Global Nineteenth-Century Studies

Director:  Susan Hiner;

Steering Committee: Rebecca Edwards^b (History), Wendy Graham (English), Kathleen Hart (French and Francophone Studies), Susan Hiner (French and Francophone Studies), Kenisha Kelly (Drama), Brian Lukacher^a (Art), Lydia Murdoch^a (History), Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert^a (Hispanic Studies), Elliot Schreiber (German Studies), Kathleen Susman (Biology), Susan Zlotnick (English);

Participating Faculty: Charles Arndt III (Russian Studies), Kathryn Libin (Music), Jeffrey Schneider (German Studies), Mark Taylor (English).

^a On leave 2023/24, first semester

^b On leave 2023/24, second semester

The Program in Global Nineteenth-Century Studies is designed to enable students to combine courses offered in several departments/programs with independent work to explore the long nineteenth century, from the beginnings of the American Revolution to the First World War.

A time of intense globalization and modernization, the nineteenth century is marked by political, scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions, the expansion of empires, the abolition of slavery, and the struggle of women, workers, and colonized subjects for civil and political rights. It is an era of increasing interconnectedness made possible by such inventions as the railroad, the steamship, and the telegraph. The long nineteenth century shaped the world we live in now, through revolutions and imperial conflicts (such as the Haitian Revolution, the Opium Wars, the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion), new cultural practices (the rise of print culture, the birth of the department store, photography, and film), and scientific developments (the emergence of psychiatry, evolutionary theory, germ theory, time zones). The Program in Global Nineteenth-Century Studies insists that the transformative impact of the long nineteenth century is to be understood through a multidisciplinary lens.

Recommendations

Reading knowledge of a foreign language is highly recommended. The program encourages students to study foreign languages at Vassar to work toward the goal of going to the original sources and developing a more nuanced global understanding. Students thinking about graduate school or further study should find out about language requirements for those fields.

Programs

Major

• •  Global Nineteenth-Century Studies Major

Correlate Sequence in Global Nineteenth-Century Studies

• •  Global Nineteenth-Century Studies Correlate Sequence

Courses

Global Nineteenth-Century Studies

• •  GNCS 152 - Smallpox: The Biology and History of a Disease
• •  GNCS 209 - Jane Austen and Music in the Domestic Sphere
• •  GNCS 230 - The French Revolution: Local Origins and Global Impact
• •  GNCS 249 - Victorian Literature
• •  GNCS 254 - Victorian Britain
• •  GNCS 255 - Nineteenth-Century British Novels
• •  GNCS 263 - Painters of Modern Life: Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism
• •  GNCS 265 - Selected Author
• •  GNCS 278 - Reading Middlemarch
• •  GNCS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
• •  GNCS 298 - Independent Work
• •  GNCS 300 - Thesis
• •  GNCS 313 - Historic Costume Collection and Exhibition
• •  GNCS 328 - Literature of the American Renaissance
• •  GNCS 329 - American Literary Realism
• •  GNCS 351 - Studies in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
• •  GNCS 354 - History and the Politics of Grief
• •  GNCS 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• •  GNCS 399 - Senior Independent Work