Fall 2023

Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
HIST 101-01 The Age of Faith: Medieval Europe Between Church and State
Instructor: Peter Schadler
Course Description:
Cross-listed with RELGN 209-01.This survey course will study the development of European civilization during the period c.400 to 1500 with special attention to the rise of the papacy and religious conflict. It will consider the impact of such events as the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic invasions, the development of Christianity and the Church, the emergence of feudalism, the expansion of Islam and the Crusades, and the creation of romantic literature.
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
EASTC 411
HIST 106-01 Early Modern Europe to 1799
Instructor: Regina Sweeney
Course Description:
Society, culture, and politics from the Renaissance through the French Revolution.
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 311
HIST 107-01 Revolutions Political, Artistic, Economic, Social, and Scientific: Europe in the Last 250 Years
Instructor: Karl Qualls
Course Description:
Europe in the last few centuries has experienced developments that have transformed the entire globe, for better and worse. Political, technological, economic, and ideological innovations have led to imperialism, two world wars, and the Cold War that stretched far beyond Europe. European innovations like the Industrial Revolution created new work methods and goods that made lives easier while at the same time creating classes and class divides, booms and busts, cruel child labor, and of course the fossil fuel pollution that has led to climate change. New classes led to new political philosophies (e.g. liberalism, socialism, anarchism, fascism, feminism, etc.) that found resonance around the globe. Museums and concert halls around the world feature Picasso and Stravinsky, Van Gogh and Chopin, Banksy and Black Sabbath. Evolution, psychoanalysis, and quantum physics have spread far beyond the continent, but so too has scientific racism and eugenics and the modern genocides that they have catalyzed. This course will study European innovations that have had profound effects far beyond the continents borders.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 203
HIST 117-01 American History 1607 to 1877
Instructor: Christopher Bilodeau
Course Description:
This course covers colonial, revolutionary, and national America through Reconstruction. Include attention to historical interpretation. Multiple sections offered.
08:30 AM-09:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 203
HIST 118-01 American History 1877 to Present
Instructor: Matthew Pinsker
Course Description:
This course covers aspects of political evolution, foreign policy development, industrialization, urbanization, and the expanding roles of 20th century central government. Includes attention to historical interpretation. Multiple sections offered.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 211
HIST 120-01 History of East Asia from Ancient Times to the Present
Instructor: Evan Young
Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 120-01. This course explores the diverse and interrelated histories of the region currently composed of China, Korea, and Japan, over the past two thousand years. We begin by studying the technologies and systems of thought that came to be shared across East Asia, including written languages, philosophies of rule, and religions. Next, we examine periods of major upheaval and change, such as the rise of warrior governments, the Mongol conquests, and engagement with the West. The course concludes by tracing the rise and fall of the Japanese empire and the development of the modern nation states that we see today.This course is cross-listed as EASN 120.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 104
HIST 121-01 Middle East to 1750
Instructor: David Commins
Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEST 121-01. The rise of Islam, the development of Islamic civilization in medieval times and its decline relative to Europe in the early modern era, 1500-1750. This course is cross-listed as MEST 121.
12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 203
HIST 130-01 Early Latin American History to 1800
Instructor: Marcelo Borges
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LALC 230-01. Survey of pre-Colombian and colonial Latin American history. Students explore the major ancient civilizations of the Americas, the background and characteristics of European conquest and colonization, the formation of diverse colonial societies, and the breakdown of the colonial system that led to independence. The course includes both the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas from a comparative perspective. This course is cross-listed as LALC 230.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 313
HIST 151-01 History of Environment
Instructor: Emily Pawley
Course Description:
Examines the interaction between humans and the natural environment in long-term global context. Explores the problem of sustainable human uses of world environments in various societies from prehistory to the present. Also serves as an introduction to the subfield of environmental history, which integrates evidence from various scientific disciplines with traditional documentary and oral sources. Topics include: environmental effects of human occupation, the origins of agriculture, colonial encounters, industrial revolution, water and politics, natural resources frontiers, and diverse perceptions of nature.
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 313
HIST 170-01 African Civilizations to 1850
Instructor: Robin Crigler
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 170-01. This course provides an overview to the political, social, and ecological history of Africa. We will examine the peopling of the continent, the origins of agriculture, the growth of towns and the development of metal technology. Written sources before the 1400s are almost nonexistent for most of Africa, and so we will use archaeological and linguistic sources. The geographic focus of the course will be the Middle Nile, Aksum in Ethiopia, the Sudanic states in West Africa, Kongo in Central Africa, the Swahili states of the East African coast, and Zimbabwe and KwaZulu in Southern Africa. We will also examine the Atlantic Slave Trade and the colonization of the Cape of Good Hope.This course is cross-listed as AFST 170.
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 104
HIST 204-01 Introduction to Historical Methodology
Instructor: Karl Qualls
Course Description:
Local archives and libraries serve as laboratories for this project-oriented seminar that introduces beginning majors to the nature of history as a discipline, historical research techniques, varied forms of historical evidence and the ways in which historians interpret them, and the conventions of historical writing. Prerequisite: one previous course in history.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
LIBRY ARCHCLS
HIST 213-01 Roman History
Instructor: Scott Farrington
Course Description:
Cross-listed with CLST 253-01.An introduction to the history of ancient Rome focusing on the rise and fall of the Republic, the Augustan Age, and the Principate. Topics include race, gender, and sexuality. Students develop habits for reading ancient and modern sources critically. Assignments introduce students to the primary tools, methods, and conventions of researching and writing in the field of ancient history.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
ALTHSE 07
HIST 215-01 Cape Town to Carlisle: U.S.A-South Africa Historical Encounters
Instructor: Robin Crigler
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 220-01.Visitors to South Africa from the United States and vice versa are often struck by the similarities between these two countries' histories, especially with regard to race and the politics of liberation. This course moves beyond conventional comparative history to explore how these places have influenced one another through the movement of politicians, students, intellectuals, and activists. This course will be structured seminar-style and consider topics such as the slave trade, indigenous responses to colonialism, American activism during the South African War, transnational white supremacy, Black South African-African American encounters, the global anti-apartheid movement, and the perception of South Africa and the United States in local popular culture.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 204
HIST 254-01 Revolution, War, and Daily Life in Modern Russia
Instructor: Karl Qualls
Course Description:
Cross-listed with RUSS 254-01. This course explores Russia's attempts to forge modernity since the late 19th century. Students will explore the rise of socialism and communism, centralization of nearly all aspects of life (arts, politics, economics, and even sexual relations), and opposition to the terror regime's attempts to remake life and the post-Soviet state's attempts to overcome Russia's past.This course is cross-listed as RUSS 254.
11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 203
HIST 259-01 Islam
Instructor: David Commins
Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEST 259-01 and RELG 259-01. An introduction to Islamic beliefs and practices in their classical forms: rituals, law, mysticism, and other topics. The course will consider aspects of Islamic cultures and societies in medieval and modern times. This course is cross-listed as MEST 259 and RELG 259.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
DENNY 203
HIST 275-01 The Rise of Modern China
Instructor: Evan Young
Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 206-01. The history of China from the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 to the rise of China as a global economic and political power in the twenty-first century. Topics include issues of cultural change and continuity, the growth of modern business, women's rights, urban and rural social crises, the rise of modern nationalism, Communist revolution, the political role of Mao Zedong, post-Mao economic reform and social transformation, human rights, and prospects for Chinese democracy. Offered every two years.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 303
HIST 278-01 European Women's History
Instructor: Regina Sweeney
Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 202-02. This course will explore the lives of European women in the modern period (1789 to the post WWII period). It looks at both rural and urban women, issues of class, family and motherhood as well as demands for social and political rights for women. The readings include primary sources such as housekeeping guides, novels and war propaganda as well as secondary sources such as biographies and anthropological studies. Offered every two years.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 311
HIST 282-01 Diplomatic History of the United States
Instructor: Matthew Pinsker
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 282-01. Description and analysis of the nation's role in world affairs, from the earliest definitions of a national interest in the 18th century, through continental expansion, acquisition of empire, and world power, to the Cold War. This course is cross-listed as INST 282.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 211
HIST 286-01 New Nation
Instructor: Christopher Bilodeau
Course Description:
Reading and research in the political, economic, and social developments of the U.S. during the first generations of official nationhood, from the writing and ratification of the Constitution to the end of the Mexican War.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
DENNY 311
HIST 311-01 Violence and Colonialism
Instructor: Christopher Bilodeau
Course Description:
This course will place, in a comparative perspective, the key role of violence in European colonization of numerous parts of the world. Three geographical locations will be analyzed (North America, South America, and Africa) and four imperial powers (English, French, Spanish and German) over the period of the 16th through 20th centuries. The goal is not a comprehensive look at the roles of violence in colonialism, but an episodic analysis of the ways in which violence manifests itself in colonial situations across time and space. Topics will include (among others) theories of violence, the origins of colonial violence, the roles of violence in colonizing versus colonized societies, overt resistance to colonial domination, and the power and persistence of symbolic violence.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 311
HIST 404-01 From Bach to Big Hair
Instructor: Regina Sweeney
Course Description:
This senior seminar will explore how music has been used as an historical source, and whether scholars or teachers have hesitated to incorporate music into their historical narratives. How important, for example, was music in the development of nationalism, or how was it used in various political protest movements? We will also examine the development of music as an industry in both Europe and America. The first part of the course will concentrate on primary sources and secondary readings, then students will develop research projects which explore our core questions.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
LIBRY ARCHCLS