Fall Term Schedule
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Fall 2026
| Number | Title | Instructor | Time |
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HIST 102-01
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TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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While exploring the history of Europe and its neighbors from the ancient to the medieval period, this course focuses on how people borrowed from, adapted, and reconciled various ideas to suit their own needs to form, over time, a coherent set of cultural values. To this end, we will consider several themes throughout the semester, including changing models of political organization, ideas of individual rights and responsibilities, attitudes towards women and outsiders, and understandings of nature and of divine power.
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HIST 120-01
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TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
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In this course we will survey the unique military, political, and economic history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the death of Alexander the Great. In addition, and more unusually, we will look at ancient Greece's rich cultural and social history.
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HIST 124-01
–
TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM
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Moving past outdated stereotypes of the Middle Ages as dark, dirty, and dangerous, what was life for medieval people actually like? This course explores how people lived, worked, and died in medieval England from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries. We will investigate topics such as family life, labor and servitude, popular revolt, and migration. We will examine the sources that social historians have used to reconstruct these issues; how scholarly interpretations of medieval life have evolved since the inception of the field; and how medievalists have drawn on techniques from disciplines including anthropology, demography. In studying this course, students will develop familiarity with key transferable concepts and methodologies in the field of social history.
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HIST 125-01
Mariah Steele
TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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Social dance plays an important role in every society, simultaneously fostering community and self-expression. From the Waltz to Contra Dancing, Ragtime Dances to Rock n Roll, and Tango to Salsa, this course explores the history and culture of several social and popular dances in the United States from the country's founding to the present. Students discover how cultural beliefs are embedded in social dance practices, and how, vice versa, social dance practices can help shape changing norms and behaviors. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, discussions, video-viewings and experiencing the basic steps, each social dance form studied is contextualized within its time period. The course as a whole considers patterns of cultural change across the decades in terms of gender, race, class and social identities. No previous dance experience is necessary.
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HIST 134-01
Dmitrii Bykov
TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
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Students will follow current events in Russia through news outlets, blogs and other internet sources. 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 familiarize students with the most important issues facing Russia today and the historical/political/cultural context in which to place them.
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HIST 170-01
Melanie Chambliss
TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
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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.
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HIST 180-01
Morris Pierce
MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM
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This course surveys the history of technology and its impacts on agriculture, communication, transportation, housing, health, war and society. Technology has been used to build empires and improve human societies, but also to destroy, enslave, and censor. Today we face limits on technology as well as new and seemingly boundless opportunities for the future. The unifying theme of the course is exploring and understanding the impact of technology on individuals and society.
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HIST 183-01
John Downey
TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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The purpose of this course is to explore the general development of Christianity throughout its twenty centuries of existence, paying special attention to the religious presuppositions behind Christianity and its complex relationship to its socio-cultural matrix. The course will focus on important moments in Christian history, including its inception as a Jewish religious movement set in motion by Jesus, its dissemination in the Greco-Roman world by Paul of Tarsus, its growth and triumph in the Roman Empire, the split between the Greek- and Latin-speaking churches, medieval Catholicism, the Reformation and rise of Protestantism, Christianity and the modern world, and contemporary movements and tendencies within the Christian churches.
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HIST 184-01
Abdulbasit Kassim
MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
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Framed as a historical introduction to Islamic traditions, this course will explore the political, social, and intellectual histories of Islam as a global tradition from its emergence through the modern period. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the central texts, personalities, events, geographies, institutions, and schools of thought that make up Islamic histories. We will begin by tracing Islam’s political history as it spreads from the Arabian Peninsula and encounters diverse cultures and peoples, before moving on to discuss the development of intellectual sciences and social institutions. In the process of studying Islamic histories, the course will engage several critical issues in the academic study of Islam such as orientalism, authority and writing history, authenticity, and gendered representations of Muslim societies.
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HIST 187-01
Laura Smoller
MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
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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.
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HIST 189-01
Brianna Theobald
MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
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This course surveys American history through the words and work of women. Well-known historical events and developments--including but not limited to the Revolutionary War, the abolition of slavery, the Great Depression, and the protest movements of the 1960s--look different when considered from the perspective of women. The course will further examine how social categories such as race, class, sexuality, and religion have shaped women's historical experiences. Broad in chronological scope, this course is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, we will utilize primary and secondary sources to delve into important historical moments and to explore questions about the practice and politics of studying women's history.
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HIST 191-01
Kerida Moates
TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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This specific course can change each semester. It will cover a topic of post-1800 US History This course covers topics in post-1800 US history. For fall 2026: The Making of the Modern Republican Party's course description: Since World War II, the politics of the American Right have evolved tremendously - or have they? This course examines this question through the lens of the modern Republican Party. Students will gain an understanding of how different factions within the GOP interacted with one another and how factions changed over time. Students will learn about different political movements such as the Moral Majority and neoliberalism, as well as examine changes in public policy areas such as public safety and immigration. Through a history of the American Right, students will learn about US history more generally. Students can expect to be assigned a mixture of readings, podcasts, and at least one movie. This course ultimately empowers students to think deeply about our present political environment.
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HIST 194-01
Mauricio Garza
MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
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This specific course can change each semester. It will cover a topic of Latin American History. This course covers topics in Latin American history. For fall 2026: Open Veins of Latin America? Identity, Memory, & Foreign Intervention 1521-2025 will trace claims made by modern Latin American intellectuals about the colonial period’s impact on modern Latin American society. Popular figures such as Eduardo Galeano, Frida Kahlo, and Che Guevara all attributed Latin America’s colonial history as the reason why the region developed the way it has. This course will examine Latin America’s colonial history to understand modern trends and characterizations of Latin America. After this course, students will be able to answer the following questions: Did colonial Spanish rule give Latin America a disadvantage compared to the United States? What role does The Black Legend play in shaping Latin America’s relationship with its colonial and pre-colonial past? Should all Latin Americans claim an Indigenous heritage? How does the U.S.-Mexican border shape Latin American history? Students will gain an understanding of how colonial Latin American history shapes modern Latin Americans' understanding of their place in the world, where beliefs originated, and how those beliefs are influenced by the U.S.-Mexican border.
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HIST 200-01
Laura Smoller
MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
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HIST 200 is an introduction to historical practice - what professional historians actually do. It is a requirement for history majors, but we encourage all interested undergraduates to enroll. History 200 is an introduction to historical practice - what professional historians actually do. It is a requirement for history majors, but we encourage all interested undergraduates to enroll. This section focuses upon the concept of deviance in medieval European society, studying the process of identifying persons as “deviants” because of their religious beliefs, sexual preferences, alleged witchcraft, or presumed status as 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 in 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."
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HIST 205-01
Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio
MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
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The first of a two-course sequence, this class approaches The Divine Comedy both as a poetic masterpiece and as an encyclopedia of medieval culture. Through close textual analysis of Inferno and the first half of Purgatorio, students learn to approach Dante’s poetry as a vehicle for thought, an instrument of self-discovery, and a means to understand and engage with historical reality. The course also provides insight into Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as they intersect with Dante’s wide-ranging concerns, spanning literature, history, politics, government, philosophy, and theology. A visual component, including illustrations of the Comedy and other artworks related to the narrative, complements the study of the text. Classes combine lectures, discussion, and a weekly recitation session, with intensive participation strongly encouraged. Dante I may be taken independently of Dante II. No prerequisites; freshmen are welcome. Part of the Dante Humanities Cluster.
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HIST 222-01
Ruben Flores
MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
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This course will consider Mexicos rich and vibrant cultural history beginning with the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and ending with contemporary globalization (post-1994). Among the topics to be considered are Mexicos mid-century challenge to US power as it was expressed in art, literature, and film; the question of forming a national identity between 1930 and 1960; and the cultural expressions of discontent against the national state after 1968. We will pay close attention to the work of national figures who expressed Mexicos internal racial, class, and gender hierarchies, including Carlos Monsivis, Elena Poniatowska, and Fernando Bentez. And we will examine the current resurgence of Mexican literature and film on the world stage as Mexicos artists have responded to the inequalities, migrations, and violence of contemporary globalization.
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HIST 222W-01
Ruben Flores
MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
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This course will consider Mexicos rich and vibrant cultural history beginning with the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and ending with contemporary globalization (post-1994). Among the topics to be considered are Mexicos mid-century challenge to US power as it was expressed in art, literature, and film; the question of forming a national identity between 1930 and 1960; and the cultural expressions of discontent against the national state after 1968. We will pay close attention to the work of national figures who expressed Mexicos internal racial, class, and gender hierarchies, including Carlos Monsivis, Elena Poniatowska, and Fernando Bentez. And we will examine the current resurgence of Mexican literature and film on the world stage as Mexicos artists have responded to the inequalities, migrations, and violence of contemporary globalization.
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HIST 223-01
Lisa Cerami
WF 10:25AM - 11:40AM
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This course will explore "Anti-Semitism" as a historical phenomenon and a rhetorical one from the end of the 18th Century until today, particularly in Germany. We also examine the specific discursive history of anti-Semitic tropes –– with a special focus on the figure of the "enemy of the state." We will engage with a variety of genres of texts (historical documents, legal texts, theoretical / historiographic texts, cultural objects, newspaper articles, fictional narratives, state propaganda) to think about the construction and political exploitation of tropes, and the different forms of state violence they explicitly or implicitly underwrite. Discussion and readings in English, but German minors and majors will have opportunities to work with German language primary materials.
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HIST 241-01
Jonathon Catlin
TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM
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This course will cover topics in post-1800 European history. Topic description for F25, HIST 241 The Holocaust in History and Memory: This course examines the genocide of European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its collaborators, now commonly known as the Holocaust or Shoah. The first half covers the history of these events, starting from the contexts of antisemitism and racial science, Europe’s interwar crises, and the National Socialist movement’s rise to power, and culminating in the mass murder of Jews and other groups. The second half explores the ramifications of these events in national memory cultures and social and political thought through authors including Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno. We will restage pivotal historiographical and intellectual debates that shaped how the Holocaust and its significance are understood. Through several films we will also grapple with challenges of representing the Holocaust and observe how aesthetic and memorial strategies have evolved over time.
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HIST 241W-01
Jonathon Catlin
TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM
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This course will cover topics in post-1800 European history. Topic description for F25, HIST 241W The Holocaust in History and Memory: This course examines the genocide of European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its collaborators, now commonly known as the Holocaust or Shoah. The first half covers the history of these events, starting from the contexts of antisemitism and racial science, Europe’s interwar crises, and the National Socialist movement’s rise to power, and culminating in the mass murder of Jews and other groups. The second half explores the ramifications of these events in national memory cultures and social and political thought through authors including Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno. We will restage pivotal historiographical and intellectual debates that shaped how the Holocaust and its significance are understood. Through several films we will also grapple with challenges of representing the Holocaust and observe how aesthetic and memorial strategies have evolved over time.
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HIST 250-01
Pablo Sierra
TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
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Learn how to read, analyze, and transcribe Spanish writing from the 1500s-1700s in this interactive two-credit course (class meets once a week). Paleography is an essential skill for deciphering primary sources whether they were produced in Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico or the Philippines. This course prepares students for historical research in digital databases, physical archives and specialized libraries. We will collectively transcribe, analyze and annotate a group document to familiarize ourselves with ancient Spanish. For your final project you will analyze a digitized primary source of your own choice. Students should have a strong background in Spanish (or Portuguese). No HIST pre-requisites necessary.
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HIST 259-01
Elizabeth Sapere
T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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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 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.
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HIST 259W-01
Elizabeth Sapere
T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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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 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.
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HIST 278-01
Melanie Chambliss
TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM
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bell hooks published her landmark book Ain’t I a Woman in 1981, and with it, she became one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the Black feminist movement. hooks challenged intersecting oppressions throughout her versatile canon. She authored more than two dozen books with topics ranging from classism to education, history, movies, literature, and love. hooks gravitated towards popular culture because she wanted to connect with larger audiences while still maintaining her critical voice. Scholars and readers are now starting to assess this prolific writer’s legacy after hooks died in 2021. In this course, we will read hooks's work as a lens for examining larger themes within Black women’s intellectual history. We will also explore nineteenth- and twentieth-century Black women writers—hooks’s peers and foremothers—as we ask questions about hooks's intellectual lineage, revolutionary vision, populist approach, and lasting legacy.
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HIST 278W-01
Melanie Chambliss
TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM
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bell hooks published her landmark book Ain’t I a Woman in 1981, and with it, she became one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the Black feminist movement. hooks challenged intersecting oppressions throughout her versatile canon. She authored more than two dozen books with topics ranging from classism to education, history, movies, literature, and love. hooks gravitated towards popular culture because she wanted to connect with larger audiences while still maintaining her critical voice. Scholars and readers are now starting to assess this prolific writer’s legacy after hooks died in 2021. In this course, we will read hooks's work as a lens for examining larger themes within Black women’s intellectual history. We will also explore nineteenth- and twentieth-century Black women writers—hooks’s peers and foremothers—as we ask questions about hooks's intellectual lineage, revolutionary vision, populist approach, and lasting legacy.
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HIST 318W-01
–
R 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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This course examines the histories of gender and sexuality in Europe from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. We will investigate topics such as marriage, rape and consent, sex work, queer and transgender histories, and the role of sex in the development of medieval constructions of race. To explore these themes, we will critically analyze a diverse range of primary sources in translation, including chronicles, legal records, scientific texts, and personal letters. We will survey how scholarly interpretations of medieval gender and sexuality have evolved since the 1980s and how medievalists have brought the period into conversation with fields such feminist history, queer theory, trans studies, critical race theory, and histories of law and science.
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HIST 327W-01
Thomas Fleischman
W 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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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?
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HIST 339W-01
Michael Jarvis
MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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What is a text, and how do texts convey historical information? How can computers help us study, disseminate, curate, and interact with texts? This seminar will explore new research methods made possible through digital transformations of a variety of historical texts and how we might interrogate the past in cool new ways. Topics include document digitization, enhancement, and translation; digital capture of objects and structures; 3D and 4D visualization and interaction; data network analysis; and web-based teaching, archiving, and collaboration. Although this all may sound technical and scary, it is actually easier than it seems – even a middle-aged History professor can do it.
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HIST 349W-01
Alexander Parry
R 5:00PM - 7:30PM
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This course will provide students with a grasp on the fluid ideal of the “normative” human body throughout history; it will also provide them with a toolkit for writing, at the graduate school level, rigorous historical work that focuses on the body and its discontents. Students will consider the body from an interdisciplinary perspective, looking at the different ways in which the body has been conceptualized and represented in medicine and culture throughout historical periods and in different geographical areas. These scientific and cultural conceptualizations of the body have had and continue to have significant implications for patients and for the scientists and clinicians who study the body and who provide care. Throughout the fourteen themes explored this semester, students will learn to question and disassemble the binaries, categorization methods, and social constructions of the body.
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HIST 359W-01
Brianna Theobald
T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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Why did fertility rates decline over the nineteenth century? Why did women begin choosing hospital rather than home births in the twentieth century? What difference have the Pill and other reproductive technologies made in shaping how women think about pregnancy and childbirth? Why have breastfeeding rates been rising since the 1970s? How have womens reproductive experiences differed along lines of race and class? In this course, we will consider these questions and more as we explore how womens reproductive experiences and the meanings attached to such experiences have changed over time and why. 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.
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HIST 373W-02
Mical Raz
R 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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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.
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HIST 389H-01
Thomas Devaney
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 389H-04
Matthew Lenoe
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 389H-07
Melanie Chambliss
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 389H-08
Ruben Flores
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 389H-09
Jean Pedersen
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 389H-10
Mical Raz
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This Fall semester course (4.0 credits) is reserved for History seniors whose Honors proposal has been approved. (Approval process takes place during spring semester of junior year.) In HIST 389H students conduct independent Honors research under the supervision of their faculty advisor. Students who successfully complete 389H will enroll in HIST 399H (2.0 credits with the Honors director) in the spring and continue their Honors research in HIST 393H (4.0 credits with their advisor). Students who have not demonstrated enough progress in HIST 389H will not advance to the spring sequence of Honors and will receive HIST 391W credit instead.
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HIST 390-01
–
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This course offers undergraduate students a structured, credit-bearing opportunity to gain experience in supervised teaching within a college-level classroom setting. Under the mentorship of a faculty member, students assist in course delivery, lead discussions or labs, support instructional design, and participate in pedagogical reflection. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department.
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HIST 391-01
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7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Independent Study Registration form (https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/independent-study-form.php)
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HIST 391W-01
Jean Pedersen
7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Independent Study Registration form (https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/independent-study-form.php)
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HIST 394-01
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7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Internship Registration form ( https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/internship-registration-form.php)
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HIST 395-01
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7:00PM - 7:00PM
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This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Independent Study Registration form (https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/independent-study-form.php)
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Fall 2026
| Number | Title | Instructor | Time |
|---|---|
| Monday | |
| Monday and Wednesday | |
|
HIST 187-01
Laura Smoller
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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. |
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HIST 194-01
Mauricio Garza
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This specific course can change each semester. It will cover a topic of Latin American History. |
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HIST 222-01
Ruben Flores
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This course will consider Mexicos rich and vibrant cultural history beginning with the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and ending with contemporary globalization (post-1994). Among the topics to be considered are Mexicos mid-century challenge to US power as it was expressed in art, literature, and film; the question of forming a national identity between 1930 and 1960; and the cultural expressions of discontent against the national state after 1968. We will pay close attention to the work of national figures who expressed Mexicos internal racial, class, and gender hierarchies, including Carlos Monsivis, Elena Poniatowska, and Fernando Bentez. And we will examine the current resurgence of Mexican literature and film on the world stage as Mexicos artists have responded to the inequalities, migrations, and violence of contemporary globalization. |
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HIST 222W-01
Ruben Flores
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This course will consider Mexicos rich and vibrant cultural history beginning with the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and ending with contemporary globalization (post-1994). Among the topics to be considered are Mexicos mid-century challenge to US power as it was expressed in art, literature, and film; the question of forming a national identity between 1930 and 1960; and the cultural expressions of discontent against the national state after 1968. We will pay close attention to the work of national figures who expressed Mexicos internal racial, class, and gender hierarchies, including Carlos Monsivis, Elena Poniatowska, and Fernando Bentez. And we will examine the current resurgence of Mexican literature and film on the world stage as Mexicos artists have responded to the inequalities, migrations, and violence of contemporary globalization. |
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HIST 339W-01
Michael Jarvis
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What is a text, and how do texts convey historical information? How can computers help us study, disseminate, curate, and interact with texts? This seminar will explore new research methods made possible through digital transformations of a variety of historical texts and how we might interrogate the past in cool new ways. Topics include document digitization, enhancement, and translation; digital capture of objects and structures; 3D and 4D visualization and interaction; data network analysis; and web-based teaching, archiving, and collaboration. Although this all may sound technical and scary, it is actually easier than it seems – even a middle-aged History professor can do it. |
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HIST 189-01
Brianna Theobald
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This course surveys American history through the words and work of women. Well-known historical events and developments--including but not limited to the Revolutionary War, the abolition of slavery, the Great Depression, and the protest movements of the 1960s--look different when considered from the perspective of women. The course will further examine how social categories such as race, class, sexuality, and religion have shaped women's historical experiences. Broad in chronological scope, this course is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, we will utilize primary and secondary sources to delve into important historical moments and to explore questions about the practice and politics of studying women's history. |
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HIST 200-01
Laura Smoller
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HIST 200 is an introduction to historical practice - what professional historians actually do. It is a requirement for history majors, but we encourage all interested undergraduates to enroll. |
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HIST 184-01
Abdulbasit Kassim
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Framed as a historical introduction to Islamic traditions, this course will explore the political, social, and intellectual histories of Islam as a global tradition from its emergence through the modern period. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the central texts, personalities, events, geographies, institutions, and schools of thought that make up Islamic histories. We will begin by tracing Islam’s political history as it spreads from the Arabian Peninsula and encounters diverse cultures and peoples, before moving on to discuss the development of intellectual sciences and social institutions. In the process of studying Islamic histories, the course will engage several critical issues in the academic study of Islam such as orientalism, authority and writing history, authenticity, and gendered representations of Muslim societies. |
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HIST 205-01
Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio
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The first of a two-course sequence, this class approaches The Divine Comedy both as a poetic masterpiece and as an encyclopedia of medieval culture. Through close textual analysis of Inferno and the first half of Purgatorio, students learn to approach Dante’s poetry as a vehicle for thought, an instrument of self-discovery, and a means to understand and engage with historical reality. The course also provides insight into Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as they intersect with Dante’s wide-ranging concerns, spanning literature, history, politics, government, philosophy, and theology. A visual component, including illustrations of the Comedy and other artworks related to the narrative, complements the study of the text. Classes combine lectures, discussion, and a weekly recitation session, with intensive participation strongly encouraged. Dante I may be taken independently of Dante II. |
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HIST 180-01
Morris Pierce
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This course surveys the history of technology and its impacts on agriculture, communication, transportation, housing, health, war and society. Technology has been used to build empires and improve human societies, but also to destroy, enslave, and censor. Today we face limits on technology as well as new and seemingly boundless opportunities for the future. The unifying theme of the course is exploring and understanding the impact of technology on individuals and society. |
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HIST 259-01
Elizabeth Sapere
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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 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. |
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HIST 259W-01
Elizabeth Sapere
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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 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. |
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HIST 359W-01
Brianna Theobald
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Why did fertility rates decline over the nineteenth century? Why did women begin choosing hospital rather than home births in the twentieth century? What difference have the Pill and other reproductive technologies made in shaping how women think about pregnancy and childbirth? Why have breastfeeding rates been rising since the 1970s? How have womens reproductive experiences differed along lines of race and class? In this course, we will consider these questions and more as we explore how womens reproductive experiences and the meanings attached to such experiences have changed over time and why. 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. |
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| Tuesday and Thursday | |
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HIST 124-01
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Moving past outdated stereotypes of the Middle Ages as dark, dirty, and dangerous, what was life for medieval people actually like? This course explores how people lived, worked, and died in medieval England from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries. We will investigate topics such as family life, labor and servitude, popular revolt, and migration. We will examine the sources that social historians have used to reconstruct these issues; how scholarly interpretations of medieval life have evolved since the inception of the field; and how medievalists have drawn on techniques from disciplines including anthropology, demography. In studying this course, students will develop familiarity with key transferable concepts and methodologies in the field of social history. |
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HIST 120-01
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In this course we will survey the unique military, political, and economic history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the death of Alexander the Great. In addition, and more unusually, we will look at ancient Greece's rich cultural and social history. |
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HIST 134-01
Dmitrii Bykov
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Students will follow current events in Russia through news outlets, blogs and other internet sources. 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 familiarize students with the most important issues facing Russia today and the historical/political/cultural context in which to place them. |
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HIST 170-01
Melanie Chambliss
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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. |
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HIST 250-01
Pablo Sierra
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Learn how to read, analyze, and transcribe Spanish writing from the 1500s-1700s in this interactive two-credit course (class meets once a week). Paleography is an essential skill for deciphering primary sources whether they were produced in Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico or the Philippines. This course prepares students for historical research in digital databases, physical archives and specialized libraries. We will collectively transcribe, analyze and annotate a group document to familiarize ourselves with ancient Spanish. For your final project you will analyze a digitized primary source of your own choice. Students should have a strong background in Spanish (or Portuguese). No HIST pre-requisites necessary. |
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HIST 102-01
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While exploring the history of Europe and its neighbors from the ancient to the medieval period, this course focuses on how people borrowed from, adapted, and reconciled various ideas to suit their own needs to form, over time, a coherent set of cultural values. To this end, we will consider several themes throughout the semester, including changing models of political organization, ideas of individual rights and responsibilities, attitudes towards women and outsiders, and understandings of nature and of divine power. |
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HIST 125-01
Mariah Steele
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Social dance plays an important role in every society, simultaneously fostering community and self-expression. From the Waltz to Contra Dancing, Ragtime Dances to Rock n Roll, and Tango to Salsa, this course explores the history and culture of several social and popular dances in the United States from the country's founding to the present. Students discover how cultural beliefs are embedded in social dance practices, and how, vice versa, social dance practices can help shape changing norms and behaviors. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, discussions, video-viewings and experiencing the basic steps, each social dance form studied is contextualized within its time period. The course as a whole considers patterns of cultural change across the decades in terms of gender, race, class and social identities. No previous dance experience is necessary. |
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HIST 183-01
John Downey
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The purpose of this course is to explore the general development of Christianity throughout its twenty centuries of existence, paying special attention to the religious presuppositions behind Christianity and its complex relationship to its socio-cultural matrix. The course will focus on important moments in Christian history, including its inception as a Jewish religious movement set in motion by Jesus, its dissemination in the Greco-Roman world by Paul of Tarsus, its growth and triumph in the Roman Empire, the split between the Greek- and Latin-speaking churches, medieval Catholicism, the Reformation and rise of Protestantism, Christianity and the modern world, and contemporary movements and tendencies within the Christian churches. |
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HIST 191-01
Kerida Moates
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This specific course can change each semester. It will cover a topic of post-1800 US History |
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HIST 241-01
Jonathon Catlin
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This course will cover topics in post-1800 European history. |
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HIST 241W-01
Jonathon Catlin
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This course will cover topics in post-1800 European history. |
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HIST 278-01
Melanie Chambliss
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bell hooks published her landmark book Ain’t I a Woman in 1981, and with it, she became one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the Black feminist movement. hooks challenged intersecting oppressions throughout her versatile canon. She authored more than two dozen books with topics ranging from classism to education, history, movies, literature, and love. hooks gravitated towards popular culture because she wanted to connect with larger audiences while still maintaining her critical voice. Scholars and readers are now starting to assess this prolific writer’s legacy after hooks died in 2021. In this course, we will read hooks's work as a lens for examining larger themes within Black women’s intellectual history. We will also explore nineteenth- and twentieth-century Black women writers—hooks’s peers and foremothers—as we ask questions about hooks's intellectual lineage, revolutionary vision, populist approach, and lasting legacy. |
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HIST 278W-01
Melanie Chambliss
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bell hooks published her landmark book Ain’t I a Woman in 1981, and with it, she became one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the Black feminist movement. hooks challenged intersecting oppressions throughout her versatile canon. She authored more than two dozen books with topics ranging from classism to education, history, movies, literature, and love. hooks gravitated towards popular culture because she wanted to connect with larger audiences while still maintaining her critical voice. Scholars and readers are now starting to assess this prolific writer’s legacy after hooks died in 2021. In this course, we will read hooks's work as a lens for examining larger themes within Black women’s intellectual history. We will also explore nineteenth- and twentieth-century Black women writers—hooks’s peers and foremothers—as we ask questions about hooks's intellectual lineage, revolutionary vision, populist approach, and lasting legacy. |
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| Wednesday | |
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HIST 327W-01
Thomas Fleischman
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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? |
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| Wednesday and Friday | |
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HIST 223-01
Lisa Cerami
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This course will explore "Anti-Semitism" as a historical phenomenon and a rhetorical one from the end of the 18th Century until today, particularly in Germany. We also examine the specific discursive history of anti-Semitic tropes –– with a special focus on the figure of the "enemy of the state." We will engage with a variety of genres of texts (historical documents, legal texts, theoretical / historiographic texts, cultural objects, newspaper articles, fictional narratives, state propaganda) to think about the construction and political exploitation of tropes, and the different forms of state violence they explicitly or implicitly underwrite. Discussion and readings in English, but German minors and majors will have opportunities to work with German language primary materials. |
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HIST 318W-01
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This course examines the histories of gender and sexuality in Europe from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. We will investigate topics such as marriage, rape and consent, sex work, queer and transgender histories, and the role of sex in the development of medieval constructions of race. To explore these themes, we will critically analyze a diverse range of primary sources in translation, including chronicles, legal records, scientific texts, and personal letters. We will survey how scholarly interpretations of medieval gender and sexuality have evolved since the 1980s and how medievalists have brought the period into conversation with fields such feminist history, queer theory, trans studies, critical race theory, and histories of law and science. |
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HIST 373W-02
Mical Raz
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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. |
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HIST 349W-01
Alexander Parry
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This course will provide students with a grasp on the fluid ideal of the “normative” human body throughout history; it will also provide them with a toolkit for writing, at the graduate school level, rigorous historical work that focuses on the body and its discontents. Students will consider the body from an interdisciplinary perspective, looking at the different ways in which the body has been conceptualized and represented in medicine and culture throughout historical periods and in different geographical areas. These scientific and cultural conceptualizations of the body have had and continue to have significant implications for patients and for the scientists and clinicians who study the body and who provide care. Throughout the fourteen themes explored this semester, students will learn to question and disassemble the binaries, categorization methods, and social constructions of the body. |
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| Friday | |