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Catalogue 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Hindi: I. Introductory |
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HIND 106 - Beginning Hindi Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Yearlong course HIND 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Hindi: II. Intermediate |
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HIND 210 - Intermediate Hindi Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Year long course 210-HIND 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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HIND 211 - Intermediate Hindi Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Year long course HIND 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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Hindi: III. Advanced |
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HIND 310 - Advanced Hindi I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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HIND 311 - Advanced Hindi II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Hispanic Studies: I. Introductory |
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HISP 105 - Elementary Spanish Language Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the grammar and structure of the Spanish language with emphasis on oral skills and reading. Marcela Romero Rivera.
Open to students with no previous instruction in Spanish.
Yearlong course 105-HISP 106 .
Four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 106 - Elementary Spanish Language Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the grammar and structure of the Spanish language with emphasis on oral skills and reading. Eduardo Rodriguez.
Open to students with no previous instruction in Spanish.
Yearlong course HISP 105 -106.
Four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill period.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 110 - Latin American and Spanish Literacy and Cultural Topics
1 unit(s)
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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Hispanic Studies: II. Intermediate |
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HISP 205 - Intermediate Spanish Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
Intensive study and review of Spanish grammar at the second-year level with emphasis on oral practice and writing skills. Mario Cesareo.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 105 -HISP 106 or three years of high school Spanish.
Three 50-minute periods and one hour of conversation.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 206 - Reading and Writing about Hispanic Culture Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 1 unit(s)
Reading, writing and speaking skills are developed through study of cultural and literary texts and audiovisual materials.
Topic for 2020/21a and b: The course is centered around salient issues in Latin American history with special emphasis on subaltern populations and human rights. Reading, writing and speaking are exercised around these topics. Mario Cesareo.
Topic for 2020/21a: Migrant Latin America. Though in recent years, the countries of Latin America have been considered immigrants in places like the United States and certain European countries, in this course, we explore texts, films, and photography that record experiences of events of migration into Latin America. From Spanish and Italian economic migratory waves in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to Argentinian and Chilean radicals looking for refuge from the dictatorships of the 1970s, to the indigenous population of Guatemala escaping from the US-backed counter-revolutionary terror in the 1980s, we discover the cultural and political enrichment that these events have had in their host countries. Students complete assignments working with diverse audio-visual media and short texts. Marcela Romero Rivera.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 205 or four years of high school Spanish.
Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 219 - Advanced Grammar and Composition Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course offers an in-depth coverage of Spanish grammar with emphasis on reading and writing skills. A more traditional approach in grammar explanations is combined with the study of numerous examples and exercises based on everyday life. The objectives of this course are 1) to provide a thorough review of major topics of Spanish grammar—ser and estar, por and para, the preterit and the imperfect, sequence of tenses, conditional clauses, etc.; 2) to explore in-depth the different mechanics of writing in Spanish (punctuation, written accents, etc.); 3) to work on writing skills in Spanish through the use of various writing techniques and strategies—the art of writing narratives, dialogue, descriptions, letters, and reports; 4) to improve reading skills and knowledge of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions in Spanish; 5) to continue to increase cultural knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. Through the use of the target language in class, this course also contributes to the general language acquisition process. Some translation work is required as well—contextualized passages in English translated into Spanish are used to illustrate a variety of grammatical principles. Nicolas Vivalda.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 225 - Creative Writing Workshop
1 unit(s)
This year’s workshop provides a space for the development of the student’s ability as a writer of fiction in Spanish. Writing projects could include short stories, drama, poetry and miscellany, depending on the student’s individual interests. Workshop members share, read and critique each other’s writing. We also engage some readings and exercises designed to enrich the student’s ability to give form, texture, and voice to their writing. Mario Cesareo.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 226 - Medieval and Early Modern Spain
1 unit(s)
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 227 - Colonial Latin America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 227 ) Studies in Latin American literary and cultural production from the European invasion to the crisis of the colonial system.
Topic for 2020/21a: Natural and Moral History of the Spanish Empire. This course explores the interrelated development of scientific observation, geographic mapping, writerly expression, artistic rendering, moral legitimization, and in the exploration and colonization of Spain’s transatlantic and transpacific empire. Readings and class discussion examine the epistemological and political challenges early modern Spanish and Latin American scientists, historians, and writers encountered in describing, classifying, understanding and assigning value to what was for them “new” scientific phenomena and civilizations. Course texts address such figures as Gonzálo Fernández de Oviedo, José de Acosta, El Inca Garcilaso, José Celestino Mutis, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Alejandro Malaspina, among others. Michael Aronna.
Prerequisite(s): One course above HISP 206 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 229 - Postcolonial Latin America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 229 ) Studies in Latin American literary and cultural production from the emergence of the nation states to the present. Thematically structured, the course delves into the social, political, and institutional processes undergone by Latin America as a result of its uneven incorporation into world capitalist development.
Topic for 2020/21a: Animals in Caribbean and Mexican Literature and Visual Culture. The course examines the presence and role of animals in the colonial and postcolonial histories, literatures, and cultures of the Caribbean and Latin America, from Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo to Homero Aridjis. We look at how interactions between humans and other animals have significantly shaped narratives and visual cultures in the region and work through the methodological implications of centering animals within narrative and artistic representations. Topics include indigenous cosmologies, the politics of hunting, the commodification of animals and animal parts, the protection of animals and the environment, posthumanism, and notions of wildlife. Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert.
Topic for 2020/21b: Post- Human Futures: New Latin American Literature. In Latin America, as anywhere else, we begin the third decade of the 21st century with an uneasy eye on the horizon. The future—of the region, politics, literature, the planet, the human—lies ahead as an open question that requires a speculative imagination to be answered. In this class, we read a series of works of literature from the last 15 years coming from the Caribbean, as well as North, Central and South America that have imagined possible paths to the future, where, after “all that is solid melts into air,” new forms of the human and their relation to each other, technology, and the planet can be conjured. We read poetry and fiction by Rita Indiana, Dolores Dorantes, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Lina Meruane, and Samantha Schweblin, among others. Instruction, materials, and evaluation in this class are in Spanish. Marcela Romero Rivera.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 252 - Building Inclusive Communities in Latino-a-x Poughkeepsie
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 252 ) This course is intended for students who wish to learn from and support that process, notably connecting with local Latino-a-x high school students with the goal of helping empower them to be leaders in the process.
The course offers students a chance to engage with and learn more about the local Latino-a-x community, meet local community leaders, and learn about the most pressing issues impacting the community at the local, state, and national levels. This course also allows students to experience best practices when it comes to developing and sustaining an inclusive community – developing intimacy, exploring social identity and power, using effective communication and conflict resolution skills, and attending to the well-being of the individual members of the community – specifically in the context of Latino-a-x community.
Spanish-speaking and Latino-a-x students are encouraged to enroll, but all students are most welcome! Both English and Spanish are used, but always in a way that is inclusive and accessible to non-Spanish speakers. Eva Woods.
First six-week course.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 274 - Writing Workshop Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 274 ) It admits of three modes, according to each student’s preference. The course includes periodic meetings where the texts are collectively discussed (Previous Requisite: one course at the 220 level or special permission by me.). A) Chronicle: the course hinges around an ongoing event (political, historical, etc.) chosen by each student. Such event will be researched as it develops during the semester, in depth and thoroughly. The end result will be an annotated dossier of primary and secondary sources and the writing of a chronicle based upon some of the models studied (García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Germán Castro Caycedo, Alma Guillermo Prieto, etc.) B) Fiction: the course is geared toward completion of a piece of writing previously agreed upon between each student and me (collection of poems or short stories, novelistic fragment, journal, short film and so on). Writing models and problematics will be discussed and serve as a springboard for each student’s project. C) Testimonial Writing: the course will allow for crafting a piece of testimonial writing (of one’s own or someone else’s experience). Writing strategies will be derived from an understanding of the genre’s logic and its problematization. In all modalities, the final text can take the form of an audiovisual product (the student’s technical knowledge for carrying on such a project is presupposed). Mario Cesareo.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 275 - The Oviedo Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The Oviedo Project at Vassar College aims at translating the 50 books of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s Natural History of the Indies–the first comprehensive description of the New World, written between 1524 and 1548—in time for the 500th anniversary of the publication of an abridged version of the first book in 1526. The collaborative project has been developed as part of Vassar’s new curriculum to work with student translators to produce the first complete English-language translation of the celebrated text. Students study and put into practice translation theory and editing skills as they complete their section of the project, under the guidance of profs. Michael Aronna, Nicolás Vivalda.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 276 - Close Watching of Latin American Cinema
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on one relevant Latin American or Spanish film director dealing with Latin American topics, and involves concentrated readings, research, and small group discussions on themes like race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, poverty, nationalism, liberalism, development, and modernity(ies). Student learn to identify and analyze the intersection between form and content in a select number of relevant Latin American films by situating them in contexts that are simultaneously national, regional, and global. Proposed directors: Luis Buñuel, Arturo Ripstein, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Leonardo Favio, Pablo Larraín, Patricio Guzmán. Nicolas Vivalda.
Prerequisite(s): One course above HISP 206 .
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 277 - Study Abroad Follow-up
0.5 unit(s)
Through frequent conversations and writing opportunities, this course offers students the opportunity to analyze and gain a deeper understanding of their study abroad experience in a Spanish-speaking country. Through storytelling, memoirs and the creation of a final project, students reflect critically on tourism, knowledge production, global citizenship and their plans to integrate their study away experience into current learning opportunities or professional aspirations. Taught in Spanish. Eva Woods.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 206 or permission of the instructor.
Second six-week course.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 285 - Bilingual Community Theater Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
The aims of the course are three-fold. First, playwriting and revision, rehearsal and performance, all provide active language learning opportunities with a strong component of peer teaching and learning. Second, all participants learn about drama and stage craft. Third, the course forms part of Vassar’s enhanced commitment to community engaged learning. Participation is open to a mixed group of Vassar students and members of the local Hispanic community, each of whom would write a one-act play (Vassar students writing in Spanish, Hispanic community members in English) and work together on revising the texts. The course culminates in public performances, again by mixed-language groups, in which the authors would also work in their non-native language as directors of their own plays. Andrew Bush.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 206 or the equivalent.
Second six-week course.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual projects or internships. The department.
Prerequisite(s): One unit of HISP 205 or above.
Special permission.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1.5 unit(s)
The department.
Prerequisite(s): Two units of HISP 226 or above, and permission of the instructor.
Does not fulfill the requirement for 200-level work in the major or the correlate sequence.
Course Format: OTH
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Hispanic Studies: III. Advanced |
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HISP 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The department.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 374 - Writing Workshop Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 374 ) It admits of three modes, according to each student’s preference. The course includes periodic meetings where the texts are collectively discussed (Previous Requisite: one course at the 220 level or special permission by me.). A) Chronicle: the course hinges around an ongoing event (political, historical, etc.) chosen by each student. Such event is researched as it develops during the semester, in depth and thoroughly. The end result is an annotated dossier of primary and secondary sources and the writing of a chronicle based upon some of the models studied (García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Germán Castro Caycedo, Alma Guillermo Prieto, etc.) B) Fiction: the course is geared toward completion of a piece of writing previously agreed upon between each student and me (collection of poems or short stories, novelistic fragment, journal, short film and so on). Writing models and problematics will be discussed and serve as a springboard for each student’s project. C) Testimonial Writing: the course allows for crafting a piece of testimonial writing (of one’s own or someone else’s experience). Writing strategies are derived from an understanding of the genre’s logic and its problematization. In all modalities, the final text can take the form of an audiovisual product (the student’s technical knowledge for carrying on such a project is presupposed). Mario Cesareo.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 375 - The Oviedo Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The Oviedo Project at Vassar College aims at translating the 50 books of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s Natural History of the Indies–the first comprehensive description of the New World, written between 1524 and 1548—in time for the 500th anniversary of the publication of an abridged version of the first book in 1526. The collaborative project has been developed as part of Vassar’s new curriculum to work with student translators to produce the first complete English-language translation of the celebrated text. Students study and put into practice translation theory and editing skills as they complete their section of the project, under the guidance of profs. Michael Aronna, Nicolás Vivalda.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 376 - Close Watching of Latin American Cinema
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on one relevant Latin American or Spanish film director dealing with Latin American topics, and involves concentrated readings, research, and small group discussions on themes like race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, poverty, nationalism, liberalism, development, and modernity(ies). Student learn to identify and analyze the intersection between form and content in a select number of relevant Latin American films by situating them in contexts that are simultaneously national, regional, and global. Proposed directors: Luis Buñuel, Arturo Ripstein, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Leonardo Favio, Pablo Larraín, Patricio Guzmán. Nicolas Vivalda.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: INT
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HISP 382 - Decolonizing Digital Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 382 and MEDS 382 ) Digital media are ubiquitous. Through them we communicate, inform ourselves, organize our lives, watch one another, self-soothe and invent ourselves. Digital media are both central to struggles for social justice and at the same time, in the hands of corporate and state agents, weapons against these struggles. This course explores how the history, physical infrastructure, political economy and symbolic and affective meanings in media-scapes across Latin America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Spain are crucial for understanding digital culture and its impact on us. Topics studied include Indigenous digital culture; digital literacy; fake news; social media and social movements; gendered, racialized and classed identities in online communities; (dis)embodiment; the networked self; and border surveillance technologies. We analyze a range of media texts including novels, films, theoretical essays, manifestos, archives and multi-media born-digital content. Taught in Spanish. Eva Woods.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 387 - Latin American Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 387 ) A seminar offering in-depth study of topics related to the literary and cultural history of Latin America. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes.
Topic for 2020/21a: New Argentine Cinema. The seminar follows the appearance and development of the Argentine New Wave, from the mid-1990s to the present. These films have initiated a new direction in Argentine and Latin American film, as they try to find new narrative forms that symbolically articulate and transform the radical crises–cultural, national and economic–that neoliberalism and its aftermath brought to the Argentine landscape. In the process, new voices, ethnic communities, sexualities and social sensibilities emerge, questioning established ways of thinking and looking at the nation and its uneasy fragments. The emerging result has been a boom in production that publics and film festivals worldwide have recognized through accolade, prizes, worldwide distribution and critical praise. Films by auteurs such as Adrián Caetano, Martín Rejtman, Pablo Trapero, and Lucrecia Martel are discussed, bearing on themes such as the circulation of bodies and labor, nation, migration and globalization, memory and subjectivity, the eye vs. the gaze, the spheres and politics of social space, and the political unconscious of melodrama and allegory within the context of subalternity and the Third World. In Spanish. Mario Cesareo.
Topic for 2020/21a: Detective Fiction in Latin America. This seminar examines the unique literary origins and development of detective fiction in Latin America in different national, political, and cultural contexts to inquire how specific genres of detective fiction and film correspond to particular issues of organized crime, class and ethnic difference, governability, corruption, quotidian violence, urbanization, and the media across Latin America. In Spanish. Michael Aronna.
Topic for 2020/21b: Art, Film, Literature and Climate Change in Latin America. This seminar addresses the toll climate change is taking on Latin America through its expression in art, film, and literature. Melting glaciers, coral bleaching, changing rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, water, and food insecurity are among the topics addressed eloquently through the arts in the region. The course examines the central role artists, filmmakers, and writers have played as key environmental activists throughout Latin America, focusing on literary work by Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), Pedro Cabiya (Dominican Republic), and Homero Aridjis (Mexico), artists like Tomás Sánchez (Cuba), Alejandro Durán (Mexico), and Ruby Rumié (Colombia), and films like Even the Rain (2011), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), A Place in the World (1992), The Naked Jungle (1954), and The Towrope (2012). Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 388 - Peninsular Seminar
1 unit(s)
A seminar offering in-depth study of topics related to the literary and cultural history of Spain and the Hispanic Transatlantic. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HISP 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Special permission. Does not fulfill the requirement for 300-level work in the major or correlate sequence.
Course Format: OTH
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History: I. Introductory |
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HIST 102 - Humanitarian Intervention
1 unit(s)
The principle that troops should sometimes be sent to prevent the slaughter of innocent foreigners is anything but new. With deep roots in the 19th century, humanitarian intervention has been a relatively familiar practice in international affairs. This seminar examines the history of that practice and principle to the present day. We explore the transnational activists who campaigned against bloodshed abroad, the debates over the efficacy of military intervention in the name of human rights, the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of humanitarianism, specific case studies (Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Libya, and Syria to name a few), and the U.N. Responsibility to Protect doctrine. Robert Brigham.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 103 - How We Got Here Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 103 ) This course is a dynamic introduction to the ways in which texts, traditions, concepts, and institutions throughout history have brought us to the moment in which we currently exist, and how they prepare us to meet the challenges of the future. No matter how “modern” an issue may seem—be it race, money, gender, violence—the roots or echoes of a deeper past are always there in ways that bear examining. By starting with the distant past and bringing our questions forward in time, we can find a space to explore and discuss tough issues that often polarize people today. Sources may include selections from the Bible, medieval epic, and the arts. This course has several Vassar faculty guest speakers who work on these issues in the modern period, and it also features practitioners in various fields beyond academia who discuss how their undergraduate studies in the humanities and social sciences shaped their lives. Students all have the chance to attend a dinner with one of the speakers outside of class. Nancy Bisaha and Marc Epstein.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 116 - The Dark Ages
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 116 ) Was early medieval Europe really Dark? In reality, this was a period of tremendous vitality and ferment, witnessing the transformation of late classical society, the growth of Germanic kingdoms, the high point of Byzantium, the rise of the papacy and monasticism, and the birth of Islam. This course examines a rich variety of sources that illuminate the first centuries of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, and early medieval culture showing moments of both conflict and synthesis that redefined Europe and the Mediterranean. Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 117 - High Middle Ages, 950-1300
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 117 This course examines medieval Europe at both its cultural and political height. Topics of study include: the first universities; government from feudal lordships to national monarchies; courtly and popular culture; manorial life and town life; the rise of papal monarchy; new religious orders and spirituality among the laity. Relations with religious outsiders are explored in topics on European Jewry, heretics, and the Crusades. Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 122 - Encounters in Modern East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 122 ) This course introduces the modern history of East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) through various “encounters,” not only with each other but also with the world beyond. Employing regional and global perspectives, we explore how East Asia entered a historical phase generally known as “modern” by examining topics such as inter-state relations, trade network, the Jesuit missionary, philosophical inquiries, science and technology, colonialism, imperialism and nationalism. The course begins in the seventeenth-century with challenges against the dynastic regime of each country, traces how modern East Asia emerges through war, commerce, cultural exchange, and imperial expansion and considers some global issues facing the region today. Wayne Soon.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 124 - Europe 1945
1 unit(s)
On May 8, 1945 the Second World War ended in Europe. After six years of fighting, millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. The Nazi genocide had led to the brutal murder of millions of Jews and other minorities. Some of Europe’s most magnificent cities lay in ruins, while some twenty million refugees, expellees, or displaced persons wandered the highways in search of shelter and security. Readings explore the roots of the war, and how European countries dealt with the destruction, the questions of guilt, collaboration and resistance, and the challenge to create a peaceful Europe in the emerging Cold War order. Maria Höhn.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 125 - Infamy on Trial: Famous Trials in Early Modern Europe
1 unit(s)
This course examines several of the most famous trials of Europe’s early modern period (1500-1700). Each trial allows us to explore how communities and individuals responded to the changing nature of European society during this period of upheaval. Through cases involving all sorts of people—men and women, peasants and kings, we have access to conflicting understandings of authority, family, religion, and gender. The trial of Galileo challenged contemporary understandings of what it meant to be a Christian while the execution of King Charles I raised questions about kingship. By studying criminal cases, we engage with a rich selection of primary sources, such as trial records, contemporary accounts, and private papers. Through these readings, the class investigates how early modern people interpreted crime and justice during moments of crisis. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 126 - Terrorism in Russia and Eurasia Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Terror is a tactic as old as warfare, and it creates many dangers in the present. Sectarians and revolutionaries, powerful states and small regimes, guerillas and jihadists all have carried out bloody attacks and assassinations in the name of religion, liberation, politics, identity, and empowerment. This course explores the use and legacies of terror starting in 1789. We investigate nihilism, Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Russia, the anti-Nazi resistance and guerilla movements, anti-Soviet Afghanistan, Shamil Basaev and Chechnya, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and contemporary global suicide terrorism, taking care to elicit historical connections and breaks between them. We encounter leaders and ordinary people engaged in acts of violence, as well as their victims; we discuss scholarship on the invention of modern terror and state terror, and using their own texts and acts as evidence, we investigate how violent practitioners represent themselves and make claims of transcendence and social transformation. How have they been perceived? What happens when such movements come to power? How do violent campaigns end? Michaela Pohl.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 128 - Europe 1945 - Rethinking History
0.5 unit(s)
On May 8, 1945 the Second World War ended in Europe. After six years of fighting, millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. The Nazi genocide had led to the brutal murder of millions of Jews, and other minorities. Some of Europe’s most magnificent cities lay in ruins, while some twenty million refugees, expellees, or displaced persons wandered the highways in search of shelter and security. Readings for this class explore how European countries dealt with the aftermath of the war, as well as the questions of guilt, collaboration, and resistance. In particular, readings and discussions focus on the tension between history and memory as Europeans tried to come to terms with the war. Maria Höhn.
Second six-week course.
One 2-hour meeting.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 143 - Russia, Ukraine, and the Steppe
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to the history of the Russians and their neighbors on the Eurasian Steppe, a vast region that stretches from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. Topics include the relations between Russians and Ukrainians and nomadic and semi-nomadic people (Tatars, Kazakhs, Cossacks), the great steppe empires, the imposition of serfdom, the uprisings of the steppe (1660s and 1916), and the complex mix of violence and development that was unleashed in the Soviet period, including famines, forced cultural change, and industrialization. We will also consider the connections between the cultural and political history of this region and current events, such as the creation of a new Eurasian Union. Course materials include history texts, memoirs, fiction, newspapers, Soviet and post-Soviet films, and maps. Course participants practice writing regularly, with an emphasis on discussing and constructing arguments, finding and using evidence, and comparing perspectives and points of view (American, Russian, Ukrainian, Central Asian). Michaela Pohl.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 150 - Revolution, Evolution, and the Global Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 150 and VICT 150 ) The world as we know it largely came into being during the nineteenth century. Marked by social, political, cultural, and technological transformations, the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of modernity out of the instabilities of change. Railways crisscrossed continents; European empires expanded; agricultural laborers flocked into mushrooming urban centers; and the enslaved, the colonized, and the disenfranchised around the world fought for liberty and citizenship. In this course, we consider these and other nineteenth-century transformations in a global context by focusing on the interconnections between North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Our investigations are organized around five core areas: revolutions, emancipations, evolution and progress, popular culture, and the domestic sphere. Students analyze a variety of sources, including novels, plays, short stories, photographs, early films, paintings, periodicals and pamphlets, government documents, letters, music, and scientific works. The course is team taught with occasional guest lectures. Rebecca Edwards and Susan Zlotnick.
Three 50-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 151 - British History: James I (1603) to the Great War Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores the central developments in Britain from the age of Shakespeare to the age of total war. We study the political and scientific revolutions of the seventeenth century, the eighteenth-century rise of commercial society and the “British” nation, and the effects of industrialization on Britain’s landscape, society, and politics. The course concludes by exploring how the First World War transformed British society. Lydia Murdoch.
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HIST 152 - Smallpox: The Biology and History of a Disease Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 152 , STS 152 and VICT 152 ) Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in history: it killed millions, often leaving survivors scarred or blinded. Its eradication in 1980 also marks one of the great medical victories of the modern era. This course examines smallpox from both biological and historical perspectives. Students explore the workings of the virus, the effects of the disease, the popularization of inoculation in the eighteenth century, Edward Jenner’s development of the cowpox vaccine and how it protects, and efforts to enforce vaccination globally through some of the earliest state public health initiatives. We also investigate the nineteenth-century origins of the anti-vaccination movement with particular attention to its class, anti-imperial, and religious underpinnings. David Esteban and Lydia Murdoch.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 160 - American Moments: Rediscovering U.S. History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This is not your parents’—or your high school teacher’s—American history course. No textbook: Instead we read memoirs, novels, newspaper articles, letters, speeches, photographs, and films composed by a colorful, diverse cast of characters—famous and forgotten, slaves and masters, workers and bosses. No survey: Instead we pause to look at several illuminating “moments” from the colonial era through the Civil War to civil rights and the Cold War. Traveling from the Great Awakening to the “awakening” that was the 1960s, from an anticolonial rebellion that Americans won (1776) to another that they lost (Vietnam), the course challenges assumptions about America’s past—and perhaps also a few about America’s present and future. The Department.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 169 - Introduction to African American History Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 169 ) This course introduces students to major themes and debates in African American history, starting with their African origins and leading into the twenty-first century. It explores African American experiences through a variety of primary source materials, including letters, speeches, newspaper articles, posters and autobiographies. Through lecture and class discussion, students interrogate how race, class, gender, sexuality and ability have shaped African American experiences over time. The primary objective is to help students develop a solid understanding of the political, social, economic and personal lives of African Americans from their arrival in the colonies through today. Specific topics covered include African antecedents, colonial and antebellum slavery, the abolitionist movement, African American free people, the Civil War, Emancipation, Jim Crow segregation, the modern freedom struggle, popular culture, and the contemporary experience. Shelby Pumphrey.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 174 - The Emergence of the Modern Middle East Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An exploration of the Middle East over the past three centuries. Beginning with economic and social transformations in the eighteenth century, we follow the transformation of various Ottoman provinces such as Egypt, Syria/Lebanon, and Algeria into modern states, paying careful attention to how European colonialism shaped their development. We then look at independence movements and the post-colonial societies that have emerged since the middle of the twentieth century, concluding with study of colonialism’s lingering power—and the movements that confront it. Joshua Schreier.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
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HIST 175 - Mandela: Race, Resistance and Renaissance in South Africa Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 175 ) This course critically explores the history and politics of South Africa in the twentieth century through the prism of the life, politics, and experiences of one of its most iconic figures, Nelson Mandela. After almost three decades of incarceration for resisting Apartheid, Mandela became the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa in 1994. It was an inspirational moment in the global movement and the internal struggle to dismantle Apartheid and to transform South Africa into a democratic, non-racial, and just society. Using Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, as our point of departure, the course discusses some of the complex ideas, people, and developments that shaped South Africa and Mandela’s life in the twentieth century, including: indigenous culture, religion, and institutions; colonialism, race, and ethnicity; nationalism, mass resistance, and freedom; and human rights, social justice, and post-conflict reconstruction. Ismail Rashid.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 178 - The Global Cold War Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The Cold War was a political, ideological, military, and social conflict that engulfed the major powers—the United States, Soviet Union, and China–from 1945 until 1989. Yet it also involved peoples and states throughout the global south. This course examines the history of the Cold War for the purpose of illuminating powerful military, political, economic, social, and ideological dynamics that continue to shape global power. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 180 - Refugees and Vassar College: What can the Archives Teach Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Students in this class research the papers of former Vassar President MacCracken, and his role in bringing to Vassar College refugee scholars fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe. After reading some secondary texts on exile and rescue of scholars, students begin exploring Vassar’s archival sources under the guidance of Ron Patkus, the Director of Special Collections. During the second part of the semester, research teams work in Special Collections. Their findings are presented as an exhibition on campus, and perhaps also at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center. A digital version of the exhibition is planned for EuropeNow’s platform and become part of a digital archive on Forced Migration that the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education is building. Maria Höhn.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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History: II. Intermediate The prerequisite for courses at the 200-level is ordinarily 1 unit in history. |
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HIST 202 - Business and the State in East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 202 ) This course examines the relationship between business, culture, and society in twentieth-century East Asia, with a focus on the ways in which the state has shaped business practices and ideas. We investigate the varying role of governments in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria in enabling and restricting the growth of enterprises in the region, mediated by colonialism, imperialism, Western competition, and globalization. We examine how the development of new business practices changed the interaction between labor and employers in the region. Case studies are drawn from the medical, education, electronics, retail sectors, etc. This class uses historical sources such as memoirs, oral histories, case studies, and newspaper reports to understand the nature of contingencies in doing business in the region. In so doing, students gain the tools to critically examine the notions of the “Developmental State,” and “Confucian Capitalism” in explaining the rise and fall of businesses in East Asia.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 214 - The Roots of the Palestine-Israel Conflict Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 214 ) An examination of the deep historical sources of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The course begins some two centuries ago when changes in the world economy and emerging nationalist ideologies altered the political and economic landscapes of the region. It then traces the development of both Jewish and Arab nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before exploring how the Arab and Jewish populations fought—and cooperated—on a variety of economic, political, and ideological fronts. It concludes by considering how this contest led to the development of two separate, hostile national identities. Joshua Schreier.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 216 - History of the Ancient Greeks Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 216 ) This course examines the history and culture of the ancient Greeks from the emergence of the city-state in the eighth century BCE to the conquests of Alexander the Great in 335 BCE. In addition to an outline of the political and social history of the Greeks, the course examines several historical, cultural, and methodological topics in depth, including the emergence of writing, Greek colonialism and imperialism, ancient democracy, polytheism, the social structures of Athenian society, and the relationship between Greeks and other Mediterranean cultures. Students both read primary sources (for example, Sappho, Tyrtaios, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, and Plato) and examine sites and artifacts recovered through archaeology; the development of students’ critical abilities to evaluate and use these sources for the study of history is a primary goal of the class. Barbara Olsen.
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HIST 217 - History of the Ancient Romans
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 217 ) This course examines the history of the ancient Romans from the foundation of their city around the eighth century BCE to the collapse of their Mediterranean Empire in the fifth century CE. The course offers a broad historical outline of Roman history, but focuses on significant topics and moments in Roman history, including the Republican aristocracy, the civil and slave wars of the Late Republic, the foundation of the Empire by Caesar Augustus, urbanism, the place of public entertainments (gladiatorial combats, Roman hunts, chariot races, and theater) in society, the rise of Christianity, the processes of Romanization, and barbarization, and the political decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Students read primary sources such as Plautus, Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius, and secondary accounts dealing with important issues such as slavery, religious persecution and multiculturalism. Students also examine important archaeological sites and artifacts. The development of students’ critical abilities to evaluate and use these sources for the study of history is a primary goal of the class. J. Bert Lott.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 221 - Medieval Science and Technology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 221 and STS 221 ) Science and technology: the very words seem synonymous with “modernity.” Yet, crucial developments in scientific knowledge and application occurred during the Middle Ages, forming the foundation for the Scientific Revolution. This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to science and technology in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean world, exploring the influence of classical, East Asian, and Arab learning, and the rise of empiricism and experimentation. Through readings, discussions, and hands-on activities, we examine developments in monasteries, universities, castles, and farms. Topics may include beer making, beekeeping, alchemy, siege warfare, watermills, astrology, plagues, and medicine. Nancy Bisaha, Christopher Smart.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 225 - Renaissance Italy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 225 ) This course examines the history of Italy between 1300 and 1565. Italian intellectual, political, and religious history is emphasized, but some attention is also given to cross-cultural, gender, and social history. Looking beyond Italy, we also consider developments in Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and their impact on Italy and Europe. Topics to be covered include the Black Death, the rise of humanism, the Renaissance papacy, and the Catholic Reformation. Finally, throughout the course, we question the meaning of the term “Renaissance”: is it a distinct period, a cultural movement, or an insufficient label altogether? Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 226 - Northern Europe in the Renaissance, c. 1300-1550
1 unit(s)
As a famous scholar has argued, the north witnessed a long “autumn of the Middle Ages,” holding tightly to medieval ideals of chivalry, pageantry, and piety – precisely at the same time Italy seemed to be forging ahead into modernity. Yet by the end of the period, Northern states overshadowed Italy politically, economically and, increasingly, culturally. This course examines Northern Europe during this remarkable period of transformation. The Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Tudors, French and German state building and court life, and urban society in Flanders, are addressed along with the poetry of Chaucer, the humanism of More and Erasmus, and the doctrine of Luther. In turn, we examine the complex meanings of the terms “Renaissance” and “Reformation” and the relationship between them. Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 229 - Paris and London: Society and Culture in the Early Modern City, 1500-1800
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 229 ) Between 1500-1800 European society experienced upheavals caused by cataclysmic events such as the Reformation and major shifts in economic and political organization. And it was Europeans living in urban areas – Europeans of different social status, faith, and ethnicities – who experienced these changes most intensely. This course investigates how two of the most dynamic cities in early modern Europe, London and Paris, changed from essentially medieval cities to urban metropolises. We look at the changing material, religious, and political conditions of London and Paris over two centuries and explore how the peoples of these two cities articulated and made sense of such changes. The central focus of the class will be examining how the identities of Parisians and Londoners as urban dwellers underwent transformations during this period. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 231 - Algeria/France:Race, Religion & Citizenship
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 231 ) Since the early modern era, slavery, colonialism, commerce, piracy, and migration have woven the Mediterranean together in both peace and in horrifying violence. This broad, multipolar web of conflict and communication has served as the context in which multiple French and Algerian identities have careened into modernity. Constant references to local and cross-Mediterranean “others” have shaped the very meanings of such key terms as “emancipation,” “republic,” “Islam,” “progress,” and “civilization.” Even today, debates on issues ranging from women’s clothing to secularism to immigration to anti-Semitism echo with this long and contested history. Joshua Schreier.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 235 ) This course uses historical case studies to identify practical ways to end conflict and build sustainable peace. It is concerned with the vulnerability of the weak, failed and collapsed states, with post conflict periods that have reignited into violence, and problems of mediating conflicts that are unusually resistant to resolution. Of particular interest will be the role that third party intermediaries and global governance institutions have played in bringing about a negotiated end to violence. Major topics may include: the Paris Peace Accords, South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commissions, the Good Friday Agreement, Israel-Palestine negotiations, the Dayton Peace Accords ending the Balkans wars, and negotiations to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 242 - The Russian Empire to 1812
1 unit(s)
This course introduces major events and issues in the history of the Russians and their neighbors to the South and East. The main themes each week include the formation of Russia’s autocracy and nobility, Eurasian family/clan politics and cultural practices, and the connection between expansion and repression. Topics include the great steppe empires, Russia as part of the Golden Horde (1240-1480), the era of Ivan the Terrible and his conquest of the Tatars of the Volga, the Time of Troubles, the conquest of Siberia, the imposition of serfdom, westernization and globalization of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, relations with the Ottoman Empire under Russia’s female tsarinas, the conquest of the Caucasus, and the history of the Cossacks. Michaela Pohl.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 243 - Russia and the Soviet Union, 1861-2000
1 unit(s)
This course explores how Russians and their neighbors (Ukrainians, Poles, Kazakhs, and others) collectively encountered the age of revolutions and socialism. The beginning and the end of the Soviet Union in 1917 and in 1991 pitted national dreams against socialist ideology and Western-style shock therapy, and both were followed by decades of economic troubles and political chaos. Topics include the emancipation from serfdom, the Bolshevik revolution, Stalinism, the Communist Party and the purges, the victory over the Nazis in World War II, reforms under Khrushchev and Gorbachev, the fall of communism, oligarchic politics, and the rebirth of Russia and the war in Chechnya under Yeltsin and Putin. Michaela Pohl.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 245 - Medicine, Health and Diseases in East Asia Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 245 and STS 245 ) From the globalization of acupuncture to the proliferation of biobanks to the fight against the deadly SARS virus, the history of East Asian medicine and society has been marked by promises and perils. Through examining the ways in which East Asians conceptualized medicine and the body in their fight against diseases from a myriad of sources, this course critically examines the persistence, transformation, and globalization of both “traditional medicine” and biomedicine in East Asia. Topics covered include the knowledge of nature as embedded in the changing categorization of pharmaceuticals, the contestation over vaccination and the definition of diseases, the construction of gender and sexuality in medicine, the importance of religion in healing, the legacies of colonialism in biopolitics and biotechnology, the development of healthcare systems, and the imaginations of Asian medicine in the West. Wayne Soon.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 246 - World War II in East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 246 ) The Second World War was transformative for Japan and China. At the height of its conquest, the Japanese Empire ruled over more than 130 million people, even as it struggled to deal with controversies and scarcity. China became one of the Big Four Allied Powers as state building and resistance persisted in unoccupied areas. This class examines how the Second World War shaped the everyday lives of East Asians and foreigners through speeches, memoirs, fiction, oral histories, documents, and films. In addition, this course explores the contexts, contingencies, and legacies of wartime events and issues. This includes the Nanjing massacre, the Chinese, Koreans, and Taiwanese resistance to and collaboration with the Japanese, Japan’s wartime mobilization, the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States, the role of wartime science and technology, the gendered and racial underpinnings of wartime labor, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, and the U.S. government’s decision to release atomic bombs in Japan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 247 - Albert Einstein
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 247 ) This course explores the complex life and work of the iconic scientist of the 20th century. Using recent biographical studies and a wide range of original sources (in translation), Einstein’s revolutionary contributions to relativity and quantum mechanics, his role in Germany in the opposition to the rise of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism, and his work as a political and social activist in the United States are examined. Students are encouraged to make use of Vassar’s Bergreen Collection of original Einstein manuscripts. José Perillán.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 251 - A History of American Foreign Relations Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course examines the foreign relations of the United States from the 19th century to the present day emphasizing the motivations, objectives, and tactics of U.S. policy makers. The course will focus on America’s role in the Spanish-American War; its embroilment in two world wars; its Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union; its wars in Korea and Vietnam; its response to human rights abuses and mass atrocities; and its leadership in the global war on terror. Robert Brigham.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 254 - Victorian Britain
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 254 and VICT 254 ) This course examines some of the key transformations that Victorians experienced, including industrialization, the rise of a class-based society, political reform, and the women’s movement. We explore why people then, and historians since, have characterized the Victorian age as a time of progress and optimism as well as an era of anxiety and doubt. Lydia Murdoch.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 259 - The History of the Family in Early Modern Europe
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 259 ) This course examines the changing notions of family, marriage, and childhood between 1500 and 1800 and their ties to the larger early modern context. During this period, Europeans came to see the family less as a network of social and political relationships and more as a set of bonds based on intimacy and affection. Major topics include family and politics in the Italian city-state, the Reformation and witchcraft, absolutism, and paternal authority, and the increasing importance of the idea of the nuclear family. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 260 - Sex & Reproduction in 19th Century United States: Before Margaret Sanger Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 260 ) Focusing on the United States from roughly 1800 to 1900, this course explores sex and reproduction and their relationship to broader transformations in society, politics, and women’s rights. Among the issues considered are birth patterns on the frontier and in the slave South; industrialization, urbanization, and falling fertility; the rise of sex radicalism; and the emergence of “heterosexual” and “homosexual” as categories of identity. The course examines public scandals, such as the infamous Beecher-Tilton adultery trial, and the controversy over education and women’s health that was prompted by the opening of Vassar College. The course ends by tracing the complex impact of the Comstock law (1873) and the emergence of a modern movement for birth control. Rebecca Edwards.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 261 - Women in 20th Century America
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 261 ) How did class, race, and ethnicity combine with gender to shape women’s lives in the twentieth century? Beginning in 1890 and ending at the turn of this century, this course looks at changes in female employment patterns, how women from different backgrounds combined work and family responsibilities and women’s leisure lives. We also study women’s activism on behalf of political rights, moral reform, racial and economic equality, and reproductive rights. Readings include memoirs, novels, government documents, and feminist political tracts. Miriam Cohen.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 262 - Contesting Colonialism: Latin America 1450 - 1750
1 unit(s)
This course examines the pre-Columbian worlds of Mesoamerica and the Andean region, then turns to a treatment of the consequences of contact between those worlds and the European. Special emphasis is placed on the examination of mindsets and motives of colonizer and colonized and the quest for identity in the American context (both issues intimately related to questions of race and ethnicity), the struggle to balance concerns for social justice against the search for profits, the evolution of systems of labor appropriation, the expansion of the mining sector, and the changing nature of land exploitation and tenure. Leslie Offutt.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 263 - From Colony to Nation: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course treats the transition from colony to nation in Spanish and Portuguese America. In part a thematic course treating such topics as the Liberal/Conservative struggles of the early nineteenth century, the consequences of latifundism, the abolition of slavery, and the impact of foreign economic penetration and industrialization, it also adopts a national approach, examining the particular historical experiences of selected nations. Leslie Offutt.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 264 - The Revolutionary Option? Latin America in the Twentieth Century Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course investigates why certain Latin American nations in the twentieth century opted for revolution and others adopted a more conservative course. It examines the efforts of selected Latin American nations (Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala) to address the tremendous social and economic cleavages affecting them, with special attention paid to material, political, class, and cultural structures shaping their experiences. Leslie Offutt.
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HIST 268 - Religion, Repression, and Resistance in Latin America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 268 and HIST 268 ) What was it like to live in a society where crimes of thought and religious transgressions were prosecuted and punished? How did various populations confront and resist inquisitorial activities? What is the legacy of the Inquisition in the Americas? This course addresses these and other questions through a focus on the Latin American Inquisition and Extirpation (ecclesiastic attempts to reform or destroy Precolumbian indigenous religions). The course tracks the emergence of Inquisition tribunals in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena after 1571, and the Catholic Church’s prosecution of indigenous idolatry and sorcery. It focuses both on trends in prosecution, torture, and punishment, and on the dynamic responses of those who were either targets or collaborators: indigenous peoples, Jews, Africans, female healers, people of mixed descent, and Protestants. Towards the end of the course, based on students’ interests, we also review other select case studies of religious control and resistance in Latin America. Students proficient in Spanish or Portuguese are encouraged to work with primary sources. David Tavárez.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 269 - Gender and African American History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 269 and WMST 269 ) Using primary documents and secondary sources, this course explores African American history through the lens of gender, sexuality, and family. Themes might include the transition from slavery to freedom; women’s labor (paid and unpaid) in the workforce, family, and community; and African American women’s struggles for equality. Among the topics to be considered are Black Freedom movements and feminist / womanist movements since Emancipation, giving special attention to intersectionalities of race and gender, and to histories of African American LBGTQ+ experiences.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 272 - Modern African History Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 272 ) Africa has experienced profound transformations over the past two centuries. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Africans lost and regained their independence from different European colonial powers. This course explores the changing African experiences before, during, and after European colonization of their continent. Drawing on primary sources, film, memoirs, and popular novels, we look at the creative responses of African groups and individuals to the contradictory processes and legacies of colonialism. Particular attention will be paid to understanding how these responses shape the trajectories of African as well as global developments. Amongst the major themes covered by the course are: colonial ideologies, African resistance, colonial economies, gender and cultural change, African participation in the two world wars, urbanization, decolonization and African nationalism. We also reflect on some of the contemporary developmental dilemmas as well as opportunities confronting post-colonial Africa. Ismail Rashid.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 274 - Early America, 1500-1750 Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Without ignoring the Pilgrims, Pocahontas, and other popular icons of colonial times, this course puts them into a larger context of what unfolded between 1500 and 1750 when three worlds bordering the Atlantic—western Europe, west Africa, and eastern North America—first came together. The new American world that emerged from this momentous encounter was at once stranger and more interesting than conventional wisdom would have it. Slaves who became free and Indians who became Puritan, con men who tricked gullible colonists and pious folk who heckled learned ministers—these and other forgotten actors join the usual suspects (Saints and witches, John Smith and Benjamin Franklin) on a crowded colonial stage. While keeping in mind that the genesis of America today can be found in that long-ago era—the tangled roots of race relations, the curious blend of materialism and lofty ideals, the boisterous political culture, the freedom for self-fashioning—we take early America as much as possible on its own terms rather than on ours. James Merrell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 275 - Revolutionary America, 1750-1830
1 unit(s)
In 1815 John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson: “Who shall write the history of the American Revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?” “Nobody,” Jefferson replied. As these two men knew, the American Revolution ranks high among history’s mysteries. Why did a prosperous people get so mad about a modest tax increase? How did a scattered, squabbling array of colonies, who felt closer to Great Britain than to one another, unite sufficiently to declare independence from the “mother country” in 1776? How did they then defeat the greatest military power of the age while also contending with dissension in their own ranks, rebellious slaves in their midst, and powerful Indian nations at their backs? How, having won independence, did the victors avoid tyranny, civil war, or re-colonization while other Americans—poor men, white women, Native peoples, the enslaved—busily tested the elasticity of the phrase “all men are created equal”? Exploring these questions, we also keep in mind a historian’s recent observation that this era “bequeathed us many of the values and institutions…that are now sites of important political, social, and ideological conflicts.” James Merrell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 276 - Democracy in America? Parties, Politics and Grassroots Change, 1828-1912
1 unit(s)
Focusing on the nineteenth-century United States, this course traces political struggles over continental conquest, slavery, industrialization, and nation-building. Key topics include expansion and conflict in the trans-Mississippi West; the rise of the Republican Party and sectional conflict; Emancipation and post-Civil War struggles over the scope and role of government; and struggles that accompanied the emergence of modern corporate capitalism. The course explores relationships among formal politics (parties and elections), public policy, and grassroots movements for change, such as abolitionism, labor, and agrarian protest. Rebecca Edwards.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 277 - America 1890-1990 “The Rise and Fall of “The American Century”
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 277 ) In 1941, Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life magazines, proclaimed the twentieth as “America’s century.” At mid-century, many Americans agreed with Luce’s view of the US as the preeminent global power By the 1980s, however, believing their country was in decline, more and more Americans began losing confidence in America’s greatness.
Using primary sources that range from political pamphlets to Hollywood film, presidential speeches to oral interviews, this course looks at America’s rise to prominence after 1890 and the nation’s so-called decline nearly a century later. We pay particular attention to the social and political changes marking the growth of progressive reform from the 1890s to the 1970s, then trace the rise of conservatism during the final decades of “the American century.” Miriam Cohen.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 279 - The Viet Nam War Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An examination of the origins, course, and impact of America’s involvement in Viet Nam, emphasizing the evolution of American diplomacy, the formulation of military strategy, the domestic impact of the war, and the perspective of Vietnamese revolutionaries. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 285 - Art, Spirituality and Power in Precolonial African History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 285 ) Spirituality, power and art were inextricably linked in many African societies or civilizations before the nineteenth century. This intensive course explores political and social dynamics in selected precolonial African societies through some of their prominent artistic objects and monuments on public display, especially in museums at Vassar, Brooklyn and New York City. Amongst the African societies whose artifacts are usually on display are: Egypt, Kush, Nubia, Axum, Edo, Kongo, Yoruba, Great Zimbabwe, Swahili States and Kongo. Each student selects, researches and completes a project on artifact(s) emblematic of one their selected society or civilization’s representation of power and spirituality. The final product of the project can be in a variety of written and creative formats. Ismail Rashid.
Course Format: INT
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HIST 287 - Comics and History Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
In this intensive study we research and draw cartoons about history in the broadest sense. Topics can include public history, self-discovery, memory, trauma work, nostalgia, and comedic, ironic, or fantasy reworkings of past events. Course participants research settings and images, illustrations, fashion, and propaganda from the culture and era in question and develop a plot and dialogue. The work involves reading a cartooning manual, drawing on paper or digitally, and considering how comics aesthetics, layout, and composition contribute to constructing a historical narrative. Students submit drafts, critique them in class, and re-submit inked versions of the previous week’s page. The final project is a 10 page mini comic. Michaela Pohl.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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HIST 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group field projects, especially in local, state, or federal history. May be taken either semester or in summer. The department.
Prerequisite(s): An appropriate course in the department.
Corequisite(s): An appropriate course in the department.
Permission required.
Course Format: INT
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HIST 297 - Readings In History
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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HIST 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission required.
Course Format: OTH
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History: III. Advanced Prerequisite for advanced courses is ordinarily 2 units of 200-level work in history, or by permission of the instructor. Specific prerequisites assume the general prerequisite. |
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HIST 300 - Thesis Preparation: Sources, Methods, and Interpretations Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
As a yearlong independent research project, a senior history thesis can be an exhilarating but also challenging experience. Many questions must be considered: How do I clearly define my research question? How do I locate my work within the existing scholarship in my field? Where are the most relevant sources? How do I organize and interpret the information that I have uncovered? This seminar provides the opportunity for students to grapple with these questions and to prepare for writing their senior history thesis. Through a common set of readings and workshops, students develop clear research ideas and questions, locate necessary sources, become acquainted with different historical methods, and discuss strategies for different stages of the process. The seminar also provides a community in which students share their experiences, approaches, and ideas about researching and writing their theses. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 300 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. The department.
Yearlong course HIST 300 -301.
Course Format: INT
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HIST 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 300 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. The department.
Same as HIST 301 , for students who are completing the thesis out of cycle. Please note that 302 cannot be taken simultaneously with HIST 300 .
Course Format: INT
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HIST 310 - Mao’s China in the World: War, Science and Legitimacy
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 310 ) This class examines the history of China’s recent past from 1949 to the present, with an emphasis on the relationship between China and the world. We explore the strategies of Mao Zedong and his comrades in winning and consolidating power, the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party in gaining global legitimacy for the People’s Republic of China vis-à-vis the Republic of China in Taiwan, the critical role of science, medicine, and technology in the Chinese economy and society, and the ways in which gender, class, and race underpinned the revolutionary experiences of the Chinese. This class also pays particular attention to Mao’s legacies on China and the world. Upon completion of the course, students gain the tools to critically examine the growth of contemporary China in the context of its dynamic past. Wayne Soon.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 312 - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 312 ) This seminar explores how members of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora maneuvered challenges of empire, colonialism, war, and revolution to thrive economically in the 19th and 20th centuries. This class also contextualizes the recent protests around the world against China’s interventions into Taiwan and Hong Kong’s autonomy within the longer histories of Taiwan and Hong Kong’s interaction with the Dutch, Japanese, and British empires, Chinese nationalism, and America’s Cold War interests. It will also examine how the Chinese diaspora have negotiated issues of identities, healthcare, and migration in their quest for autonomy. Wayne Soon.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 315 - Crusading and the Holy Land (1095-1204)
1 unit(s)
The First Crusade, called in 1095 by Pope Urban II, heralded profound changes in medieval society. The Crusades affected faith and war for Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and redefined relations in the Mediterranean. Warfare and colonization, however, also fostered productive contacts and cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia with increased trade and travel. Back in Europe it led to new theories of government, papal power, and holy war; a growth in epic poetry and romance; new styles of castle and church building; and increased urbanization. This course focuses on the first century of crusading and the establishment of Latin rule in the Holy Land. It critically engages primary sources written by Franks, Arabs, Jews, and Byzantines, as well as cutting-edge scholarship on the Crusade Era. Nancy Bisaha.
Recommended: HIST /MRST 116 or HIST /MRST 117 .
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 326 - Machiavelli: Power and Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 326 ) This course examines the life and writings of one of the most fascinating and misunderstood thinkers of the early modern era. By situating Machiavelli (1469-1527) against the backdrop of his times, we gain insight into the Florentine Republic, Medici rule, the papacy, and devastating invasions of Italy by French, Spanish, and German armies. We also explore cultural movements like the study of antiquity by humanists and the rise of vernacular writing and bold new forms of popular expression and political discourse. Several of Machiavelli’s works are read, including his letters and plays, The Prince, The Discourses, The Art of War, and The Florentine Histories, as well as some of the major modern interpretations of Machiavelli in historiography and political thought. Nancy Bisaha.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 337 - The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany
1 unit(s)
This course explores the Third Reich by locating it within the peculiar nature of German political culture resulting from late unification and rapid industrialization. Readings explore how and why the Nazis emerged as a mass party during the troubled Weimar years. The years between 1933 and 1945 are treated by focusing on Nazi domestic, foreign, and racial policies. Maria Höhn.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 236 or HIST 237 ; or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 338 - German-American Encounters since WW I
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 338 ) This seminar explores the many ways in which Germans envisioned, feared, and embraced America in the course of the twentieth century. We start our readings with WWI and its aftermath, when German society was confronted and, as some feared, overwhelmed, by an influx of American soldiers, expatriates, industry, and popular culture. The Nazi Regime promised to overcome Weimar modernity and the alleged Americanization of German society, but embraced nonetheless aspects of American modernity in its quest to dominate Europe militarily and economically. For the period after WWII, we study in depth the U.S. military occupation (1945-1955), the almost seventy-year lasting military presence in West Germany, and the political, social and cultural implications of this transatlantic relationship. Maria Höhn.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 342 - Stalinism
1 unit(s)
This seminar explores the transformation of the USSR and its borderlands under Stalin, with special emphasis on the impact of terror, dislocations, and compressed economic change on specific national groups (Russians, Ukraine, Central Asia). Topics include Stalin’s ideology and vision of the Soviet people, the impact of Stalinism on politics in Europe, collectivization and industrialization, the experiences of the “enemies of the people,” resistance and dissent, and achievements and legacies. The course concludes with an examination of post-Soviet public memory and discussions of the Stalinist past. Michaela Pohl.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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HIST 351 - Problems in U.S. Foreign Policy
1 unit(s)
Using historical case studies, this seminar examines some of the major foreign affairs dilemmas U.S. policy makers have faced since 1945. Major topics include: containment; modernization; nation building; limited war; détente; human rights and humanitarian intervention; and democracy promotion. Robert Brigham.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS
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HIST 354 - History and the Politics of Grief Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as VICT 354 ) How is the recognition of grief linked with modern ideals of rights and citizenship? In this intensive, students examine the mourning rituals—funerals, cemeteries, dress, postmortem photographs, relics, and jewelry—that proliferated and took on new meanings in nineteenth-century Britain, marking new ways of embodying and visualizing grief. Along with literary and personal expressions of loss, we explore how public commemorations of the dead gained political value in movements and moments such as factory regulation, abolition of slavery, urban reform, child welfare, and the First World War. We begin the semester with discussion of common readings and analysis of material objects from Vassar’s Loeb Art Center. Students then undertake supervised work on independent research projects (which may explore connections between the long nineteenth-century and present-day mourning practices), peer reviews, and presentations. Lydia Murdoch.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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