Course Offerings

This is an introductory course for first semester college students considering a major in history. The course will introduce students to the discipline of history and career paths for history majors, will provide enhanced advisement and planning for the undergraduate degree, will provide problem solving assistance to students as they navigate the first semester of college, will expose students to the range of academic and co-curricular opportunities available to history majors at Geneseo, and will provide opportunities for students to interact with members of the faculty and more advanced undergraduates. This class is open to any first year student at the college interested in majoring in history.
Credits: 1

This course, the second part of a two-semester survey of Western Civilization, introduces students to the shaping of twentieth-century Europe by examining the period after 1600 with emphasis on political, cultural, and socio-economic history. The course stresses evaluation of both primary and secondary historical materials and encourages student participation in the process of historical analysis. Not offered on a regular basis
Credits: 3

This course will introduce students to the field of global history through focus on historians' approaches to broad themes, problems, or questions. Specific topics will be selected by the instructor, but generally engage with historians' approaches to "real world" problems and issues with particular attention to regional and global interconnections, cross-cultural encounters, and/or comparative perspectives. All courses will include seminar style discussion, a mix of primary and secondary source readings, short analytical papers, and essay exams. May be taken twice for credit under different subtitles.
Credits: 4

A survey of the military history of the USA from the colonial period to the present, covering strategy, tactics, logistics, the impact of warfare on society, the role of the military services as social institutions, and the evolution of the military services to the present.
Credits: 4

The first part of a two-semester survey of American history (from pre-Columbian days to the present, with the dividing point at 1877). Emphasis is placed upon the relations of environment and cultural heritage to the economic, scientific, and political forces of American life.
Credits: 3

The second part of a two-semester survey of American history (from 1877 to the present). A constructive and critical analysis of our institutions, customs, and traditions is presented in connection with the many unsolved problems which challenge democratic government.
Credits: 3

This course will develop students' awareness of historical debates through an examination of selected issues, events, and problems in American history. It will take a chronological approach, addressing any time period in U.S. history.
Credits: 4

This course will introduce students to the field of U.S. history through focus on historians' approaches to broad themes, problems, or questions. Specific topics will be selected by the instructor, but generally engage with historians' approaches to "real world" problems and issues. How does understanding history help us understand contemporary issues? All courses will include seminar style discussion, a mix of primary and secondary source readings, short analytical papers, and essay exams. (May be taken for credit twice under different subtitles.)
Credits: 4

This course will explore major events, people, and issues pertaining to African-American history to 1877, including the Atlantic slave trade, the African-American experience in slavery and in freedom from the colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the impact of slaves and free blacks on colonial, early national, and antebellum history.
Credits: 4

This course will examine the African American experience from emancipation to the present day. Some major themes to be covered include: Reconstruction, segregation; disfranchisement; lynchings; urban and northern migrations; the Harlem Renaissance; the impact of war on race and citizenship; the black freedom struggle; and black nationalism.
Credits: 4

Credits: 3

Credits: 0-6

Credits: 1-6

Credits: 3

The presentation of an important era in history through study of the careers of representative people in government, literature, education, and other areas of public life. The subject matter of the course varies from semester to semester according to the particular interests of instructors and students. May be taken for credit twice under different subtitles. (May be taken twice under different subtitles.)
Credits: 4

This course will examine the transformation of the United States since World War II, focusing on the era’s political culture, economic developments, and movements for social and cultural change, as well as the rise and fall of the Cold War and the New Deal Order.
Credits: 4

A study of the institutions, literature, art, and philosophy of ancient Greece. Topics include the nature and development of the polis, the Greek mind, and the spread of Greek civilization. Extensive use of primary material.
Credits: 4

A study of the institutions, literature, religions, art, and philosophy of ancient Rome. Topics include the rise, development, and collapse of the Republic; the winning and governing of an empire; the Hellenization of Rome; the beginning of Christianity; the Pax Romana; the barbarians; the fall of the Empire.
Credits: 4

A broad study of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean basin from the late Roman Empire through to the Age of the Vikings, with an emphasis on how early medieval peoples grappled with complex issues of power, faith, gender, identity, and cultural interaction. Uses texts, images, and material culture to explore Europe and its links with the wider world.
Credits: 4

A broad study of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean basin from the Age of the Vikings to the beginnings of European colonialism, with an emphasis on how medieval peoples dealt with religious conflict, formed institutions and nation states, and understood differences in gender and sexual identities. Uses texts, images, and material culture to explore Europe and its links with the wider world.
Credits: 4

This course covers the last 500 years of Irish history, from the conquest of Ireland by the English Tudor and Stuart monarchs through the Northern Ireland peace process and age of the European Union. Significant time will be spent on the development of ethnic, religious and class conflicts, the emergence of Irish nationalism, the impact of the 19th century famine, and the dynamics of Irish independence from Britain. We will also look at Irish history from a global perspective, exploring how Ireland’s experience can be connected to larger themes in European and world history.
Credits: 4

From the middle of the 15th century through the end of the 18th century, European explorers, adventurers, traders, and settlers swarmed into the Americas, Indian Ocean, Asia and Africa. This course proceeds roughly chronologically, focusing on important moments of contact, exchange, conflict, and transformation. Topics that we will explore include: transformations in early modern European society and culture; the motives for European exploration and expansion; cross-cultural communication and negotiation in various contexts; the legacies of European conquest, colonization, trade, and exploitation; and the long-term significance of global political and economic structures that emerged from this period. Because so many of these issues are of continued relevance, when appropriate we will discuss how the contemporary world community continues to grapple with the legacies of early modern global history.
Credits: 4

A study of a particular topic in European history. Topics could be defined by time, space, or theme. Early modern Europe, the Mediterranean world, and imperialism are possible topics areas that might be offered.
Credits: 4

The historian Eric Hobsbawm described Europe's nineteenth century as the age of revolution. Indeed, the period was a time of major political, social, and cultural change that continues to resonate with us today. In this class, we study uprisings such as the French Revolution and the 1905 Russian Revolution. We examine moments of societal upheavals such as the Industrial Revolution and the 1848 Revolutions. And we explore the emergence of transformative ideologies such as romanticism, nationalism, and socialism. Because the age of revolution was often accompanied by violence - from popular riots and round-ups to state-sanctioned purges and massacres - we also consider how historical actors weighed the costs of change and how they justified its outcomes.
Credits: 4

From the First to the Second World War, from the Spanish to the Yugoslav Civil Wars, and with workers', students', and anti- colonialists' uprisings in between, Europe's twentieth century has been overshadowed by conflict. In this class, we explore political, social, and cultural struggles and how they impacted the everyday lives of ordinary people. When we study the Great War, for instance, we study trench warfare as well as the crusade to reconfigure gender relations. When we explore Stalinism in the Soviet Union, we discuss the violence of industrialization and its effect on the state as well as the lives of millions of peasants. And when we turn our attention to the 1960s, we ask how the decade of protests redefined European society as well as the place of women, minorities, and youth in it. Primary sources like novels, films, art, and political manifestos will allow us to learn about the past through the voices of those who lived it.
Credits: 4

A study of a particular topic in American history. Topics could be defined either by time, theme, or space: the history of New York, the antebellum era, the Borderlands, and Latino History are possible areas that might be offered.
Credits: 4

This course will explore the history of work, workers, and workers' movements in America from the era of the Colonial Era to the present, with special attention to the unique aspects of race, ethnicity, and gender that shaped the American working class.
Credits: 4

A chronological survey of American women's history from European contact to the present, with particular attention to the evolving and interrelated issues of race, class, work, public power, family, and sexuality.
Credits: 4

This course is a survey of the history of Native Americans in the region that ultimately became the United States. It will trace the effects and consequences of European settlement, and native response, resistance, and accommodation to colonization; explore Indian response to the American Revolution and the westward expansion of white settlement in the decades following; and examine the historical context of the problems, issues, and challenges facing Native Americans in contemporary American society.
Credits: 4

Surveys the constitutional status of Indians in the American federal system and the issues and controversies affecting Native American communities and individuals today. We will look as well at the rights of indigenous peoples internationally, with special attention paid to affairs in Canada and Australia.
Credits: 4

A study of the causes and course of the American Civil War and subsequent Reconstruction with an emphasis on the political and cultural social aspects and implications. Primary interest will be in examining how the problem of slavery led to war and how emancipation shaped post-war America. Topics include slavery, abolitionism, partisan politics, sectionalism, soldiering, freedom and citizenship, the establishment of a free labor economy, the foundations of a biracial democracy, terrorism, the role of violence in politics, and contested memories of the war.
Credits: 4

Within the context of the basic narrative of American history, this course will explore the history of immigrants in America from the 1830s to the present, with special attention to the issues of assimilation, acculturation, Americanization, ethnicization, naturalization, nativism, and immigration restriction. Immigration history is an excellent lens for exploring the nation's common institutions and ideals and America's evolving relation with the world.
Credits: 4

Through the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans and their white allies initiated and maintained a massive social movement which assaulted centuries of discrimination, segregation, and racism in the United States. We will examine, not only familiar images from the movement, but also the larger forces that made the movement possible. We will identify the social, political, and economic changes that contributed to the making of the Movement, paying particular attention to the African-American tradition of struggle and protest. Within the movement, we will consider such topics as the role of public leaders and grass roots activists; the role of the media; the extent and nature of nonviolence and self-defense; and the relationship between national events, leaders, laws, and organizations and local movements and local realities; and the Black Power movement of the late 1960s.
Credits: 4

This course will explore the role of women in selected social movements with particular attention to how women's involvements often leads to subsequent movements for women's rights. Possible areas of emphasis include the connections between the 19th century abolitionist movement and the subsequent women's rights/woman suffrage movement or the connections between the modern Civil Rights Movement and the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Credits: 4

A broad, globally contextualized survey of Latin American history from its pre-conquest Native American, Iberian, African, and Asian origins to the Age of Revolutions, collapse of the Spanish Empire in the Americas, and the emergence of new national states. The course examines the social, economic, political, cultural, and religious development of Latin America. Topics include pre-Columbian societies, the Reconquista and Conquest, imperial and urban societies, the Baroque period (art, culture, lifestyles), the “Spanish Lake” and silver symbiosis between China and Spain, environmental history and the Columbian Exchange, histories of science, and pirates. This course will explore the histories of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality through a broad range of primary sources to instruct students on critical thinking and writing, as well as to challenge myths and preconceptions about the region, colonialism, and how human societies are constructed and contested.
Credits: 4

A broad survey of Latin American history from independence and the emergence of new nations to the present. Primary emphasis is placed upon the political, social, economic, and cultural development of the major states--Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, and Chile, with some attention given to Andean Nations and the Caribbean--as well as to relations and interactions between these nations and the United States. Topics include revolutions, modernity, gender and sexuality, race, American imperialism, immigration, drug wars, art and music movements, the environment, the Cold War, and food history.
Credits: 4

This course offers students a broad survey of the histories of peoples, cultures, nations, and circuits, within, and across the Pacific Ocean from 1500 to present. Topics include the development of the "Spanish Lake" and European exploration of the ocean; silver cycles and symbiosis between Spain, Mexico, and China in the Great Divergence; Polynesian histories and societies; interactions between Latin America and Asia; the Cold War and the nuclear Pacific; cultural exchanges ranging from baseball to Godzilla and Japanese manga; food cultures from sweet potatoes and adobe to the global appeal of sushi and tacos; immigration and migration; and more.
Credits: 4

This course provides students with a rich exploration of the history of sexual science (sexology) on a global scale from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Scientific approaches to sex, gender, and sexuality varied in their methods and subjects overtime, and thus we will read a range of materials, including historical, medical, psychiatric, anthropological, journalistic, philosophical, and literary texts, among others. Sexology was the modern discipline, and from Bombay to Berlin, Mexico City to Buenos Aires, Tokyo to Shanghai, it was a defining force in the modern world.
Credits: 4

Credits: 3

This course explores the evolution of societies in East Asia before 1800 (including but not limited to areas in present-day China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Central Asia) as they interacted with each other and with other parts of the world. Special attention will be paid to statecraft and governance, philosophies and practices regarding gender and social relations, issues of education, social mobility and cultural life, the impact of Confucianism and Buddhism, and the development of agriculture, commerce, cities, and technology. The course will develop students' capacities in interpreting primary sources and in drawing comparison and connections across time and space.
Credits: 3

This course will examine the transformation of East Asia as a region and a global player from 1800 to the present. Exploring both regional and international relations and domestic challenges and social life, the course pays special attention to changing East Asian notions of gender, race, class, culture, community, and modernity, as well as East Asian experiences with imperialism, nationalism, liberalism, communism, and global capitalism. The course will develop students' capacities in interpreting primary sources and in drawing comparison and connections across time and space.
Credits: 4

A broad study of a particular topic in Latin America/Caribbean/Asia/Africa/Native American (LACAANA) history or global/world histories. Topics could be defined either by time, theme, or space or on a comparative topic, depending on the professor’s expertise. Previous courses have included histories of global sexology, early India, African nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and science, among others.
Credits: 4

This course begins roughly with the end of the global slave trade and continues to the present, covering the entire continent of Africa. You will learn about the growing influence of European incursion into the continent and Africa responses to the political, economic, and social changes colonialism brought. In this course, we will study the history of what nationalism meant for Africans beginning during the two World Wars and ending with the struggle of late twentieth century African nations to govern diverse populations. The process of decolonization in Africa was one of the most important historical transformations of the twentieth century, but the nationalist sentiments behind the long roads to freedom shaped each new country The scope of the course will include the influence of Pan-Africanism, key African philosophers and political leaders, the Cold War, and the struggles to change the social and economic inequalities in Africa.
Credits: 4

Credits: 0-15

A survey of Islamic history, focusing on the rise of Islam, the formation of classical Islamic civilization, the Muslim reaction to invasions from East and West, the second expansion of Islam, and the great empires of the 16th-18th centuries.
Credits: 4

A study of the Western conquest of the Muslim world in the 19th century and the social, political, and religious responses to this conquest. Special attention is given to such topics as women and Islam, U.S. attitudes to Islam, and the contemporary Islamist movement.
Credits: 4

Credits: 1-9

This is one of two required skills-based seminars in the History major and is focused on critical reading and analysis. This class introduces students to the concept of historiography, which includes the critical assessment of the methods and sources that historians use in fashioning an argument, the contexts that inform historians' approaches to understanding the past, and comparisons of different historians' conclusions about similar topics. All sections will focus on a specific set of historical issues and/or events chosen by the instructor and class content emphasizes critical reflection on the variety of historical interpretations that are possible within a given topic. This class is reading and writing intensive.
Credits: 4

This is one of two required skills-based seminars in the History major that form prerequisites for upper level classes. This course is focused on critical analysis of historical evidence and instruction in historical research methods and writing. Students read, evaluate, and critique a range of different types of primary source evidence, practice locating and retrieving reliable primary and secondary sources, and use these skills to support the crafting of historical arguments in both short papers and longer research projects. All sections will focus on a specific set of historical issues and/or events chosen by the instructor and class content emphasizes work with primary sources specific to the seminar topic. This class is reading and writing intensive.
Credits: 4

This class is a broad introductory course which allows students to immerse themselves in a semester-long digital project. It supports students in researching and creating digital sites and/or tools. Possible projects include digital archives, exhibitions, publications, mapping tools -- all with a focus on fostering public engagement with historical topics, themes, and scholarship. This class uses a lab format that allows for both directed work time (individual and group) and discussion.
Credits: 4

This is a skills-based course for History/Adolescent Education students. In the course, students and faculty will engage in critical discussions regarding grand historical narratives and overviews with the intention of decentering the traditional, simplified “arc” of history that leaves too many crucial issues either unexamined or hidden. In addition to reading secondary source historical works that will help students to think about ways to reframe conventional historical narrative, the course will devote significant time to identifying, locating and analyzing relevant primary sources that they will then be able to incorporate in their future classrooms. Students will work collectively by participating in thoughtful discussions and debates, sharing secondary sources and primary materials, and giving formal presentations. Finally, students will be expected to reflect critically on the value of historical thinking and knowledge in the context of secondary education. This course may be focused on U.S. or global history. Prerequisites: Junior standing or higher.
Credits: 4

Credits: 0-4

Internship experiences related to the history major can be arranged. Interns are required to fulfill a set of objectives related to their major, mutually agreed upon by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the participating agency. Notes: See also the Internship section of this bulletin. Offered by individual arrangement
Credits: 1-12

Credits: 1-6

This course is a history of the settlement, expansion, and development of the American colonies, from the time of the first European settlements to the eve of the American Revolution in the middle of the eighteenth century. The central theme of the course is the expansion of European society across the Atlantic. We will examine the historiography of this important field, and explore the interaction of European men and women with their environment, with native peoples, and with Africans and African-Americans. We will examine the relations between these peoples, and through their conflicts, their cooperation, and their incomplete assimilation into American creole societies, arrive at a fuller understanding of American colonial development. Events in the American colonies, furthermore, will be viewed in their transatlantic, imperial context. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course explores the structures of American society in the second half of the eighteenth century, British colonial policies and American opposition to those policies, the growth of revolutionary movements, and the cultural, political, military, and ideological contexts of the period. The course will also examine the impact of the war on African Americans, Native Americans, women, and ordinary citizens. Students will engage with the social consequences of the Revolution, post-war economics, post-war politics, post-war society, and the arguments for and against the establishment of a strong central government culminating in the Philadelphia Convention and the ratification of the Constitution of 1787. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course examines slave rebellions and resistance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a wide variety of locales, including the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. Our goals will be to examine what constitutes a slave rebellion, how resistance differed from rebellion, how revolts were organized, how they impacted local communities as well as nation-states, and how various forms of resistance altered slaveholder power. This course will give you a sense of what slavery was like in the New World, and how historical events, such as the French and Haitian revolutions, altered slave regimes, and how slave rebels shaped the abolitionist movement. In addition, we will explore how historians have interpreted the fragmentary evidence on revolts and conspiracies. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

In this course, students will explore the major issues, transformations, contests, and conflicts of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Rather than privileging one set of historical actors over others, we will do our best to try to understand how a number of women and men, from businessmen and presidents to immigrant workers and African Americans, affected historical change during their lives. In this course, then, we will not develop one grand narrative to explain U.S. history from 1877 to 1918. Rather, we will explore a number of competing narratives that will allow us to deal with the complexity of this period in American history and the people who made it. Specific topics to be covered include: industrialization and class conflicts; Jim Crow; Populism; urbanization; imperialism; gender debates; immigration; and World War I. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

In this course, students will explore the major issues, transformations, contests, and conflicts of the early to mid-twentieth century. Rather than privileging one set of historical actors over others, we will do our best to try to understand how a number of women and men, from businessmen and presidents to immigrants and African Americans, affected historical change during their lives. We will pay close attention to the changing racial landscape, the crisis of capitalism, the rise of consumerism, the debate over religion and science, the contested meanings of American and Americanism, the rise of the welfare state, and the influence of World War Two on American institutions and identities. In this course, then, we will not develop one grand narrative to explain the United States between the wars. Rather, we will explore a number of competing narratives that will allow us to deal with the complexity of this era and the people who made it.
Credits: 4

This course focuses on two interrelated aspects of post-World War II history—the state policies that created and reinforced segregation and inequality outside the South and the Black Power movement that emerged in the late 1960s, building on the southern Civil Rights Movement to tackle structural inequality that persisted after the passage of the 1964, 1965, 1968 Civil Rights Acts. The class will also engage the emergence of mass incarceration as it relates to existing and adapted forms of structural inequality. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course traces the environmental history of the U.S. from the late 19th century to the present, focusing on the history of environmental degradation and injustice, environmental reform efforts, the political culture of the environmental movement, and the ideas and assumptions that underlie environmental thought in modern America. Of particular interest will be the impact of industrial capitalism on the environment, and the ways in which race, class, and gender have intersected with environmental issues. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This seminar focuses on the history of the Vietnam War. On a military level, the American intervention in Southeast Asia was a disastrous failure, marking the first time our nation lost a war. The historical significance of the U.S. intervention, however, goes well beyond the military defeat itself, or even the impact of that defeat on America’s broader foreign policy aims. Indeed, the Vietnam War threw into question many of the fundamental assumptions underlying the nation’s self-image. In this sense, the U.S. intervention proved to be a critical turning point not only in Southeast Asian history but in American history as well. In exploring this contentious history, we will focus on a range of topics, including: the history of colonialism and revolutionary nationalism in Southeast Asia; the political, ideological, diplomatic, and military history of the American war; the specific nature of the warfare itself, including its human consequences, ecological impact, and moral implications; the social history of the war (particularly in terms of race, class, and gender); the ideology, tactics, and efficacy of the anti-war movement; the battle over the historical memory of the war and its relationship to our national identity.
Credits: 4

This course focuses on an in-depth study of a particular topic in American history. Topics could be defined either by time, theme, or space: the Borderlands and Latino History are possible areas that might be offered.
Credits: 4

This course focuses on an in-depth study of a particular topic in European history. Topics could be defined either by time, space or theme. The World Wars, nationalist movements, and the scientific revolution are possible topics areas that might be offered.
Credits: 4

What was it like to be a woman in medieval Europe? This class will explore women's social, economic, and political roles in the Middle Ages, and consider the ways in which women's lives and histories have been ignored, distorted, reclaimed and re-evaluated over time. Focuses on the years 1000-1500, and draws on readings from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim contexts. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

The reigns of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs saw sustained and deep-reaching changes in the four nations of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales). During this period, the region witnessed divisive processes of religious transformation associated with the Protestant Reformation; the emergence of a centralized and bureaucratized nation state based in London at the expense of local centers of power; English encroachments on independent or semi-independent regions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales; the beginnings of overseas expansion; and the creation of significant contributions to literature, the arts, philosophy, and the sciences. Using primary and secondary source readings, this course will explore these transformations and will assess the impact of these changes in regional and global contexts. This course is intended as a writing intensive seminar. The course work includes in-depth discussion, regular response papers, and preparation of a major research project. Preparation of the research project will require substantial preliminary work and revisions.
Credits: 4

This course considers examines violence among ethnic communities in the era of the nation-state. The readings cover the theoretical development of ethnicity and nationalism as well as particular manifestations of ethnically-motivated violence ranging from isolated murders to genocide. Topics covered in class include blood libel murders, the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Bosnian War massacres. The course emphasizes European and Russian history, but it also considers nationalism and ethnic violence through a global lens by introducing comparisons to other modern cases of ethnic violence.
Credits: 4

This course examines the history of the Balkans region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a focus on moments of conflict as well as those of peaceful coexistence. Covered themes include everyday life under the Ottoman Empire, national liberation movements, the Balkan Wars, urbanization, eugenics, the First and Second World Wars, communism, youth culture, and the Yugoslav Wars. The course also considers orientalizing Western narratives about the Balkans and how they have shaped the writing of the region’s history. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course covers the history of the native peoples who formed the Iroquois League and Confederacy, from the time of their first contact with Europeans through the present day controversies that seem to appear in newspapers nearly every day. We will look at the formation of the League, the emergence of the Confederacy, the consequences of Iroquois involvement in the European Wars of Empire, and then the rapid dispossession of the Iroquois in the decades that followed the American Revolution. We will look at the application of various government policies in the United States and Canada to the Iroquois, and how the Iroquois have reacted to and adapted to these changes. Throughout, we will keep in mind the different histories of the constituent Iroquois communities that occupy present-day New York as well as Canada, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course covers Mexican history with particular attention to the modern period in larger historical, transnational, and temporal contexts. Topics include: pre-Columbian civilizations, colonial New Spain and the Spanish Empire, Independence and the First Empire, caudillismo and the Mexican American War, the French Intervention and the Second Empire, the Porfiriato and modernity, the Revolution, the socialist experiment and Maximato, Cardenas and nationalism, the consolidation of the Dictablanda, the demise of the PRI after 1968, and the turn towards democracy by the end of the 20th century. Specific attention will be given to popular culture, art, film, music, and muralismo; women, gender, and sexuality; environmental history; race, ethnicity, and indigenismo; nationalism and nation-building; liberalism and its discontents; student activism and social movements; and Mexico in world history.
Credits: 4

This course offers a study of the major historical eras in China, a country of long history and grand tradition. Special emphasis will be put on examining how schools of thought (e.g., Confucianism, Daoism, and Zen Buddhism) have shaped the social and political life of the Chinese people. Through reading selected classical texts and literary works, this course examines the important features of traditional Chinese society, including the structure of the extended family, the rule of the gentry in the village, the division of the inner (female) and outer (male) quarters, the civil service examination system, the constant dynamics between the local and central authorities. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).
Credits: 4

This course examines the momentous changes in modern China from 1911 to the present. It covers major historical events such as the 1911 Revolution, the 1949 Communist Revolution, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and Deng Xiaping’s reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Based on first person accounts and specialized studies, this course calls attention to the multiple factors--historical, cultural, social, and economic--that have shaped contemporary China.
Credits: 4

This course focuses on an in-depth advanced study of a particular topic in Latin America/Caribbean/Asia/Africa/Native American history. Topics could be defined either by time, theme, or space: the Vietnam War, the history of gender and sexuality in Latin America, Empire and Environment in Africa, the history of Cuba, global histories, Latin American Revolutions, the Mexican Revolution, advanced topics in African, Middle Eastern, Native American, or Asian History, among others.
Credits: 4

This course provides an introduction to the environmental history of Africa through a historiographical lens. We will focus in some detail on demography, the domestication of crops and animals, climate, the spread of New World crops (maize, cassava, cocoa), and disease environments from the earliest times to the present. Central to our study will be the idea that Africa's landscapes are the product of human action. Therefore, we will examine case studies of how people have interacted with their environments. African ecology has long been affected indirectly by decisions made at a global scale. Thus we will explore Africa's engagement with imperialism and colonization and the global economy in the twentieth century. The course ends with an examination of contemporary tensions between conservation and economic development and how handing human health in African environments might differ from other contexts.
Credits: 4

Credits: 0-15

Students will complete two semesters of 4-credit directed studies (or 8 total credits of HIST 493 directed studies in one semester. Work will include independent research and writing under the supervision of a member of the Department of History. Students will produce a major work of independent research, including a work of independent research that is at least 50 pages in length and an oral presentation. History majors who achieve the following benchmarks will be invited to register for HIST 493: completion of 24 credits of history, a 3.00 cumulative grade point average, and a 3.50 grade point average in History courses. Prerequisites: HIST 301 and HIST 302. Only 4 credits can be applied towards the 400-level credit requirement in the BA in History. Offered by individual arrangement.
Credits: 4

Internship experiences related to the history major can be arranged. Interns are required to fulfill a set of objectives related to their major, mutually agreed upon by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the participating agency. Notes: See also Internship section of this bulletin. Offered by individual arrangement
Credits: 1-12

Credits: 1-6

This course will explore important themes, debates, and methods in the field of African history. Our study of this history will introduce you to the ways historians of Africa have shaped our understanding of the continent as well as Africanists' contributions to the discipline as a whole. The course will include historiographical, social, and political debates that shaped African historical narratives. We will also explore the history of gender, race, religion, state formation, colonialism, and the environment as ways to ask questions about the African past. We will also discuss the methods and sources scholars use to write about Africa.
Credits: 4

This historiography and methodology course is designed to reinforce graduate students' command of the field of East Asian history and familiarize them with the theories and methodologies central to understanding and developing advanced conversations about Asia. Class readings introduce key theoretical frameworks, issues, historical grounding, and methodological approaches broadly relevant to the study of Asia across disciplines. The course emphasizes the development of theoretical literacy together with the close reading and analysis of scholarly texts. It also facilitates familiarity with-and critical inquiry into-disciplinary and place-based knowledge in the context of an increasingly global, transnational, and interdisciplinary field.
Credits: 4

This course examines the history of the environment, science, and technology. These broad fields are subfields that cover all geographic spaces and over the span of human history. Environmental history examines the reciprocal relationship between humans and the earth. The history of science and technology explores systems of knowledge and their practical and theoretical outcomes as humans attempt to understand the natural world around them and put that knowledge to use. The course may be theoretical or focused on a subtheme.
Credits: 4

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to read and discuss important new works in the history of modern Europe. Students will read contemporary research to gain familiarity with the latest methodological, thematic, and geographical trends in the field. In class meetings, students will engage in discussions to identify the contributions and innovations of each text as well as to consider forthcoming new directions in scholarship.
Credits: 4

This course is designed to give you experience in the craft of historical research and writing. We will read and discuss recent works on the history of Early America. Our focus will be on the early modern Atlantic World, not just the thirteen colonies of British North America, and so we will examine the perspectives of various peoples, including Africans, the indigenous, Europeans, colonized, colonists, and those in between. These historiographical discussions will set the stage for you to pursue an original research project. The assigned secondary source literature as well as your research into other secondary sources and relevant primary sources on your selected topics will result in a significant final project that includes a discussion of relevant literature on the topic.
Credits: 4

As a graduate readings course, History 570 will introduce students to the most important and influential scholarship on the United States from the Progressive Era through to the rise of the Conservative Right in the late 20th century. Since this is a large field, we will narrow our focus to highlight scholarship that addresses the US's troubled history of democracy, imperialism, immigration, and citizenship, as well as racial and economic inequality. While we will read the books in chronological order based on historical timelines, we will devote significant time to analyzing where each work fits within the broader historiographical shifts that have defined the history profession.
Credits: 4

This course is designed to introduce students to the interpretive framework of intersectionality. Since the rise of the field of social history in the 1960s, historians have often applied intersectional lenses (typically race, class, and gender) to the study of the past. But the study of these intersecting identities has not always been applied consistently and other identities (such as sexuality and disability) have received less attention. The course may be theoretical or focused on a subtheme, but it will explore how scholars have approached intersectional histories. In addition to interrogating scholarly works, this course will examine the identities of historians and the ways that their positionality shapes interest in certain topics and subsequent interpretations. These theoretical and historiographical discussions will set the stage for you to pursue an original research project that addresses intersectionality. The assigned secondary source literature as well as your research into other secondary sources and relevant primary sources on your selected topics will result in a significant final project that includes a discussion of relevant literature on the topic.
Credits: 4

Everyone dies, but dying too has a history - a history that reflects and recreates culture. Although death is universal, the way in which it is thought of, experienced, and dealt with, varies in time and place. And precisely because death is universal, constant, and intimate, death offers an ideal foothold from which to view history in motion. This course will introduce some of the innovative ways in which recent scholarship has breathed new life into the subject of death and dying and transformed conventional views of history and history writing. It showcases, in particular, the methodologies and tools that researchers have developed to transcend Eurocentric paradigms, access the interior lives of ordinary people, and combine the exceptional with the everyday. Depending on the instructor's areas of expertise, the course may gravitate toward certain time periods, geographical areas, and subthemes.
Credits: 4

This course is designed to introduce students to a body of scholarship that explores nation-states, civil society, and popular politics. The course may be theoretical or focused on a subtheme, but it will interrogate how scholars have approached topics like nationalism, nation-building, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, revolution, and grassroots movements. The course will familiarize students with the process of historical research, with a particular focus on how access to new types of sources has changed historians' research methods and approaches.
Credits: 4

The concept of empire is an important framework in history. This course will explore the ways that historians understand global connections through the prism of empire. Indeed, much of recorded history is the history of empires. Empires have structured how people have encountered society and shaped their engagement with power and culture. Empires also help historians to organize global history. They provide a framework to examine intercultural exchange, trade and economy, war and conflicts, resistance and domination. The impact of empire can be intimate as well as expansive. We will keep in balance the scale of imperial power on individual bodies while also being attentive to vast geographic regions in order to better understand how these governing structures have shaped history.
Credits: 4

Internship experiences related to the history graduate program can be arranged. Interns are required to fulfill a set of goals related to degree objectives, mutually agreed upon by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the participating agency.
Credits: 1-4

Credits: 1-12

This course examines different approaches to the discipline of history. Readings, assignments, and discussions will explore historical practices as a form of knowledge production. We will consider topics such as how humans have derived meaning from the past, why narratives of progress are enticing, what it means to think like a historian, and the limits of historical methodologies. In addition to philosophical approaches to historical knowledge and sources, we will examine professional expectations in the discipline. This includes ethical standards as well as obligations and responsibilities of public engagement.
Credits: 4

This course is designed to give you an opportunity to think critically and creatively about how historians research, conceptualize, organize, and write about the past. To gain an understanding of how and why historical scholarship has evolved, we will read a variety of secondary sources in which historians reflect upon specific methodologies and conceptual frameworks. Equally important, this course is designed to give you an opportunity to practice the historian's craft by engaging in the process of researching, conceptualizing, and writing history. We will dig deeply into a variety of primary sources as well as conceptual and methodological approaches.
Credits: 4

This course offers experience and mentorship in the teaching of history. In this practicum, a student will work closely with a supervising professor in a lower-division History course. Responsibilities may include assisting in the preparation and presentation of lectures and activities, leading discussions, holding office hours and review sessions, helping to prepare assignments, and providing evaluative feedback to students. In addition, students will learn about course design, syllabus development, professionalism, assessment, and effective communication.
Credits: 4

A master's thesis is a substantial research project that is based on primary and secondary sources. The thesis should demonstrate a capacity for independent research, facility in organization and expression, and originality in thought. The thesis should be an original contribution to the scholarly field of a minimum of 50 pages. The topic of the Master's thesis must substantially differ from that of the Bachelor's thesis (which may have been completed in another program). A student considering completion of a thesis or project should review all guidelines with the graduate coordinator before registering for the thesis course.
Credits: 4

Credits: 1-12

Credits: 0-6