Graduate Program

Spring Term Schedule

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Sortable | Group by Weekday

Spring 2023

Number	Title	Instructor	Time
HIST 413-1 History of Global Exploration Stewart Weaver TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM
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 (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)
HIST 420-1 Medieval Crusades: Conflict Across Cultures John Burden MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
The edges of medieval Europe were a melting pot of peoples, cultures, and religions. Using Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sources, this course will examine how complex forces enabled co-existence and cooperation but also conflict. We will focus especially on the military expeditions known as the Crusades which occurred between about 1100 and 1300. Were the Crusades holy wars motivated by religion? Proto-colonial enterprises? Or personal pursuits of martial and dynastic glory? Alongside these questions, we will investigate how the memory of the Crusades survives in modern culture and politics. Location (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)
HIST 427-1 Real Existing Socialism: 19th and 20th Century Europe Thomas Fleischman T 9:40AM - 12:20PM
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? Location Rush Rhees Library Room 305 (T 9:40AM - 12:20PM)
HIST 446-1 East Asia and the Cold War Michael Hayata M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This course probes the regional dynamics of the Cold War in East Asia by examining the histories of China, Japan, and South and North Korea during the second half of the twentieth century. It uses primary and secondary works – including literature, film, and government documents – to explore the domestic and international contexts that shaped the region’s geopolitical landscape. Students will first study patterns of state control across East Asia in the form of rapid industrialization, land reform, and mass culture. They will then create dialogue between popular experiences of these social transformations by analyzing the alternative politics of such movements as the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Japanese peace movement, and South Korean democracy movement in relation to the Cold War world system. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 456 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 450-1 Captives: Past, Present, and Future (1500-2100) Pablo Sierra W 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Description Who or what is a captive? Traditionally, the term describes a person unwillingly held by invading forces, colonial pirates, and slave traders. This advanced seminar challenges us to consider the continued practice of captivity in our present-day societies. How do prisons, migrant detention centers, and guerrillas draw on former strategies of coercion and control? How integral is the denial of personhood to these practices, past and present? What of non-human captives? The course incorporates readings from Latin America, United States, Africa, and the vast Mediterranean region. We will explore how historical narratives of captivity are crafted, voiced, but also silenced. The following themes (and others) will be studied this semester: ransom, captive migrants, captive animals, sexual trafficking and imprisonment. Students will develop a research paper on a topic of their choice. Seminar meets once a week. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 456 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 453-1 Immigration and the Americas Molly Ball TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM
The United States received the largest number of immigrants in the western hemisphere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but immigrants’ relative impact in Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina was arguably more substantial. This course explores the complex events, trends and personal considerations affecting migrants' decisions and experiences. In exploring the movement of Italians, Japanese, Mexicans, and other groups to and within the Americas, we will seek to understand their movements as a function of three essential questions: why do people migrate; who migrates; and how do they choose where they migrate? The course will incorporate a variety of materials including interviews, memoirs, monographs, and demographic studies. Students will also discover Rochester’s own rich immigrant history. Graduate students will develop an extended exploration into the dynamics of internal migration and immigration over the course of the semester. Location Hylan Building Room 203 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)
HIST 470-1 Histories of Race and Revolt in US Literature and Film Nicholas Bloom T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Literature—and over the past century, film—have been key to shaping modern subjects’ ideas about the past, and how that past has shaped their present. In this course, we will consider how histories of race, racial conflict, and revolt in the United States—so key to the nation’s social structures and dominant myths—have been told and re-shaped by literature and film. The course will pay particular attention to the interaction between race and revolt in the narratives we study—how race shapes narratives of political and social revolt, and how these narratives of revolt in turn shape ideas about race. Histories of Black revolt, indigenous wars and rebellions, immigrant rebellions in the US, and wars of US imperial aggression overseas will all receive attention. Additionally, the course will consider how US literature and film have dealt with rebellions with primarily white protagonists, and how these narratives have shaped and been shaped by racial structures and ideologies. The course is ultimately concerned with how literature and film have shaped dominant understandings of who can and does participate in revolts, and why; and in turn, how these narratives have impacted the social and political struggles that follow in their wake. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 456 (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 474-1 Pandemics, Politics and Policies in the US, 1918-2020 Mical Raz R 2:00PM - 4:40PM
In this advanced seminar, students will learn about prior epidemics and pandemics primarily in the United States, and asses the policy responses to these events. They will learn about a number of key case studies in the history of pandemic response, and examine the political history of these responses. They will critically examine primary sources to shed light on contemporary understandings of pandemics and the responses to them, and how these responses were negotiated. With this knowledge and analysis, students will learn to think critically about current pandemics and tie them to a longer history of pandemic responses. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 305 (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 485-1 Digital History: Building a Virtual St. George's Michael Jarvis MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
Students will conduct guided research using a variety of software and historical sources to help create a Virtual Digital St. Georges a 400-year-old town with approximately 250 properties and historic buildings. We will build multi-layer 2D and selective 3D computer models of the oldest town in English America (founded 1612). Work will include integrating different types of historical data into Excel or ArcGIS databases, independent research on specific buildings and property owners using digital newspaper archives, "building" individual 3D houses within the town using Sketch-Up or Blender, reconstructing and furnishing historic house interiors using interior design software. Students with computer programming experience may develop mini-games or mobile devise apps to educate modern visitors to the town. SPRING 2023: Students will have the option of a Spring Break archival research and architectural field recording experience actually in St. George's, Bermuda, March 4-12. Location Goergen Hall Room 110 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 491-12 Master's Reading Course Elias Mandala –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 491-2 Master's Reading Course Stewart Weaver –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 491-3 Technology in Medieval European Economy Thomas Devaney –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 491-4 Master's Reading: Technology in Medieval Europe Morris Pierce –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 491-5 Master's Reading: Exploration and Scientific Photography Stewart Weaver –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 491-6 Master's Reading Course Ruben Flores –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 495-6 Master's Research Ruben Flores –
Graduate level research course for the M.A. level.
HIST 497-1 Historical Archaeology Michael Jarvis MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM
This course introduces students to historical archaeology and uses archaeological sites, material culture, and architecture to investigate European colonization of the Americas. Topics include Euro-Indian contact, the transfer of European and African cultures to American shores, creolization and the emergence of distinctly American traditions, Atlantic connections, and how non-documentary sources help us understand the lives of African Americans, Indians, and white settlers. SPRING 2023: Students will have the option of a Spring Break field excavation experience in Bermuda, March 4-12. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 456 (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)
HIST 502-1 Dissertation Writers' Seminar Thomas Devaney M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
The purpose of this course is to help students launch their dissertation projects and its chief outcome will be the dissertation prospectus. To that end, we will work on identifying topics, locating primary sources, engaging with the research literature, finding and applying for external research funding, and drafting and revising the prospectus. We will also discuss related topics, such as archival research practices and presenting work in progress at conferences and other meetings. This course is envisioned as a collaborative enterprise; though each student will focus on their own project, peer support and feedback will be an important part of all we do. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 305 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
HIST 510-1 Advanced Historical Studies (1cr) Thomas Devaney –
Blank Description
HIST 510-2 Advanced Historical Studies William Miller –
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HIST 510-3 Advanced Historical Studies Gregory Heyworth –
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HIST 510-4 Advanced Historical Studies Henk Goemans –
Blank Description
HIST 510-5 Advanced Historical Studies Christopher Heuer –
Blank Description
HIST 520-1 Advanced Historical Studies (2cr) Thomas Devaney –
No description
HIST 591-01 PhD Readings in History Molly Ball –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-02 PhD Readings in History Thomas Devaney –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-03 PhD Readings in History Thomas Slaughter –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-04 PhD Readings in History Pablo Sierra –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-05 Readings: Social and Cultural History Thomas Fleischman –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member. This course covers topics in social and cultural history.
HIST 591-06 PhD Readings in History Ruben Flores –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-08 PhD Readings in History Joseph Inikori –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-09 PhD Readings in History Michael Jarvis –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-11 Readings: Russian History before the Revolution Matthew Lenoe –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member. This class covers Russian history from the ancient Kievan Russ to the collapse of the Imperial Russia. It aims to give me a comprehensive knowledge and understanding about the basic trends of Russian history and historical debates.
HIST 591-12 PhD Readings in History Elias Mandala –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-14 PhD Readings in History Mical Raz –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-15 PhD Readings in History Joan Rubin –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-16 PhD Readings in History Laura Smoller –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-17 PhD Readings in History Brianna Theobald –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-18 Readings: Modern European History Stewart Weaver –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member. This class covers European modern history from the Enlightenment to the postwar era. I could learn and understand historical facts about European modern era and also organize how historians have tried to understand historical events such as the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, Imperialism, World Wars, Nazism, and the Cold War.
HIST 591-19 PhD Readings in History: America to 1865 Thomas Slaughter –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-20 PhD Readings in History Tatyana Bakhmetyeva –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 591-21 PhD Readings: Imperial Russia Matthew Lenoe –
Individual, specialized reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-01 Independent Reading Course Molly Ball –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-02 Independent Reading Course Thomas Devaney –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-03 Independent Reading Course Thomas Slaughter –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-04 Independent Reading Course Pablo Sierra –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-05 Independent Reading Course Thomas Fleischman –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-06 Independent Reading Course Ruben Flores –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-08 Independent Reading Course Joseph Inikori –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-09 Independent Reading Course Michael Jarvis –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-11 Independent Reading Course Matthew Lenoe –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-12 Independent Reading Course Elias Mandala –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-14 Independent Reading Course Mical Raz –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-15 Independent Reading Course Joan Rubin –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-16 Independent Reading Course Laura Smoller –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-17 Independent Reading Course Brianna Theobald –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 592-18 Independent Reading Course Stewart Weaver –
Individual, specialized independent reading courses; topics, relevant to student's program, chosen in consultation with faculty member.
HIST 593-1 Apprentice Teaching Thomas Devaney –
Apprentice teachers act as participant-observers in an undergraduate course under the close supervision of a member of the faculty. Ordinarily, students will attend the course; hold weekly meetings with the professor to discuss the progress of the course, and, in many cases, consider strategies for teaching the weeks assigned reading, assist the professor in preparing examination questions, paper topics, and other written assignments; gain experience in evaluating undergraduates work by reading and commenting on (but not grading) exams and essays; and prepare a lecture or lead a class discussion.
HIST 595-01 PhD Research in History Molly Ball –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-02 PhD Research in History Thomas Devaney –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-03 PhD Research in History Thomas Slaughter –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-04 PhD Research in History Pablo Sierra –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-05 PhD Research in History Thomas Fleischman –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-06 PhD Research in History Ruben Flores –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-08 PhD Research in History Joseph Inikori –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-09 PhD Research in History Michael Jarvis –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-11 PhD Research in History Matthew Lenoe –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-12 PhD Research in History Elias Mandala –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-14 PhD Research in History Mical Raz –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-15 PhD Research in History Joan Rubin –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-16 PhD Research in History Laura Smoller –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-17 PhD Research in History Brianna Theobald –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-18 PhD Research in History Stewart Weaver –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-2 PhD Research in History Thomas Devaney –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-3 PhD Research in History Thomas Slaughter –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-4 PhD Research in History Pablo Sierra –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 595-9 PhD Research in History Michael Jarvis –
Graduate level research course for the Ph.D. level.
HIST 895-1 Continuation of Master's Enrollment – –
Blank Description
HIST 897-11 Master's Dissertation Matthew Lenoe –
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HIST 897-14 Master's Dissertation Mical Raz –
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HIST 897-15 Master's Dissertation Joan Rubin –
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HIST 897-16 Master's Dissertation Laura Smoller –
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HIST 897-17 Master's Dissertation Brianna Theobald –
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HIST 897-18 Master's Dissertation Stewart Weaver –
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HIST 897-2 Master's Dissertation Thomas Devaney –
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HIST 897-3 Master's Dissertation Thomas Slaughter –
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HIST 897-4 Master's Dissertation Pablo Sierra –
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HIST 897-5 Master's Dissertation Thomas Fleischman –
No description
HIST 897-6 Master's Dissertation Ruben Flores –
Blank Description
HIST 897-8 Master's Dissertation Joseph Inikori –
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HIST 897-9 Master's Dissertation Michael Jarvis –
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HIST 899-02 Master's Dissertation Thomas Devaney –
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HIST 899-03 Master's Dissertation Thomas Slaughter –
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HIST 899-04 Master's Dissertation Pablo Sierra –
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HIST 899-05 Master's Dissertation Thomas Fleischman –
No description
HIST 899-06 Master's Dissertation Ruben Flores –
Blank Description
HIST 899-08 Master's Dissertation Joseph Inikori –
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HIST 899-09 Master's Dissertation Michael Jarvis –
Blank Description
HIST 899-11 Master's Dissertation Matthew Lenoe –
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HIST 899-12 Master's Dissertation Elias Mandala –
No description
HIST 899-14 Master's Dissertation Mical Raz –
Blank Description
HIST 899-15 Master's Dissertation Joan Rubin –
Blank Description
HIST 899-16 Master's Dissertation Laura Smoller –
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HIST 899-17 Master's Dissertation Brianna Theobald –
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HIST 899-18 Master's Dissertation Stewart Weaver –
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HIST 986V-1 Full Time Visiting Student – –
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HIST 995-1 Continuation of Doctoral Enrollment – –
Blank Description
HIST 997-11 Doctoral Dissertation Matthew Lenoe –
No description
HIST 997-12 Doctoral Dissertation Elias Mandala –
No description
HIST 997-14 Doctoral Dissertation Mical Raz –
No description
HIST 997-15 Doctoral Dissertation Joan Rubin –
No description
HIST 997-16 Doctoral Dissertation Laura Smoller –
No description
HIST 997-17 Doctoral Dissertation Brianna Theobald –
No description
HIST 997-18 Doctoral Dissertation Stewart Weaver –
No description
HIST 997-2 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Devaney –
No description
HIST 997-3 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Slaughter –
No description
HIST 997-4 Doctoral Dissertation Pablo Sierra –
No description
HIST 997-5 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Fleischman –
No description
HIST 997-6 Doctoral Dissertation Ruben Flores –
No description
HIST 997-8 Doctoral Dissertation Joseph Inikori –
No description
HIST 997-9 Doctoral Dissertation Michael Jarvis –
No description
HIST 997B-1 PhD Dissertation - In Absentia Abroad Thomas Devaney –
No description
HIST 999-02 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Devaney –
No description
HIST 999-03 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Slaughter –
No description
HIST 999-04 Doctoral Dissertation Pablo Sierra –
No description
HIST 999-05 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Fleischman –
No description
HIST 999-06 Doctoral Dissertation Ruben Flores –
No description
HIST 999-08 Doctoral Dissertation Joseph Inikori –
No description
HIST 999-09 Doctoral Dissertation Michael Jarvis –
No description
HIST 999-11 Doctoral Dissertation Matthew Lenoe –
No description
HIST 999-12 Doctoral Dissertation Elias Mandala –
No description
HIST 999-14 Doctoral Dissertation Mical Raz –
No description
HIST 999-15 Doctoral Dissertation Joan Rubin –
No description
HIST 999-16 Doctoral Dissertation Laura Smoller –
No description
HIST 999-17 Doctoral Dissertation Brianna Theobald –
No description
HIST 999-18 Doctoral Dissertation Stewart Weaver –
No description
HIST 999A-2 Doct Dissertatn in Absentia Michael Jarvis –
No description
HIST 999A-5 Doct Dissertatn in Absentia Thomas Devaney –
Blank Description
HIST 999B-1 PhD In-Absentia Abroad Thomas Devaney –
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HIST 999B-2 Doctoral Dissertation in Absentia Abroad Laura Smoller –
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Number	Title	Instructor	Time
Monday
HIST 446-1 East Asia and the Cold War Michael Hayata
This course probes the regional dynamics of the Cold War in East Asia by examining the histories of China, Japan, and South and North Korea during the second half of the twentieth century. It uses primary and secondary works – including literature, film, and government documents – to explore the domestic and international contexts that shaped the region’s geopolitical landscape. Students will first study patterns of state control across East Asia in the form of rapid industrialization, land reform, and mass culture. They will then create dialogue between popular experiences of these social transformations by analyzing the alternative politics of such movements as the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Japanese peace movement, and South Korean democracy movement in relation to the Cold War world system.
HIST 502-1 Dissertation Writers' Seminar Thomas Devaney
The purpose of this course is to help students launch their dissertation projects and its chief outcome will be the dissertation prospectus. To that end, we will work on identifying topics, locating primary sources, engaging with the research literature, finding and applying for external research funding, and drafting and revising the prospectus. We will also discuss related topics, such as archival research practices and presenting work in progress at conferences and other meetings. This course is envisioned as a collaborative enterprise; though each student will focus on their own project, peer support and feedback will be an important part of all we do.
Monday and Wednesday
HIST 420-1 Medieval Crusades: Conflict Across Cultures John Burden
The edges of medieval Europe were a melting pot of peoples, cultures, and religions. Using Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sources, this course will examine how complex forces enabled co-existence and cooperation but also conflict. We will focus especially on the military expeditions known as the Crusades which occurred between about 1100 and 1300. Were the Crusades holy wars motivated by religion? Proto-colonial enterprises? Or personal pursuits of martial and dynastic glory? Alongside these questions, we will investigate how the memory of the Crusades survives in modern culture and politics.
HIST 497-1 Historical Archaeology Michael Jarvis
This course introduces students to historical archaeology and uses archaeological sites, material culture, and architecture to investigate European colonization of the Americas. Topics include Euro-Indian contact, the transfer of European and African cultures to American shores, creolization and the emergence of distinctly American traditions, Atlantic connections, and how non-documentary sources help us understand the lives of African Americans, Indians, and white settlers. SPRING 2023: Students will have the option of a Spring Break field excavation experience in Bermuda, March 4-12.
HIST 485-1 Digital History: Building a Virtual St. George's Michael Jarvis
Students will conduct guided research using a variety of software and historical sources to help create a Virtual Digital St. Georges a 400-year-old town with approximately 250 properties and historic buildings. We will build multi-layer 2D and selective 3D computer models of the oldest town in English America (founded 1612). Work will include integrating different types of historical data into Excel or ArcGIS databases, independent research on specific buildings and property owners using digital newspaper archives, "building" individual 3D houses within the town using Sketch-Up or Blender, reconstructing and furnishing historic house interiors using interior design software. Students with computer programming experience may develop mini-games or mobile devise apps to educate modern visitors to the town. SPRING 2023: Students will have the option of a Spring Break archival research and architectural field recording experience actually in St. George's, Bermuda, March 4-12.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Tuesday
HIST 427-1 Real Existing Socialism: 19th and 20th Century Europe Thomas Fleischman
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?
HIST 470-1 Histories of Race and Revolt in US Literature and Film Nicholas Bloom
Literature—and over the past century, film—have been key to shaping modern subjects’ ideas about the past, and how that past has shaped their present. In this course, we will consider how histories of race, racial conflict, and revolt in the United States—so key to the nation’s social structures and dominant myths—have been told and re-shaped by literature and film. The course will pay particular attention to the interaction between race and revolt in the narratives we study—how race shapes narratives of political and social revolt, and how these narratives of revolt in turn shape ideas about race. Histories of Black revolt, indigenous wars and rebellions, immigrant rebellions in the US, and wars of US imperial aggression overseas will all receive attention. Additionally, the course will consider how US literature and film have dealt with rebellions with primarily white protagonists, and how these narratives have shaped and been shaped by racial structures and ideologies. The course is ultimately concerned with how literature and film have shaped dominant understandings of who can and does participate in revolts, and why; and in turn, how these narratives have impacted the social and political struggles that follow in their wake.
Tuesday and Thursday
HIST 413-1 History of Global Exploration Stewart Weaver
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.
HIST 453-1 Immigration and the Americas Molly Ball
The United States received the largest number of immigrants in the western hemisphere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but immigrants’ relative impact in Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina was arguably more substantial. This course explores the complex events, trends and personal considerations affecting migrants' decisions and experiences. In exploring the movement of Italians, Japanese, Mexicans, and other groups to and within the Americas, we will seek to understand their movements as a function of three essential questions: why do people migrate; who migrates; and how do they choose where they migrate? The course will incorporate a variety of materials including interviews, memoirs, monographs, and demographic studies. Students will also discover Rochester’s own rich immigrant history. Graduate students will develop an extended exploration into the dynamics of internal migration and immigration over the course of the semester.
Wednesday
HIST 450-1 Captives: Past, Present, and Future (1500-2100) Pablo Sierra
Description Who or what is a captive? Traditionally, the term describes a person unwillingly held by invading forces, colonial pirates, and slave traders. This advanced seminar challenges us to consider the continued practice of captivity in our present-day societies. How do prisons, migrant detention centers, and guerrillas draw on former strategies of coercion and control? How integral is the denial of personhood to these practices, past and present? What of non-human captives? The course incorporates readings from Latin America, United States, Africa, and the vast Mediterranean region. We will explore how historical narratives of captivity are crafted, voiced, but also silenced. The following themes (and others) will be studied this semester: ransom, captive migrants, captive animals, sexual trafficking and imprisonment. Students will develop a research paper on a topic of their choice. Seminar meets once a week.
Thursday
HIST 474-1 Pandemics, Politics and Policies in the US, 1918-2020 Mical Raz
In this advanced seminar, students will learn about prior epidemics and pandemics primarily in the United States, and asses the policy responses to these events. They will learn about a number of key case studies in the history of pandemic response, and examine the political history of these responses. They will critically examine primary sources to shed light on contemporary understandings of pandemics and the responses to them, and how these responses were negotiated. With this knowledge and analysis, students will learn to think critically about current pandemics and tie them to a longer history of pandemic responses.
Friday