History Courses Spring 2025

INTRODUCTION TO BYZANTINE HISTORY, 500 – 1500
HSTY 102
M/W: 12:45 – 2:00 PM
M. Hammond
Development of the Byzantine empire from the emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity and founding of the eastern capital at Constantinople to the fall of Constantinople to Turkish forces in 1453. Offered as CLSC 102 and HSTY 102.

INTRODUCTION TO MODERN WORLD HISTORY
HSTY 113
T/TH: 1:00 – 2:15 PM and F: 9:30 – 10:20 AM section or 10:35 – 11:25 AM section
M. Haydar
An introduction to modern world history, covering European imperialism, the industrial revolution, nationalism, political revolutions, major military conflicts, and the massive social changes that both caused and followed these. Substantial attention will be paid to class and race formation, transformations of gender roles, and the role of cultural differences in shaping modernity.

WOMEN’S HISTORIES IN SOUTH ASIA
HSTY 157
M/W: 12:45 – 2:00 PM
A. Dasgupta
This course traces the history of women in South Asia from pre-colonial times to the present. Themes explored in the course will include (but not be limited to): the historical transformations of institutions shaping women’s lives such as state, family, religious and legal traditions; the impact of colonialism, nationalism, and decolonization on women, as well as the history of women’s movements in various parts of South Asia. As we acquaint ourselves with the vibrant historiography on women in South Asia, we will also examine the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in writing histories using the analytical lens of gender. While a significant portion of the readings will focus on South Asia, we will occasionally bring in insights from histories of women in other parts of the world to help develop comparative perspectives and evaluate the South Asian cases and examples within the broader field of women’s history. Offered as HSTY 157 and WGST 257.

THE ANCIENT WORLD
HSTY 193
M/W/F: 11:40 AM – 12:30 PM
A. Beek
This course offers students an introduction to the history and culture of several ancient civilizations (including those of Mesopotamia, the Levant, Egypt, Greece, and Rome) as well as their lasting legacies. Offered as ANEE 193 and CLSC 193 and HSTY 193.

SCIENCE IN WESTERN THOUGHT II
HSTY 202
T/TH: 10:00 AM – 11:15 PM
A. Rothman
Science is a powerful symbol and a source of authority in the modern world. It is also an important and demanding practice, one that has shaped our lives and transformed our knowledge. But the meaning of science, as well as its scope and its uses, has changed a great deal in the past 300 years. Likewise, just as science has altered our social and material lives, change has worked in the opposite direction as well: social priorities and political agendas have shaped the development of scientific knowledge and practice. This class will allow us to explore the dynamic relationship between science and society in the modern world by considering key episodes and themes in the history of science from the eighteenth century to the present. Throughout the course, we will reflect on some of the very different ways that men and women have tried to organize, extend, and represent their knowledge of nature, and we will consider to what purposes and with what effects they have done so. Offered as HPSC 202 and HSTY 202.

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HSTY 207
T/TH: 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM
H. Dang
Conceptual, methodological, and epistemological issues about science: concept formation, explanation, prediction, confirmation, theory construction and status of unobservables; metaphysical presuppositions and implications of science; semantics of scientific language; illustrations from special sciences. Second half of a year-long sequence. Offered as HSTY 207 and PHIL 204.

EUROPE IN THE 20TH CENTURY
HSTY 215
T/TH: 10:00 – 11:15 AM
J. Geller
The twentieth century has seen massive transformations in European politics, economics, society, and culture and in Europe’s place in the world. This course traces Europe’s transition from the tumultuous aftermath of the First World War through the political and economic uncertainty, social transformations, and cultural innovations of the interwar years; the decline of democracy and the rise of fascism; the destruction and genocide of the Second World War; division during the Cold War; and the drive for European unity countervailed by renewed national and ethnic chauvinism. Important themes include the clash of ideologies, political economy, changing social and gender relations, decolonization, and contested Americanization of Europe.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF CORPORATE AMERICA
HSTY 217
T/TH: 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM
T. Steinberg
The corporation is the most powerful economic institution of our time. How did it come to reign, and how does its power affect us economically, politically, and socially? This course will chart the history and impact of corporate capitalism. Topics will include the corporation’s impact on democracy, consumer culture, the environment, and even the university itself. If you have ever wondered why products are purposely designed to wear out (planned obsolescence), why unions are so powerless in America, why the military is as powerful as it is, why it takes special technology from the Diebold corporation to run a simple election, why broadcasting companies are allowed to profit by using the public airwaves for free, why it looks like there are a million publishers of books when in truth giant companies dominate 80 percent of the book market, why the perfect lawn is a marketing ploy to get consumers to buy a lot of chemical inputs, why universities, which are supposed to be bastions of independent thought, are now dominated by an army of administrators who run around talking about return on investment instead of figuring out how to create a culture where students can learn, then this is the course for you. The corporation has been harshly criticized as an amoral institution, indeed, as pathological in its pursuit of power and profit. The corporate form, however, did not start out that way. Students will be able to apply their own sense of moral reason to the dominant economic institution in the world today while also learning to express themselves better in written and oral mediums.

GODS AND GLADIATORS: THE WORLD OF ANCIENT ROME
HSTY 232
T/TH: 2:30 – 3:45 PM
E. Adkins
The enduring significance of the Romans studied through their history, literature, art, architecture, religion, philosophy, and political, economic and social structures. Lectures and discussion. Offered as CLSC 232 and HSTY 232.

WORLD WAR I: CRUCIBLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY
HSTY 236
M/W/F: 10:35 – 11:25 AM
K. Ledford
World War I changed everything about Europe and ushered in a changed century of tumult, war, and division. The European experience of the regimentation of the economy and daily life, the impact of new technology on warfare, and the very personal suffering of separation and loss changed how those on that continent viewed their countries and their world. The war affected everything from gender relations to class relations to religious and ethnic relations and laid the foundation for even more disruption ahead. Its legacy reaches our day and colors our own views of what is normal and what is possible. This course will explore those multiple and manifold legacies of this founding experience of modernity.

HISTORY OF CAPITALISM
HSTY 245
T: 4:00 – 6:30 PM
A. Dasgupta, T. Steinberg
This course will explore the history of capitalism, from its origins to its recent past, tracing its development into a global system of oppression. It will offer students an understanding of how capitalism manifested itself in various parts of the world, comparing, for example, how it played out in places as diverse as the United States, England, China, and India. Themes under discussion will include, but not be limited to, industrialization, slavery, corporate capitalism, and neoliberalism. We will also study capitalism’s impact on gender, race, environment, education, and time.

THE HOLOCAUST
HSTY 254
T/TH: 11:30 – 12:45 PM
J. Geller
This class seeks to answer fundamental questions about the Holocaust, the German-led organized mass murder of nearly six million Jews and millions of other ethnic and religious minorities. It will investigate the origins and development of racism in modern European society, the manifestations of that racism, and responses to persecution. An additional focus of the course will be comparisons between different groups, different countries, and different phases during the Nazi era. The class concludes with an examination of the memory of the Holocaust. Offered as ETHS 254, HSTY 254, JWST 254 and RLGN 254.

INTRODUCTION TO LATINA/O STUDIES
HSTY 259
M/W: 3:20 – 4:35 PM
J. Flores
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basis for a Latina/o ethnicity through an exploration of commonalities and differences in the peoples of Latin American and Caribbean origin within the continental United States. Topics include methodological and theoretical formulations central to the field (e.g., racial, gender, and sexual formations, modes and relations of production and class, nation and transnation), history and contemporary issues of identity, family, community, immigration, and the potential for a pan-ethnic identity. Discussions will focus on major demographic, social, economic and political trends: historical roots of Latinas/os in the U.S.; the evolution of Latina/o ethnicity and identity; immigration and the formation of Latina/o communities; schooling and language usage; tendencies and determinants of socioeconomic and labor force status; discrimination, segregation and bias in contemporary America; racial and gender relations; and political behavior among Latinas/os. Offered as: ETHS 252B and HSTY 259.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY IN AND THROUGH FILM
HSTY 263
W: 2:15 – 4:45 PM
N. Voltz
This course focuses on the history of black representation in film and television in the United States. In this course, students will be introduced to some of the earliest representations of Black folks on the silver screen as well as learn about emergence of Black cinema (black films made for, by and about Black people) in the 20th century. Through this exploration, students will become acquainted with some of the most significant films, actors, and directors in African American history. This course will also teach students how to critically analyze how African American history has been depicted in modern and popular “historical” films. Students will be encouraged to employ the analysis skills and particularly critical theories of race, gender, and class to examine how filmmakers have presented, and too often distorted, historical events related to the Black experience in the United States. Finally, throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think about the ways in which films and television, both in the past and present, have contributed to the constructions of race and racial stereotypes in the United States. Films and documentaries will serve as some of the major “texts” of this course. Students will be screenings films both at home and in class. Offered as AFST 263 and ETHS 263 and HSTY 263.

AMERICAN REBELLION
HSTY 268
M/W: 4:50 – 6:05 PM
J. Flores
This course examines rebellions in American history, assessing slave revolts, mass strikes, and urban uprisings in relation to several theories of race, class, gender and social movements. Through readings and lectures, we will seek to understand the relationship between oppression and rebellion. We will investigate why some uprisings succeed and others fail and explain what violent acts of dissent and disobedience teach us about the political culture of the United States.

INTRODUCTION TO GENDER STUDIES
HSTY 270
T/TH: 10:00 – 11:15 AM
J. Howe
This course introduces women and men students to the methods and concepts of gender studies and feminist theory. An interdisciplinary course, it covers approaches used in literary criticism, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, film studies, cultural studies, art history, and religion. It is the required introductory course for students taking the women’s and gender studies major. Offered as ENGL 270, HSTY 270, PHIL 270, RLGN 270, SOCI 201, and WGST 201.

IDENTY THEFT, 1500 – 1800
HSTY 301
M/W: 12:45 – 2:00 PM
G. Weiss
Religious persecution during the early modern period (16th-18th centuries) compelled Jews to attend Mass, Muslims to baptize their children and Protestants to count Hail Marys on a rosary. European exploration of Asia, Africa and the Americas inspired an Englishman to pass himself off as Taiwanese and an African to present himself as a European. The choice between marriage and a convent led one woman to cut off her hair, sew her skirt into britches and make herself into a conquistador in Peru. In pursuit of social mobility, courtiers remade themselves to suit the conventions of the court. Posing, passing and pretending, these Europeans crossed lines of religion, gender, race and class. Today we might call some of these figures impostors but praise others as self-made men and women. What was the difference between lying and self-fashioning in sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe? What forces and phenomena compelled people to remake themselves? Was the early modern period the age of identity theft?

SEMINAR: MODERN AMERICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY
HSTY 311
T: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
M. Haydar
This seminar examines the approaches that professional historians of the United States have taken to the writing of American history in the past fifty years, with emphasis on changes in historical concerns, master debates among historians, and contemporary interests. Topics covered include national politics and government, economic development, social history, the history of ethnicity, race, and gender, and foreign policy and international relations. Each student will read widely and will prepare a series of reports on selected books and authors. Offered as HSTY 311 and HSTY 411.

EUROPEAN INTERNATION RELATIONS 1789 – 1945
HSTY 332
M/W: 12:45 – 2:00 PM
K. Ledford
Presents a broad interpretation of the development of the international system in Europe between the French Revolution of 1789 and the end of the European era in 1945. It explains why and how the closed European state system at the beginning of the nineteenth century evolved into an international transcontinental system by the early twentieth century. It illuminates ethical questions of war and peace, race and gender; it views the world as a global unit; and it explores European relations with peoples outside of Europe in the era of racist imperialism and aggressive nationalism.

ANCIENT MEDICINE
HSTY 337
T/TH: 10:00 – 11:15 AM
M. Rumor
This course offers a general survey of the history of medicine from its origins in pre-historical times to Galen (2nd c. CE) with a view to gaining a better understanding of the path that eventually lead to modern medical practice. The various medical systems considered, including the ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, Jewish, Chinese, Ayurvedic, Greek and Roman traditions, will be examined through the study of primary and secondary sources, while key conceptual developments and practices are identified within their cultural and social context. Special issues, such as epidemics, women’s medicine, and surgery, are also explored and discussed. Offered as ANEE 337, CLSC 337, CLSC 437, HSTY 337, and HSTY 437.

RACIAL CAPITALISM
HSTY 343
M/W: 3:20 – 4:35 PM
J. Flores
This course examines the utility of the concept of racial capitalism. What is racial capitalism and does the term help us conceptualize how capitalism actually works or does it conflate and confuse distinct forms of oppression? Through readings that explore the relationship between capitalism and race, we will seek to better understand the origins of capitalism, the history of commodifying enslaved laborers, the making of legally free workforces, and the ideologies that rationalize the super exploitation of racialized citizens and noncitizens. Offered as HSTY 343 and HSTY 443.

WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY II
HSTY 354
T/TH: 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM
R. Sentilles
With HSTY 353, forms a two-semester introduction to women’s studies. The politics of suffrage and the modern woman’s efforts to balance marriage, motherhood, and career. (HSTY 353 not a prerequisite.) Offered as HSTY 354, WGST 354, and HSTY 454.

UNDERGRADUATE TUTORIAL
HSTY 397
Individual instruction with members of the history faculty. Recommended preparation: 12 hours of History.