Apr 28, 2024

Catalogue 2021-2022

Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

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Hispanic Studies: II. Intermediate
	HISP 290 - Community-Engaged Learning 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Individual projects or internships. The department. Prerequisite(s): One unit of HISP 205 or above. Special permission. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: INT
	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
Hispanic Studies: III. Advanced
	HISP 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) The department. Course Format: INT
	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
	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 500^th 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. Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor. Course Format: INT
	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 2021/22. Course Format: INT
	HISP 387 - Latin American Seminar Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 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 2021/22b: Women, Power, and the Borderlands. In this seminar we examine the connection between women and power, specifically in the geopolitical context of northern Mexico, in the zone of influence of the Mexico-US border. Instead of framing this examination by the discussion of violence against women, we turn our attention to the work that female-identifying artists and thinkers have produced to shed light on the struggles for power that have produced the hyper-violent conditions of the lives of most Mexicans, on the one hand, and also the ones that are opening the path to an emancipatory horizon. We analyze films, literature, and visual art produced by female artists from the north of Mexico like Natalia Almada, Teresa Margolles, Dolores Dorantes, and Valeria Luiselli. Instruction, materials, and evaluations are in Spanish. Marcela Romero Rivera. Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	HISP 388 - Peninsular Seminar Semester Offered: Fall 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. Nicolás Vivalda. Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	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
History: I. Introductory
	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 19^th 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 2021/22.
	HIST 103 - How We Got Here 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. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 116 - The Dark Ages 1 unit(s) 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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 117 - High Middle Ages Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 1 unit(s) 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. Course Format: CLS
	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 2021/22.
	HIST 124 - Europe 1945 Semester Offered: Fall 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.
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 126 - Terrorism in Russia and Eurasia 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. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	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 2021/22.
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 150 - Revolution, Evolution, and the Global Nineteenth Century 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. Three 50-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	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.
	HIST 152 - Smallpox: The Biology and History of a Disease 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. Lydia Murdoch. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	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
	HIST 164 - Environmental History of Latin America Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as ENST 164 and LALS 164 ) This course explores the history of Latin America by centering the environment. Beginning with examples in the ancient Americas and continuing through the colonial and national periods, this course explores how human ideas about the environment, along with tangible regimes for exploiting “natural” resources, have shaped the history of Latin America. Class materials draw from a range of academic, literary, and primary sources, and class discussions cover topics such as: the flora and fauna of the ancient Americas; organisms and landscapes of the “Spanish Conquest”; ranching, farming, and export agriculture; mining, drilling, and extractivist industries; hurricanes, volcanoes, and “natural” disasters; urbanization, pollution, and climate change; and debates over environmental protections and human rights. Accordingly, this course addresses the questions: what discourses, representations, and ideas have shaped the meaning of the environment in Latin America? How has the environment shaped broader meanings of Latin America itself? And what is at stake today for the people of Latin America today as governments, corporations, and NGOs take different approaches to environmental issues? Daniel Mendiola Two 2-hour periods. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 169 - Introduction to African American History Semester Offered: Fall 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
	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.
	HIST 175 - Mandela: Race, Resistance and Renaissance in South Africa 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. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 178 - The Global Cold War 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. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
History: II. Intermediate The prerequisite for courses at the 200-level is ordinarily 1 unit in history.
	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
	HIST 216 - History of the Ancient Greeks 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. Not offered in 2021/22.
	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.
	HIST 221 - Medieval Science and Technology 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. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 225 - Renaissance Italy 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. Not offered in 2021/22.
	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 2021/22.
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 231 - Algeria/France:Race, Religion & Citizenship Semester Offered: Fall 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. Course Format: CLS
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 242 - The Russian Empire to 1812 Semester Offered: Fall 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. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 243 - Russia and the Soviet Union, 1861-2000 Semester Offered: Spring 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. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 245 - Medicine, Health and Diseases in East Asia 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. Not offered in 2021/22.
	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. Wayne Soon. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22.
	HIST 247 - Albert Einstein Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 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.
	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
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	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
	HIST 263 - Conquest and Borderlands in Colonial Latin America Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 263 ) This course explores the history of colonial Latin America by centering conquests and borderlands. Beginning with examples in the ancient Americas and continuing through the end of the 18th century, this course explores the ideas, practices, and experiences that shaped the long-term processes of conquering territory, as well as the parallel processes of creating “borderlands” in the places that conquering powers failed to reach. Class materials draw from a range of academic, literary, and primary sources, and class discussions cover topics such as: the Aztec Empire and its war with the Spanish; the Canary Islands and early precedents of Spanish conquests; the Philippines and Latin America’s Asian borderlands; the indigenous Comanche Empire and North American borderlands; the afro-indigenous Mosquito Confederation and Caribbean borderlands; and the indigenous Mapuche Nation and South American borderlands. Accordingly, this class addresses the questions: what is a conquest? What are borderlands? How have conquests shaped the history of Latin America? How do borderlands call into question traditional narratives of conquest? And what is at stake in questioning conquest narratives today? Daniel Mendiola. Two 2-hour periods. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 268 - Religion, Repression, and Resistance in Latin America 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. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 269 - Gender and African American History Semester Offered: Spring 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. Shelby Pumphrey. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 272 - Modern African History Semester Offered: Fall 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.
	HIST 274 - Early America, 1500-1750 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. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 275 - Revolutionary America, 1750-1830 Semester Offered: Fall 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. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 276 - Democracy in America? Parties, Politics and Grassroots Change, 1828-1912 Semester Offered: Spring 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. Course Format: CLS
	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 2021/22.
	HIST 278 - Women’s History of Latin America Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 278 and WMST 278 ) This course explores the history of Latin America by centering women. Beginning with examples in the ancient Americas and continuing through the colonial and national periods, this course explores how the ideas, representations, experiences, and actions of women have shaped Latin American history. Class materials draw from a range of academic, literary, and primary sources, and class discussions cover topics such as: women in Aztec and other ancient societies; “La Malinche” and women of the Conquest; witchcraft and women in colonial religion; Sor Juana, Gabriela Mistral, and women of Latin American literature; women and 20th-c. activism; and indigenous women in Latin America today. Accordingly, this course addresses the questions: what cultural, economic, and political conditions have shaped how women in Latin America experienced the world? How have women had agency in shaping the meaning of Latin America? And what is at stake for Latin American women today in debates over issues such as economic development, migration, and human rights? Daniel Mendiola Two 2-hour periods. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 279 - The Viet Nam War 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. Not offered in 2021/22.
	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
	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
	HIST 297 - Readings In History 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Course Format: OTH
	HIST 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Permission required. Course Format: OTH
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.
	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
	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
	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
	HIST 303 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall and 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. Same as HIST 301 for students who are completing the thesis in one semester. Please note that 303 is taken simultaneously with HIST 300 . Rebecca Edwards, Wayne Soon. One 2-hour period. Course Format: INT
	HIST 310 - Mao’s China in the World: War, Science and Legitimacy Semester Offered: Fall 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.
	HIST 312 - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora 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 also examines how the Chinese diaspora have negotiated issues of identities, healthcare, and migration in their quest for autonomy. Wayne Soon. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 315 - Crusading and the Holy Land (1095-1204) Semester Offered: Spring 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.
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 337 - The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany Semester Offered: Fall 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 , HIST 237 . One 2-hour period.
	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 2021/22.
	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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	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
	HIST 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as VICT 355 and WMST 355 ) This course examines both the social constructions of childhood and the lived experiences of children in imperial and domestic Britain during the long nineteenth century. We analyze new ideals of childhood arising at the beginning of this period and explore how these ideals—of childhood innocence and dependence, for example—applied to the experiences of actual children in vastly different ways. Thus, a main theme of the course is how age categories intersect with racial, class, gender, and national identities. Topics include the relationships between children and adults, child labor, sexuality, gender, education, welfare, and the ways in which ideals of childhood upheld imperialism. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of childhood; we examine a variety of primary sources ranging from parliamentary reports and memoirs to photographs and children’s literature. Lydia Murdoch. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 363 - Bordering the Americas Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 363 ) This course examines the creation and proliferation of national bordering regimes throughout the Americas. Beginning in the late colonial period and continuing to the present, the course evaluates how the meanings and practices of borders have changed over time, as well as how the borders have impacted the lives and livelihoods of real people. Class materials draw from a range of academic, literary, and primary sources, and class discussions will cover topics such as: the role of borders and migration in creating nation states; the role of Asian exclusion in changing the meaning of borders throughout the Americas; the evolution of migration enforcement tactics the targeting of asylum seekers; migrant caravans and the history of forced migration in Central America; grass roots efforts at protecting migrants; and alternative approaches to borders based on free migration and universal rights. Accordingly, this course addresses the questions: why has constraining migration come to be one of the most salient meanings of borders today? How has this affected people? How have people in different places and times contested borders? And what is at stake in how we construct borders today? Daniel Mendiola. Two 2-hour periods. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 364 - Race, Class & Gender in the United States Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 364 and WMST 364 ) This course examines how African Americans have navigated the intersectionality of race, class, and gender at several moments in American history. Topics might include the slave experience, abolitionism, black mobilization in the union movement, or the quest for civil and social justice. To deepen their understanding of one of these topics, students write research papers, using primary documents and secondary sources. Shelby Pumphrey One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 366 - American Encounters: Natives, Newcomers, and the Contest for a Continent 1 unit(s) Moving past today’s fixation on Pocahontas and John Smith, Squanto and the Pilgrims, this course will examine the Native response to the invasion of North America, focusing on peoples living east of the Mississippi River before the early 19th century, the era of ‘Removal’ that marked the beginning of the end of Indian Country. Confronting the challenges in the way of understanding the Native experience (lack of evidence, modern stereotypes, loaded language), we will combine scholarly works with Native writings, explorers’ accounts, treaty texts, captivity narratives, and films to consider the central arenas where Indians engaged foreigners from beyond the eastern horizon, from trade and missions through war and diplomacy to ideas of “race” and notions of gender. James Merrell. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2021/22.
	HIST 367 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs 1 unit(s) (Same as POLI 364 ) This seminar explores strategic thinking to attain large ends with limited means. We examine a historical set of instances in which individuals, groups, and/or nations have attempted to harness political, military, diplomatic, economic, environmental, legal, and scientific resources to advance national and global interests. Because strategic thinking requires the art of reconciling ends and means, we also examine how a range of people and groups with various levels of power balance what they think and want with the constraints that they face. Robert Brigham. Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 369 - Social Citizenship in an Urban Age 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 369 and URBS 369 ) During a 1936 campaign speech President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that in “1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy.” Since then “the age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production and mass distribution—all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem … . For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality.” Therefore, the President concluded, government must do something to “protect the citizen’s right to work and right to live.” This course looks at how Americans during the twentieth century fought to expand the meaning of citizenship to include social rights. We study efforts on behalf of labor laws, unemployment and old age insurance, and aid to poor mothers and their children. How did these programs affect Americans of different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds? How did gender shape the ways that people experienced these programs? Because many Americans believed that widening educational opportunities was essential for addressing the problems associated with the “new civilization” that Roosevelt described, we ask to what extent Americans came to believe that access to a good education is a right of citizenship. These issues and the struggles surrounding them are not only, as they say, “history.” To help us understand our times, we look at the backlash, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, against campaigns to enlarge the definition of citizenship. Miriam Cohen. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 374 - The African Diaspora Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 374 ) This seminar investigates the social origins, philosophical and cultural ideas, and the political forms of Pan-Africanism from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It explores how disaffection and resistance against slavery, racism and colonial domination in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, and Africa led to the development of a global movement for the emancipation of peoples of African descent from 1900 onwards. The seminar examines the different ideological, cultural, and organizational manifestations of Pan-Africanism as well as the scholarly debates on development of the movement. Readings include the ideas and works of Edward Blyden, Alexander Crummell, W. E. B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, C.L.R. James, and Kwame Nkmmah. Ismail Rashid. Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instrcutor.
	HIST 375 - Years of Disunion: The U.S. Civil War 1 unit(s) This course considers the Civil War as a political, military, social, and cultural watershed in American history. Topics covered include the secession crisis and the political transformation wrought by the Republican Party; events on the battlefield and on the Union and Confederate home fronts; the gradual unfolding of Emancipation as a Union war aim, and its results; human responses to the war’s grim toll of death and destruction; and the conflict’s long-term legacies. Readings include recent works of scholarship as well as eyewitness accounts and works of fiction. Rebecca Edwards. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 382 - Marie-Antoinette Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as WMST 382 ) More than 200 years after her death, Marie-Antoinette continues to be an object of fascination because of her supposed excesses and her death at the guillotine. For her contemporaries, Marie-Antoinette often symbolized all that was wrong in French body politic. Through the life of Marie-Antoinette, we investigate the changing political and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century France including the French Revolution. Topics include women and power, political scandal and public opinion, fashion and self-representation, motherhood and domesticity, and revolution and gender iconography. Throughout the course, we explore the changing nature of the biographical narrative. The course also considers the legacy of Marie Antoinette as martyr and fetish object in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and her continuing relevance today. Sumita Choudhury. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 385 - Colonialism, Nationalism, and Social Identities in the Modern Middle East Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) This course explores how social sciences, colonialism, and nationalism have shaped identities in the modern Middle East. The course begins with a brief survey of older, foundational scholarship on “The Orient” in order to map out how scholars understood the non-European world, including regions later labeled “The Middle East.” We then discuss how these European mythologies, as well as imperial interventions, international institutions, and post-colonial nationalisms nurtured new differences, leading to violence along sectarian, racial, ethnic, or national lines. We focus particularly on the question of how Middle Eastern and North African societies have come to be seen as divided between religious “minorities” and “majorities.” Joshua Schreier. Recommended: HIST 174 or HIST 214 or HIST 255 . One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 386 - Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as INTL 386 ) The Muslim regions between Russia and China are becoming more populated, prosperous, and connected. The Caspian Sea region is booming with new oil and gas wealth. A wave of democracy movements swept newly independent states but oligarchs and long-term autocratic presidents dominate politics and business. An Islamic revival after the fall of communism has brought a crisis of political Islam, including problems like terrorism, re-veiling campaigns, and bride-kidnappings. Chechnya and the North Caucasus became magnets for violence, while Tatarstan has seen a quiet renaissance of liberal Russian Islam. This cross-listed seminar explores nation building, human rights, and spiritual life in Central Asia and the Caucasus from a historical perspective. Topics include the legacies of Mongol and Tatar power verticals, the impact of communism on Central Asia, the war in Chechnya and its effect on human rights in the region, the history of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, and daily life and politics since independence in 1991. Michaela Pohl. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 387 - Modern China: Wealth, Power and Revolution 1 unit(s) (Same as ASIA 387 ) The search for wealth and power in China has been profoundly shaped by the country’s twentieth-century revolutionary experiences. In contextualizing China’s ambitions from its history from the eighteenth century to the present, this seminar critically explores the rise and fall of an expansive Qing Empire, debates the vibrancy of Republican-era Chinese society, and investigates the contingencies and legacies of the communist revolution. In addition, we explore the multifaceted experiences of intellectuals, cadres, diplomats,politicians, businessmen, scientists, artists, students, workers, and peasants living in the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan through the lens of gender, ethnicity, work, diaspora, and ideology. Students understand the rise of China today within the context of its dynamic recent past. Wayne Soon. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 391 - Independent Study - Thesis Preparation and Methodology Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 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. 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. Rebecca Edwards. One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor. Course Format: CLS
	HIST 392 - Independent Study - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 391 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. James Merrell. One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor. Course Format: OTH
	HIST 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Permission required. Course Format: OTH
Independent Program
	INDP 290 - Community-Engaged Learning 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Course Format: INT
	INDP 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Course Format: OTH
	INDP 300 - Thesis Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) An ungraded thesis written in two semesters for one unit. Yearlong course 300-INDP 301 . Course Format: INT
	INDP 301 - Thesis Semester Offered: Spring 0.5 unit(s) An ungraded thesis written in two semesters for one unit. Yearlong course INDP 300 -301. Course Format: INT
	INDP 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Course Format: OTH
International Studies: I. Introductory
	INTL 106 - Perspectives in International Studies Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) An introduction to the varied perspectives from which an interdependent world can be approached. Themes which the course may address are nationalism and the formation of national identity, state violence and war, immigration, religion, modernization, imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism, indigenous groups, cultural relativism, and human rights. These themes are explored by examining the experiences of different geographic areas. This multidisciplinary course uses texts from the social sciences and the humanities. The particular themes and geographic areas selected, and the disciplinary approaches employed, vary with the faculty teaching the course. Paulina Bren. This course is required for all International Studies majors. Sophomores and first-year students should take this course if they are interested in pursuing an International Studies major. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
	INTL 109 - A Lexicon of Forced Migration 1 unit(s) Every minute, 20 people are forced to leave their homes due to conflict or persecution, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Given the unresolved (and interrelated) challenges of climate change, global inequality, technological innovation, and war, forced migration will continue to increase. This course will help us prepare for the implications of these challenges, which will dominate global politics and domestic discussion for years to come. This process demands that we interrogate our terms, conscious of how much is at stake in excavating the underground meanings of the words we use to describe political realities. Global in scope and interdisciplinary in methodology, the course will be focused around the four thematic anchors of time, space, and movement; home, belonging and hospitality; discourse, representation, and memory; and law, ethics, and policy. Students should be ready to work collaboratively and creatively on a digital Lexicon of Forced Migration. Brittany Murray. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	INTL 110 - International Study Travel Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) One 3-hour period.
International Studies: II. Intermediate
	INTL 211 - Islam in Europe and the Americas 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 211 and RELI 211 ) Various processes of migration and conversion have contributed to the development of Muslim minority communities in Europe and the Americas, dating back to the 17th century. From enslaved Muslims in the Americas, to the Nation of Islam, to colonial and post-colonial migrations, to the debates over whether and how to define “European,” “American,” and “Latin@” Islams, this course covers the history of these religious communities and movements, their relationships with European and American states, and how contemporary European and American Muslims have described and theorized the experience of being a religious minority or diaspora. Key themes include race & ethnicity, gender & sexuality, transnational media, political resistance, ethics, and spirituality. Kirsten Wesselhoeft. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22.
	INTL 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict 1 unit(s) (Same as HIST 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 2021/22. Course Format: CLS
	INTL 238 - Environmental China: Nature, Culture, and Development Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as ASIA 238 , ENST 238 and GEOG 238 ) As environmental actions suffer setbacks in the United States, it becomes even more important to understand the dynamics in other nations. China has emerged as a leading player in the environmental field. China is not only the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases; it is also suffering from many acute environmental problems related to its air, water and soil, among others, all of which make China the world’s most important experimental site for environmental actions. How do the Chinese government and Chinese people view their environment problems? What are the geographical and historical conditions underlining the evolution of such problems? As the world oldest continuous civilization and the most populous nation, China has a deep history in dealing with its environment, thus has formulated ancient cultures and practices regarding nature, some of which have reemerged in the country’s headlong march into modernity. What can China teach the world? Employing a political-ecological approach, this course explores the roots of China’s environmental challenges as created by and mediated through historical, cultural, political, economic and social forces, both internal and external to the country, and especially instigated by the movements of global socialism and capitalism in the last one and a half centuries. It also examines some of the solutions that the Chinese government and the people are taking on. Lessons from China have profound implications for the future of our livable world. Yu Zhou. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
	INTL 242 - Brazil in Crisis: Continuity and Change in Portuguese America 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 242 , GEOG 242 , and LALS 242 ) Brazil, a giant of Latin America and the Global South, has long been known as the “land of the future.” Yet frustrating political-economic crises have repeatedly followed periods of rapid growth and social progress. Taking current crises as a point of departure, this course examines Brazil’s contemporary evolution in light of the country’s historical geography, the distinctive cultural and environmental features of Portuguese America, and the political-economic linkages with the world system. Specific topics for study include: the legacies of colonial Brazil; race relations, Afro-Brazilian culture, and ethnic identities; issues of gender, youth, violence, and poverty; processes of urban-industrial growth; regionalism and national integration; environmental devastation and sustainability; controversies surrounding the occupation of Amazonia; and long-run prospects for democracy and equitable development in Brazil. Brian Godfrey. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2021/22.
	INTL 249 - National Model United Nations Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) Prepares students to participate in the National Model United Nations in New York City. Students represent a country, research its history, its political, economic and social systems, and its foreign policy. There is also a comprehensive evaluation of the UN system, and the role of states and non-state actors, such as NGOs. Participation in the Model United Nations simulation occurs in the spring. Matthew Murray. Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor. Application is required early in the fall term. One 4-hour period.
	INTL 251 - Global Feminism Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as WMST 251 ) Women have long been the silent figure at the center of debates on nation-building; the object to be saved in the event of catastrophe, pillaged in the event of war, exalted in the efforts to populate and nourish the nation. This course takes as its premise the intersections between key terms “migration,” “citizenship” and “feminism” and looks at ways women and gender nonconforming people work against this objectification to make themselves heard and form community in new spaces. Through a study of literature, film and theoretical texts, we explore the ways communities and activist groups are shaped and influenced by feminist networks across the globe, and the ways individuals define themselves in relation to concepts of feminism and nationhood. Close readings of personal and fictional narratives that center on gender and migration are paired with material on the relevant socio-political and historical contexts, in an effort to encourage critical reflection on how certain discourses surrounding both migration and feminism are racialized and gendered. We look at the consequences of repeating or ignoring those ideological underpinnings, as well as ways people are working against these norms. We consider fictional narratives, testimonials and media coverage as we follow the journeys of people traveling through Africa and Central America, across the Mediterranean through the Middle East and Asia in no small part because of current rising tensions and real peril surrounding these highly trafficked migratory thoroughfares. We pair analysis of cultural material with a body of theoretical work aimed at providing students with a toolbox of global feminist scholarship. Sole Anatrone. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS

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Course Descriptions

HISP 290 - Community-Engaged Learning

HISP 298 - Independent Work

HISP 300 - Senior Thesis

HISP 374 - Writing Workshop

HISP 375 - The Oviedo Project

HISP 376 - Close Watching of Latin American Cinema

HISP 387 - Latin American Seminar

HISP 388 - Peninsular Seminar

HISP 399 - Senior Independent Work

HIST 102 - Humanitarian Intervention

HIST 103 - How We Got Here

HIST 116 - The Dark Ages

HIST 117 - High Middle Ages

HIST 122 - Encounters in Modern East Asia

HIST 124 - Europe 1945

HIST 125 - Infamy on Trial: Famous Trials in Early Modern Europe

HIST 126 - Terrorism in Russia and Eurasia

HIST 128 - Europe 1945 - Rethinking History

HIST 143 - Russia, Ukraine, and the Steppe

HIST 150 - Revolution, Evolution, and the Global Nineteenth Century

HIST 151 - British History: James I (1603) to the Great War

HIST 152 - Smallpox: The Biology and History of a Disease

HIST 160 - American Moments: Rediscovering U.S. History

HIST 164 - Environmental History of Latin America

HIST 169 - Introduction to African American History

HIST 174 - The Emergence of the Modern Middle East

HIST 175 - Mandela: Race, Resistance and Renaissance in South Africa

HIST 178 - The Global Cold War

HIST 214 - The Roots of the Palestine-Israel Conflict

HIST 216 - History of the Ancient Greeks

HIST 217 - History of the Ancient Romans

HIST 221 - Medieval Science and Technology

HIST 225 - Renaissance Italy

HIST 226 - Northern Europe in the Renaissance, c. 1300-1550

HIST 229 - Paris and London: Society and Culture in the Early Modern City, 1500-1800

HIST 231 - Algeria/France:Race, Religion & Citizenship

HIST 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict

HIST 242 - The Russian Empire to 1812

HIST 243 - Russia and the Soviet Union, 1861-2000

HIST 245 - Medicine, Health and Diseases in East Asia

HIST 246 - World War II in East Asia

HIST 247 - Albert Einstein

HIST 251 - A History of American Foreign Relations

HIST 254 - Victorian Britain

HIST 260 - Sex & Reproduction in 19th Century United States: Before Margaret Sanger

HIST 263 - Conquest and Borderlands in Colonial Latin America

HIST 268 - Religion, Repression, and Resistance in Latin America

HIST 269 - Gender and African American History

HIST 272 - Modern African History

HIST 274 - Early America, 1500-1750

HIST 275 - Revolutionary America, 1750-1830

HIST 276 - Democracy in America? Parties, Politics and Grassroots Change, 1828-1912

HIST 277 - America 1890-1990 “The Rise and Fall of “The American Century”

HIST 278 - Women’s History of Latin America

HIST 279 - The Viet Nam War

HIST 285 - Art, Spirituality and Power in Precolonial African History

HIST 290 - Community-Engaged Learning

HIST 297 - Readings In History

HIST 298 - Independent Work

HIST 300 - Thesis Preparation: Sources, Methods, and Interpretations

HIST 301 - Senior Thesis

HIST 302 - Senior Thesis

HIST 303 - Senior Thesis

HIST 310 - Mao’s China in the World: War, Science and Legitimacy

HIST 312 - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora

HIST 315 - Crusading and the Holy Land (1095-1204)

HIST 326 - Machiavelli: Power and Politics

HIST 337 - The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany

HIST 342 - Stalinism

HIST 351 - Problems in U.S. Foreign Policy

HIST 354 - History and the Politics of Grief

HIST 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain

HIST 363 - Bordering the Americas

HIST 364 - Race, Class & Gender in the United States

HIST 366 - American Encounters: Natives, Newcomers, and the Contest for a Continent

HIST 367 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs

HIST 369 - Social Citizenship in an Urban Age

HIST 374 - The African Diaspora

HIST 375 - Years of Disunion: The U.S. Civil War