Global Nineteenth-Century Studies

Director:  Jeffrey Schneider (2024/25), Elliott Schreiber (2025/26);

Steering Committee: Charles Arndt III^b (Russian Studies), Hiromi Dollase (Chinese and Japanese), Wendy Graham (English), Susan Hiner(French and Francophone Studies), Kenisha Kelly (Drama), Kathryn Libin (Music), Daniel Mendiola (History),  Lydia Murdoch (History), Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert (Hispanic Studies), Jeffrey Schneider^b (German Studies), Elliot Schreiber (German Studies), Blevin Shelnutt^a (English), Mark Taylor (English), Susan Zlotnick (English).

^a On leave 2025/26, first semester

^b On leave 2025/26, 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

• Global Nineteenth-Century Studies Major

• Global Nineteenth-Century Studies Correlate Sequence

Courses

• GNCS 150 - Revolution, Evolution, and the Global Nineteenth Century
• GNCS 209 - Jane Austen and Music in the Domestic Sphere
• GNCS 223 - The Gothic and the Supernatural in Japanese Literature
• GNCS 226 - American Literature, 1865-1925
• GNCS 230 - The French Revolution: Local Origins and Global Impact
• GNCS 235 - Introduction to German Cultural Studies
• GNCS 249 - Victorian Literature
• GNCS 254 - Victorian Britain
• GNCS 255 - Nineteenth-Century British Novels
• GNCS 262 - Art and Revolution in Europe, 1789-1848
• GNCS 263 - Painters of Modern Life: Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism
• GNCS 265 - Selected Author
• GNCS 266 - Yellowbacks: The Exhibition
• GNCS 278 - Reading Middlemarch
• GNCS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
• GNCS 298 - Independent Work
• GNCS 300 - Senior Thesis
• GNCS 301 - Senior Thesis
• GNCS 302 - Senior 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 352 - Studies in Romanticism
• GNCS 354 - History and the Politics of Grief
• GNCS 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• GNCS 362 - Seminar in Nineteenth-Century Art
• GNCS 399 - Senior Independent Work