HIST 1110 Ancient Rome (4 Credits)

This course examines the history and culture of Rome from earliest times to the death of Augustus in A.D. 14. We look at political and military developments of Rome as it went from a monarchy, a republic, and an empire. We also study social and cultural aspects of the Romans, who originally were simple pastoralists living along the Tiber but in time became rulers of the entire Mediterranean region. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1240 Comparative History of Medicine (4 Credits)

This class examines the development of different traditions of medicine, comparing the history of modern scientific medicine with the histories of various forms of what today is called "alternative medicine." It requires no previous background in science, medicine, or history, but is meant to engage students interested in any one of those fields. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1250 Food in East Asian History (4 Credits)

This class examines the relationship between food and health in East Asian history. We focus on how that relationship, and the way people understood it, changed over the past century and a half. In other words, we focus not only on how (and what) people in East Asia have eaten, but also on how they have thought about eating. This course asks how western dietary ideas and practices have interacted with traditional East Asian ideas and practices over the past century and a half. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1260 Modern South Asian History (4 Credits)

This course will explore the modern history of the subcontinent, through the colonial experience to the postcolonial construction and division of nations, with a particular focus on India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (although students are also welcome to take on optional readings on Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Nepal, among others). The course will consider the legacy of colonialism in India, and debates over whether postcoloniality is really “post.” We will explore the history of nationalisms – state, ethnic, religious, and linguistic – and the ramifications of Partition and the wars over Bangladesh and Kashmir. This course will also explore the history of South Asia in the rest of the world, through the migration of its diaspora and its role in the Bandung moments of Afro-Asian solidarity in the global struggle against oppression. We will take into account discourses regarding tradition and modernity, democracy and secularity, and the terms “freedom” and “terror” – and what this means for the lived experiences of South Asians in today’s world. Readings will include historical accounts, theoretical texts, films and literature, as well as primary sources. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1320 European Culture in the World Wars (4 Credits)

This course covers the history of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century--a time of crisis, extreme violence, and fascinating cultural production. Within the context of war, economic crisis and political extremism, we study the ways in which artists, writers, composers and film makers responded to the dramatic events they witnessed. We also examine European governments’ attempts to shape public opinion through propaganda and mass media. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1330 History of Ireland (4 Credits)

We examine the creation of modern Ireland from the 16th-Century to the present, including a brief discussion of the Celtic and Medieval periods. Major themes of analysis and discussion include changing definitions and representations of 'Irishness', competing questions of identity and national membership and how these debates influenced the development of various nationalist movements in both the past and the present. The role of women, gender, violence, emigration, and other social and geographical factors within Irish society are used to examine Ireland’s evolution into a modern state and its relationship with the United States, Britain, and the rest of Europe. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1340 The British Monarchy (4 Credits)

This course explores the role of the monarchy in British society from Elizabeth I in the Sixteenth Century to Elizabeth II, the current Queen. We discuss how monarchs adapted to changing political situations and how they attempted to shape public perceptions. We also explore the ways in which expectations of the monarch have changed, from an almost absolute ruler to a constitutional monarch whose role has become largely ceremonial. Over the course of the nearly five hundred years covered in this period, Britain experienced a regicide, the forcible overthrow of a king, and a voluntary abdication, yet the institution of monarchy has proven remarkably resilient. In the twentieth century, as the royal family struggled with a series of scandals, some came to believe that the institution had run its course and was due for abolition, but today public fascination with royalty remains strong. We focus on the relationship between the public image of the monarchy and its political role as a way of understanding broader changes in British society in the modern era. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1350 History of the British Empire (4 Credits)

This course explores the rise and fall of the British Empire from its origins during the English conquests of Wales, Scotland and Ireland; explorations of the world, through commercial expansion under the British East India Company; the rise of Britain as the preeminent world imperial power during the 19th century and its eventual decline and legacy during the late 20th century. Using a variety of secondary articles, primary sources, films and monographs, this course analyzes highly debated issues including the interconnected nature of British society and developments out in the Empire, both cultural and political; the important role that women, gender, and racial ideologies placed in British dominance of one quarter of the globe; how the empire and representations of Empire changed over the century; and finally, the impact of that empire upon issues of identity and population in a post-colonial Britain. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1360 World War One (4 Credits)

Historians have argued that the First World War definitively shaped the twentieth century. It set the stage for World War II; it redefined the role of government in citizens’ lives; it brought technology full-force into power struggles between nations; it simultaneously birthed communism and fascism; and it desensitized entire generations to violence and brutality. In this class, students explore this very dramatic and influential war. Students unfamiliar with the war will more firmly grasp the historical significance of the event while students who may be familiar with the war will gain new insights and interpretation of how the war was conducted and why the war mattered. Students read the words and thoughts of those who participated in the war, as well as interpretations of the war by military, social, and political historians. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. There are no prerequisites for this class.

HIST 1370 Monks, Merchants, and Monsters: Medieval Travelers (4 Credits)

When we think of the Middle Ages we tend to think a static and isolated world, one without the benefits of fast travel or the convenience of easy communication via cell phones and e-mail, a world where much of the map was blank or contained the ominous words 'Here There Be Dragons.' And yet even in this period enterprising and intrepid men and women were on the move, exploring new places and meeting new peoples. In this course we will examine a number of different medieval travelers, from missionaries and religious pilgrims to merchants and diplomats, to explore how and why medieval people left home, and how these voyages shaped not just the travelers themselves but the lands they came from and those they entered. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1380 Barbarians at the Gates: Civilization and the Other in the Pre Modern World (4 Credits)

From the birth of the first cities in Mesopotamia in c. 7000 BCE writers and thinkers have been concerned with the peoples who lived beyond their walls. The Ancient Greeks coined the term "Barbarian" and this word continues to have incredible resonance even today. This course will look at a variety of pre-modern primary sources, from the very first written epic all the way to the discovery of America to examine how ideas of civilization and barbarism are created and used by pre-modern authors to understand both the world around them and their own identities. As we engage with these sources we will also work to see how these pre-modern events and ideas continue to impact our own conception of the past and our present. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1390 A US History of Health of Disability (4 Credits)

This course brings together the themes of disability, health and the emergence of political activism as a revolution of identity for Americans with disabilities. Research on the histories of disability is emerging as a robust field of inquiry; our course will not only consider the changing definitions of disability through geography and time but also ‘map’ the space of disabled people in America. Mapping will provide deeper insight into the challenges of disability and the aspects of social life that require support and community. The course will highlight the prismatic relationships between law, medicine, gender and race discourses informed by cultural and social fears and the needs of capitalism. A US History of Health and Disability is particularly attentive to the histories of slavery and African American life as essential to the construction of disabled bodies. This course will answer the questions: how does language, race and gender influence how disability is perceived? How did people with disabilities shape America?.

HIST 1510 War and the Presidency (4 Credits)

This course examines four wars in American history and the relationship of those wars to the sitting presidents. Together we explore the reciprocal influence of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson and World War I, Franklin Roosevelt and World War II, and Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1520 Immigrant Voices in Modern America (4 Credits)

This United States has aptly been called "a nation of immigrants." In this course, we explore the immigrant experience of the last century by examining different forms of personal testimony--autobiographies, diaries, novels, personal correspondence, and oral histories. Listening to these various immigrant voices helps us to understand the processes at work as newcomers and their children (first- and second-generation immigrants) struggled to achieve economic stability and to define their identity as Americans. The course readings as well as the student projects are intended as instruments with which to assess the influence of old world customs, religion, education, work, gender and anti-immigrant prejudice in shaping the process of adaptation to American society. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1550 America in the Sixties (4 Credits)

This course examines one of the most tumultuous eras in U.S. history, its role in the reshaping of American life after World War II, and its legacies for the present. What constitutes "the sixties"? Was it an era of discord, dissolution, and decline, or of empowerment and democratization? Together we sort through conflicting perceptions of the period and closely examine some of the most salient issues of the decade - including the war in Vietnam, ethnic and race relations, youth culture, feminism and gay liberation, and the rise of conservatism. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1560 Seeing Red: Native Americans and Photography (4 Credits)

The struggle over whether the photographic record would include only representations of the savage (dead savage, noble savage, the disappearing savage, Indian chief, Indian warrior, Indian shaman, Indian maiden), or would expand to include Native realities (the threat of violence, bureaucratic control, family relationships, traditional culture, engagement with modernity, humor/irony, and aesthetic sovereignty) has been fought throughout photography’s 200-year history. This course introduces students to photographic visual analysis and an abbreviated history of Native Americans and photography. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1570 Pioneering in Colorado: Land, Bodies, & Violences in the Sand Creek Massacre (4 Credits)

This course uses critical analysis of primary sources to understand Sand Creek as a crucial site necessary to understand the history of Colorado and Denver University. Students will critically read and analyze primary source documents including newspaper articles, testimonies from massacre participants and survivors, artwork, material culture, letters, oral history, music, and proclamations to understand Sand Creek as a place and a history related to the creation of Colorado and Denver University. Additionally, the class will visit specific sites associated with Sand Creek to understand place-making and memorialization as a function of historical meaning-making and analysis. These sites include the Sand Creek Massacre site, History Colorado, the Silas Soule memorial plaque, and Riverside Cemetery (where Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer are buried). This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1600 Jews in the Islamic World, 632 C.E. - 1948 C.E. (4 Credits)

This course deals with Jewish history in the Islamic world from the death of Muhammad to the establishment of the state of Israel. Students are exposed to the political, social, and economic histories of various Jewish communities, many of which no longer exist, in numerous Islamic empires and/or political units. While studying these communities we also compare the treatment of Jews under Islamic rule to the treatment of Jews under Christian rule and the treatment of Christians under Islamic rule. Cross listed with JUST 1600. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1610 The History of the Crusades: 1095-1300 (4 Credits)

This course traces the origins and development of the Crusading movement as well as its impact on Christian, Muslim, and Jewish society in Europe and the Middle East from the 11th through the 14th centuries C.E. This course also examines ideas of Christian/Muslim/Jewish difference in this period. We pay special attention to primary source material. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1655 Pop Culture in Africa (4 Credits)

This course will consider what “pop culture” looked like across the African continent throughout the history of the twentieth century up until the present, and what popular forms of media and expression were produced in different countries and at different times. We will analyze the ways in which Africans have been both consumers and producers of mass media and artistic forms of expression, and how they have both been influenced by and driven trends in popular culture in the rest of the world. Through scholarly sources, archival documents, music, movies, photography, and social media, this course will introduce students to an interdisciplinary variety of methods for studying African history and societies, and how individuals and communities have used different forms of mass media to express their identities, politics, and connections to worlds in their daily lives. Through critical analysis of the history of popular forms of culture on the continent, and the connections created between Africa and the rest of the world, students will gain an understanding of what it means to be African in the modern world, and how African cultural practices have transcended and transgressed the boundaries imposed by the modern nation-state. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1705 Modern African History (4 Credits)

This course is a survey and introduction to modern African history from the late 19th century to the present. We will explore the period of European colonialism and its postcolonial legacy, focusing on the experiences of Africans at this time. Themes addressed in this class will include gender, age, class, race and ethnicity, and the historical legacies of both the precolonial and colonial eras to the construction of the postcolonial nation-state. Assignments will be geared towards teaching students to think and write like historians, and understand the basic tenets of historical inquiry, such as how to use primary and secondary sources and differentiate between them, and construct a basic historical argument that advances historiographical understandings of the topic in question. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1715 Middle Passages: Atlantic World Migrations (4 Credits)

Middle Passages examines first-hand accounts by enslaved people and enslavers, modern depictions, and analyses by historians in order to trace the origins, expansion, and decline of traffic in captive Africans in addition to its impact on four continents. The course seeks to answer, among others, the following questions: Why were Europeans in Africa? Why were Africans enslaved? What did African experience on the journey to slavery in the Americas? Which came first, racism or slavery? What is the middle passage? If we want to understand how the US (and not only the South), Western Europe, parts of Latin America, and much of Africa got to be how they are now, we need to know something of the human commerce that profoundly shaped them. In this course, students consider individual, national, and institutional experiences of the Middle Passage by exploring a textbook that overviews the histories of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and accounts from a series of primary sources.

HIST 1725 African American History to the Civil War Era (4 Credits)

History 1725, African American History to the Civil War Era, is designed to introduce students to the trends, events, issues, and people that shaped African American history from Colonial America through the Civil War. In particular, this course will focus on presenting Black people as active agents in the American historical narrative that significantly shaped their lives even within the context of slavery. To this end, this course sets out to discredit American myths about people of African descent, examine critical elements of black slavery and freedom in the United States, analyze the slave experience with particular emphasis on black resistance and resiliency, and identify the economic, political, and social factors that shaped and were shaped by African slaves, their descendants, black communities and institutions, and plantation society. If we want to understand the US (and not only the South), but we also need to know something about how human commerce and those that became commodities profoundly shaped the nation. By examining first-hand accounts by enslaved people and enslavers, modern depictions, and analyses by historians, we trace the origins and narratives of Africans in America and their descendants. We seek to answer, among others, the following questions: Why were Africans enslaved? What did Africans and their descendants experience in slavery in the Americas? What did free and freed African Americans experience in the Civil War era? What influence did African Americans have on the North and South conflict and its resolution? In addition to treating the above questions, I intend to return often to two major content themes. First, this class is concerned with tracing the historical contours of the African American experience in America, noting the similarities in experiences of different gender, age, and (dis)ability categories and yet important variations over time and place. Understanding this experience is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of American history. Second, we explore the changing influences of labor and capitalism and how they shape people, places and institutions. We note in this course that African Americans fundamentally affected the social and economic lives and futures of the world, underscoring the global relevance of this history. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1750 Mothers of the Soil: Kin, Food, & Culture in Africa (4 Credits)

Mothers of the Soil: Kin, Food, and Culture in Africa is an undergraduate course that explores key ideas and concepts to explore the historical significance and interconnectedness of family, sustenance, agency, and mothering. Through critical engagement with ethnography, memoir, oral history, historical fiction, film, and art, students learn the ways African motherhood has been innovated and reimagined across time and place.

HIST 1850 20th Century LGBTQ History in the United States (4 Credits)

This course uses a cultural history approach to explore the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer peoples in the “long twentieth century” (1880s-2010s) United States. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1900 Veterans Stories (4 Credits)

This course will examine the history of Veterans and Veteran issues in the United States from the Civil War to the present. Students will learn about Veteran issues from multiple guest speakers and work to preserve and commemorate the historic contributions of Veterans. Students will participate in a variety of research projects, including conducting oral histories/interviews with members of Denver’s Veteran community, regarding their life experiences and their military service. Students will also research the lives and legacies of Veterans buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery, in the service of various Veteran community projects. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

HIST 2015 Ancient Greece (4 Credits)

A survey of the history of the Greeks and their civilization.

HIST 2022 The Roman Empire (4 Credits)

This course examines the history and culture of ancient Rome during the height of the empire. We look at political and military developments of Rome as it transformed from a republic into an imperial power. We also study social and cultural aspects of the Romans, who originally were simple pastoralists living along the Tiber but in time became the rulers of the entire Mediterranean region. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 2027 African American-Jewish Relations: Race, Religion, Politics, and Popular Culture (4 Credits)

This course examines African American-Jewish relations in the United States from colonial times to the present day. Encounters between these two minority groups, each of them bearing their own history of suffering and discrimination, have engendered considerable controversy and scholarly attention. How and why do the experiences, achievements, and struggles of these two groups overlap and parallel, and how and why do they conflict and diverge? How does each group perceive itself in relation to the other? Through readings, music, images, and films, we will explore constructions of racial identity, arenas of religious and cultural interaction, and the politics and policies that have shaped African American-Jewish relations in urban neighborhoods. We will also explore the experiences of Jews of color and the struggles they face for acceptance and inclusion in both Jewish and Black spaces.

HIST 2030 Ancient Near East (4 Credits)

This course traces the history of the ancient Near East from the earliest civilizations in the Fertile Crescent down through the Persian Empire. Particular attention is given to the political, military, and social developments in the region as well as the cultural contributions of Mesopotamia to the history of the ancient Mediterranean world.

HIST 2035 Writing Trauma, Writing History: Structural Trauma & Israel (4 Credits)

This course delves into the concept of structural trauma and its profound influence on the formation of Israel. Grounded in the theories of scholar Dominick La Capra, we will explore how foundational traumas—specifically the biblical “Binding of Isaac” narrative, the Holocaust, and contemporary events such as the October 7th attacks—have shaped Israeli identity and its state policies. La Capra differentiates between historical trauma (specific events) and structural trauma (foundational myths). The Binding of Isaac serves as a key example of structural trauma—a myth that forms the basis for subsequent historical traumas. This course investigates how this myth has molded Israel’s foundational narratives and has had enduring consequences for its national psyche, particularly in its victim-persecutor framework, which continues to influence its domestic and foreign policies.

HIST 2071 American Jewish Experience (4 Credits)

This course examines the history of the American Jewish immigrant experience from colonial times to the present as a means of trying to understand how newcomers navigate the processes of adaptation, acculturation, and integration into American life. We will pay careful attention to issues of race, gender, and class, and we will examine the impact of xenophobia and immigration laws on how Jewish immigrants were welcomed and treated.

HIST 2074 Holocaust: Europe & Colonial Contexts (4 Credits)

This course presents the history of the Holocaust as perpetrated by Nazi allies Romania, Hungary (occupying Romania’s Transylvania), and Vichy France with its corresponding African colonies. With the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Vol. 3 serving as the foundation, students will be required to read select entries and consider the primary sources that contributed to them, including memoir and the rich oral history of the Shoah Archive. The most recent scholarship by experts in these fields of Holocaust history as well as relevant films will be studied. This course asks us to comprehend what the full extent of this genocide was during WWII, and challenges us to answer how it fits into the conventional teaching of the Holocaust.

HIST 2075 Nazi Art Looting (4 Credits)

This course examines the history and legacy of Nazi art looting, which continues to impact museums and the art world today. We begin with an overview of plundering mechanisms used by the Nazis and their collaborators, and discuss restitution efforts since the end of the Second World War. Students carry out a research project focusing on a case study, working in small groups with other students. The work is interdisciplinary and experiential, with direct relevance to ongoing restitution cases.

HIST 2105 The Dark Ages: Survey in Early Medieval History (4 Credits)

This course is designed to introduce students to the societies and cultures of the pre-modern western world, beginning with the late Roman Empire and stretching to the year 1000, a period often referred to as the "Dark Ages." Throughout the semester we will read primary texts representative of ideas and historical developments that shaped the Early Middle Ages. Central to this course will be three major themes: the development of western Christianity, the ongoing struggle between centralizing governments and local powers, and the effects of cross-cultural contact on western society. As we examine topics such as the fall of Rome, the rise of the three great cultures of the early medieval period (Christendom, Byzantium, and the Islamic world), and the formation of kingdoms and states our readings and lectures will focus on one or more of these major themes as a way of approaching the complex and often unfamiliar pre-modern world. By analyzing and evaluating these texts and their authors we will gain a better understanding of the past and a clearer idea of how the institutions and ideas of the pre-modern world changed over time and how they continue to impact and influence modern societies.

HIST 2106 The High Middle Ages: From Dark Age to Rebirth (4 Credits)

This course is designed to introduce students to the societies and cultures of the pre-modern western world, beginning in the year 1000 and culminating in the end of the medieval period in 1453. The "High Middle Ages" was a period of tremendous development and innovation. The first universities appeared, men and women argued about belief and practice, traders and warriors forged new connections with the wider world, and the very structures of modern Europe appeared for the first time. As we examine topics such as the Crusades, heresy, popular revolt, and cross-cultural trade our readings, lectures, and discussions will examine how we can understand the development of "Western" civilization and the ways in which the medieval past continues to inform our modern lives.

HIST 2120 Europe in the Renaissance/Reformation (4 Credits)

Social, political, intellectual and cultural history.

HIST 2125 Cold War Europe (4 Credits)

Examines key issues in the history of Europe from the end of the Second World War to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The clash of twentieth-century ideologies provides a framework for understanding European relations with the United States and the Soviet Union, along with broader political and cultural trends, decolonization, economic and social change, and class, gender, and race relations.

HIST 2130 Africa and the Slave Trade (4 Credits)

This course examines the history of the African slave trade. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a catastrophic event for Black migrants, but it was also the common wind upon which a vibrant and enduring culture arose. The trade occurred through many iterations due to the contestations of power, land, and labor needs. We will situate the trans-Atlantic slave trade with the internal slave trades across the African diasporas to understand the historical continuity of resistance. In examining the historical significance and legacies of the slave trade, we will link the histories of Africa to that of the New World and Europe. We will engage with digital humanities sources on slave trades, such as the Slave Voyages database. We will explore the ongoing debates around the acculturation processes of Africans in the Americas through the slave trades and the depth and breadth of the financial influence of the slave trade. This course will answer the questions: how important was the African slave trade to the construction of our modern world? How did enslaved people develop community in the face of migratory disruptions?.

HIST 2131 Early Modern Europe: 1600-1789 (4 Credits)

Social, political and intellectual history of Europe during period of the Old Regime and Enlightenment.

HIST 2132 19th-Century Europe (4 Credits)

Social, political and intellectual patterns from French Revolution to outbreak of World War I.

HIST 2210 The French Revolution and Napoleon (4 Credits)

This course examines the many ways in which the French Revolution and Napoleonic period (1789-1815) marked a significant break with the past--politically, socially and culturally. Yet these changes could not occur with some continuity in social and political institutions. We will work to answer a central question: as Napoleon dominated most of the European continent militarily and established a dictatorship at home, to what degree was he promoting ideals of the Revolution?.

HIST 2260 Jewish Food: From the Bible to Bagels (4 Credits)

“We are what we eat,” the saying goes. But is that true? How do choices and practices connected to eating define us and our communities? Our study of Jewish food traditions from the Bible to the present will engage this and other important issues related to religion, consumption, and identity. The study of Jewish food practices is a study of dualities: kosher and trayf (non-kosher), meat and milk, modernity and tradition, insiders and outsiders, men and women, authentic and artificial, ethical and unethical, and more. Beginning with biblical laws about permitted and forbidden foods and ending with a study of the emergence of the modern kosher food industry in the United States, our course will examine how Jewish food and foodways have evolved over thousands of years in response to social, political, cultural, and economic change. We will explore the links between Jewish food practices and local cultures in order to understand how each one shapes the other, and to become familiar with the diversity of Jewish foodways across the Diaspora and within Israel and the Middle East. We will also explore the politics of authority and authenticity with regards to Jewish food — what makes a food "Jewish" or kosher, and who decides? This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 2300 The Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1881-2001 (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts from the initial Jewish migrations to Palestine starting in the 1880s through the failed Oslo Accords. Key themes that will be covered include the origins and development of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, the impact of Ottoman and British rule in Palestine on Jews and Palestinians, differing narratives about the origins and development of the conflict, and the impact of U.S. and Soviet involvement in the Middle East on Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs. In addition students will be exposed to historiographical debates surrounding various aspects of the conflict, notably the 1948 War. Cross listed with JUST 2300.

HIST 2320 US Foreign Policy in the Middle East (4 Credits)

This course aims to introduce students to both Middle Eastern history and American Foreign Policy by exploring the politics and culture of U.S. involvement in the Middle East in the post-WWII period. In doing so this course pays special attention to the impact of the Cold War in the Middle East, American policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, the role of oil in American foreign policy, American responses to the rise of Islamist movements, the impact of media and culture on the formulation of America’s Middle Eastern policies, and U.S. relations with dictatorial governments in the Middle East. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Cross listed with JUST 2320.

HIST 2335 Early Islamic Empires in Comparative Perspective, 632 CE - 1300 CE (4 Credits)

This course looks at the social, economic, political, and environmental histories of Islamic empires from the 7th through the 13th centuries CE. In doing so, this course also examines how early Islamic empires ruled over both Muslim and non-Muslim, especially Christian and Jewish, populations. Additionally, this course aims to compare these Islamic empires with non-Islamic Afro-Eurasian empires from the same general time periods. Students should be aware that this course will not cover every early Islamic empire but will adopt a case-study approach, meaning the professor will select key empires to examine.

HIST 2385 African American History through Film: Civil War Era to Post Civil Rights 1980s (4 Credits)

African American History through Film: Civil War Era to Post Civil Rights 1980s is designed to introduce students to key events, themes, and people that shaped American history from the end of the Civil War into the late twentieth century using the films produced about African American (free and freed) life. To this end, this course focuses on African Americans and their efforts to carve out a place for themselves after the end of the Civil War. The course does not ruminate on race relations though we will attend to what cultural historian Saidiya Hartman describes as, the “afterlife of slavery.” In her 2006 book Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, she posits: “I wanted to engage the past, knowing that its perils and dangers still threatened and that even now lives hung in the balance. If slavery persists as an issue in the political life of black America, it is not because of an antiquarian obsession with bygone days or the burden of a too-long memory, but because black lives are still imperiled and devalued” due to “skewed life chances, limited access to health and education, premature death, incarceration.” We will approach the subject matter utilizing a variety of primary and secondary sources (e.g., ex-slave interviews, oral histories, speeches, essays, documentaries, and an autobiography) and key to the course the films produced about black life that are both representations of the time they were produced and ideologies about the histories that are covered in the films.

HIST 2400 Women in European History: 1800-Present (4 Credits)

A survey of women in the modern age. Topics include women's work, sexuality, cultural movements, feminism and domestic life.

HIST 2401 European Women's History: 1500-1800 (4 Credits)

Changes and continuities in women's experiences during the early modern period, as well as changing ideas about gender; family, work, religion, sexuality, political power.

HIST 2402 Bollywood & Modernity in India (4 Credits)

This course will explore the history of postcolonial India through film and the development of the Bollywood industry, India’s Hindi-language film industry formerly known as Bombay cinema. India is the world’s largest producer of films, and its development as a postcolonial nation following independence from Britain in 1947 has been reflected in its movies. Starting in the latter half of the twentieth century and coming up to the present, this course will trace depictions of Indian history and the evolution of prominent cultural trends, traditions, and shifts through critical analysis of popular movies from the Golden era of the 1940s to 1960s, to the Masala Era of action sequences and catchy songs of the 1970s to 1990s, to the New Wave era of the 1990s to 2000s that featured romance movies and explored socially conscious themes, to the Contemporary era that was marked by the globalization of Indian cinema and highlighted socially taboo themes. This class will also consider the role that cinema played in both national politics as well as the lives of ordinary people, becoming a central facet of Indian popular culture. It will introduce students to the concept of modernity, and how capitalism and consumer culture deeply influenced the development of film in India. Course materials will include full-length feature films as well as scholarly readings and written analysis of Bollywood movies and trends, as well as documentaries and podcast episodes which highlight cultural trends and the centrality of cinema to pop culture.

HIST 2405 World War Two in Europe (4 Credits)

World War Two (1939-45) was the most devastating conflict the European continent experienced, affecting soldiers and civilians in equal measure, devastating cities and infrastructure, and setting the scene for the ideological “cold war” that dominated European politics (1945-89). This course examines different aspects of the war from the perspectives of soldiers and civilians. In this course, students will examine and engage with a variety of sources (diaries, memoirs, military newspapers, official records, interviews, documentaries) in order to more fully understand the events of the war. Students will also examine sources from individuals and groups in diverse countries and situations, piecing together a complex narrative of this terrible war.

HIST 2410 Histories of the Body (4 Credits)

This course explores the histories of human bodies. The body has been a focal point to social, political, and cultural discourses throughout history. Based on literature of human difference through sex, gender, (dis)ability, age, and body/mind distinctions, this course aims at leading students to deepen their perspectives on the body and its social, racial, and philosophical underpinnings. We will examine the body in different historical periods to explore the developments of ideas surrounding the production of the body as representative of the cultural reality of the time. We will move within and alongside time and ideas to provide a depth of understanding and connect the past to the present. How is race connected to skin? What is the impact of ideas of race, gender, and geography on the perception of the body? What is a perfect body? By asking and contemplating these questions, students will be able to broaden their historical understanding of the body, which will contribute to their scholarship in history and other disciplines.

HIST 2450 History of the Italian Mafia (4 Credits)

For two centuries, an entity called "Costa Nostra" has dominated the histories of Sicily and Italy. Costa Nostra has long been a shadowy and poorly-understood organization, yet it has changed the world in dramatic and unexpected ways. In this class, students learn what the Italian Mafia is and explore its history in Italy, particularly the Mafia's developing relationship to the law, the Italian government, and Sicilian culture. Students examine the nineteenth-century origins of the Mafia as well as the more recent "Mafia Wars" (1962-69 and 1970-82) that rocked Italy and resulted in the first widespread prosecution of Mafiosi. The recent trials of notorious Mafiosi have led to political scandal and charges of conspiracy, collaboration, and cover-up at the highest levels of Italian government. Lastly, students learn about the efforts of the Anti-Mafia movement to reform and redirect Italian and Sicilian culture and society.

HIST 2460 Histories of the Body in Global Context (4 Credits)

This course explores the histories of human bodies. The body has been a focal point to social, political, and cultural discourses throughout history. Based on literature of human difference through sex, gender, (dis)ability, age, and body/mind distinctions, this course aims at leading students to deepen their perspectives on the body and its social, racial, and philosophical underpinnings. We will examine the body in different historical periods to explore the developments of ideas surrounding the production of the body as representative of the cultural reality of the time. We will move within and alongside time and ideas to provide a depth of understanding and connect the past to the present. How is race connected to skin? What is the impact of ideas of race, gender, and geography on the perception of the body? What is a perfect body? By asking and contemplating these questions, students will be able to broaden their historical understanding of the body, which will contribute to their scholarship in history and other disciplines.

HIST 2510 American History to 1789 (4 Credits)

Encounters between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in the American colonies; the Revolution, the confederation period; the framing and adoption of the Constitution.

HIST 2520 American History: 19th Century (4 Credits)

Establishment and development of new nation; emphasis on political history; experience in analysis of source materials.

HIST 2530 American History: 20th Century (4 Credits)

This course surveys the major political and social developments in the United States since the turn of the century, including the Progressive Movement, World War I, the Depression and New Deal Liberalism, World War II, the Cold War and American internationalism, the Civil Rights Movement and the growth of feminism, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate crisis.

HIST 2531 Twentieth Century Native American History (4 Credits)

This class reviews Native history from the late 19th century to the present, focusing on the interplay between large institutions and structures – such as federal and state governments, or the US legal system – and the lived, local experience of tribal communities. The major themes followed throughout the course of the semester include: place, space, and indigeneity (indigenous identity).

HIST 2551 The American West Since 1860 (4 Credits)

Everyone knows the romantic and violent mythology of the Old West: cowboys and Indians, lawmen and gunslingers, trappers, miners, railroaders, homesteaders. This course explores the history behind the myths. Sweeping from the Civil War era to the resorts and suburb of today's West, we follow such themes as the history of western land and resource use; the migration of peoples and the communities they created; the story of racial, religious, cultural, and political conflict; and the significance of those famous western myths to the nation as a whole.

HIST 2555 United States Since 1945 (4 Credits)

This course examines the social, cultural, economic and political developments that have shaped life in the United States since the 1940s. Special attention is given to the Cold War, suburban America, the civil rights movement, social conflict in the 1960s, and the rise of postwar conservatism.

HIST 2570 Civil War & Reconstruction (4 Credits)

This course covers the causes and consequences of the most important conflict in American history. We will investigate the problem of slavery, the question of states' rights, the sectional crisis, the experience of war, the role of Lincoln, the struggle over reconstruction, and the meaning and memory of the war in American life.

HIST 2575 Disease in Early America (4 Credits)

Scholars have recently focused their attention on the way that diseases - Yellow Fever, Smallpox, Measles, Malaria - shaped the social and political landscapes of early America. In this course, we take up this investigation by examining both the diversity and pervasiveness of disease and the ways that non-human agents such as pathogens and insects had a destructive impact on African, European, and Indian peoples and influenced the course of events in early America. Our study therefore ranges from the virgin soil epidemics that decimated indigenous peoples to how smallpox outbreaks affected the Revolutionary conflict. In addition to examining the medical discourse of causes, symptoms, and treatments, we consider how disease influenced perceptions of personal and familial interactions, race and class relations, community and public health, and national culture and literature. For our investigation, we pay particular attention to the 1793 Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia.

HIST 2630 American Women's History (4 Credits)

This course is a survey of U.S. women's history from the colonial period to the present. It examines the social, cultural, economic, and political developments shaping American women's public and private roles over several centuries, in addition to the ways in which women gave meaning to their everyday lives. Particular attention is paid to the variety of women's experiences, with an emphasis on the interplay of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Cross listed with GWST 2630.

HIST 2645 Immigration in Twentieth Century America (4 Credits)

Immigration holds a peculiar place in our national narrative. At the same time that the United States celebrates its identity as a self-proclaimed "nation of immigrants," immigration policy and the presence of diverse peoples from around the world have historically generated intense battles over identity, national security, and civic belonging. This service-learning history course examines major topics in 20th century U.S. immigration history. Utilizing a thematic and comparative approach, we will explore how immigration and immigrants have shaped the social, political, and economic contours of American life, and how discourses of race, gender, sex and class have determined how Americans conceive of immigrants and of the nation. As part of their service-learning curriculum, students will examine salient issues in political discourse today—including xenophobia, detention and deportation policy, border policing, and the human side of the immigration debate—by volunteering with Casa de Paz, an Aurora, Colorado non-profit organization that offers support to migrants recently released from detention.

HIST 2680 Historical Memory (4 Credits)

Why do successive generations rewrite the stories that teach Americans their history? Why do various social groups endorse alternate versions of past occurrences? This course explores the idea of historical memory by examining the narratives (stories) that have been composed about our country’s past and how these stories have been revised over the years. We will focus on several major symbols of the American past and the narratives that have developed surrounding them. Our goals are to understand how and why these sites of memory have been interpreted and reinterpreted over the years.

HIST 2701 Topics in History (2-4 Credits)

HIST 2702 Topics in History (2-4 Credits)

HIST 2703 Topics in History (2-4 Credits)

HIST 2710 From Sea to Shining Sea: Nature in American History to 1900 (4 Credits)

In ways often hidden or ill understood, natural and environmental factors powerfully shaped the history of America from colonial times to the nineteenth century. In this course, we consider how natural resources like fish and forests became the basis for European empire-building; how colonists, Indians, slaves, settlers, and industrialists all acted to transform the landscapes and ecosystems of North America; and how ideas about nature helped mold the market economy and an emerging sense of American national identity. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 2720 Paved Paradise? Nature and History in Modern America (4 Credits)

Oil drilling and outdoor recreation, "medical miracles" and natural disasters, the making of national parks and suburban landscapes, and political battles over pollution, property rights, energy, wilderness, endangered species, and toxic waste all belong to the environmental history of the recent U.S. In this class we explore that history, weighing how Americans from the late nineteenth century to the present day have thought about nature, modified and made use of it, and competed for control of resources and land.

HIST 2850 Imperial China (4 Credits)

In this class, students learn about change and continuity in imperial China, from the third century BC to 1911 AD. Over the course of this more than two thousand years, what we refer to as "China" changed a great deal politically, economically, and socially. We will explore many of these changes, while at the same time keeping an eye on the continuities that continued to characterize the place and its people over the long term.

HIST 2870 Modern China (4 Credits)

In this class we focus on China from the nineteenth century to the present. We examine historical change and continuity, including the revolutions that created the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China, the transformation of traditional values, economic liberalization in the post-Mao Zedong era, and the challenges that China has faced in recent years.

HIST 2885 Migration, Mobility, and Movement in Africa (4 Credits)

This course will span the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras of African history to consider narratives of historical migration within and beyond the continent. Central to these narratives are ideas of indigeneity and foreignness, firstcomer and newcomer status, articulated in the colonial and postcolonial period as differences of race and ethnicity. Through this course, students will be introduced to the historiography of migration in Africa, as well as theories and methodologies based on linguistics, oral traditions, and archaeology. We will begin with the Bantu expansion patterns of second millennium BCE up to 1500 CE, considering the linguistic trajectory that this migration took in considering the origins of modern language groups on the continent. We will then move on to Indian and Atlantic Oceanic networks of trade and migration, including the slave trades that led to the dispersion of peoples both within and outside of the continent, and the creation and recreation of kinship groups and polities. We will consider the history of the mfecane in southern Africa, or the period of dispersal and warfare that led to wide-scale migration throughout the region in the nineteenth century. We will also explore the histories of migration to the continent by European colonizers as well as the settlement of communities from the Middle East and South Asia as part of systems of indentured labor as well as free migration. Finally, this course will take a look at contemporary issues of citizenship and xenophobia in postcolonial nations. All required readings for the course will be posted online.

HIST 2920 The Making of Modern Latin America (4 Credits)

This is a general and introductory course of the history of Latin America that pays special attention to the modern period (19th and 20th centuries). The course is structured around themes dealing with the region's colonial legacy, economy, social life, politics, processes of modernization, urbanization, revolution, the quest for democracy and national development, and contemporary achievements and challenges. While much of Latin America's history has been a tale of violence and suffering, it has also been a story of great perseverance and self-affirmation. Using a historical perspective, the course seeks to understand how and why the struggle for independence, nation-building, economic growth, and social justice in the region has raged on for so long, and where it stands today. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 2930 From Tenochtitlan to A Global City: Urban Landscapes in the Making of Modern Mexico (4 Credits)

This course is an intensive examination of the past and present of one of the most fascinating cities in the world, Mexico City. Paying particular attention to space and place, we will examine the historical processes (political, intellectual, ecological, social, and cultural) that are manifest in the urban development of the megacity. By taking this class in Mexico City, students will be able to visit each of these locations, as well as several other significant museums and archaeological sites. Similarly, by engaging in an in-depth reflection structured along textual, visual, and in-sight materials and experiences, students will be invited to reflect about matters of change and continuity as well as how national socio-political trends are reflected in local contexts, thus also learning to reflect about the interpretive relationship between the micro-macro levels of analysis.

HIST 2940 Sports and Empire (4 Credits)

This course will look at the history of sports and colonialism over the past two centuries, considering the ways in which imperialism led to the dissemination of Western sporting traditions and culture to the global south, focusing in particular on British and French colonies in Africa and Asia (although we also take a few trips to the Caribbean, too). Each week, we will look at the history of a different sport, including cricket, tennis, soccer, golf, rugby, and hockey, and explore the intersection of race, class, and gender in how these sports were played and transformed in the imperial world. We will consider the ways in which sport was used not only as an element of the racialized “civilizing” mission of imperial ventures, but also how sport was coopted by indigenous populations to resist colonial structures of segregation and oppression. This class will ask us to reconsider the intersections and divergences in the way sports are both played and viewed by national sporting teams, local leagues and schools, and transmitted to audiences through live viewing, television, radio, and other forms of media. We will also look at the representations of sports and colonialism through films, fiction, and television shows. Finally, we will analyze the postcolonial legacies of colonial sporting cultures after decolonization, looking at the ways in which countries in the global south have taken over transnational leagues and institutions to make what were once colonial and European-dominated sporting cultures their own.

HIST 2945 Slavery and Samba: Race and Ethnicity in the Making of Modern Brazil (4 Credits)

This is a survey history course focused on how race and ethnic relations helped shape the historical formation of the Brazilian society. The course offers students an opportunity to study the historical evolution of Brazil, from the colonial period to the present day, as a way to understand how the historical exclusionary economic, political, and social structures of the country were shaped by racial elements, as well as how traditionally excluded groups have historically coped with and reacted to this reality.

HIST 2950 U.S. and Latin American Relations: The Historical Struggle for Autonomy (4 Credits)

This course examines how Latin American nations have tried to maneuver in the world sphere under the dominant role played by the United States in the hemisphere. Latin American countries and the United States have had a complex and, at times, difficult relationship that dates back to the early nineteenth century. In response to the challenges of this complicated relationship, Latin American nations have adopted a range of strategies to deal with the United States, most of which are examined in this course.

HIST 2988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

HIST 2990 What is History? (4 Credits)

Introduction to historical concepts, methodologies and historiography. Intended for history majors who will take Senior Seminar the following fall.

HIST 2998 Issues in Comparative History (4 Credits)

This is a team-taught course in comparative (either geographical or temporal) history. Each time it is taught, it addresses a particular theme or topic from a comparative approach. Students are exposed to different approaches to the study of history, as embodied in the work of the individual faculty members.

HIST 3275 The Past and Afterlives of Apartheid (4 Credits)

In 1948, after a close election, a government founded on the platform of apartheid, or a radical form of racial segregation, came into power in South Africa. Apartheid as a system remained in place until 1994. This seminar delves into the roots and trajectory of apartheid, and considers its effects on the lives of South Africans. As a 3000-level topics course, the readings for this course will be interdisciplinary, but will be founded in historical methodology and process, while also considering representations of apartheid and the history of South Africa through mediums such as literature, film, music, and sports. While the origins and institutions of apartheid will be studied, as well as the history of South African nationalist and resistance movements, one of the goals of this course will be to look at the lives of ordinary South Africans, and how they resisted the apartheid state in more quotidian ways. This course will also focus on the moment of 1994 and the legacy of apartheid in South Africa’s postcolonial future, one in which the ideal of a rainbow nation was disrupted by the persistence of structural inequality and the memories of violence brought up by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We will also explore the comparative literature between apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow in the United States, considering the transnational implications of institutions of white supremacy and the legacy of British colonialism and white nationalism across the globe, as well as the fight against apartheid led by the independent nations of the global south in the United Nations.

HIST 3335 The Viking World (4 Credits)

In the late eighth century Europe was rocked by the first of the Viking attacks. Over the next two centuries they left a legacy that has been immortalized in books, TV shows, and movies. But what drove these renowned seafarers to set sail from Scandinavia to shores as far as North America and the Black Sea? In this course we will examine the world of the Vikings, looking at the social, cultural, and political changes that the Viking Age ushered in not just in Scandinavia but across Europe. We will discuss how raiding and trade went hand in hand, how new ideas of kingship and worship crossed cultural boundaries, and the ways in which history and legend overlap, coloring our ideas of the medieval past.

HIST 3345 Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 (4 Credits)

It is easy to assume that today's ideas about gender roles have always existed, but beliefs about women's and men's "natural" behavior have changed dramatically over time. In 1500, for instance, it was a well-known fact that women are sexually voracious creatures who needed strict control to keep their appetites in check; by 1800, it was an equally well-known fact that women are inherently chaste and modest. The ideal male in 1500 was someone who used violence to maintain his authority; in 1800, masculinity was about self-discipline and politeness. In this course, we explore changing ideas about femininity and masculinity in the early modern period and consider how those changes related to broader shifts in culture and society.

HIST 3351 Crime & Lowlife in 18th & 19th-Century London (4 Credits)

How did poor people survive in London during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Why did people commit crimes, and what kinds of crimes did they commit? What punishments did they face if they were caught, and what did their trials look like? What were the norms and expectations governing social responses to poverty and crime? This course will consider some of the ways historians have tried to answer those questions, but it will focus above all on exploring the primary sources that enable us to develop our own answers. In order to do so, students will dive deep into an extraordinary archive: the records of trials held at London's Central Criminal Court, more commonly known as the Old Bailey. These documents give us information not just about criminals but about victims and bystanders; they provide insights not only into criminal justice but into the everyday lives of ordinary people. Other archival material will allow us to trace the lives of criminals after conviction, to see what kinds of consequences they faced. We will spend most of our time on the period between about 1780 and 1880.

HIST 3355 Latin America's Cold War (4 Credits)

The Cold War is usually thought of as a conflict between superpowers in a bipolar world. Often, this interpretation omits the important histories of non-industrial or developing countries. This course will explore the experiences of Latin America during on the most important and impacting socio-political, economic, ideological, cultural, and diplomatic contests ever faced by human societies. The course will explore the motives and consequences of the US government’s actions to counter the perceived Communist threat, as successive administrations expanded intelligence gathering, increased military and economic aid, backed anti-communist government in Latin America, and used US troops in direct military interventions. Students will engage with materials and learn about the interaction between historical experiences taking place in a global, regional, national, and local realities. In so doing, the history of the Cold War will be examined as a complex web or interrelated conflicts, projects and events. Students will get an overview of the events and major interpretations of the Cold War in Latin America. By engaging with class materials and assignments, students will refine their analytical skills, research abilities, historiographical knowledge and narrative expressions.

HIST 3370 Comparative Fascism in Europe (4 Credits)

A comparative survey of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, from the origins of fascist movements in the 19th century to the establishment of political regimes, World War II and the Holocaust.

HIST 3372 Nations and Nationalism (4 Credits)

This seminar will focus on the twin processes of nation- building and nationalism in Europe. We will look at how the idea of an organized nation-state took root and how people came to think of themselves as belonging to a particular nation. We will examine these processes by using different national examples and by taking a variety of approaches--cultural, social, political--to understanding what a nation is.

HIST 3380 WWII History and Memory in France (4 Credits)

This seminar examines the history and memory of World War II in France. We discuss French collaboration with the Nazis and resistance, investigating myths and reality, as documented in historical research. Students analyze a variety of sources, such as diaries, memoirs, poetry, monuments, films, and media broadcasts.

HIST 3400 Revolts and Revolutions in the Afro-Atlantic World (4 Credits)

This course uses the examples of major and general slave revolts and acts of resistance which include the Haitian (1791-1804) Revolution as material that students can use to practice the skills of professional historians. We will study the basic concepts and methods of Afro-Atlantic history, with a focus on free, freed, and enslaved people acting during the Age of Revolutions. We will examine the slave revolts in Jamaica (1673, 1690, and 1745 and 1759) Stono (1739), New York (1712), Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), New Orleans (1811), Barbados (1816), and Southampton, (1831) through an Afro-Atlantic perspective, exploring the relevant scholarship and critically analyzing primary sources. In the process, we will consider the following questions: What makes an event “Afro-Atlantic”? What is the Atlantic scope? Why do historians think of the Age of Revolutions as a discrete, unique historical period? How common were slave revolts? What were the local and international dimensions of these political events? In addition to treating the above questions, I intend to return often to two major content themes: The significance of historical contours of the slave revolt and resistance, noting its similarities and yet important variations over time and place. Second, we explore the changing influences of resistance to oppression, power and slavery and how they shape people, places and institutions. We note in this course that revolutions fundamentally affected the social and economic lives and futures of the world and can be expansively defined.

HIST 3455 Living Dangerously: Hazards and Disasters in American History (4 Credits)

Monster storms, deadly pandemics, climatic doomsday scenarios, tragic accidents like the Titanic: our news, popular culture, and national nightmares are filled with imagery of disasters. They make for upsetting and almost irresistibly gripping stories, but the stories too often fall into cheap sensationalism, simplistic morality tales, and other clichés. In this seminar, sweeping from pre-Columbian calamities to Hurricane Katrina, covid, and the climate disasters of our own time, we’ll move past the clichés to consider the historical significance of disasters in America: how they’ve disrupted people’s lives, but also reshaped ideas of what’s “natural” or “normal.” We’ll ask: what roles have humans played in “natural” disasters like floods, droughts, wildfires, and earthquakes? How have Americans tried to guard against environmental hazards, and what unintended consequences—including new kinds of disasters—have resulted from these efforts? We’ll also study why some people are more vulnerable than others, and how environmental hazards and disasters have helped shape social inequality. Disaster history not only sheds new light on America’s past, but also intertwines it with environmental questions that are literally matters of life and death—so the class welcomes students of history, environmental studies, sustainability, politics and public policy, geography, and other fields too.

HIST 3510 American Revolution and Its Background (4 Credits)

Causes, progress, consequences and significance of movement for independence in light of American colonial experience and problems of imperial authority.

HIST 3570 American Thought and Culture (4 Credits)

This course exposes students to writers, artists, philosophers, and reformers who have addressed some of the major intellectual and cultural transformations related to modernity: the problems of knowledge and communication, the struggle to achieve a democratic and equal community, and the endeavor to build a national culture.

HIST 3650 Native Crude: Indigenous Oil Politics and Activism (4 Credits)

The extraction and development of oil resources is one of the central issues driving U.S. geopolitical policy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. As the U.S. government engages in covert and overt overseas incursions in order to secure oil supply, we have also reevaluated our domestic supply priorities. Both these dynamics-- as well as the work by multinational oil companies to continually explore and develop/exploit new oil resources-- have led to fraught negotiations between states, multinational corporations, and indigenous populations across the globe. This course explores the history of such past and present negotiations using books, articles, and documentary films.

HIST 3670 The U.S. Home Front in World War II (4 Credits)

This course examines the social changes taking place on the U.S. home front between the late 1930s and 1940s, including an investigation of the effects of war on American government, society, culture, and economy. Particular attention is paid to the war's impact on gender, ethnicity, race, and everyday people's lives.

HIST 3680 The Strange History of American Suburbia (4 Credits)

Everyone knows the emblems of American suburbia: single-family houses with attached garages, grassy lawns, curving streets and cul-de-sacs, office parks and shopping malls. But there's a history behind these settings that's poorly understood - that that is key to understanding much about the U.S. Suburbia sheds light on American popular attitudes toward nature, technology, health, politics, and patriotism, and on the complicated dynamics of race, gender, family, class, and religion in American society. In this course, we explore how the U.S. became a "suburban nation," from the Romantic retreats of the nineteenth century, through suburbia’s triumphant yet troubled "golden age" in the 1950s, to the stereotype-shattering suburbs of own time. We consider the surprisingly powerful ways suburbia history has shaped U.S. history more broadly.

HIST 3703 Topics in History (4 Credits)

HIST 3704 Topics in History (4 Credits)

HIST 3705 Topics in History (1-4 Credits)

HIST 3875 Chinese Science and Global History (4 Credits)

This class introduces students to the ideas and contexts of pre-modern Chinese science and critically examines ways in which modern historians have incorporated science and technology into their global narratives about China and the West. Intended for students familiar with the methods of historical inquiry. No prior knowledge of Chinese history is expected.

HIST 3980 Internship (0-8 Credits)

HIST 3988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

HIST 3989 Senior Seminar I (4 Credits)

Development of research skills and historiographical understanding; preparation for senior research seminar.

HIST 3990 Senior Seminar II (4 Credits)

Completion of a substantial research project, based on original sources. Students should consult their departmental mentor no later than beginning of spring quarter of their junior year to begin the formulation of the research project.

HIST 3991 Independent Study (1-10 Credits)

HIST 3993 History Honors Thesis (4 Credits)

Independent study specifically for graduating seniors wishing honors. Prerequisites: HIST 3989 and HIST 3990.

HIST 3995 Independent Research (1-10 Credits)