During the Renaissance and Reformation, many people throughout Europe became convinced that society was threatened by conspiracies of witches. The resulting panics led to the execution of thousands of people, mostly lower-class women. The course delves into intellectual, cultural and social history to explain how and why this happened, with discussion of both broad trends and local factors. As we will see, responses to witchcraft reflected major changes in European society, culture, and politics that lent new meanings to traditional ideas about witches, possession, and malefice and enabled the systematic condemnation of certain groups of people. The ways in which these ideas were mobilized in individual communities and the reasons for doing so varied widely, however, and we will therefore closely examine several specific examples of witch hunts in order to better understand why they were appealing to so many, why they flourished for a time, and why they ultimately faded.

Location

Computer Studies Room 209 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

The discipline of archaeology can make unique contributions to our understanding of urbanism and daily life given its ability to examine long-term processes of development and change. The goal of this course is to provide an introduction and overview of urbanism as exemplified by the indigenous cities of the New World (e.g. Mesoamerica and South America). While regional differences will be discussed, we will focus mainly on identifying the theoretical issues that intersect all of the regions we will be studying.

Location

Online Room 21 (ASE) (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

The centuries from 1400 to 1800 are often described as the birth of modern Europe. In this course, we will examine the period both as a precursor to our times and on its own terms. We will look at well-known developments such as Renaissance, Reformation, colonization, absolutism, and Enlightenment. But we will spend just as much time on the ways in which regular people navigated the religious, social, economic, and political transformations that upended their everyday lives. Through these topics, we will try to figure out what is early and what is modern about the period from a variety of perspectives.

Location

Lattimore Room 210 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course revolves around the most essential question in modern German history: was Hitler's regime particular to Germany, German culture, and German society, or was merely the manifestation of an immanent quality in all modern nation states? What does it mean to compare any political figure to Hitler? Was his kind of "evil" suis generis or dangerously banal? This course places the rise and fall of the Nazi Party and Hitler in the longer duree of German history, from the Second Empire and WWI, to Weimar, the Nazi State, and the Two Germanys of the Cold War.

Location

Online Room 24 (ASE) (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This course examines the history of the Russian Empire from the reign of Peter the Great (1692-1725) to the revolutions of 1917. Students will read primary sources in translation, academic articles, and a survey text. About one-half of class time will be devoted to discussion of the readings. Topics will include Peter's westernization of Russian elites and the costs thereof, the Pugachev rebellion of 1773-1775, the spread of Enlightenment ideals to Russia during the Napoleonic Wars, the abolition of serfdom, Sergei Wittes industrialization drive, socialist movements in Russia, World War I, and the causes of the revolutions of 1917.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 269 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

In this expanded 4-credit version of the 2-credit 'Russia Now' course, students will follow current events in Russia through print and electronic sources, and write two short essays and one longer research paper.

Location

Online Room 27 (ASE) (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

The second of a sequence of two, the course approaches "The Divine Comedy" both as a poetic masterpiece and as an encyclopedia of medieval culture. Through a close textual analysis of the second half of "Purgatorio" and the entirety of "Paradiso," students learn how to approach Dante’s poetry as a vehicle for thought, an instrument of self-discovery, and a way to understand and affect the historical reality. They also gain a perspective on the Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as they intersect with the multiple levels of Dante’s concern, ranging from literature to history, from politics to government, from philosophy to theology. A visual component, including illustrations of the "Comedy" and multiple artworks pertinent to the narrative, complements the course. Class format includes lectures, discussion, and a weekly recitation session. Intensive class participation is encouraged. No prerequisites. Freshmen are welcome. Part of the Dante Humanities Cluster.

Location

Online Room 18 (ASE) (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

HIST 142: Two thousand years of civilization, six thousand miles of the Great Wall, a silk road linking China to Rome, and seven maritime voyages sailing across the Pacific and Indian oceans. How have the notions of China? and Chinese? civilization transformed over time through cultural diffusion, commercial exchange, and military expansion? How does increased knowledge of Chinese history change our conceptions of Western civilization and the currents of world history? No prior knowledge of Chinese history or language is required for this course. Besides a standard textbook, one academic monograph (Mountain of Fame) and one Chinese classics (Dream of the Red Chamber) will anchor our readings throughout the course.

Location

(MW 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

This class covers the search for modern China in the twentieth century. We will trace how China, between invasion, war, and revolution, transformed from an empire to a republic, from republic to Communist state, and from Communist state to the economic powerhouse that it is today.

Location

(MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

This introductory course uses film and the film industry to understand several trends and elements central to Latin American society and culture in the twentieth century. Specifically, the class will be structured around five main themes: Latin America and the United States; Class, Race and Gender; Revolution and Repression; Underdevelopment and Informality; and (Im)migration. By the end of the course, students will have a strong introduction to modern Latin American history.

Location

Dewey Room 2110D (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)

How did a nation surrounded by the French and British Empires at the end of the nineteenth century become the preeminent global superpower by the end of World War II in 1945? We will study the political and economic decisions after the U.S Civil War that culminated in the Spanish-American War of 1898, including America’s global invasion of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Samoa, and the Philippines. We will seek to understand the role of trade and consumer culture in the making of the Panama Canal and the American petroleum industry. And we will place the growth of the Soviet Union and the Marxist world in the context of America’s rise to global power and the Cold War that followed. Throughout, we will seek to understand how America’s military and economic strength has been understood internationally, beginning with the nations of Latin America and culminating with the 21st-century rise of China.

Location

Meliora Room 205 (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This discussion-based seminar will focus on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) for the first half of the semester and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868-69) in the second part of the course. Stowe’s book was the best-selling novel of the nineteenth-century and famously earned its author credit for starting the Civil War. Alcott’s semi-autobiographical novel was likewise a great commercial success. Both books were repeatedly adapted for the theatre and the movies, inviting consideration of what those new forms meant to viewers. Together the books have become touchstones or markers for ways that Americans have thought about race and gender for the last one hundred fifty years.

Students will read both texts closely and explore the historical issues they reflected and influenced. They will consider such topics as: the reception of Stowe’s book in relation to abolitionism, colonization, and other depictions of slavery; authorship for women; ideals of domesticity in the North and South; the role of religion in both works; constructs of American girlhood and masculinity; and sentimental culture in Victorian America. Uncle Tom’s Cabin will especially raise questions about how we should handle language and images that modern readers may consider offensive. Students will be encouraged to voice their views on ways to grapple with racism and gender stereotypes in books that have shaped Americans’ current quests for justice and equity.

Requirements will include active participation in discussion and several writing assignments.

Location

Meliora Room 219 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

After a brief review of the primary features of pre-European African society, we will examine the affect of the 'Middle Passage' -- the transportation of enslaved Africans to the Western Hemisphere. We will then focus on the process of 'Americanization'; as the Africans became African-Americans. The struggle for freedom and citizenship will conclude our survey. The main course readings will be a representative sample of African-American autobiographies, and short selections from a secondary text. Using the autobiographies as historical source material, we will produce a brief history of the values and cultural practices of Africans in America, and the ways in which African-Americans adapted to and shaped American life and society.

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

An introduction to the religious and cultural development of Judaism. Will emphasize Judaism as a living tradition, one which has been subject to both continuity and change among its practitioners throughout its history.

Location

Online Room 2 (ASE) (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

Rochester’s history began long before the first permanent settlement in 1812 and was marked by a long and violent conflict between native peoples, the French and the British.   Wheat harvested in the Genesee Valley was ground into flour using the power of the Genesee River as it dropped 260 feet to Lake Ontario.   Transporting flour and other goods to New York City and other markets was difficult until the Erie Canal was completed in 1825.  The canal enabled an enormous migration of settlers moving west, and many chose to stay in Rochester.  The village became a city in 1834 with a vibrant and expanding mix of cultures that joined together to make Rochester a vibrant commercial and manufacturing center.  The Western Union Telegraph Company traces its roots to Rochester in 1851 and in 1853 eight local New York railroads merged to form the New York Central, whose tracks ran parallel to the Erie Canal.   In 1881 a local bank clerk, George Eastman, quit his job to devote his full attention to the business of photography and founded the Eastman Kodak Company.  The Haloid Photographic Company was founded in Rochester in 1906 and entered into an agreement with inventor Chester Carlson in 1946 that resulted in the introduction of the Xerox 914 plain paper copy machine in 1959 was adopted around the world.   Nevertheless, Rochester’s most famous residents are likely Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, who were instrumental in the struggle to expand civil rights to all Americans.  The local community, however, struggled to welcome the large numbers of African Americans who moved to Rochester after World War II.  Housing discrimination, white flight to the suburbs, and riots marked the 1960s, and the city today has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country.  Nevertheless, the city has vibrant cultural and educational institutions that continue to attract talented newcomers.  In short, the history of Rochester has a bit of everything and students in the course are encouraged to study the entire experience of the community, including topics that may be new and frankly uncomfortable. 

Location

Dewey Room 1101 (MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

Why do we create monsters? What human needs and wants do monsters fulfill? This course explores the roles of monsters in the western world from antiquity to the modern era and examines moments of cultural anxiety alongside the monsters they create in their historical contexts.

Location

(MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course seeks to understand the vibrant daily lives of people living in multiple socialist countries, including the Soviet Union, Cuba, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Argentina. The dominant image of life under socialism in the 20th century includes queue lines for food, harsh repressions, and strict censorship. We will go beyond these experiences to examine how the average person experienced daily life through a multitude of avenues such as festivals, fashion, and the working-class, and will especially seek to understand how people lived their daily lives even when living under dictatorship. We will also highlight how the lived experience differed depending on gender, social class, and profession through primary sources, cultural histories, discussions, and lectures. By the end of this course, we will understand how socialism has been lived in within various contexts, and will be able to think about life in modern-day socialism.

Location

Hylan Building Room 206 (TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

History 200 is an introduction to historical practice – what professional historians actually do. This section focuses upon the concept of deviance in medieval European society, studying such real and imagined “deviants” as homosexuals, heretics, Jews, witches, and werewolves. Along the way we will discuss the various ways in which historians have approached this topic and will engage with key primary sources. Readings will address the question of whether the persecution of “deviants” began only the twelfth century as part of the process of centralizing power in church and state. We will consider the relationship between persecution and power, as we ponder why certain groups were singled out for persecution. And we will ask what Europeans really were afraid of when they labeled certain groups as deviant.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 269 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This gateway research seminar introduces students to the histories and cultures that constitute Native America, as well as the practice of doing historical research. The course will be ambitious in its geographic and chronological scope, although we will dedicate most of our attention to modern Native American history. Our objective is to explore how knowledge about Native histories has been and should be produced. To this end, we will foreground the perspectives of Native peoples past and present. By the end of the semester, students will put these skills into practice by writing a well-crafted 3,000-word (10- to 12-page) research paper that explores some aspect of Native American history in the late nineteenth or twentieth centuries.

Location

(MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

This introduction to the study of Global History comes in two parts. Part I examines how such developments in the West as the crisis in European feudalism and the first two Industrial Revolutions led to the emergence and expansion of the Global South. Part II outlines the revolutionary and nationalist struggles that have punctuated the Global South’s long and difficult road toward political and economic autonomy. That process of reshaping the North-South relationship gathered speed after the collapse of the USSR and rise of China as the new “workshop of the world.”

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

The 2010 Brazilian national census shows 97.2 million Afro-Brazilians and 90.6 million Whites. These two ethnic nationalities have developed unequally since the establishment of colonial Brazil by Portugal in the sixteenth century. The 2010 census shows the average income of Afro-Brazilians was less than half that of White Brazilians. In 2009, the wealth gap between White and Black American families was $236,500. The most populous African nation, Nigeria, shows similar inequality among its major ethnic nationalities. This magnitude of inequality among ethnic nationalities has given rise to serious problems in inter-group relations in the three countries. This course aims to trace, comparatively, the historical origins of the phenomenon, examine the political and economic consequences, and discuss the politics and economics of state policy designed to address it. *NOTE: Students taking this Course for ECO credit must have previously taken ECO 108*

Location

Online Room 6 (ASE) (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

North Africa and the Middle East is in a mess: Instead of democracy, the Arab Spring delivered a military dictatorship to Egypt; Iraq and Syria are melting into warring tribal enclaves; Saudi Arabia is waging a savage war in Yemen; and the Palestinians remain an unprotected stateless people. There is a crisis, and this course introduces students to the predicament, arguing that since the first Industrial Revolution in England, the peoples of North Africa and the Middle East have refashioned their destinies in partnership with the West. Students will examine how the following encounters helped make the region as we know it: the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1838, transition from Ottoman to West European colonialism, discovery of huge and easily extractable oil reserves, creation of the state of Israel, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the US Invasion of Iraq in 2003. The class will also explore how the above patterns of engagement shaped the histories of the regions working classes, women, and the peasantry.

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

North Africa and the Middle East is in a mess: Instead of democracy, the Arab Spring delivered a military dictatorship to Egypt; Iraq and Syria are melting into warring tribal enclaves; Saudi Arabia is waging a savage war in Yemen; and the Palestinians remain an unprotected stateless people. There is a crisis, and this course introduces students to the predicament, arguing that since the first Industrial Revolution in England, the peoples of North Africa and the Middle East have refashioned their destinies in partnership with the West. Students will examine how the following encounters helped make the region as we know it: the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1838, transition from Ottoman to West European colonialism, discovery of huge and easily extractable oil reserves, creation of the state of Israel, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the US Invasion of Iraq in 2003. The class will also explore how the above patterns of engagement shaped the histories of the regions working classes, women, and the peasantry.

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

This course is a topical and thematic introduction to the history of Great Britain and the British Empire during the long reign of Queen Victoria. Rather than attempt a comprehensive survey, we will look closely each week at one particular episode or event that in sum will bring the Victorian era into focus and high definition. Such episodes will include, for instance, the potato famine in Ireland (1845-49), the disappearance of the Franklin expedition in the Arctic (1848), the opening of the Great Exhibition in London (1851), the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act (1870), the crowning of Victoria as “Empress of India” (1876), the Whitechapel murders of “Jack the Ripper” (1888), the trial of Oscar Wilde (1895), the outbreak of the Boer War (1899), and others. The course will feature informal lectures, discussion meetings, documentary films, and a variety of Victoria-era texts and visual materials.

Location

Online Room 14 (ASE) (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)

This course is a topical and thematic introduction to the history of Great Britain and the British Empire during the long reign of Queen Victoria. Rather than attempt a comprehensive survey, we will look closely each week at one particular episode or event that in sum will bring the Victorian era into focus and high definition. Such episodes will include, for instance, the potato famine in Ireland (1845-49), the disappearance of the Franklin expedition in the Arctic (1848), the opening of the Great Exhibition in London (1851), the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act (1870), the crowning of Victoria as “Empress of India” (1876), the Whitechapel murders of “Jack the Ripper” (1888), the trial of Oscar Wilde (1895), the outbreak of the Boer War (1899), and others. The course will feature informal lectures, discussion meetings, documentary films, and a variety of Victoria-era texts and visual materials.

Location

Online Room 14 (ASE) (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)

Alternately friends and rivals, modern France and the United States have had a complicated relationship ever since both nations were born in revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. This course will seek to understand France on its own terms by considering a series of formative events such as the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair and the birth of the intellectual, the very different experiences of World Wars I and II, the post-colonial conflicts in Algeria and Vietnam, the near-revolution of May 1968, and current conflicts in French foreign and domestic policy.

Location

Online Room 2 (ASE) (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Alternately friends and rivals, modern France and the United States have had a complicated relationship ever since both nations were born in revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. This course will seek to understand France on its own terms by considering a series of formative events such as the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair and the birth of the intellectual, the very different experiences of World Wars I and II, the post-colonial conflicts in Algeria and Vietnam, the near-revolution of May 1968, and current conflicts in French foreign and domestic policy.

Location

Online Room 2 (ASE) (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Enough record evidence survives from the operations of the medieval English government to allow students to reconstruct at least public life narratives of certain individuals. This course (1) provides the setting of medieval English history and (2) guides students in individual research projects based on printed and translated English royal documents. Choices include an Italian merchant-banker in London, an English bishop running the administration of Ireland, a rebellious knight at the time of Edward II, a great lady who acts virtually as an earl, and a combative Lincolnshire landowner.

Location

Online Room 18 (ASE) (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

Enough record evidence survives from the operations of the medieval English government to allow students to reconstruct at least public life narratives of certain individuals. This course (1) provides the setting of medieval English history and (2) guides students in individual research projects based on printed and translated English royal documents. Choices include an Italian merchant-banker in London, an English bishop running the administration of Ireland, a rebellious knight at the time of Edward II, a great lady who acts virtually as an earl, and a combative Lincolnshire landowner.

Location

Online Room 18 (ASE) (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

Outbreaks of disease and pandemics have recently rocked our global, interconnected world.But in fact, diseases have been a recurring historical phenomenon in world history.Genghis Khan and his descendants built the largest contiguous land empire in human history.Europeans exported disease to the Americas.The whole world writhed in agony from the Spanish Flu.What damages haveepidemics done to human societies century after century, and how did those devastated societies transform and rebuild themselves?This course will zoom into six historical (and one current) multi-continent epidemics: the Black Death in the 14th century, the Smallpox epidemics in the 17th century, the four Cholera pandemics in the 19th century, the 1918 Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDSin the 1980s, the 2003 SARSoutbreak, and the ongoing Coronavirus terror.Let us also take one step further to use ArcGIS software to translate our book knowledge into creative digital maps.There are no prerequisites required; just bring your curiosity. Course website: http://zhang.digitalscholar.rochester.edu/mapping/

Location

Online Room 5 (ASE) (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Outbreaks of disease and pandemics have recently rocked our global, interconnected world.But in fact, diseases have been a recurring historical phenomenon in world history.Genghis Khan and his descendants built the largest contiguous land empire in human history.Europeans exported disease to the Americas.The whole world writhed in agony from the Spanish Flu.What damages haveepidemics done to human societies century after century, and how did those devastated societies transform and rebuild themselves?This course will zoom into six historical (and one current) multi-continent epidemics: the Black Death in the 14th century, the Smallpox epidemics in the 17th century, the four Cholera pandemics in the 19th century, the 1918 Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDSin the 1980s, the 2003 SARSoutbreak, and the ongoing Coronavirus terror.Let us also take one step further to use ArcGIS software to translate our book knowledge into creative digital maps.There are no prerequisites required; just bring your curiosity. Course website: http://zhang.digitalscholar.rochester.edu/mapping/

Location

Online Room 5 (ASE) (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Course examines the image of Napoleon at the intersection of myth and history. Literary portrayals, paintings, and films. Conducted in English.

Location

Dewey Room 2162 (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

This course focuses on the historical experiences of Africans and their descendants in the Latin American region. Beginning with the Declaration of Haitian Independence in 1804, we will analyze the complexity of Black participation in the wars for (and against) independence. The course then shifts to Cuba's 1844 Escalera Rebellion and the diaspora of free people of color. The abolition of slavery, passage of free womb laws and struggle for political inclusion will lead us to Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, while arguing for an Afro-Latino experience that transcends national borders. Our historical analysis necessarily includes the study of visual, musical and literary representations of Blackness in the twentieth century through the poetry of Nicolás Guillen and others. Students will write two essays, including a research paper on a topic of their choice. This course is open to all disciplines; HIST 248W fulfills the "W" requirement for the History major.

Location

Lechase Room 103 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This course focuses on the historical experiences of Africans and their descendants in the Latin American region. Beginning with the Declaration of Haitian Independence in 1804, we will analyze the complexity of Black participation in the wars for (and against) independence. The course then shifts to Cuba's 1844 Escalera Rebellion and the diaspora of free people of color. The abolition of slavery, passage of free womb laws and struggle for political inclusion will lead us to Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, while arguing for an Afro-Latino experience that transcends national borders. Our historical analysis necessarily includes the study of visual, musical and literary representations of Blackness in the twentieth century through the poetry of Nicolás Guillen and others. Students will write two essays, including a research paper on a topic of their choice. This course is open to all disciplines and fulfills the “W” requirement for the History major.

Location

Lechase Room 103 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

Explore how big business emerged in modern Brazil and impacted the country's development and classification as one of the worlds five major emerging economies. Using an economic historical lens, we will investigate how Brazilian growth and development conforms to or diverges from traditional economic history models. The course looks particularly at theories of development and how transportation, banking, and agribusiness impacted Brazil's 19th and 20th century history.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 315 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Explore how big business emerged in modern Brazil and impacted the country's development and classification as one of the worlds five major emerging economies. Using an economic historical lens, we will investigate how Brazilian growth and development conforms to or diverges from traditional economic history models. The course looks particularly at theories of development and how transportation, banking, and agribusiness impacted Brazil's 19th and 20th century history.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 315 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

In this colloquium we will look at the history of international feminism and explore its many faces. We will examine the various factors that have contributed to womens historically lower status in society; will look at the emergence of womens rights and feminist movements as well as the distinctions among various feminist theories, and will discuss the relevance of feminism today.

Location

Online Room 10 (ASE) (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

In this colloquium we will look at the history of international feminism and explore its many faces. We will examine the various factors that have contributed to womens historically lower status in society; will look at the emergence of womens rights and feminist movements as well as the distinctions among various feminist theories, and will discuss the relevance of feminism today.

Location

Online Room 10 (ASE) (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

Disparaged as “the high priestess of feminism” by her critics and celebrated as almost a prophet by her supporters, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the most famous women in the United States in the early twentieth century. Today, she is best known for her semi-autobiographical story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which arguably chronicles a woman’s descent into madness, and Herland, a feminist utopian novel. In this course, we will read both works, as well as many other primary sources, to explore the Gilded Age and Progressive era. Gilman, a fascinating and flawed figure, will be the entry point for an exploration of feminism, suffrage, race, class, settler colonialism, and eugenics, among other topics. We will also consider Gilman’s various legacies. How did second-wave feminists view Gilman’s ideas, for example, and how do feminists remember Gilman in the twenty-first century?

Location

Online Room 23 (ASE) (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Disparaged as “the high priestess of feminism” by her critics and celebrated as almost a prophet by her supporters, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the most famous women in the United States in the early twentieth century. Today, she is best known for her semi-autobiographical story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which arguably chronicles a woman’s descent into madness, and Herland, a feminist utopian novel. In this course, we will read both works, as well as many other primary sources, to explore the Gilded Age and Progressive era. Gilman, a fascinating and flawed figure, will be the entry point for an exploration of feminism, suffrage, race, class, settler colonialism, and eugenics, among other topics. We will also consider Gilman’s various legacies. How did second-wave feminists view Gilman’s ideas, for example, and how do feminists remember Gilman in the twenty-first century?

Location

Online Room 23 (ASE) (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This seminar examines the shifting relationship between people, food, and the environment that ties them together. It asks how have distance and space between the sites of production and consumption affected the economic and social relations of food? How has geography influenced the types of food people eat? How do views of scarcity and plenty shape approaches to farming? What is the role of governments and markets in agriculture? How does food refract and transform social divisions, cultural attitudes, and daily life? Topics include rural development; subsistence gardening; famine; histories of sugar, corn, pork, fish, whales, ice cream, and anything else that fits on a dinner plate.

Location

Online Room 5 (ASE) (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This seminar examines the shifting relationship between people, food, and the environment that ties them together. It asks how have distance and space between the sites of production and consumption affected the economic and social relations of food? How has geography influenced the types of food people eat? How do views of scarcity and plenty shape approaches to farming? What is the role of governments and markets in agriculture? How does food refract and transform social divisions, cultural attitudes, and daily life? Topics include rural development; subsistence gardening; famine; histories of sugar, corn, pork, fish, whales, ice cream, and anything else that fits on a dinner plate.

Location

Online Room 5 (ASE) (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

For decades scholars have described the black family as non-existing? or unstable,? and suggested that as a viable institution its future is at risk.' Despite these claims, the family has demonstrated a remarkable ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In an attempt to assess the current and future viability of the black family in America, this course will examine its history, and assess the recent social, economic and legal events that continue to challenge this vital institution. Initial attention will be on our most influential institutions: work, education, religion, and the criminal justice system. Our primary work, however, will seek to identify any existing links between the overwhelming decline in black marriages and economic changes that have resulted in 'more black women graduating college, owning their own business,? and delaying marriage?; and between social and cultural changes in areas such as inter-racial and same-sex relationships.

Location

Online Room 8 (ASE) (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

The debate on the role of the state versus that of the free market in the socioeconomic process is as old as the history of political economy. We discuss the economics of state policy and the long-run historical processes that created the political & economic conditions. Students performance is based on three short essays (four typed pages each) presented to the class for discussion and thereafter revised for grading. No mid-term & final examinations.

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Interested in designing an extensive research project of your own? This seminar introduces students to source identification,  prospectus preparation and grant-writing techniques for independent research. We will also discuss select readings on questions of memory, power, archives and our motivations as writers of History. This course is mandatory for students interested in completing the History Honors program next year. Students who are planning on developing an alternate independent study project are also welcome to enroll. As a 2.0 credit course, the course only meets the first eight weeks of the
semester (Feb. 1-Mar. 24).

Location

Frederick Douglass Room 302 (MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

This course is an upper level seminar on the history of global exploration from the medieval to the modern periods. After a preliminary look at the idea of “exploration,” of what it even means, that is, to be an “explorer,” we will focus each week on a discreet episode in order to convey the full significance of exploration to global history. Our emphasis throughout will be on exploration as cultural and environmental encounter. Focusing on such individual explorers as James Cook, Alexander von Humboldt, Lewis and Clarke, Mary Kingsley, Robert Scott, Gertrude Bell, and others, we will study the ways in which exploration shaped for good and ill our modern, globally interconnected world. The course will pay particular attention to environmental contexts and the environmental consequences of geographical exploration.

Location

Online Room 9 (ASE) (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

In the early 1930s Joseph Stalin consolidated his one-man dictatorship in the USSR. He and his lieutenants revolutionized Soviet society and created a new and unique political and economic system, in large part through the use of state terror. In 1941-1945 Stalin led the Soviet Union in its death struggle with Nazi Germany; in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was one of the architects of the Cold War. In this class we will study social, political, economic and cultural aspects of Stalinism. The course will be focused on discussion of readings and writing of an original research paper, about 20 pages long.

Location

Lechase Room 181 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

“Ideas are weapons,” once wrote American journalist Max Lerner. Following his lead, we will study the challenges that new ideas about culture, politics, and economics posed to the dominant understandings of American society that preceded them. Among the topics to be considered are modernism in the arts and social sciences; socialism and New Deal capitalism as challenges to laissez-faire political economy; democracy as a way of life rather than a system of politics; the challenge to Protestantism arising from immigration, American expansion, and the rise of anthropology; racial liberalism; the feminist revolution; and the rise of postmodernism in language and politics. We will use primary and secondary texts both, including essays, monographs, and novels. Throughout, we will seek to better understand the relationship between new ideas and the larger social transformations that they helped to shape.

Location

Meliora Room 219 (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Intensive readings and weekly discussion of modern histories and nineteenth-century fiction for graduate students and undergrads. The course takes a trans-Atlantic perspective and considers, among other questions, the comparative nature of American and British Victorian-era culture. In fiction, we start with Jane Austen and Washington Irving, and end with Kate Chopin and Henry James; look at marriage (and the decision not to marry), child-rearing, and the changing nature of families. We address orphans and childless marriages, adultery and divorce. Weekly reading of about 500 pages; writing of four short (@ 5-10 page) analytical essays on the reading.

Location

Online Room 5 (ASE) (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

This course examines the formation and evolution of American health policy from a political and historical perspective. Concentrating on developments from the early twentieth century to the present, the focus of readings and discussions will be political forces and institutions and historical and cultural contexts. Among the topics covered are periodic campaigns for national health insurance, efforts to rationalize and regionalize health care institutions, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid and the further evolution of these programs, the rise to dominance of economists and economic analysis in the shaping of health policy, racial and gender disparities in access to care and in quality of care, the formation and failure of the Clinton administration's health reform agenda, health reform in the George W. Bush administration and the 2008 presidential campaign, and national health reform and pushback during the Obama administration.

Location

Online Room 12 (ASE) (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Designed for junior and senior students who wish to pursue an independent reading program with a professor; required for honors program participants. Upper-level writing credit awarded if students prepare and revise an extended essay.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Designed for junior and senior students who wish to pursue an independent reading program with a professor; required for honors program participants. Upper-level writing credit awarded if students prepare and revise an extended essay.

Advanced or Senior Project/Seminar/Thesis

Advanced or Senior Project/Seminar/Thesis

Advanced or Senior Project/Seminar/Thesis

Advanced or Senior Project/Seminar/Thesis

Advanced or Senior Project/Seminar/Thesis

Experience in an applied setting supervised on site. Approved and overseen by a University instructor.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

This Spring semester seminar (2.0 credits) is taught by the Honors director. Enrollment is reserved for History seniors whose Honors research has progressed adequately during Fall semester. Students in 399H should also register to continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor).