History

HST 150 The Historian's Craft (4 Credits)

This course serves as an introduction to the study of History and to what historians do. It is a requirement for the History major. At the root of this course is the question of what is history and what it means to study history. Key questions driving the course are: Is history simply the study of the past? What is the past’s connection to the present? Is it even necessary to make such connections to the present and what is lost and gained in making such connections? Normally to be taken during a student's first or second year. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring

HST 157 Africa and the Making of the Modern World (4 Credits)

Often seen as peripheral to the modern world, Africa and African peoples are often ignored in both popular and scholarly world histories traversing the last several centuries. This course aims to turn these narratives on their head by not only injecting African histories into world historical narratives, but by using these histories to detail Africa’s centrality to understanding the world. In doing so, the course examines the development of and African experiences with the varying forms of capitalism and trade that developed out of both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade networks, the genealogical roots of European imperialism and the ways in which African peoples navigated, resisted and transformed these broader global phenomena in the construction of the world around them. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior knowledge. Enrollment limited to 40. (E) {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 200 Modern East Asia (4 Credits)

This introductory course looks comparatively at the histories of China, Japan and Korea from the late 18th century to the present. It examines the struggles of these countries to preserve or regain their independence and establish national identities in a rapidly emerging and often violent modern world order. Although each of these countries has its own distinctive identity, their overlapping histories (and dilemmas) give the region a coherent identity. We also look at how individuals respond to and are shaped by larger historical movements. {H}

Fall

HST 201 The Silk Road and Premodern Eurasia (4 Credits)

An introduction to major developments and interactions among people in Europe and Asia before modernity. The Silk Roads, long distance networks that allowed people, goods, technology, religious beliefs and other ideas to travel between China, India and Rome/Mediterranean, and the many points in between, developed against the backdrop of the rise and fall of steppe nomadic empires in Inner Asia. We examine these as interrelated phenomena that shaped Eurasian encounters to the rise of the world-conquering Mongols and the journey of Marco Polo. Topics include: horses, Silk and Steppe routes, Scythians and Huns, Han China and Rome, Byzantium, Buddhism, Christianity and other universal religions, Arabs and the rise of Islam, Turks, Mongol Empire, and medieval European trade, geography and travel. {H}

Spring

HST 202 Ancient Greece (4 Credits)

A survey of the history of the ancient Greeks during their most formative period, from the end of the Bronze Age to the end of the Classical Age. The class examines the relationship between mythology, archaeology and historical memory; the evolution of the city-state; games and oracles; colonization, warfare and tyranny; city-states Sparta and Athens and their respective pursuits of social justice; wars with Persia; cultural interactions with non-Greeks; Athens' naval empire and its invention of Democracy; family and women; traditional religions and forms of new wisdom; and the trial and death of Socrates in 399 B.C. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 203 Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World (4 Credits)

The career and conquests of Alexander the Great (d. 323 B.C.) wrought far-reaching consequences for many in Europe, Asia and Africa. In the ensuing Hellenistic (Greek-oriented) commonwealth that spanned the Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia and India, Greco-Macedonians interacted with Egyptians, Babylonians, Jews, Iranians, Indians and Romans in ways that galvanized ideas and institutions such as the classical city as ideal community, cult of divine kings and queens, "fusion" literatures, mythologies and artistic canons and also provoked nativist responses such as the Maccabean revolt. Main topics include Greeks and "barbarians," Alexander and his legacies, Hellenism as ideal and practice, conquerors and natives, kings and cities/regions, Greek science and philosophies, old and new gods. This course provides context for understanding early Christianity, Judaism and the rise of Rome. {H}

Spring, Variable

HST 204 The Roman Republic (4 Credits)

A survey of the history of the Roman people as Rome developed from a village in central Italy to the capital of a vast Mediterranean empire of 50 million people. We trace Rome’s early rise through mythology and archaeology and follow developments from Monarchy to the end of the Republic, including the Struggle of the Orders, conquests and citizenship, wars with Carthage, encounters with local cultures in North Africa, Gaul and the Greek East, challenges of expansion and empire, rich versus poor, political corruption, and the Civil Wars of the Late Republic. We also study the family, slavery, traditional and new religions, and other aspects of Roman culture and society. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 205 The Roman Empire (4 Credits)

The history of the Romans and other mediterranean peoples from the first to the early fifth centuries A.D. With Emperor Augustus, the traditional Republican form of rule was reshaped to accommodate the personal rule of an emperor that governed a multiethnic empire of 50 million successfully for several centuries. Imperial Rome represents the paradigmatic classical empire that many later empires sought to emulate. The class traces how this complex imperial society evolved to meet different challenges. Topics include: the emperor and historical writings, corruption of power, bread and circuses, assimilation and revolts, the Jewish war, universal and local religions, early Christianity, Late Antiquity, migrations and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. This course offers context for understanding the history of Christianity, Judaism and the early Middle Ages. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 206hm Colloquium: Topics in Ancient History-Diseases, Health and Medicine in the Ancient World (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the history of the culture and history of the ancient Mediterranean world through the lens provided by Greek and Roman medical writers. The Greek Enlightenment in the sixth century B.C. ushered in a "scientific" approach to healing that continued to evolve throughout antiquity even as traditional methods retained their importance. Specific themes highlighted in this course include interactions between traditional temple healing, the magical arts and scientific medicine; the emergence of an epidemiology based largely on environmental factors; women as health practitioners; women's bodies in ancient medical theorizing and practice; and medicine and the ancient educational system. No previous background needed and first-year students are welcome. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 206rm Colloquium: Topics in Ancient History-Rome, Late Antiquity and Fall of the Roman Empire (4 Credits)

This course investigates the many-layered levels of the city of Rome's complex history and cultures from its origins to the seventh century, focusing especially on the period of the Antonines in the second century and ending in the late seventh century. Special attention will be given to the social, cultural, and political history of Rome, the era of Constantine and his "New Rome," the catastrophes and triumphs of the late Roman empire, paupers, emperors and kings, bishops and popes, myths, legacies, and deep secrets. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 208/ MES 208 Introduction to the History of the Modern Middle East (4 Credits)

Offered as HST 208 and MES 208. This course examines the history of the modern Middle East from a global perspective. How have gender, economy, ecology and religion shaped Middle Eastern empires and nation-states within a broader world? The course begins with transformations in Egypt, Iran and the Ottoman Empire between 1800 and World War I. Next, it turns to experiences of colonialism, the rise of independent nation-states and the birth of new political movements. Students learn to appreciate the diversity of the region’s cultures, languages and peoples and to critically assess how the Middle East has been imagined from without and within. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 213 History of Modern China (4 Credits)

This course examines the history of China, primarily from the 18th century until today. The course covers topics ranging from the expansion of the Qing, the transition from empire to nation, and economic development and environmental disasters in the PRC. The readings and lectures establish a framework of critical analysis for issues of both historical and contemporary importance. Having completed the course, students are expected not only to understand the major events and themes in the history of Modern China, but also to be aware of the ways in which contemporary politics make use of different historical narratives. (E) {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 217 World War Two in East Asia: History and Memory (4 Credits)

Examination of the factors leading to the war in Asia, the nature of the conflict and the legacy of the war for all those involved. Topics include Japan’s seizure of Korea, the invasion of China, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the war in the Pacific, the racial dimensions of the Japanese empire, the comfort women, biological warfare, the dropping of the atomic bombs and the complicated relationship between history and memory. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 222pp Colloquium: Topics in Japanese History-The Place of Protest in Japan (4 Credits)

Histories of social conflict, protest and revolution in early modern and modern Japan. In the early modern period (1600–1867), peasant resistance and protest, urban uprisings, popular culture, “world-renewal” movements and the restorationist activism of the Tokugawa period. In the modern period, the incipient democratic movements and the new millenarian religions of the Meiji era (1868–1912), radical leftist activism, mass protest and an emerging labor movement in the Taisho era (1912–26), anti-imperialist movements in China during the prewar years and finally, a range of citizens’ movements in the postwar decades. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 223at Colloquium: Topics on Women and Gender in Japanese History-Ancient Times to the 19th Century (4 Credits)

The dramatic transformation in gender relations is a key feature of Japan’s premodern history. How Japanese women and men have constructed norms of behavior in different historical periods, how gender differences were institutionalized in social structures and practices, and how these norms and institutions changed over time. The gendered experiences of women and men from different classes from approximately the seventh through the 19th centuries. Consonant with current developments in gender history, exploration of variables such as class, religion and political context that have affected women’s and men’s lives. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 224 History of the Early Middle Ages (4 Credits)

This survey course examines Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the early medieval era, starting with the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Students will study the turbulent nature of political and societal boundaries and the rise of Christianity in Europe before 900 AD, as well as the emergence of Islam as a religion and political power and its influence on the medieval European and Byzantine worlds. Students will engage in the examination and discussion of early medieval notions of kinship, race, law and justice, popular piety and political power. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 225 Making of the Medieval World, 1000–1350 (4 Credits)

This survey course examines Europe, the Mediterranean world, from the late 10th century to the 14th, considered the height of the medieval world. Students study the interactions between peoples and societies in the medieval world - from the emergence of new conceptions of sovereignty, popular religion and the Crusades, the university, and Arthurian literature, to the restructuring of society in the calamitous century of the Mortalitas Magnas. Students engage in discussions about the notions of conquest and reconquest, race, law and justice, medieval love and chivalry, and the intersection of political and religious authority. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 226 Renaissance and Reformation? Europe in the Late Middle Ages: Society, Culture and Politics From (4 Credits)

Did radical societal shifts really take place in Europe between 1300 and 1600, as the terms “Renaissance” and “Reformation” imply? Students will use this question to frame their learning in this survey course, studying the period that saw the aftermath of the Black Death, the fragmentation of Christianity, the growing power of monarchs, the advent of the printing press, and the beginnings of the age of European Imperialism. Students will examine and discuss humanism, witch hunts, popular piety and heresy, the advent of the Italian city-state, and the intersection of politics and science. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 227mm Colloquium: Topics in Medieval European History-Magic in the Middle Ages (4 Credits)

The course uses magic as a case study for exploring cultural transmission in the Middle Ages. The course examines Germanic and Greco-Roman occult traditions, and the way in which the medieval synthesis of these cultures effects understandings of the occult. The course follows the influence of the Arabic and Hebrew influences on western occultism of the High Middle Ages, and flowering of the Renaissance magical tradition. The course challenges and reshapes some of our basic understandings about Medieval society. It problematizes modern division between science, magic and religion to illustrate how occult beliefs were part of wider religious experiences. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 228/ JUD 228 The Jew in the Middle Ages (4 Credits)

Offered as JUD 228 and HST 228. The medieval period in Jewish history is also a global history. It includes the long history of Jews in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula and North-Western Europe, and their subsequent exiles. Some of the greatest medieval thinkers, mystics, poets and travelers emerge from this period, marked by significant intellectual and cultural crosspollination and competition, sometimes in aggressive ways through disputations, crusades, exile and murder. How does the medieval period continue to influence or complicate contemporary understandings of race, religious cooperation and rivalry, and constructions of otherness? Open to students at all levels. {H}{L}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 229 Colloquium: A World Before Race?: Ethnicity, Culture and Difference in the Middle Ages (4 Credits)

Twenty-first century scholars argue that race is a constructed social identity that began to coalesce around the seventeenth century. But were they right? In this course, we will look to the Middle Ages to challenge the consensus that racial constructions were a byproduct of modernity. Does race function differently between the world of Latin Christendom and that of the dar al-Islam? What are the advantages and dangers of using the prism of race to analyze ethnic, cultural and religious differences in this medieval period? What does studying race in the Middle Ages teach us about contemporary conceptions of race? Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 234 Colloquium: Global Africa (4 Credits)

This course interrogates how scholars have engaged the "transnational" and "global" in African history. In doing so, the course explores the complex networks of identities, loyalties, and attachments forged by diverse groups of African peoples in their attempts to live within and transcend the boundaries of the modern nation-state. As a result, over the course of the semester, the class will investigate issues of trade, nationality, citizenship, race, and identity as it queries the many ways in which Africans have shaped (and reshaped) their views of themselves and communities over seemingly vast distances in time and space. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 235 Independent Africa: A Social and Cultural History (4 Credits)

This course provides a general, introductory survey of African social and cultural history from approximately the end of World War II to the present. In doing so, the course will look beyond the formal political maneuvering of elite figures, focusing instead on the many and competing ways in which a broad array of African actors engaged the changing political and social contexts in which they lived. As such, key themes of the course such as anticolonialism, decolonization, development, and HIV/AIDS will serve as lenses into a range of perspectives on life in an independent Africa. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 236 World History 1000-2000: The European Millennium? (4 Credits)

A critical investigation of a thousand years of globalization, centering on China, Persia, and Britain. How did Europe, a mere cape of Asia, come to dominate much of the planet politically and culturally? Ventures by Vikings, Crusaders, conquistadors, missionaries, traders, settlers, revolutionaries, and feminists. How distinctive forms of family, state, religion, and economy participated in and grew out of imperialism. Open to all students. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 237/ MES 237 Colloquium: Mobility and Migration in the Modern Middle East (4 Credits)

Offered as MES 237 and HST 237. The history of the modern Middle East is a story of border-crossing as well as border-making. From 19th century immigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the Americas, to today's migrant laborers in Lebanon, Iraq, and the Gulf, the region has been forged by those who move within and beyond national borders. How have forces of gender, class, and ethnicity shaped these journeys? This course examines the gendered processes of movement and migration--voluntary and involuntary--that have shaped the modern Middle East from the 19th century to the present. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 239 Imperial Russia, 1650–1917 (4 Credits)

The emergence, expansion and maintenance of the Russian Empire to 1929. The dynamics of pan-imperial institutions and processes (imperial dynasty, peasantry, nobility, intelligentsia, revolutionary movement), as well as the development of the multitude of nations and ethnic groups conquered by or included into the empire. Focus on how the multinational Russian empire dealt with pressures of modernization (nationalist challenges in particular), internal instability and external threats. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 240 Colloquium: Stalin and Stalinism (4 Credits)

Joseph Stalin created a particular type of society in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Stalinism became a phenomenon that influenced the development of the former Soviet Union and the Communist movement worldwide. This course covers the period on the eve of and during the Russian Revolution, Stalinist transformation of the USSR in the 1930s, WWII and the onset of the Cold War. We consider several questions about Stalinism: Was it a result of Communist ideology or a deviation? Did it enjoy any social support? To what extent was it a product of larger social forces and in what degree was it shaped by Stalin’s own personality? Did it have total control over the people’s lives? Why hasn’t there been a de-Stalinization similar to de-Nazification? How is Stalinism remembered? Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 241 Soviet Union in the Cold War (4 Credits)

Focuses on the history of the Soviet Union during the "greater Cold War," that is, between World War II and the disintegration of the USSR. Touches on foreign policy developments, but the main focus is on the social, political and economic processes, and cultural developments inside the USSR itself. Explores Soviet history in the second half of the 20th century through historical works and a range of primary sources. Topics include the post-war reconstruction, rise of the military-industrial complex, education, popular culture and dissent. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 243 Colloquium: Reconstructing Historical Communities (4 Credits)

How much can historians learn about the daily lives of the mass of the population in the past? Can a people’s history recapture the thoughts and deeds of subjects as well as rulers? Critical examination of attempts at total history from below for selected English and French locales. The class re-creates families, congregations, guilds and factions in a German town amid the religious controversy and political revolution of the 1840s. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 244/ MES 244 Colloquium:Thinking Revolution: Histories of Revolt in the Modern Middle East (4 Credits)

Offered as MES 244 and HST 244. How could we theorize revolution from the MENA region? How might we connect older histories and vocabularies of social change to recent events in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia? In the first part of this course, students engage prominent theories of revolution generated within EuroAmerican and MENA contexts. Next, we consider diverse theories of social change generated within key moments in the history of the modern Middle East, from Ottoman constitution in 1876 to postcolonial revolts in Oman, Yemen, and Algeria. Finally, we consider the 2011 Arab spring within this longer history of social change in the region. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 246 Colloquium: Memory and History (4 Credits)

Contemporary debates among European historians, artists and citizens over the place of memory in political and social history. The effectiveness of a range of representational practices from the historical monograph to visual culture, as markers of history, and as creators of meaning. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 248 Colloquium: The French Revolution as Epic (4 Credits)

Cultural and social interpretations of the fundamental event in modern history. The staging of politics from the tribune to the guillotine. History as a literary art in prose, poetry, drama and film. Focus on Paris 1787-95. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{L}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 249 Early Modern Europe 1600-1815 (4 Credits)

A survey of the ancien régime. On behalf of the central State, war-making absolutists, Enlightened philosophes and patriotic republicans assailed privileges. The era culminated in the leveling of European societies through the French Revolution and the industrial revolution. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 250 Europe in the 19th Century (4 Credits)

The period 1815-1914, a century of fundamental change without a general war. The international order established at the Congress of Vienna and its challengers: liberalism, nationalism, Romanticism, socialism, secularism, capitalism and imperialism. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 251 Europe in the 20th Century (4 Credits)

Ideological and military rivalries of the contemporary era. Special attention to the origin, character and outcome of the two World Wars and to the experience of Fascism, Nazism and Communism. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 252 Women and Gender in Modern Europe, 1789–1918 (4 Credits)

A survey of European women’s experiences and constructions of gender from the French Revolution through World War I, focusing on Western Europe. Gendered relationships to work, family, politics, society, religion and the body, as well as shifting conceptions of femininity and masculinity, as revealed in novels, films, treatises, letters, paintings, plays and various secondary sources. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 253 Women and Gender in Contemporary Europe (4 Credits)

Women’s experience and constructions of gender in the commonly recognized major events of the 20th century. Introduction to major thinkers of the period through primary sources, documents and novels, as well as to the most significant categories in the growing secondary literature in 20th-century European history of women and gender. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 254 Colloquium: Liberalism and Socialism (4 Credits)

Rethinking individual and community in the wake of the French and industrial revolutions. Readings from de Maistre, Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Fourier, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Burckhardt, Nietzsche, Marx and Mill. Also considered are their views on art, religion, science and women. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 255 Colloquium: Art and Politics in the Era of Fascism (4 Credits)

The cultural context of fascism. Readings from Nietzsche, Sorel, Wilde, Pareto, Marinetti, Mussolini and Hitler, as well as studies of psychology, degenerate painting and music. Both politicians and artists claimed to be Nietzschean free spirits. Who best understood his call to ruthless creativity? Enrollment limited to 18. {A}{H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 258 Modern Africa (4 Credits)

This course provides an introductory survey of African history under colonial rule and beyond. In doing so, the course offers students a framework for understanding the political, social and economic history of modern Africa by foregrounding the strategies African peoples employed as they made sense of and confronted their changing historical landscapes. Key subjects include the construction of the colonial state, African experiences with colonial rule, the dilemmas of decolonization and life in an independent Africa. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 259dc Colloquium: Topics in African History-Decolonization: A People's History (4 Credits)

Recently, talk of “decolonization” seems to be everywhere. Yet, absent from much of the contemporary discourse on decolonization is a reflection on the experiences and perspectives of those who lived through this era of upheaval, uncertainty and, for many, hope. Focusing on African history from approximately 1945-1980, this course centers such perspectives as it traces how activists, youth, political leaders, everyday women and men, and many others understood and articulated their hopes, ambitions and struggles in their attempts to construct a world after empire. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior knowledge of African history. Enrollment limited to 18. (E) {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 259dd Colloquium: Topics in African History-Discourses of Development (4 Credits)

This course interrogates and historicizes the problem of “development” in 20th-century Africa. In doing so, we query the assumptions made by colonial officials, postcolonial leaders, social scientific experts and local communities as they sought to understand and articulate African pathways into a largely ill-defined social and economic modernity. Key subjects of enquiry include an analysis of the relationship between western and non-western “modernities,” and explorations into the link between knowledge and power in our own interpretations of the past and of the so-called “underdeveloped world.” Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 259fm Colloquium: Topics in African History-Femininities, Masculinities and Sexualities in Africa (4 Credits)

This course examines the political, social and economic role of women, gender, and sexuality in African history, while paying particular attention to the ways in which a wide variety of Africans engaged, understood, and negotiated the multiple meanings of femininity, masculinity, and sexuality in the changing political and social landscapes associated with life in Africa. Key issues addressed in the course include marriage and respectability, colonial domesticity regimes, sex, and religion. Additionally, students interrogate the diversity of methodological techniques scholars have employed in their attempts to write African gender history. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 259sp Colloquium: Topics in African History-Sport in Modern Africa (4 Credits)

This course explores the social and cultural history of sport in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa. Key subjects covered will be how a focus on sport helps us rethink African colonial encounters, the popular politics of the postcolonial state, and pan-Africanism. We will also reflect on how African sports history challenges us to think more deeply about African ideas of work, gender, and social mobility. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 262 Colloquium: The History of the N-Word: Race, Violence and Language in the United States (4 Credits)

The N-word is the great symbol of white supremacy in the United States. When spoken by African Americans, it emerges as a powerful symbol of anti-racist politics, verbal protest and artistic expression. What does the N-word really mean? How does it create a firestorm in certain contexts, but not others? In this interdisciplinary course, students explore history, film, literature, music and political debate to look closely at the histories of race and racism in the U.S. They also ask larger questions about how to talk about the N-word, "the atomic bomb of racial slurs," in the classroom and in public. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 265 Race, Gender and US Citizenship, 1776-1865 (4 Credits)

Analysis of the historical realities, social movements, cultural expression and political debates that shaped U.S. citizenship from the Declaration of Independence to the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. From the hope of liberty and equality to the exclusion of marginalized groups that made whiteness, maleness and native birth synonymous with Americanness. How African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants and women harnessed the Declaration of Independence and its ideology to define themselves as citizens of the United States. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 266 Emancipation and the Afterlife of Slavery (4 Credits)

Examines the longevity of the U.S. Civil War in historical memory, as a pivotal period in the development of American racism and African American activism. Explores cutting-edge histories, primary source materials, documentaries, popular films, and visual and political culture. Explores the Civil War as a mass slave insurrection and studies the myriad meanings of Emancipation. Looks at the impact of slavery on race and racism on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 267 United States, 1877-1945: Race, Capitalism, Justice (4 Credits)

Survey of the major economic, political and social changes of this period, primarily through the lens of race, class and gender, to understand the role of ordinary people in shaping defining events, including industrial capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, mass immigration and migration, urbanization, the rise of mass culture, nationalism, war, feminism, labor radicalism, civil rights and other liberatory movements for social justice. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 268 US Indigenous Histories of the 19th Century (4 Credits)

Students learn about the evolving meaning of ‘Indigeneity’ and the centrality of Indigenous peoples in the history of the United States. The course moves through the 19th century roughly chronologically, beginning in 1800 and concluding in the early 1900s. Lectures focus on different places, themes and Indigenous peoples’ histories, though topics may at times overlap and extend beyond defined time periods. Enrollment limited to 40. (E) {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 270sr Colloquium: Topics in American History-Anatomy of a Slave Revolt (4 Credits)

During slavery, white Americans, especially U.S. slaveholders, feared the specter of insurrection. Uprisings at Stono or those led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner proved that slaves often fought back. Yet the central historiographical question remains: why didn’t U.S. slaves overthrow enslavement like Haitian slaves did on Santo Domingo? Enslaved people challenged slavery in a variety of ways including violence, revolts, maroon communities, truancy, passing, suicide and day-to-day resistance. This course examines the primary documents and contentious historical debates surrounding the import of slave resistance, primarily in the American South. Students examine slave societies, theories on race, gender, sexuality and resistance, as well as modern literature and film to investigate violent and nonviolent resistance and how they are memorialized both in history and in the popular imagination. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 276rj Colloquium: Topics-Historians Read the News-Race, Democracy and Reproductive Justice (4 Credits)

This course interrogates the intersection between current events and historical research. Exploring topics including race, debt, citizenship, democracy and reproductive justice, the course offers a comparative and transnational perspective of how historians and other historically focused scholars have approached topics that have dominated the recent news cycle, while thinking through the challenges and possibilities of doing historical research on subjects of contemporary importance. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 277 Controversies in American Thought (4 Credits)

This course explores some of the most explosive controversies to shape modern America – from debates over Darwinism to the so-called “culture wars” – through the lens of intellectual history. Students examine how the emergence of new ideas about science, capitalism, democracy, race and gender have fueled divisive political and cultural conflict in the United States since the mid-19th century. In the process, they wrestle with invigorating intellectual critiques of American life, while thinking historically about the transformative power of ideas, both academic and popular. Enrollment limited to 40. (E) {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 278 Colloquium: Decolonial U.S. Women’s History (4 Credits)

This course is an introduction to U.S. women’s history with women of color, working-class women and immigrant women at the center. This course is guided by the cultural and theoretical work of women of color feminists to decolonize knowledge, history and the world within and without. This means students not only study women’s lives over time, but also consider how their focus on more marginalized women in particular changes the way they study and understand history and knowledge. The class explores some of the most defining processes, including colonialism, emancipation from slavery, racial segregation and exclusion, industrial and neoliberal capitalism, imperialism, mass migration, feminism, civil rights and a range of freedom movements. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 279 The Rise of the American Right, 1920s- Present (4 Credits)

This course explores the history of conservatism in the United States, from the 1920s to Trump. Students will examine the key ideas, leaders, and movements that fueled and defined the rise of the modern right, broadly construed. In the process, we will go beyond electoral politics, exploring the relationship between conservatism and American life – especially in the realms of race, gender, religion, and capitalism. Course topics will include: Christian fundamentalism; white nationalism; corporate opposition to the New Deal; Cold War militarism; law and order politics; anti- feminism and the culture wars; Reaganomics; neoconservative foreign policy; and border politics. Enrollment limited to 40.(E) {H}{S}

Fall, Variable

HST 280gi Colloquium: Topics in United States Social History-Im/migration and Transnational Cultures (4 Credits)

Explores significance of im/migrant workers and their transnational social movements to U.S. history in the late 19th and 20th centuries. How have im/migrants responded to displacement, marginalization and exclusion, by redefining the meanings of home, citizenship, community and freedom? What are the connections between mass migration and U.S. imperialism? What are the histories of such cross-border social movements as labor radicalism, borderlands feminism, Black and Brown Liberation, and anti-colonialism? Topics also include racial formation; criminalization, incarceration and deportation; reproductive justice; and the politics of gender, sexuality, race, class and nation. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 286 Colloquium: Recent Historiographic Debates in the History of Gender and Sexuality (4 Credits)

This course considers methodologies and debates in modern historical writing about gender and sexuality, with a primary focus on European history. Students develop an understanding of significant, contemporary historiographic trends and research topics in the history of women and gender. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

HST 290hs Colloquium: Topics in Gender and the Archive-Histories of Smith College (4 Credits)

This course examines the place of gender in the archive through active engagement with the history of Smith Special Collections and its holdings. Students study the origins of the Sophia Smith Collection and have opportunities to engage with the collections documenting a range of personalities and institutions. Enrollment limited to 18. {H}

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 300 Public Writing about Nationalism - A Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing (4 Credits)

Because of its claims to define culture, economy, and politics in the modern age, nationalism has become the subject of a multidisciplinary field which offers advanced students in an array of majors a capstone opportunity to consolidate and express what they've learned. How does nationalism today continue to underwrite political projects across the world? We will take this question as a point of departure and explore how to translate complex scholarly conversations about nationalism into public discourse interventions. The work in class will focus on writing, work-shopping, and revising the assignments designed in different formats of public discourse. WI {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 301 Calderwood Seminar: Writing about Twentieth-Century Wars in Asia (4 Credits)

How is historical memory made—and lost? Students in this Calderwood seminar will reflect upon and intervene in this process as they consider how the major wars of the mid-twentieth century have been remembered or forgotten in the public sphere. The focus is on wars in Asia, most notably the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II followed by the supposedly “forgotten” war in Korea. Yet public knowledge about these wars is extremely limited in the United States. At the same time, war memories, particularly those surrounding World War II, are more contentious than ever across East Asia today. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}

Spring, Variable

HST 313ap Seminar: Topics in East Asian History-Remembering the Asia-Pacific War (4 Credits)

Examines recent historical controversies over World War II in East Asia, also known as the Asia-Pacific War. Focuses on the Japanese empire and includes studies of government policies, narratives of life on the homefront and in the colonies, and the critical transition from a "hot" war to the Cold War. Topics include war crimes, total war, "Comfort Women," atomic bombs, and biological warfare.   There are no specific disciplinary prerequisites, but the course is well-suited for juniors and seniors with a background in History or East Asian Studies. Although the course focuses on East Asia, students are welcome to research other theaters of the war. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 314 Seminar: Sex, God and Rock 'n' Roll (4 Credits)

This course explores the various moral revolutions that have transformed the United States since 1960, focusing particularly on the emergence of new trends in American culture, religion and intellectual life. Students examine how battles over private and public morality helped to define the postwar years, shaping social activism, public policy and popular attitudes towards race, gender and inequality. In the process, they learn about the historical roots of present-day polarization, exploring the emergence of cultural and moral worldviews that continue to divide Americans today. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. (E) {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 343tr Seminar: Topics-Problems in World History-Twentieth-Century Revolutions (4 Credits)

This seminar provides students with an introduction to the problem of "revolution" in twentieth-century world history. In doing so, the course will comparatively examine a number of revolutionary contexts, including the Soviet Union, Algeria, Iran, and black radical politics in Africa and its diaspora. Throughout the course, we will thus question the complex interplay between the theorizing of revolution and the lived, historical experiences on the ground. Moreover, key to the course will be the students' completion of their own primary-source driven research project on a topic of their choosing connected to the course theme. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 355fp Seminar: Topics in Social History-History in the First Person-Ego Documents and Memoir as Sources (4 Credits)

Historians rely in their research on published and unpublished ego-documents such as journals, correspondence, scrapbooks and memoir—even scraps of paper and marginalia. Through examination of the writing of historians who have centered ego documents in their work, students are introduced to and grapple with questions of method and practice. Students learn how to generate a substantial literature review and perform original archival research. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 355gw Seminar: Topics in Social History-Gender and the Aftermath of War in the Twentieth Century (4 Credits)

In this course, we focus on the work of reconstruction, recovery and memorialization in the aftermath of war and consider how that work interacted with gendered experience. Primary questions will include: Was the aftermath of war as gender-specific as war experience itself? What role did women take in postwar recoveries? How was the aftermath of war reflected in cultural production through fiction, film and visual art in the twentieth century? Primary focus will be on Europe, but students can expect to actively engage with the transnational effects and sources. Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 371rs Seminar: Topics in 19th Century United States History-Remembering Slavery: A Gendered Reading of the WPA Interviews (4 Credits)

Despite the particular degradation, violence and despair of enslavement in the United States, African American men and women built families, traditions and a legacy of resistance. Using the WPA interviews—part of the New Deal Federal Writers Project of the 1930s—this course looks at the historical memory of former slaves by reading and listening to their own words. How did 70- through 90-year-old former slaves remember their childhoods and young adulthoods during slavery? And how do scholars make sense of these interviews given they were conducted when Jim Crow segregation was at its pinnacle? The course examines the WPA interviews as historical sources by studying scholarship that relies heavily on them. Most importantly, students explore debates that swirl around the interviews and challenge their validity on multiple fronts, even as they remain the richest sources of African American oral history regarding slavery. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 383dw Seminar: Topics in Research in U.S. Women's History-Domestic Worker Organizing (4 Credits)

This is an advanced research seminar in which students work closely with archival materials from the Sophia Smith Collection and other archives to explore histories of resistance, collective action and grassroots organizing among domestic workers in the United States, from the mid-18th century to the present. Domestic work has historically been done by women of color and been among the lowest paid, most vulnerable and exploited forms of labor. Your research will assist the National Domestic Workers Alliance, as they incorporate history into their political education curriculum and use history as an organizing tool in their current campaigns. Recommended: previous course in U.S. women’s history and/or relevant coursework in HST, SWG, AFR, SOC or LAS. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 383pc Seminar: Topics in Research in U.S. Women's History-Researching People of Color at Smith College (4 Credits)

The history of students of color at Smith College. Draws from readings about African American, Latinx, Asian American, Indigenous, international and other students of color in higher education. Explores the Smith College archives for documents, ephemera and oral histories. Students also familiarize themselves with archival materials compiled by student activists and scour The Sophian (Smith’s weekly newspaper) to uncover the histories of racial policy, racism, community-building, social justice and activism at Smith College. Students work to produce one original academic project such as a podcast, a digital timeline, another digital humanities project or a traditional research paper. {H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

HST 390 Seminar: Teaching History (4 Credits)

A consideration of how the study of history, broadly conceived, gets translated into curriculum for middle and secondary schools. Addressing a range of topics in American history, students develop lesson and unit plans using primary and secondary resources, films, videos and internet materials. Discussions focus on both the historical content and the pedagogy used to teach it. Does not count for seminar credit in the history major. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors, seniors and graduate students only. Instructor permission required. {H}

Fall

HST 399 Historical Pedagogy (4 Credits)

This course is focused on the practice of teaching history at the college level. It is an independent course, but participation in it is also dependent on the students’ roles as teaching assistants in HST 150. Key pedagogical themes and debates explored in the class include issues around student engagement, teaching research and writing, and what it means to help students learn to think historically. Students in the course also develop their own research project centered on historical pedagogy as well as design their own course. History majors only. Enrollment limited to 2. Instructor permission required.

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 400 Special Studies (1-4 Credits)

By permission of the department.

Fall, Spring

HST 430D Honors Thesis (4 Credits)

This is a full-year course.

Fall, Spring, Annually

HST 431 Honors Thesis (8 Credits)

This is a full-year course.

Fall

HST 580 Special Problems in Historical Study (4 Credits)

Arranged individually with graduate students.

Fall, Spring