


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    This class explores the history of Puritans—a term that was itself derisive— on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the legacy of Puritanism in Britain and America. Topics covered include the development of Puritanism after the English Reformation, the settlement of Massachusetts, the trial of Anne Hutchinson, relationships with Native Americans, the English Civil War and rule of Oliver Cromwell, and the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Throughout, we will pay special attention to the relationship between religion and politics, the role of gender in Puritan life and theology, the nature of transatlantic ideas and communication, and popular practice versus orthodoxy. 
  

  • HIST 251 - Science and the Supernatural


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    In modern - especially late-modern - times, science has become the adjudicator of truth - truth in terms of fact and law-like rationality. The result has been a retreat of the occult, of many superstitions, and the uncovering of fallacies and frauds. Yet large sectors of modern society have remained enamored of the paranormal. Even scientific practitioners themselves, including Nobel Laureates, have kept alive a belief in telepathy, precognition and such-like phenomena. Equally persistent, especially in religious circles, has been the conviction that miracles do happen; and, again, great scientists and medical practitioners have supported these and similar notions. More recently, the study of “wonders” has emerged as a separate field of inquiry: anomalistics. This course explores the fascinating history of the uneasy relationship between science and its contested boundaries where fact and fiction overlap. The recent outbreak of conspiracy theories, facilitated by social media, adds to our topic’s current affairs significance.
  

  • HIST 252 - Animal Behavior and Human Morality in Historical Perspective


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    We trace the history of the study of animal behavior in its bearing on human morality, from the beginning of the professionalization of the subject around 1800 till the present day. Often, tentative connections have been and are being made between the ways animals behave and how humans conduct themselves, thus conferring legitimacy on shared traits. The line of argument in making these linkages is simple and straightforward: if animals behave in certain ways, these ways are natural and therefore, beyond reproach; if humans share these traits, they, too, must be considered free of blame. Issues of gender and sexuality traditionally have been at the forefront of these considerations, but also the institutions of marriage, family, slavery, systems of government - monarchy, republic, etc. - as well as war, aggression, altruism and more have been argued for or against on the basis of animal examples.
  

  • HIST 254 - History of the U.S. Welfare State


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    A survey of the history of the U.S. welfare state from the 19th century through today. Topics include Social Security, welfare, the War on Poverty and Great Society, the Reagan-Era War on Welfare. Students analyze contemporary public-policy questions in their historical dimensions, and use historical knowledge to better understand contemporary political and policy debates.
  

  • HIST 255 - England in the Age of Shakespeare


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    “This class uses the dates of Shakespeare’s life (1564-1616) as our chronological frame to explore the history of England during the profoundly important reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI and I. Together we examine the era of personal monarchy and the growing resistance of parliament, the encounters with “others” beyond England’s shores, the relationship between gender and power, the spread of religious convictions and contradictions, colonialism and the beginnings of the British Empire, and the great literary and artistic figures of the day. We also investigate what life was like for the average men and women who lived and died during England’s “golden age.” “
  

  • HIST 256 - The History of Violence in America


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Same as SOAN 256. An examination of the social origins, evolution, and major forms of extralegal, violent conflict in the United States, including individual and collective violence and conflict related to race, class, gender, politics, and ethnicity, especially emphasizing the 19th and 20th centuries. Major topics include theories of social conflict, slavery and interracial violence, predatory crime, labor strife, and inter-ethnic violence.
  

  • HIST 257 - History of Women in America, 1609-1870


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    An examination of women’s social, political, cultural and economic positions in America through the immediate post-Civil War. Changes in women’s education, legal status, position in the family, and participation in the work force with emphasis on the diversity of women’s experience, especially the manner in which class and race influenced women’s lives. The growth of organized women’s rights.
  

  • HIST 258 - History of Women in America, 1870 to the Present


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    A survey of some of the major topics and themes in American women’s lives from the mid-19th century to the present, including domestic and family roles, economic contributions, reproductive experience, education, suffrage, and the emergence of the contemporary feminist movement. The influence on women’s roles, behavior, and consciousness by the social and economic changes accompanying industrialization and urbanization and by variations in women’s experience caused by differences in race, class, and region.
  

  • HIST 259 - Introduction to African American History to 1877


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course is an introduction to African American history from the end of Reconstruction to the present day. Drawing on primary and secondary sources including, speeches, newspaper articles, legal cases, and more, students will learn how to engage in historical analysis. Key topics for consideration include Jim Crow, lynching, Black political participation, The Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and more. Of particular significance will be Black people’s ongoing efforts to critique the limits of American democracy, claim their freedom, and exercise the rights of citizenship.
  

  • HIST 260 - Introduction to African American History from 1877


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    An intensive study of the African-American experience from 1877 to the present. Special emphasis is given to the development of black intellectual and cultural traditions, development of urban communities, emergence of the black middle class, black nationalism, the civil rights era, and the persistence of racism in American society.
  

  • HIST 261 - Women and Slavery in the Black Atlantic


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    From the 16th century to the 19th century, over 12 million Africans were shipped to the New World. Of those who survived the Middle Passage, fewer than 500,000 arrived in the United States; the vast majority were dispersed throughout the Caribbean and South America. The experiences of enslaved women, as well as the relationships between free and enslaved women, are as diverse as the African diaspora. Given the broad geographical scope of Africans’ arrivals in the New World, this course offers a comparative examination of women and slavery in the Black Atlantic. Topics for consideration include black women’s gendered experiences of slavery, white women’s roles in slave societies, and women abolitionists. Students also examine how African and European conceptions of gender shaped the institution of slavery in the New World. Particular attention is devoted to slavery in West Africa, Barbados, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States.
  

  • HIST 262 - The Old South to 1860


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    A study of the making of the Old South. Slavery. Antebellum political, economic, social, and cultural developments. The origins and growth of sectionalism.
  

  • HIST 264 - Morning in America? Society, Culture and Politics in The Age of Reagan


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 4
    This course provides students with an in-depth analysis of the United States during the Reagan presidency. While the bulk of the course focuses on the 1980s, it also provides an overview of the 1960s and 1970s as well as the legacy of the decade for contemporary America. Rather than studying a single theme across a long period of time, this class provides students with a variety of thematic approaches within a more confined time-period. Accordingly, while the focus is on national politics, we explore the impact of the decade on economic, social, cultural, diplomatic, and political history.
  

  • HIST 265 - The U.S. in the Era of World War II


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course studies the history of the Second World War, with particular attention to its consequences for the United States. Major topics include the political and economic origins of the war, the American debate over intervention, American military and diplomatic strategy, the effect of the war on the U.S. economy, the consequences for mobilization for American society, and the myth and reality of the Greatest Generation.
  

  • HIST 266 - The American Century: U.S. History from 1945


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course surveys the social, political, cultural, and economic history of the United States in the post-1945 period. Topics include the atomic bomb and the cold war, the growth of the state, liberalism, conservatism and radicalism, race and civil rights, feminism and anti-feminism, and foreign policy.
  

  • HIST 268 - Building a Suburban Nation: Race, Class, and Politics in Postwar America


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Together, the overdevelopment of the suburbs and the underdevelopment of urban centers have profoundly shaped American culture, politics and society in the post-WWII period. This course examines the origins and consequences of suburbanization after 1945. Topics include the growth of the national state, the origins and consequences of suburbanization, the making of the white middle class, the War on Poverty, welfare and taxpayers rights” movements, “black power,” and how popular culture has engaged with questions about race and class. In the process of understanding the historical roots of contemporary racial and class advantage and disadvantage, this course will shed new light on contemporary public policy dilemmas.
  

  • HIST 269 - Topics in United States, Latin American or Canadian History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3-4
    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. A course offered from time to time, depending on student interest and staff availability, on a selected topic or problem in United States, Latin American or Canadian history.
  

  • HIST 271 - Islam in America: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness


    REL 271 FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Same as HIST 271. From the discourse on the War on Terror, to debates about Muslim women’s dress, Islam in America has attracted the attention of journalists, activists, government officials, and scholars of religion. This course takes a critical-historical approach to the topic by examining key themes in the history of Islam in America: the lives of enslaved African Muslims in the Antebellum period and the Founding Fathers’ visions of Islam; the immigrant experience of Arab Muslims at the turn of the 20th century; the role of Muslim organizations in the Civil Rights movement; and, the changing representations of American Muslims after the Gulf War and post-9/11. In interrogating the history of Islam in America, we specifically pay attention to the ways in which religion, gender, class, race, and citizenship continue to inform representations of Muslims in the U.S.
  

  • HIST 272 - Radicals, Witches, and Revolutions: Britain in the Seventeenth Century


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course explores the most tumultuous period of British history, beginning in 1637 on the eve of the British Civil Wars and ending with the “Glorious” Revolution of 1688-89. This era witnessed revolutionary political conflict, destabilizing religious ideas, rapid social and economic transformation, imperial expansion, and lasting intellectual change. Witches were hunted, one king lost his head and another fled the country, religious radicals called for the abolishment of private property, and many feared the apocalypse was nigh: it was, in many ways but certainly not all, a world turned upside down. This class asks why there so much upheaval in the seventeenth century and identifies the profound legacies and lessons of the period. 
  

  • HIST 275 - African Women in Comparative Perspective


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    In this course, we will widen our appreciation of African Women’s experiences, including history, legal and socio-economic status, religious and political roles, productive and reproductive roles, and the impact of colonialism and post-independence development and representation issues. The course will move across time and space to examine the aforementioned in pre-colonial, colonial and ‘post’-colonial Africa. We will begin with the question: What common beliefs/images about African women did/do Euro-Americans share?
  

  • HIST 276 - History of South Africa


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course aims to study the history of the country of South Africa with particular attention to both the uniqueness and the commonalities of its colonial history with other settler societies. Unlike other Anglophone settler colonies, South Africa never reached a demographic majority where white settlers became predominant. Instead, European settlers made fragile alliances against the African and Indian populations in their midst, solidifying a specific form of minority settler rule. This rule was crystallized in the near half-century of apartheid, the legal discrimination of the vast majority of the country for the benefit of a select few. Students emerge from this course as better scholars of a different society and of many of the historic pressures and struggles that are part of the history of the United States.
  

  • HIST 277 - Speaking and Being Zulu in South Africa


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Sanibonani, abangani bami! (Greetings, my friends!) Want to learn more about an African language and culture? We spend the first two weeks intensively learning isiZulu, a language spoken by over 10 million people in South Africa. We also learn about the history of the Zulu people in southern Africa, covering topics from colonialism, racial discrimination, gender and sexuality, and music, and we enjoy Zulu music and film. “Masifunde ngamaZulu!” (“Let’s learn about the Zulus!”)”
  

  • HIST 278 - Great Moments in the History of Medicine


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Significant aspects of medicine’s development through the ages. Great doctors and the plight of patients are considered, along with major breakthroughs in diagnostic practice and clinical treatment, benefits and costs to humanity, failures and ethical dilemmas. We explore medicine as a situated practice by dealing with its institutionalization, hospitals, psychiatric institutions, and biomedical laboratories. Special attention is paid to some of the many points of friction that are evident when looking at the changing place of medicine in society.
  

  • HIST 279 - Africa in the Western Imagination


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    From benefit concerts to AIDS charities to study abroad literature, Africa is everywhere. And yet it is frequently explained only in absence or in suffering. Rather than being a place that is defined by what it is, often Africa is viewed by what it is not, and the term ‘Afro-pessimism’ has been coined by some to criticize such solely negative depictions of a vast and varied continent. What, then, is ‘Africa’: a location on a map, a geographical boundary? Who are ‘Africans’? What does the idea mean and how is it used? This course draws on literature and popular culture to discuss the very idea of ‘Africa’ and how the concept has been created, redefined, re-imagined, and (de)constructed in differing times and spaces.
  

  • HIST 280 - History of the Caucasus and Central Asia


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The peoples who inhabit the Caucasus Mountains region and Central Asia are extraordinarily diverse in their history, culture, language, and religion. The area has been a crossroads of civilizations for centuries, and comprises present-day southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Students study how the Caucasus region and Central Asia have developed from early-recorded history to the present, through close reading and discussion of scholarly texts and primary sources. Students also write an analytical essay from a range of assigned topics and a research paper on a topic of their own choosing.
  

  • HIST 282 - Picturing Muhammad? Perceptions of the Prophet from the Hijra to Hip-Hop


    REL 282 FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Same as REL 282. To Muslims, Muhammad is a prophetic figure whose model life is to be emulated; to non-Muslims, a controversial figure that has stirred the imagination for centuries. Through an analysis of the earliest non-Muslim sources on Muhammad, to insider Muslim narratives of the prophet’s miraculous life, to polemical medieval Christian stories about him, to Deepak Chopra and Muhammad in hip-hop, this course explores the various historical, literary, and media representations of Muhammad. We will pay special attention to recent controversies on visual depictions of Muhammad, as well as contemporary ritual practices surrounding the embodiment of Islam’s most important prophet.
  

  • HIST 284 - Visions of Japan’s Empire in East Asia: 19th-Century Origins through World War II


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Japan’s 19th-century imperial system ensured its status as the only major non-western great power in the first half of the 20th century. Within the space of its fifty years of existence (1895-1945), imperial Japan underwent radical political, social and cultural transformations that had equally profound effects on East Asian and world history, culminating in World War II. The course explores these distinctive transformations, which constitute Japan’s theory and practice of political and cultural imperialism, through an analysis of text and image, from which the class constructs a website.
  

  • HIST 285 - Seminar: Eunuchs, Concubines and Patriarchs: Family and State in Imperial China


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Relations between men and women are the basis of any human society, but the exact nature and interpretation of these relations differ from time to time and from place to place. The concepts of Yin (female) and Yang (male) were integral to the theory and practice of Chinese gender relations during the late imperial period, influencing marriage, medicine and law. This course examines the historical significance of late-imperial gender relations across these, and other, categories from both traditional and modern perspectives.
  

  • HIST 286 - History of Kyrgyzstan from the Silk Road to the Present: Crossroads of Empire, Culture, and Religion


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4
    Prerequisite: instructor consent. An analysis of the history of empire, culture, and religion in the Central Asia nation of Kyrgyzstan. Together with the course instructor, students travel to Bishkek, attend courses taught by faculty of the American University of Central Asia, and visit important sites and landmarks within the city. The program includes an excursion of several days to the northern and southern shores of Lake lssyk-Kul, where students experience rural, nomadic life, hike in the mountains, and stay in yurts. Students keep a daily log and write a research paper on a topic of their choice with the instructor’s approval.
  

  • HIST 288 - Key Thinkers on the Environment


    ENV 288 FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Same as HIST 288. Key thinkers on the environment are central to this course, ranging from ancient greats such as Aristotle to modern writers such as David Suzuki and E.O. Wilson about the ecosystem crises of the Anthropocene. We highlight certain 19th-century icons of environmentalist awareness and nature preservation, such as Alexander von Humboldt in Europe and Humboldtians in America, including Frederic Edwin Church and Henry David Thoreau.
  

  • HIST 289 - Topics in Asian, African, or Islamic History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3-4
    A course offered from time to time depending on student interest and staff availability, on a selected topic or problem in Asian or African history. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
  

  • HIST 295 - Seminar: Topics in History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3-4
    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. A seminar offered from time to time depending on student interest and staff availability, in a selected topic or problem in history.
  

  • HIST 304 - Seminar on Medieval Heresy and Inquisition


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    The advent of heresy in the medieval west spurred major developments in law and legal procedure, many of which found their way to the practice of Western law today. But its most memorable practice, inquisition, is better remembered as a blood-thirsty and irrational institution that preyed upon free-thinking. What was heresy? Who defined it and why, after a hiatus of almost 500 years, did it all of a sudden seem to appear on the horizon in the 11th century? This course explores this turbulent but arguably creative moment in the history of Western culture and consider techniques of power, the creation of in-groups and out-groups, gender, literacy, politics, reform and revolt, and the nature of religious practice.
  

  • HIST 305 - Seminar: Religion and the Church in Medieval and Renaissance Politics and Society


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Using texts and documents from the period itself, this seminar surveys the history of the Christian church in Western Europe and its relations with its neighbors from its emergence in Late Antiquity to the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Topics include the evolution of religious orders, relations with secular powers, scholastic theology, mysticism, humanism, lay religious movements, gender, heresy, and the recurring problem of reform.
  

  • HIST 306 - Seminar: Politics and Providence: Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3

    How did religion shape politics and the development of political institutions in the Middle Ages? This seminar surveys the evolution of political thought from St. Augustine to Machiavelli. We examine Christianity’s providential view of history, church-state relations, scholasticism, the revivals of Greek and Roman philosophy, humanism, and the origins of the modern state. Readings include St. Augustine, John of Salisbury, St. Thomas Aquinas, Marsilius of Padua, Leonardo Bruni, and Niccolò Machiavelli.

     
  

  • HIST 307 - Seminar in Politics and History: The Machiavellian Moment


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3

    Is it better to be loved or feared? How much of our destiny do we control? When are societies fit for self-rule? Can people be forced to be good? Niccolò Machiavelli, arguably the first and most controversial modern political theorist, raises issues of universal human and political concern. Yet he did so in a very specific context–the Florence of the Medici, Michelangelo, and Savonarola–at a time when Renaissance Italy stood at the summit of artistic brilliance and on the threshold of political collapse. We draw on Machiavelli’s personal, political, historical, and literary writings, and readings in history and art, as a point of entry for exploring Machiavelli’s republican vision of history and politics as he developed it in the Italian Renaissance and how it addresses such perennial issues as the corruption and regeneration of societies.

     
  

  • HIST 309 - Seminar: The French Revolution


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Sophomore, junior, or senior standing. The French Revolution is one of the most fascinating and momentous events in European history. At once “the best of times” and “the worst of times,” the Revolution was both the origin of modern democracy and a period of tremendous political violence - indeed, some say it is the origins of totalitarianism. In this seminar, we study the following questions: What are the origins of the Revolution? How did a revolution that began with proclamations of human rights turn into one of mass bloodshed in just a few short years? How did a desire for democracy lead to political violence? What was the nature of the Terror, and how can we understand it? We also examine how various schools of history have interpreted the Revolution, as well as the legacy of the Revolution.
  

  • HIST 310 - Seminar: Speech and Censorship in the Middle Ages


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    What is censorship, where does it happen, and why? To most U.S. Americans, the Middle Ages is an era known for Inquisition, book burning, and the brutal silencing of political and religious dissent. Yet, compared to more modern censoring institutions, the institutions of medieval Europe held much weaker powers of enforcement, different motives for censoring, and ambiguous technologies to do so. What and who could censor (or be censored) in a society without the printing press? Among other topics, we cover the public vs. private spheres; artistic liberty; religious vs. political concerns; gender; and the role of and limitations upon the modern historian investigating a censored past.
  

  • HIST 312 - Seminar on Nazism and the Third Reich


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: HIST 102, 214, 215, or 224 or equivalent, or instructor consent. Common readings introduce students to some of the most lively debates among scholars about the causes of the failure of democracy in the Weimar Republic, the mentality of Nazi leaders and followers, the nature of the regime created by the Nazis in 1933, the impact of the Third Reich on the position of women in German society, and the degree to which the German people supported this regime’s policies of war and racial persecution. Students develop a research topic related to one of these debates for analysis in a substantial research paper utilizing both primary and secondary sources.
  

  • HIST 319 - Seminar on The Great War in History and Literature


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: HIST 102, 213, 218, or 223 or equivalent. An advanced seminar in which students analyze different kinds of written accounts of the First World War (memoirs, autobiographical novels, poems, and diaries) by different kinds of participants, including common soldiers, government leaders, and women who worked on the “home front.” In class discussions and two short papers, students evaluate the reliability of these witnesses and what the historian can learn from them about the psychological, cultural, and political consequences of the First World War in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Students choose one question raised in our common meetings for more detailed investigation in a substantial research paper integrating primary and secondary sources.

     
  

  • HIST 322 - Seminar in Russian History


    Credits: 3-4

    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Note: Completion of HIST 102 or 221 is recommended but not required prior to taking HIST 322. Selected topics in Russian history, including but not limited to heroes and villains, Soviet biography, Stalin and Stalinism, the USSR in the Second World War and origins of the Cold War, the KGB, and the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of Russia. May be repeated for degree and major credit if the topics are different.

     
  

  • HIST 337 - Seminar: Revolutions in Latin America


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Detailed analysis of 20th-century revolutionary movements in Latin America. Examines historical power struggles, social reforms, and major political changes, with in-depth exploration of Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Peru, Chile, and Nicaragua. Explores the social movements and ideologies of under-represented historical actors, such as peasants, guerrillas, artists, workers, women, students, and indigenous people.
  

  • HIST 344 - Seminar: Sectionalism & Secession, 1840-1861


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: instructor consent. An intensive examination of the sectional conflict: the Mexican War, Manifest Destiny, slavery and the territories, the abolition movement, the failure of compromise, and secession. Emphasis on the study of primary sources and class discussion of assigned reading.
  

  • HIST 345 - The Myth(s) of the Lost Cause and Civil War History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    This course dives headfirst into the creation, production, and ongoing impact of one of the most important myths of American history, the myth of the Lost Cause. As such, it closely examines the historical scholarship on memory creation about our most divisive conflict, the American Civil War, and its aftermath. In the period following 1865, the ex-Confederates, their descendants and acolytes, created an elaborate explanation of the war, its causes and consequences, and this class will spend its time investigating those arguments from various angles of American social, cultural, and military history. It invites students to read the leading scholarship on different elements of the myth in order to inform their own final research paper on the Lost Cause and its historical impact overtime. It also asks students to investigate the war from diverse perspectives through the historical scholarship of some of our leading experts but also through the literature of some of our most important writers. Ultimately, the goal of the course is to open up new avenues for historical research on the American Civil War era and our national remembrance of the period.
  

  • HIST 346 - Seminar on Reconstruction, 1865-1877


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: Note: Appropriate for juniors and seniors. Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and the restoration of the Union. Congressional Reconstruction and the crusade for black equality. Impeachment of the President. Reconstruction in the South. The politics and violence of military occupation. Collapse of Republican governments and restoration of conservative control. Implications for the future.

     
  

  • HIST 350 - Seminar: Cold War Politics and Culture


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. This seminar offers a topical survey of the popular culture, social changes, and domestic politics of the Cold War United States. Themes covered in this course include the dawn of the atomic age, the social and cultural anxieties produced by the Cold War, the privatization of suburban family life, the problems of historical memory, the boundaries of political dissent, and the relationship between international and domestic politics. This course pays special attention to how popular culture responded to, interpreted, and shaped key episodes in the recent national past.
  

  • HIST 355 - Seminar: America in the 1960s: History and Memory


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Hippies, Flower Power, Panthers, Berkeley, Free Love, Free Speech, Freedom Rides, Dylan, Woodstock, Vietnam, Jimi, Janice, Bobby and Martin. The events and images of the 1960s remain a powerful and often divisive force in America’s recent history and national memory. This course moves beyond these stereotypical images of the “Sixties” to examine the decade’s politics, culture and social movements. Topics include: the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, the Great Society and the War on Poverty, Vietnam, the Anti-War movement and the Counterculture, Massive Resistance, the “Silent Majority” and the Rise of the Conservative Right.
  

  • HIST 359 - African American Intellectual History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Since their earliest arrivals in the New World, African Americans crafted liberatory ideas as they articulated a desire for equality, justice, and self-determination. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, black intellectual thought took shape against the backdrop of processes of enslavement, emancipation, racial violence, and state-sanctioned oppression. Indeed, the discursive spaces that black political thinkers created became major sites of knowledge production and provided momentum for black mobilization. Beginning with David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829), this course will probe landmark texts by and about African American thinkers including Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X., and Angela Davis. Students will evaluate historical perspectives on topics including racial uplift, feminism, black nationalism, and Pan-Africanism. They will also identify major debates that shaped the development of African American intellectual history.
  

  • HIST 364 - Seminar on the Origins of the Constitution


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Note: Appropriate for juniors and seniors. An examination of the historical origins and development to 1791 of the Federal Constitution, including English and colonial backgrounds, state constitutions, the Articles of Confederation, drafting and ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
  

  • HIST 366 - Seminar: Slavery in the Americas


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. An intensive examination of slavery, abolition movements and emancipation in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. Emphasis is on the use of primary sources and class discussion of assigned readings.
  

  • HIST 367 - Seminar: 9/11 and Modern Terrorism


    (SOAN 367) FDR: HU
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Terrorism is a form of collective violence famously illustrated in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington on September 11, 2001. This course provides an intensive interdisciplinary examination of the origins of the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist organization that launched them. The course also addresses the impact of the attacks and the future prospects of mass violence against civilians, as well as the role of the media in covering (and dramatizing) terrorism. Much of the course focuses on the social divisions and conflicts that lead to terrorism and its increasingly lethal nature over time. Topics include “old terrorism” (as seen in Northern Ireland and Algeria), “new terrorism” (such as that associated with Al Qaeda), the logic of terrorist recruitment, and the nature of and spread of weapons of mass destruction.

     
  

  • HIST 377 - Terrorism in Contemporary Africa


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Examines how this seemingly remote region became the inspiration for the first modern human rights campaign, the source of the uranium used to build the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, a hot spot in the Cold War, and the setting for a genocide that spilled over into an African World War fueled by intricate links between African resources and the global economy.
  

  • HIST 386 - Seminar: Managing Mongols, Manchus, and Muslims: China’s Frontier History (16th-20th Centuries)


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    The unprecedented expansionism of China’s last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), produced an ethnically and geographically diverse empire whose legacy is the current map and multiethnic society of today’s People’s Republic of China. The Qing Empire’s establishment, extension and consolidation were inextricably bound up with the ethnic identity of its Manchu progenitors. The Manchu attempt to unify diversity resulted in a unique imperial project linking East, Inner and Southeast Asia. This course explores the multiethnic nature and limits of this unification, as well as its 20th-century transformations.
  

  • HIST 387 - Seminar: The Struggle Over China’s Environment


    FDR: HU
    Credits: 3
    The course covers the more recent periods of China’s so-called “3,000 years of unsustainable growth” from about A.D. 618 into the present. Themes focus on China’s historical experience with sedentary agriculture, fossil fuel and nuclear energy, wildlife and forest management, disease, water control, and major construction projects like the Great Wall.
  

  • HIST 388 - The Devil in The Western World


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    Prerequisite: at least sophomore class standing. The devil is one of the most recognizable figures in Europe and America, appearing in religion, art, popular culture, and even political rhetoric. This course explores how (primarily Christian) understandings of the devil and his role in the cosmos have changed from late antiquity to the present. Together, we ask why the devil became (and remains) such an influential part of Western culture. We examine when and why the devil was invoked, what the devil meant across time and space, and why certain groups have been demonized throughout history. Topics covered include the biblical origins of Satan, medieval demonology, the impact of the Reformation and Enlightenment, cases of possession and witchcraft, gender and the demonic, depictions of the devil in literature and film, and modern discussions about the nature of evil.
  

  • HIST 395 - Advanced Seminar


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3
    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite: 15 credits in History courses or at least junior class standing. A seminar offered from time to time depending on student interest and staff availability, in a selected topic or problem in history.
  

  • HIST 397 - Seminar: Spring-Term Topics in History


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 4
    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite: 15 credits in History courses or at least junior class standing. A seminar in a selected topic or problem in history.
  

  • HIST 401 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 1
    May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered by other courses.
  

  • HIST 402 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 2
    May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered by other courses.
  

  • HIST 403 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 3
    May be repeated for degree credit each term of the junior and senior year. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course which permits the student to follow a program of directed reading or research in an area not covered in other courses.
  

  • HIST 421 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1
    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Prerequisite: Prerequisites: 15 credits in history or in related disciplines (with the department head’s approval), cumulative GPA of at least 3.000, or consent of the department. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Students design and carry out at least 50 hours of research (archival, digital, historiographical) in areas related to History Department faculty’s research projects. Students complete at least two graded assignments (e.g., literature review, annotated bibliography, digital document archive) developed in consultation with a faculty supervisor. Because of staff limitations, the department may give preference to history majors. See department head for details. May be repeated with permission for degree credit up to a total of six credits. May be carried out during the summer. 
  

  • HIST 422 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 2
    Because of staff limitations, the department may give preference to history majors. See department head for details. May be repeated with permission for degree credit up to a total of six credits. May be carried out during the summer. Prerequisite: 15 credits from History courses and a cumulative grade point average of 3.000 or greater. Students design and carry out at least 100 hours of research (archival, digital, historiographical) in areas related to History Department faculty’s research projects. Students complete at least two graded assignments (e.g., literature review, annotated bibliography, digital document archive) developed in consultation with a faculty supervisor.
  

  • HIST 423 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3
    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Prerequisite: Prerequisites: 15 credits in history or in related disciplines (with the department head’s approval), cumulative GPA of at least 3.000, or consent of the department. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Students design and carry out at least 150 hours of research (archival, digital, historiographical) in areas related to History Department faculty’s research projects. Students complete at least two graded assignments (e.g., literature review, annotated bibliography, digital document archive) developed in consultation with a faculty supervisor. Because of staff limitations, the department may give preference to history majors. See department head for details. May be repeated with permission for degree credit up to a total of six credits. May be carried out during the summer. 
 

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