HIST 295 - Seminar: Topics in History

FDR: HU
Credits: 3 in fall or winter; 4 in spring
Planned Offering: Offered when interest is expressed and departmental resources permit.

A seminar offered from time to time depending on student interest and staff availability, in a selected topic or problem in history. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

Spring 2015 topics:

HIST 295-01: Europe, Africa, and the 18th-Century Search for the Blue Nile (4). This course follows the extraordinary journey of 18th-century naturalist James Bruce as he endeavored to discover the source of the Blue Nile. Bruce’s expedition takes us through the Iberian Peninsula, the Levant, and eventually into the Horn of Africa. Using an original copy of Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790) in Leyburn Library’s Special Collections, we explore topics such as the history of science and print, early modern travel, and race in the scientific imagination. During this course, students curate a digital exhibition based on Bruce’s journey. (HU) Stillo.

HIST 295B-01: Scientist as Political Leader (4). From the founding of the American Republic until today, a profound change has occurred in the educational background and professional training of US political leaders. While today nearly all are lawyers and/or businessmen, during the first half of America’s history many of the nation’s political figures had a background in science. Through the 20th century and into the 21st, the importance of science and technology in society has grown exponentially but, ironically, even the most elementary scientific literacy is no longer expected of presidents. How did this disconnect take place? The course also asks how the US contrasts with Great Britain and the European Continent. Two of Europe’s most remarkable political leaders of the past few decades, Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel, brought a scientific background to highest political office. We conclude by considering the policy consequences of the presence or absence of scientific literacy among the West’s political elite, focusing on such issues as climate change and energy. (HU) Rupke

Fall 2014 topic:

HIST 295-01: Seminar: Art and Science from Leonardo Until Today. (3). Art and science are commonly assumed to be two distinct parts of our culture, requiring different talents, skills and even temperaments, and often taught in separate institutions. This distinction, however, has not always been so clear. In this seminar, we explore common denominators in art and science from Leonardo until today, focusing on the manifold ways in which science has been made part of art and art of science. We single out the Romantic Movement, and highlight great names in the holistic practice of art and science such as Coleridge, Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, and Ernst Haeckel. Moreover, we address how increasingly possible commonalities in artistic and scientific creativity have been discussed in terms of perception, representation, and the science of the brain. (HU, pending faculty approval) Rupke.