Every human society has had to confront the inevitability and mystery of death. We'll approach the topic from multiple directions, looking at the social history of mortality (including demographics, how social structures influence the experience of dying, and the physical contexts of death) as well as the cultural reactions of ordinary people, philosophers, religious thinkers, and artists. In doing so, we'll pay close attention to how different circumstances and traditions have led to an enormous variety of understandings of and responses to mortality, while also identifying broad similarities across time and throughout the world.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 148

When Oprah Winfrey founded a secondary school for girls in post-apartheid Johannesburg, she was following a long tradition of African American solidarity with the equally oppressed black population of South Africa. Forged in the 1780s by black north Atlantic mariners, the solidarity would encompass many areas of life before and during the apartheid era. This course explores four of those areas: evangelical ties connecting African American churches with South Africa’s independent church organizations; the spread of Booker T. Washington’s educational ideals in black South African academic circles; the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on African popular township culture; and the cross-fertilization of political ideologies originating on both sides of the Atlantic: Africans fighting against apartheid learned important lessons from the crusades of anti-colonial activists and internationalists in the diaspora, such as Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, and Mahatma Gandhi.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

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.

BUILDING: DEWEY | ROOM: 2162

Russian Civilization from its beginnings a thousand years ago to the present day. Each unit will cover historical and cultural background as well as literary texts. We will examine important national "myths" (narratives with a variable connection to the historical record) that govern the Russians' understanding of their history and culture, including: the Golden Age of Kiev, Moscow as the Third Rome, and the myths surrounding the city of Petersburg. We will analyze traditional tensions in Russian civilization which prevail today, such as those between: chaos and order, foreign influence and a strong national identity, innovation and tradition, and between radical skepticism and faith. Readings will include: Russian fairy tales and saints' lives, excerpts from the autobiography of the 17th century heretic Avvakum, tales by Pushkin and Gogol, one of Dostoevsky's most powerful and influential novels ("The Devils/Possessed"), and a wide range of materials from the twentieth century. In English.

BUILDING: DOUG | ROOM: 403

Students will follow current events in Russia through the internet, newspapers, magazines, and other sources (including satellite broadcasts when available). Along with a general attention to current events, each student will follow a particular area of interest (e.g. national identity, the market economy, politics, health issues, crime, culture, foreign policy) throughout the term, do background work on this topic and write it up towards the end of the term. Students who read Russian will be encouraged to use available sources in that language. This course is designed to (1) familiarize students with the most important issues facing Russia today and the historical/political/cultural context in which to place them; (2) to acquaint students with a variety of resources from the US, Russia, and a number of other countries and the different perspectives these sources may give on one and the same issue. Students write two short essays and one longer research paper.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 401

This course is focused on the history of traditional China from antiquity to the end of the 18th century. 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 as well as the 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? Let us read through scholarly books and classical literature together in this course, and find our own answers to the above questions.

BUILDING: B&L | ROOM: 269

This introductory survey course will focus on the process of colonization that indigenous societies of the Western Hemisphere experienced from the initial period of contact with Iberians to the Latin American independence movements. The course explores how indigenous populations, and arriving Europeans, Africans and Asians negotiated their political, social and economic identities and environments. Despite Latin America's resulting cultural mixture, diversity, and vibrant societies, the colonial period was also rife with exploitation and inequality. Come explore this seeming paradox and others.

BUILDING: DEWEY | ROOM: 2110D

An introductory survey course about Brazil, one of the largest, most populous, and diverse countries in the world. Topics will span from colonial slavery and racial identity to Carnaval, futebol, and favelas. The course starts with Portuguese 'discovery' in 1500 and follows the country's transition from the largest, agricultural slave society in the Americas to the highly urbanized nation that hosted the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Course materials will consist of a combination of primary and secondary sources, literature, music and films.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 160

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.

BUILDING: B&L | ROOM: 315

Historical survey of religions as practiced by people of African descent living in North America. Christianity, Islam, and African-derived religions will be examined. Through its canvassing of doctrinal and ritual frameworks, students are afforded an opportunity to view the diverse and complex terrain of African American religion. Class format includes lectures, discussions, and film/music.

BUILDING: DEWEY | ROOM: 2110E

Energy resources provide heat, light, and power, often requiring technology to make them useful. Muscles, wind, solar, and wood were the only significant resources until the 18th Century, when coal began fueling the Industrial Revolution. Petroleum transformed energy markets in the late 19th Century and became the most widely used resource by the 1960s. Natural gas and nuclear energy secured significant market share in the 20th Century, but nuclear in Western countries has been declining recently due to numerous challenges. Despite widespread recognition of the environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels, the transition back to renewable resources continues at a very slow pace, although France, Britain, and China are attempting to end the long dominance of the internal combustion engine. This course explores the history of energy resources and how they have been utilized, wasted, and conserved. Students will have an opportunity to use historical evidence to envision a sustainable energy future.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

This course explores the early history of humans' attempts to explain and control the cosmos, taking into account the real contributions made to early science by areas of inquiry now dismissed as magic or superstition, such as astrology, alchemy, and "natural magic." One major theme of the course will be the continuing way in which societies have policed the boundary between what they define as "magic" and what they dub legitimate "science." What is legitimate knowledge about nature, and who gets to define what counts as legitimate? The course will end around 1700, with Newton and the so-called "Scientific Revolution," and the marginalization of astrology, alchemy and similar fields of inquiry as "pseudo-sciences" or popular error.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 205

Climate change, gender equality, voting rights: the hot topics you hear about in today’s America directly reflect debates in Victorian Britain over evolution, the roles of the sexes, and the voting franchise. Though the Victorian era ended over a century ago, the language Victorians used to voice their concerns in large measure shapes your own: when you think about science, feminism, homosexuality, nationalism, progressivism, what you think owes a lot to the Victorians. Science, Sex and Society in Victorian Britain offers you a chance to explore the Victorian world in novels, newspapers, memoirs, and images, as well as in current scholarship. You will come to understand how the Victorians approached their own problems and ultimately to appreciate how they and you are not so different as you may think.

BUILDING: WILMT | ROOM: 116

This course introduces students to the histories and cultures that constitute Native America. The course will be ambitious in its geographic and chronological scope, but no prior knowledge of Native American history is necessary. Our objective will be to explore how knowledge about these histories has been and should be produced. To this end, we will consider Euro-American researchers’ archeological and anthropological findings and government-produced sources to some degree, but we will foreground the perspectives of Native peoples past and present. In addition to Native memoirs, political and literary writings, and oral histories, we will examine origin stories, winter counts, and other methods by which Native groups have recorded and remembered their own histories. Students will put the methodological skills they gain into practice by writing a short research paper on a relevant topic of their choice.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

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.

BUILDING: HYLAN | ROOM: 203

Examination of the interconnected histories of medical science, public health, and political action promoting social and health reform, from the seventeenth century to the present. Attention will also be directed to connections between socio-economic and occupational status and health status, variations in the distribution of disease and risk, and changes in the social role of medicine and medical institutions. The course material includes both major primary sources (Frank, Chadwick, Engels, Virchow, Riis, and Geiger) and secondary analyses (by Rosen, McKeown, Navarro, Jones, and E.R. Brown). Course requirements: a midterm exam, a final exam, and a 7-page book review essay. Each will contribute to one-third of the final grade.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 221

Examination of the interconnected histories of medical science, public health, and political action promoting social and health reform, from the seventeenth century to the present. Attention will also be directed to connections between socio-economic and occupational status and health status, variations in the distribution of disease and risk, and changes in the social role of medicine and medical institutions. The course material includes both major primary sources (Frank, Chadwick, Engels, Virchow, Riis, and Geiger) and secondary analyses (by Rosen, McKeown, Navarro, Jones, and E.R. Brown). Course requirements: a midterm exam, a final exam, and a 7-page book review essay. Each will contribute to one-third of the final grade.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 221

Examines the initiation, evolution, and transformation of international and global health activities/policies focusing on developments in the 19th-early 21st centuries. It also considers events such as pandemic plague, exchange of diseases between the Old World and the New, and the role of health concerns in early European and American colonialism and imperialism. The major focus is the evolution of cooperative efforts in international health under governmental, non-governmental, and trans-governmental auspices with attention given to the role of international conferences/conventions, the work of the International Red Cross and the Rockefeller Foundations International Health Division, and the creation/functioning of the Pan American Health Organization, the Office International d'Hygiene Publique, the League of Nations Health Organization, and the World Health Organization. For the later 20th century, we will focus on the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, and other current players in global health.

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Examines the initiation, evolution, and transformation of international and global health activities/policies focusing on developments in the 19th-early 21st centuries. It also considers events such as pandemic plague, exchange of diseases between the Old World and the New, and the role of health concerns in early European and American colonialism and imperialism. The major focus is the evolution of cooperative efforts in international health under governmental, non-governmental, and trans-governmental auspices with attention given to the role of international conferences/conventions, the work of the International Red Cross and the Rockefeller Foundations International Health Division, and the creation/functioning of the Pan American Health Organization, the Office International d'Hygiene Publique, the League of Nations Health Organization, and the World Health Organization. For the later 20th century, we will focus on the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, and other current players in global health.

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The course will examine the nature and culture of the African Diaspora as found on the African continent, Europe, the Americas and elsewhere. Among key issues on which the course will focus are variability, continuity and change in the cultures of different groups of Diasporan Africans, and relationships that are found between major environmental challenges as well as historical events such as the Islamic Jihads, Trans-Saharan Trade, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, colonialism, and Plantation Slavery in West Africa and the relocation and redistribution of African populations in Africa. A critical component of this class examines the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological research done in Africa, Europe, and the Americas to inform the student about theories and interpretations concerning the African Diaspora.

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The course will enable the student to understand the inception of present-day complex societies of West Africa and how they evolved, and their vicissitudes in the period 500 B.C. to A.D. 1950. Themes include general characteristics of West African societies in the Iron Age, origins of copper and iron technology and their effects on local societies, megalith and tumuli sites of the Western Sudan, urbanism, and trade networks and contacts in West Africa.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 181

The course will examine the environmental, social and cultural dynamics that led to urbanism and other aspects of cultural transformation in Africa before the advent of European colonialism. Topics include concepts of civilization, civilization of Africa, including those of the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, the Western Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Inland Niger Delta and the West African Rainforest. The role of the peripheries in the development of these centres will be looked at.

BUILDING: B&L | ROOM: 315

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*

BUILDING: HYLAN | ROOM: 203

This course covers topics such as the changing nature of warfare, the lives of ordinary people, and how the state attempted to control their private lives. It also looks at the global world which had emerged along with the growth of globalism.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

This course covers topics such as the changing nature of warfare, the lives of ordinary people, and how the state attempted to control their private lives. It also looks at the global world which had emerged along with the growth of globalism.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

This course covers the period between Christopher Columbus in the fifteenth century and James Cook, Alexander von Humboldt and Lewis and Clark in the eighteenth and early nineteenth. In this period most of the world's surface was explored. Exploration is regarded in this course as a series of practices (culture contact, travel, seamanship, map-making, natural history observation and collecting, drawing, language learning, travel-writing) which each tend towards the making of new knowledge in movement. There are no pre-requisites for the course. The class relies on close-reading of first-hand accounts by explorers. Work demanded: mid-term take-home paper, take-home term paper, weekly response paper to sources assigned for that week. Students should note that this is a text-based course, and demands a commitment to substantial reading.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

This course covers the period between Christopher Columbus in the fifteenth century and James Cook, Alexander von Humboldt and Lewis and Clark in the eighteenth and early nineteenth. In this period most of the world's surface was explored. Exploration is regarded in this course as a series of practices (culture contact, travel, seamanship, map-making, natural history observation and collecting, drawing, language learning, travel-writing) which each tend towards the making of new knowledge in movement. There are no pre-requisites for the course. The class relies on close-reading of first-hand accounts by explorers. Work demanded: mid-term take-home paper, take-home term paper, weekly response paper to sources assigned for that week. Students should note that this is a text-based course, and demands a commitment to substantial reading.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

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 region’s working classes, women, and the peasantry.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

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 region’s working classes, women, and the peasantry.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

This course is an introductory survey of the tragically intermingled histories of England and Ireland from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the present. Main topics include the effects of the Wars on England and Ireland; industrialization (and the lack thereof); class conflict in the 1830s and 40s; the Great Famine; the Irish emigration; Liberalism; Irish Nationalism and the IRA; the Depression; the two world wars, etc. Course consists of lectures, small-group discussions, and a few films.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 181

This course is an introductory survey of the tragically intermingled histories of England and Ireland from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the present. Main topics include the effects of the Wars on England and Ireland; industrialization (and the lack thereof); class conflict in the 1830s and 40s; the Great Famine; the Irish emigration; Liberalism; Irish Nationalism and the IRA; the Depression; the two world wars, etc. Course consists of lectures, small-group discussions, and a few films.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 181

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.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 504

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.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 504

In this course we will study the interplay between warfare and the political, social, and economic structures of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. We will explore motivations for and ideologies of armed conflict, the impact of war on political and cultural development, the evolution of tactics and strategy, and the effects of hegemonic and imperial expansion on both the conquerors and the conquered. The course readings will incorporate foundational modern perspectives, but will emphasize ancient sources. All ancient sources will be read in English translation.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 442

Tibet: the rooftop of the world. The land of Tibet has occupied a contested zone between history and myth for hundreds of years, from a proud Central Asian empire to a Buddhist hermit kingdom guarded by fighting monks, and from a mystical Land of Snows to a militarized ethnic region of China today. In this class we will study the history of Tibet and the roles of neighbors like China and India in shaping that history. We will also explore how Tibet has become a cultural phenomenon, from legends of Shangri-La to Dalai Lama CDs to films like “The Golden Child” and “Seven Years in Tibet.” Careful reading and discussion will be crucial in this class as we wade through myths, political controversies, and even good, bad, and terrabad Hollywood movies in search of the historical Tibet.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 121

Tibet: the rooftop of the world. The land of Tibet has occupied a contested zone between history and myth for hundreds of years, from a proud Central Asian empire to a Buddhist hermit kingdom guarded by fighting monks, and from a mystical Land of Snows to a militarized ethnic region of China today. In this class we will study the history of Tibet and the roles of neighbors like China and India in shaping that history. We will also explore how Tibet has become a cultural phenomenon, from legends of Shangri-La to Dalai Lama CDs to films like “The Golden Child” and “Seven Years in Tibet.” Careful reading and discussion will be crucial in this class as we wade through myths, political controversies, and even good, bad, and terrabad Hollywood movies in search of the historical Tibet.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 121

Interested in learning about global trade and making maps at the same time? In this class we will look at fifteen major commodities that shaped the economic landscape of the modern world: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine. Then we will take one step further, using ArcGIS to translate our book knowledge into creative digital maps. There are no prerequisites required; just bring your curiosity.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 160

Interested in learning about global trade and making maps at the same time? In this class we will look at fifteen major commodities that shaped the economic landscape of the modern world: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine. Then we will take one step further, using ArcGIS to translate our book knowledge into creative digital maps. There are no prerequisites required; just bring your curiosity.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 160

This course takes a broad historical and social approach to Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong literatures in the twentieth century. Beginning with the transformative May Fourth and New Culture movements of 1919 and the early 1920s, we will move through the twentieth century as represented in (or set as the backdrop for) iconic and thought-provoking works of literature (including fiction, essays, and poetry) produced by some of the era’s most prominent writers. We will consider these pieces as subjective snapshots presenting different perspectives on and preoccupations with the complexity of life in particular social, political, and geographic contexts. Students will thus learn not only about major schools of thought and intellectual/literary trends over the course of the century, but the political and social events, periods of conflict and upheaval, and moments of transition that shaped China’s, Taiwan’s and Hong Kong’s respective political and intellectual trajectories during the same period.

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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 women’s historically lower status in society; will look at the emergence of women’s rights and feminist movements as well as the distinctions among various feminist theories, and will discuss the relevance of feminism today.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 160

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 women’s historically lower status in society; will look at the emergence of women’s rights and feminist movements as well as the distinctions among various feminist theories, and will discuss the relevance of feminism today.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 160

This colloquium will focus on the life, works and contested legacies of Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), a Rochester attorney and founding figure of American anthropology. Students will conduct original research using archival materials and museum collections on campus and at local cultural institutions. This research will provide content for exhibitions, events, and a website to be planned in connection with the bicentennial of Morgan’s birth.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 441

What is America? A country? A continent? A political ideal? A culture? This course traces the development of ideas about America, from its historical beginnings to our own time, from European fantasies about the New World and its possibilities to the experiences of settlers and citizens facing its realities. We will explore the competing and even contending narratives of America in a wide variety of cultural documents, from orations, sermons and political tracts to novels, poems, photographs, and films. The course is open to all interested students and required for all American Studies majors.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

Over 150 years after the Civil War, historians continue to disagree as to "what caused the war" and raise doubts as to exactly who were the "winners" and "losers." The course re-examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of the American Civil War.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 224

Considers feature films as evidence for the cultural historian of modern America by considering the role of movies in the social imaginary of distinct moments in the nation's history. Topic for Spring 2016: "Surviving the Seventies." Movies include Deer Hunter, Godfather II, Nashville, Network, Star Wars, Taxi Driver.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

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 what economists, political scientists, & economic historians characterize as the Washington consensus versus the Beijing consensus or the Asian model. This is followed by a discussion of the contributions of some notable thinkers — Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich List, John Maynard Keynes, & Friedrich von Hayek. The greater part of the course deals with selected historical cases across the globe. The discussions are informed by a political economy conceptual framework, which helps to explain the politics and 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.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 501

Interviewed by the Chicago Daily News in 1924, Mussolini said that Fascism was “the greatest experiment in history in making Italians.” Within the historical and political framework of the so-called Ventennio Fascista—from 1922 to 1943—the course examines Mussolini’s cultural politics as a fundamental strategy not only to gain popular consent and propagate the ideology of the regime, but to implement his vision of Italian national identity. Relying on both material culture, and historical documents and analyses, we will study the fascist philosophy and politics of education, the myth of Rome and its imperial legacy, the archeological, architectural, and restoration projects, the graphic arts, fashion, sports, and documentary film.

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This course examines the views of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud on religion. Each of these three thinkers developed a radical critique of religion that was a vital part of his thought, and echoes of their views continue to be heard in contemporary debates about religion. We will discuss their explanations of the origins of religious ideas, the validity of their criticisms—most prominently that religion as such is now harmful to humanity—and how each man’s view of religion reflects larger concerns in his thought. Key concepts of each thinker, such as alienation (Marx), nihilism (Nietzsche), and neurosis (Freud), will be analyzed.

BUILDING: B&L | ROOM: 315

This course traces the dominant representations of Istanbul in historical and literary texts, visual art, architecture, and cinema. As an ancient and modern historical site of intersections of cultures, Istanbul is an apt setting to explore tensions of identity, influence, modernity, East-West & Europe-Middle East relations, globalization, cosmopolitanism, Islam, and “Turkishness.” Through textual and visual analyses, we will examine the major cultural forces that define Istanbul’s urban spaces: mahalle, harem, historical old city, the street, the Bosphorus, gecekondu, pazar, and the new urban spaces. We will frame our analyses of primary texts with supplemental material on nationalism, orientalism, gender, representation, globalization, visual studies, cultural translation, and modern critical theory. By the end you will have mastered key tools to make important interventions in debates concerning urban politics and city culture that continue to define debates in Turkey, Europe, and the Middle East.

BUILDING: DOUG | ROOM: 420

This upper-level research seminar explores the history of western ideas and attitudes toward nature from (roughly) the Enlightenment to the present. Drawing on a range of thinkers and writers from Petrarch to Rachel Carson as well as some selected secondary scholarship, we will study just a few of the many ways in which humans have thought about and treated the natural world around them and how the natural world has shaped human history in turn. Obviously, give so vast a subject as this we cannot aspire to anything like comprehensiveness. The assigned readings constitute a mere sampler meant to encourage deeper independent engagement with the subject. A still-essential starting point for those so encouraged is Clarence J. Glacken, Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought from Ancient Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century (1967).

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

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BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

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BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

This course will examine on how detective and police fiction reveals the political and cultural tensions and conflicts of a society. Our focus will be global and comparative, concentrating on post-World War II (1945 - ) life. Among the issues at the heart of the exploration are explore the limitations of social democracy and neutrality in Scandinavia, which has of late excelled in the genre, the domination of landholding families in Sicily, the corporate domination of Barcelona, the oppressiveness of apartheid in Natal, South Africa, the undemocratic rule of the ruling PRI in Mexico, the ideological blindness and bureaucratic inefficiency of Communism in China and the strange combination of capitalism and feudal structure in Japan. Supplementing each story of crime and detection will be short historical readings.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

Chivalry was a fundamental societal element in Medieval Europe. Its study takes students into war and violence, gendered relationships, issues of status and courtliness, religious piety, and relationships with governing authorities. Before setting students on the path of individual research we will read selected works of literature from the period as well as the views of modern historians.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

This course examines the diverse history of socialist ideology as lived-experience across Europe. It beings with the first theorists of socialism and places their ideas in the context of a rapidly industrializing Europe in Germany, France, and Great Britain. From the Paris Commune to the Iron Curtain, the course explores the surprising varieties of socialist socieites that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. This course asks students to consider: how were these societies ruled and why did they fail? To what extent were they influenced by the political philosophies of the 19th century? To what extent were they a product of geo-political conflicts and the failures of capitalism in the 20th? How did socialist leaders and citizens imagine the future of socialist development? What was the every-day lived experience of secret police and state force, but also of food, fashion, music, literature, and film?

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 362

What is modernity? What does it mean in China, Japan, and Korea? These are vital questions---but let’s not be scared away just because they seem abstract. We will seek answers together through history, literature, and film. Each week we will discuss a theme (such as WAR, POWER, TIME, and RESISTANCE) through films and readings that help us see the puzzle one piece at a time. Our goal is to uncover how modernity has been experienced and pictured on the other side of the globe. In the process, we may gain not only a better understanding of East Asia, but also of ourselves. Note: this seminar assumes at least some basic knowledge of Asian history or society. Contact the instructor if you have not taken at least one course on Asia.

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Childbirth is often viewed as a “natural” female biological function. As a result, many people assume that birthing is essentially the same across historical eras and cultures. In this class, we will take the opposite approach to the topics of childbirth and reproductive health. Our objective will be to explore how women’s reproductive experiences and the meanings attached to such experiences have changed over time and why. We will consider topics such as the evolution of the field of obstetrics, the decline and resurgence of midwifery, politics and policies surrounding infant and maternal mortality, and the development and availability of various reproductive technologies. This is a research seminar, so students will further explore these issues through their own research and writing on some aspect of the history of reproduction. Readings and discussions will focus on the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but students may explore the location and period of their choice in their papers.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

Individual instruction in the teaching of history under the supervision of a faculty member.

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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.

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For seniors writing an extended essay under faculty supervision. Upper-level writing credit awarded if students prepare and revise an extended essay.

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

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A forum in which students can present preliminary versions of their theses and get critical feedback from both their student colleagues and the instructor.

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