Undergraduate Level Courses

Russia is often described as the “empire of chains” due to its notorious history of labor camps, political repression, as well as expulsion and exploitation of various population groups. This course delves into Russia’s complex and uncomfortable past, tracing the development of its convict and unfree labor systems from the early modern period to the Soviet era. We will explore the legal, economic, and sociopolitical foundations of Russia’s penal regimes, focusing on how the state used exile, imprisonment, and forced labor to suppress opposition. Special attention will be paid to gender and ethnic diversity within these systems, including Siberian exile and penal colonies, where exiles interacted with Indigenous peoples. The first half of the course covers the origins and evolution of serfdom in Muscovy and the Russian Empire, including placing it in a comparative context with other forms of unfree labor. The second half focuses on the Soviet Gulag, including exploring the debates about whether it was primarily a tool for political repression or economic gain through forced labor. By considering labor practices across these historical epochs, we will explore how unfree labor shaped Russia’s imperial and Soviet ambitions and its long-term effects on the country’s social and political fabric. Like other 1099 courses, this class aims to teach students how to study and understand the past as more than a set of facts. We will learn to critically analyze conventional historical interpretations, question sources, and evaluate primary documents in the context of their era, among other methods of historical analysis. The course will include readings of primary sources as well as works by professional historians on topics such as exile, serfdom, the Gulag, and other forms of labor exploitation in Russian history. The focus will be on discussing these complex and often tragic processes and forming evidence-based perspectives. Completion of all readings, written assignments, and participation in labs and discussions is, therefore, mandatory and integral to achieving these objectives.

This iteration of the History Focus class explores the biggest demographic event in global human history: the Bantu Expansion. For over 150 years, scholars from dozens of fields have tried to explain how and why the 500-700 closely related languages of the Bantu language family came to be spoken by nearly 1/3 the population of Africa across 1/3 of the continent’s landmass. The mysterious process by which this large-scale linguistic event unfolded in Antiquity has long been explained by language shift: the adoption of Bantu languages by neighbors, facilitating the expansion of the languages themselves. However, new methods in archaeology and genetics are opening novel insights into what scholars now identify as the largest demographic even in Antiquity and perhaps even human history.

Following the pattern of HIST 1099 courses, we’ll take a deep dive into the ‘historiography’ of the scholarly problem of the Bantu Expansion, learning not only historical analysis but how to draw historical inferences from datasets generated by the methods of archaeology, paleogenomics, and comparative historical linguistics. Students will work with such datasets (ranging from the reconstructed vocabulary of long-dead ancient languages to unrooted phylogenetic trees, to ancient objects to oral traditions of ethnic groups’ origins) in order to explore the various causes of the Bantu Expansion in different periods and places in ancient Africa. Given its interdisciplinary nature, this course is particularly well-suited for non-History majors.

Washington’s antebellum landscape was pockmarked with prisons. In the antebellum period, the existence of slavery, the slave trade, and the kidnapping of free Black Americans created boisterous, and constant, points of contention between the North and South in the lead-up to the Civil War. This class will examine the legal policies, historical agents, events, and sites that combined to create a carceral landscape in the antebellum city. We will use the city as both a historical source, and take advantage of its resources, through visits to local sites. The discussions, readings, and assignments of this course are intended to foster the research, critical thinking, and writing skills which are foundational for history, as well as many other fields of inquiry. Over the semester, students will walk away not only with these practical skills but also with a historical context useful for better understanding America’s issues of race and policing which painfully linger to this day.

History is not simply the study of the past, but a specific way of thinking about and studying the past: history, like all disciplines within a liberal arts curriculum, pursues particular ways of formulating questions, identifying relevant evidence and contexts, analyzing and interpreting evidence, drawing conclusions, and constructing answers. In this course, we will focus on a specific topic – the Italian Renaissance – and use our study of it as a way to approach and understand at an introductory level various elements of historical work and analysis: what are primary sources, and how we can identify them, locate them, examine them, and employ them in our analysis; what other types of evidence historians use (visual sources, artifacts of all kinds, etc.) and how; how we construct an argument based on our evidence; how historians formulate the questions that guide their research and analysis; how to approach and understand the work of other historians in developing our own questions and analysis; how to present and employ historical evidence in our own writing; and so on. Throughout, we will seek to be always mindful of a fundamental question for all effective evidence-based analysis: how do we know what we know.

Over 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry – half of whom reside in the United States – making Ireland one of the most significant cases for diaspora study in modern history. What push/pull factors compelled the Irish to leave the island and circumnavigate the globe? Whether identified as ‘exile’ or ‘emigration’, this course will chart the transnational networks of Irish migration to the Global North (Australia, Canada, United States) and the Global South (Caribbean, Latin America, South Africa) in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Exploring themes such as class, culture, conflict, race, and religion, the course will examine the diverse diasporic experiences of Irish migrants in ‘global cities’ – from New York to New Delhi – introducing comparative analyses with other ethnic identities and diasporic communities. Integrating an interdisciplinary range of primary sources – from the Irish government’s ‘Global Ireland’ policy initiative to the cultural records of U2 – students will interrogate representations of Irishness across the world in the twenty-first century.

This course uses episodes in the History of the American West to examine how Americans have constructed a narrative of the historical past and what role myth plays in making these stories. It is not a survey of US Western History, but will focus on a handful of iconic or illuminating events and topics in order to understand both them and the critical-thinking skills and methods of historical practice needed to interpret them. Students who complete this course will practice historical methods to understand the complexity and diversity of the American West’s past and future.

The events and processes initiated by Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492 transformed the world of Columbus’s contemporaries and shaped the world we live in today. Drawing together the histories of four continents, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America, this course explores the new Atlantic world created as a consequence of the Columbian encounter. History 106 examines the Atlantic world through the experiences of the people who inhabited it from the mid-fifteenth century through approximately 1900. The final two weeks explore the legacies of Atlantic history on Georgetown’s own campus and beyond. A volatile mixture of people and pathogens, of labor systems and crops, of nations, empires, and subjects, contributed to the painful and unexpected emergence of this new Atlantic world. The unforeseen and, for many, tragic consequences of this process of cultural conflict and exchange lie at the heart of this class. Topics will include the destruction and reconfiguration of indigenous societies, the labor migrations of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans, the new and transformed societies that developed in all four continents of the Atlantic world, independence movements, piracy, slavery, abolition, disease, commodities, and different strategies of accommodation, resistance, and rebellion.

Pacific World focuses on the Pacific Ocean world, which has historically been regarded as a vast and prohibitive void rather than an avenue for integration. Yet over the last five centuries, motions of people, commodities, and capital have created important relationships between the diverse societies situated on the “Pacific Rim.” This course examines the history of trans-Pacific interactions from 1500 to the present. It takes the ocean itself as the principal framework of analysis in order to bring into focus large-scale processes–migration, imperial expansion, cross-cultural trade, transfers of technology, cultural and religious exchange, and warfare and diplomacy. This “oceans connect” approach to world history brings these processes into sharp relief while also allowing for attention to the extraordinary diversity of cultures located within and around the Pacific.

This course is a general survey and explores the rich history of people living in Africa from very early times through the 19th century. We will focus our attention on several regional case studies, including the early urbanism and medieval states of the West African Sahel, equatorial societies and kingdoms of the southern savannas, the Swahili coast and its hinterland in eastern and central Africa, and the Kongo Kingdom and Atlantic slave trade. We seek to understand transformations common to early human histories, such as the emergence of food production or the rise of centralized states, as well as the situational and contingent nature of ethnicity, slavery, gender, wealth, and poverty in the African context. We will also consider social achievements particular to Africans’ history, such as the multiple inventions of heterarchical forms of governance. We will study how persistent ideas from Western cultures shaped what outsiders thought they knew about Africans and their histories at the same time we try to understand what Africans themselves thought about their own actions and those of their ancestors. We will access these histories by analyzing a range of primary historical sources: archaeological artifacts and site reports, travelers’ accounts, art, oral traditions, photographs, the reconstructed vocabulary of dead languages, and many others.

This course meets for five hours once a week for seven weeks: 1/8, 1/13, 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/18, and 2/24, finishing before Spring Break. The five-hour block will include some lectures, discussions, and lab activities.

The course is introductory, has no prerequisites, and assumes no prior knowledge of China or its language. The organization of the course is basically chronological, but within that framework we will be approaching China from a wide range of viewpoints, taking up political, economic, social, religious, philosophical, and artistic developments. In the fall semester, we covered the formation of China’s social, political, and philosophical culture(s), going as far as the consolidation of imperial autocracy in the Ming dynasty (14th-16th centuries). This term we will cover roughly four centuries: 1580-1990. We start with both the resilience and weaknesses of China’s imperial system during its final quarter-millennium, including the tensions between a “Middle Kingdom” vision of China as a unitary, advanced, and self-sufficient civilization and the realities of the Manchu Qing state as a multi-ethnic empire in growing competition with others. We then take up the challenge to China’s traditions and stability posed by internal developments as well as external economic and cultural penetration by a number of “outsiders” in the 19th century. We conclude with China’s 20th-century experiments in forms of government and search for new directions in social and cultural development, so as to survive, and later thrive, in an increasingly interconnected global environment.

This course introduces students to the foundational events, concepts, and trends of historical change in Modern South Asia. The course has a particular focus on British imperialism but through subsidiary material, students will familiarize themselves with the longue durée historical changes that made modern South Asia. Every week, in the discussion, students will be introduced to long-term changes in the pre-colonial period to recognize how perceptions of the pre-colonial period impacted politics in the modern period under British imperialism. The course roughly begins when the Mughal empire starts tottering and ends with India’s liberalization of its economy, covering the pre-colonial period in brief, the colonial period, nationalist mobilization, partition, decolonization, and the vicissitudes of India’s democracy. Through this course, students will get a strong foundation in South Asian history and politics which will enable them to further explore the complex and diverse landscape that is South Asia.

The aim of this course is to introduce Korean history to those students with little or no exposure to Korea and to challenge commonly held assumptions by those who do. The course will explore the cultural, political, and social impact of Korea’s internationalization from early modern times to the contemporary period. The first part of the course will explore the turbulent interplay between Chōsen Korea, dynastic overthrow in China, civil war in Japan, and the threat of Western imperialism. The second part of the course will focus on twentieth-century Korea – the colonial experience, division, war, and relations between the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States.

The class seeks to familiarize students with and help them contextualize, historical processes and phenomena such as colonialism and imperialism, industrialization, modern population growth, nationalism and the rise of the nation-state, great power politics, and the emergence of modern science. Its goal is to explain how the world got to be the way it is, with a particular focus on how social and ethno-cultural identities have been shaped–and have in turn shaped–political, economic, and physical environments. The Europe II sections offer an analysis of the significant political, social, economic, diplomatic, religious, intellectual, and scientific developments in European Civilization since the eruption of the French Revolution. Special attention is also paid to issues of class, gender, marginality, and the relationship of Europe to non-Western cultures.

For College students, HIST 1504 fulfills the core requirement in History for a broad introductory survey; these students complete the requirement by taking HIST 1099. Using primary and secondary sources, this course explores the period from independence to the present. We begin with the independence movements against colonialism and analyze the diverse roles of Creoles, priests, peasants, indigenous groups, and enslaved people. Post-independence, we will examine the dynamics of frontier societies, conflicts between conservatives and liberals, the phenomenon of caudillismo, and the challenges of foreign interventions. Turning to the twentieth century, the class will focus on case studies of nation-building, modernization, industrialization,n and the political and economic mobilization of the working classes in selected countries. We will also study the impact of the hegemonic role of the United States on Latin America. The course concludes by examining contemporary issues, including environmental protection, the participation of women, neoliberalism and globalization, criminal cartels, migration, and the flourishing of Hispanic culture.

The course outlines the factors that have shaped the political and social features of the modern Middle East from 1500 to the present. Its geographic scope comprises the central provinces and territories of the former Ottoman and Safavid empires: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and Iran. The syllabus emphasizes three analytical themes: first, the historical evolution of “Middle Eastern” polities from dynastic and religious empires in the 16th century to modern “nation-states” in the 20th; second, the impact of industrial capitalism and European imperial expansion on local societies and their modes of production; and third, the socio-cultural and ideological dimensions of these large-scale transformations, specifically the rise of mass ideologies of liberation and development (nationalism, socialism, rights movements, political Islam), and the emergence of structural and social imbalances (economic polarization, cultural/ethnic conflicts, demographic growth, urbanization).

This lecture-based course is a survey of Russian and Eurasian history from the post-Napoleonic era to the present, covering the Russian Revolution, Stalinism, the Cold War, and the collapse of communism. It emphasizes the global connections of Imperial Russian history as well as the role of women, sexuality, and national minorities

About 1800 to the Present. Nineteenth-century nationalism, industrialization, and the euphoria of independence. Parliamentarism and democracy. Attempts at industrialization. Decline of democracy and resurgence of traditional conservatism and native fascism. The cauldron of World War II. The fate of the Jews. Sovietization. Titoism. Socialist society in Eastern Europe. The unraveling of Communism.

From Burna Boy’s Afro-fusion music to the Dahomean female warriors in Woman King, and the youth-led 2020 protest against police brutality in Nigeria, West African people and cultures have remained central to popular imagination and political debates. This course invites students to explore the historical backdrop of the events, peoples, and ideas that have shaped West Africa’s evolution. It traverses the rise and fall of empires from the first millennium AD onwards, examines the emergence of European imperialism and anti-colonial resistance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and concludes with the transformation in political and economic life from the 1960s to the present. The readings and discussions will emphasize the region’s contributions to global affairs and transnational movements’ influence on local developments. After taking this class, Students will understand how West Africans have adapted to changes and reflect on historical lessons that can shape the region’s future. Our study will include visits to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

In the period between 1000 and 1450, Europe was transformed from a provincial backwater into one of the most dynamic regions of the world. This course will explore how this transformation took place. It will provide a survey of the second half of the Middle Ages, concentrating on the political, economic, social, ecclesiastical, artistic, and intellectual developments of the period. We will examine how some of the most important institutions of Western civilization–representative assemblies, universities, and the nation-state, to cite a few examples–developed in this period. Classes will contain a mixture of lectures, discussions, and structured exercises (such as debates and re-creations of historical events), with a focus on analyzing primary sources in their historical context.

Science and religion have played powerful roles in shaping Western civilization: unparalleled resources – human, financial, and natural – have been invested in each of them, and they can be associated with many of the West’s proudest accomplishments and cruelest wrongdoings. Thought of together, science and religion conventionally conjure up images of conflict. They are envisioned as rival forces associated with contending institutions and serving opposing interests. Historical controversies over the structure of the cosmos and modern-day debates over the science curriculum in U.S. high schools offer support to the conclusion that science and religion exist in an unrelenting state of warfare. The aim of this course is to test that generalization by examining the actual history, focusing on key episodes in which scientific and religious interests have intersected.

Stretching from the early empires to the present day, this course will take on the big themes of Latin American history through a gendered lens. Through encounters with European regimes, structures of slavery, the upset of revolution, and twentieth-century political movements, we will discuss how gender factored into society and culture. We will think about where gender created, reinforced, and limited opportunities for individual, community, and national power. We will pay particular attention to the experiences of Latin American women, considering the impact of social status and economic roles and the influence of Indigenous heritage, African ancestry, and European legacies. The readings will be a mix of primary sources, from women’s personal accounts to social records, and secondary sources that explore various aspects of gender and women’s lives across a wide range of Latin American geographies.

This course will examine the role of gender and sexuality in the making of the modern Middle East from the late Ottoman period to the present. It will focus on the relationship between gender and sexuality and how they have been transformed by processes of colonialism, capitalism, nation-building, middle-class formation, and racialization. Through key sources in feminist history, we will also explore the ways in which women in the MENA region have responded to and shaped these historical processes.

The course is an introduction to the modern history of former French North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) from the establishment of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers in the early sixteenth century until national independence and the post-colonial period. Its underlying aim is to familiarize students with recent trends in historical scholarship on modern North Africa specifically, while also engaging with the principal theoretical frameworks and schools of thought in the field of imperial and colonial studies. Selected primary and secondary documents from the colonialist and nationalist periods will serve as the basis for analytical assessments of the legacy of imperialism on North African historiography. Topics of study include: the Ottoman-European contest in the Western Mediterranean; its impact on North African societies, states, and economies; European (Portuguese, Spanish, French) imperial expansion and North African modes of resistance; the consolidation of the French North African empire; the socio-economic, political, ideological and theoretical dimensions of colonial rule and administration; the impact of colonialism on the formation of cultural/national identities and modern subjectivities; the overlapping histories and memories of colony and metropole; the historical modes of colonial interactions and representation; and finally, the role of resistance and violence in the processes of decolonization and nation-making.

What factors have influenced the U.S. government’s and Americans’ interactions with the rest of the world? Who has shaped these encounters? What has the relationship been between these relations and U.S. domestic affairs? How have foreigners responded to U.S. actors and influence? We will analyze U.S. foreign relations, a broader category than simply foreign policy by examining the political, military, economic, religious, and cultural influence of the U.S. In particular, we will discuss the U.S. as a global power following World War II through topics such as the Cold War, the Vietnam Wars, human rights, and globalization. We will also consider the different ways historians have sought to explain U.S. foreign relations. This course focuses on trends and ideas, focusing on critical thinking and events rather than attempting a comprehensive account of U.S. foreign relations.

Black Lives Matter will center on the struggle for Black equality which stands as a unique and epoch-making saga in the quest for equal rights and human dignity. It surveys the lives of a people who have suffered from racial and ethnic discrimination in the USA and throughout the world. This struggle had and still has domestic, national, and international dimensions. In this course,e we will investigate the origins and flowering of the “Black Lives Movement ” tracing it from the “Civil Rights Movement” in America and study the developments and outcomes of the struggle to secure equal rights for African Americans. We will make the necessary links between the African American experience and the broader human rights issues. The course will use primary sources (many are now in book form) to chronicle both legal barriers and legal milestones related to the issues. We will examine violent acts against African Americans and both violent and nonviolent forms of resistance to discrimination. We will follow the everyday actions of the American people to secure equality for the descendants of former slaves. Special emphasis will be paid to the united efforts of African Americans, whites, and people of other ethnic backgrounds who have played prominent roles in the African American journey, from slavery to freedom and beyond. We will follow a thematic route to view the major events in the last decades of the 19th century to the “Civil Rights” decade of the 1960s to the Black Lives Movement of the 2000s. Visual presentations, short movies, and documentaries, African American cultural expressions (especially music), and the study of actual events will be central to the class. All are encouraged to read newspapers (you can get your home paper online) and to listen to newscasts as we will discuss relevant recent events related to our topics.

Crossing Boundaries: History in Global and Transnational PerspectiveThis is the core course for International History majors in the SFS. In this course, you will learn to approach major themes in modern history through a global and transnational lens. Topics include but are not limited to, the history of mobility and migration, media, war and revolutions, protest movements, the environment, and consumption. You will gain a firm grasp of these topics and be introduced to related debates about historical theory and methodology. A number of guest speakers who are experts in their respective fields will join us virtually or in person.

This seminar is intended to give a historical perspective of family businesses around the globe from the nineteenth century until the twenty-first century. We will explore why some dynasties have been successful in spite of the turmoil and major global changes while others did not meet these challenges successfully. The seminar will look at families from different continents to understand also how local political/economic/social factors aided or impeded their businesses.

This course offers upper-level students interested in the intersection of history and environmental studies the opportunity to engage deeply with the environments and cultures of the Northern Atlantic world. It locates the Northern Atlantic in space, time, and multidisciplinary study to investigate the history of this transnational region and the varied approaches to studying it.

Many of us are aware of revolutionary leaders such as Toussaint Louverture (Haiti), Ahmad Ben Bella (Algeria), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), and Fidel Castro (Cuba). We read about their actions leading their people to liberation. To many around the globe, they remain idealized role models and symbols of freedom and justice. However, official nationalist histories, which focus on these leaders as primary actors of history, tend to sideline and at times completely erase other historical actors such as women, workers, and peasants who were equally important in the process of revolutionary change. In this class, we will explore an array of different methods including oral histories, narrative films, memoirs, and visual culture (including photographs and posters) for studying and understanding historical revolutions. We will center women, workers, and peasants in our historical exploration of 20th-century revolutions of the global south starting with Haiti and moving on to Cuba, Algeria, South Africa, and Palestine. Utilizing different primary resources will help us uncover the erasures and silences in official historical narratives. Understanding histories from below and through every day experiences gives us a deeper understanding of anti-colonial struggles, the motivations behind joining a revolution, the complexities encountered by different groups, the efforts deployed in organizing societies, and the global solidarities that were built between different struggles.

US-Soviet Engagements and the Cultural Cold War, 1917-1991 This course discusses the cultural aspect of the Cold War defined by intellectual exchanges, exhibitions, jazz, rock music, and films. Throughout the geopolitical standoff, US-Soviet cultural engagements, full of contradictions and distortions, remained powerful. We will explore the role of politicians and cultural ambassadors in shaping Soviet and American cultural perceptions and stereotypes of each other. Topics will include the political use of culture, the role of ideology in culture formation and everyday life, the export of cultural images, reflections of the Cold War in culture, and lasting Cold War stereotypes, which affect Russian-American relationships even today. At the center of our course will be the exploration of cultural diplomacy as an effective tool for establishing relations between two competitors on the international scene. Our readings will include recent academic studies about the Cold War, biographies, autobiographies, and a spy novel. For History majors in the College, this class can count for either the US or Russia region, depending on your written work.

The seminar, “Expert Diplomacy,” traces the emergence and growing influence of experts as pivotal actors in the international system throughout the 20th century. It will explore how politicians increasingly viewed these individuals as indispensable carriers of specialized knowledge and relied on them as policymakers within technical committees of institutions like the League of Nations and the United Nations. Through seminar-style discussions, students will critically examine how international institutions provided platforms where experts could collaborate across borders, legitimize their knowledge, and establish themselves as influential players in shaping global diplomacy. We will also delve into how conferencing emerged as both a technique of internationalism and a means for advancing scientific progress, and assess whether this phenomenon is exclusive to a liberal international order. The course is structured around six thematic sessions, each spanning two to three weeks, where we will explore the role of expertise in areas such as health, opium and international law, education and intellectual cooperation, economy, and development. Several central questions will guide our weekly discussions: How do expert communities form, and how have they shaped international relations? In what ways have experts balanced national interests with broader international goals? We will consider how these individuals, often navigating between the demands of national delegations and the priorities of international communities, have acted as de facto diplomats, shaping both state policy and non-governmental internationalism. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically assess the significance of experts in diplomacy and their impact on the trajectory of international governance.

Historical knowledge—and the knowledge of how nation-states, politicians, world leaders, non-state actors, and national polities use history in the conduct of foreign affairs—is crucial to success as a diplomat or foreign policy practitioner. From the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to myriad examples of American policymakers using the Munich and Vietnam analogies when debating policy, to China’s current use of history to make claims in the South China Sea, history is an ever-present factor in international affairs. This course will examine the ways in which these groups have used history to create historical narratives and their effects on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. It will also examine the ways in which some countries deal with difficult aspects of their history. Key to this course will be an exploration of what history is, how it is portrayed, and who decides how it is portrayed. We will pursue the questions of how we can learn from history, how it affects international affairs, and what kinds of “lessons learned” policymakers can derive from history (and why). Furthermore, we will consider the question of whether or not historical analogies aid or burden policymaking decisions. Understanding history and how it is used is only one aspect of effective policymaking. Students will also explore how to sift through this information to make informed policy decisions in a fast-paced environment. Tasks will include weekly reading and short writing assignments; student-led class discussions; and researching, writing, and presenting an eight to ten-page final research paper on a topic of their choosing that deals with an issue of history in international affairs. Issues to be covered will include: -The uses and misuses of history: an overview of history in international affairs -Using history in the decision-making process -The Vietnam Syndrome and the Munich Analogy -The Boxer Rebellion: memory and its effects on policy -Knowing who’s across the table: history, culture, and race in foreign affairs -I’m sorry: apologies in the international arena The professor is Director of Programs and Research at the SFS Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He is a diplomatic historian who served in multiple roles at the Department of State. He recently completed a one-year tour for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the Presidential Daily Briefing Book briefer for State Department senior officials.

This course and summer lab will explore the history of relations between Japan and Korea from the perspective of social and cultural interactions to understand historical memory issues in context. The Spring seminar will focus on topics ranging from early-modern diplomacy and trade to colonial rule, wartime mobilization, decolonization, and contemporary connections, including youth culture, J-pop, and K-pop. We will also explore social issues related to tourism, particularly “dark tourism,” which will be one focus of the summer lab. The course’s main objective will be to co-author a guidebook to sites that connect the two countries. After the end of the semester in May, participants will embark on two weeks of fieldwork in South Korea and Japan. In addition to visiting historical sites and museums, we will meet with Korean and Japanese faculty and students to discuss historical memories and share experiences. Based on fieldwork during the trip, we will flesh out the guidebook for online publication. Please note that students will be registered by their deans or SFS OGE staff for these courses, following the application review and interview.

This C-Lab module accompanies the semester-long course (ASST 3100/HIST 3300) with two weeks of fieldwork in May. Students signing up for one are obligated to participate in the other, although the international fieldwork can be taken for no credit.

In this seminar course, we will consider the theories and practices that shaped the justice system of (mostly western and central) Europe from the Late Middle Ages through the eighteenth century. Our focus will be on the criminal side of the justice system, with only tangential treatment of civil laws and cases. We will consider both secular and church justice. We will start by examining the medieval situation, then examine the main commonalities and differences between the Western European and English systems, and the rise of new criminal procedures starting in the thirteenth century and spreading across continental Europe by the Renaissance. Other themes will include the treatment of specific categories of crimes and their political, cultural, religious, and other implications; the depiction of the criminal world and the justice system in European fiction; and the appearance of new ideas, and of judicial reforms, during the time of the Enlightenment. We will also study a few examples of famous and political trials from various countries. We will use both primary and secondary sources to study these issues, trends, and examples. This course is a seminar, and thus most of our class time will be devoted to group discussions of relevant sources. The writing assignments will give students a chance to practice various forms of academic writing.

Business historians often trace the origins of modern multinational firms – from Amazon to McDonalds – to the European trading companies of the early modern world. Like modern firms, these corporations had investors, governance structures, and often tense relationships with political authorities in their home states. But these early European trading companies also commanded armies and navies, ruthlessly colonized and subdued indigenous empires, and participated in the enslavement and human trafficking of millions. This course will examine the global histories of early trading companies, including the Virginia Company, the Royal Africa Company, and the British, Dutch, and French East India Companies. Who were the investors and shareholders in these ventures, and what power did they have in governing their companies? What political, military, and economic relationships did the companies forge with major, non-Western powers like the Mughal Empire and China? What kinds of financial and political controversies did they generate in Europe, and what was the ultimate human cost of their business abroad? What happens when a company acts like a “state,” and what does the early modern period teach us about business structures today? We will read new historical work on the relationship between corporations and empires, from Western and non-Western perspectives. We will also read key primary source documents from the histories of the British, Dutch, and French companies, including charters, legal acts, diplomatic correspondence, and works of economic and political thought by authors such as Adam Smith, Josiah Child, Hugo Grotius, Denis Diderot, and Edmund Burke.

This course is about: how and why saints fascinated medieval people and still fascinate modern historians. We will examine the various kinds of medieval saints: male and female, high-born and lowly, popular and official, aspiring and failed. We will also look at the ways that medieval people reacted to saints and the role that devotion to the saints played in medieval culture. We will study how medieval people honored their saints (and sometimes defamed them) and what was expected from saints in return; what kinds of people became recognized saints, and how this recognition happened (or failed to happen); and what sort of stories were told about saints and how this hagiography (hagio-holy, graphy-writing; thus writing about the holy) was valued within medieval culture. We will be examining popular (and unusual) practices regarding saints, such as the treatment of saints’ corpses, as well as the development of the juridical process of canonization. Our approach to the phenomena of saints and their veneration in medieval society will be historical, anthropological, artistic, literary, and sociological.

The modern world ushered in by the French Revolution provoked both optimism and pessimism about the future of Western civilization. This course will look at the pessimistic reaction, especially as it relates to the development of mass society and how it manifested itself in fantasies of uncontrollable monsters such as those in Frankenstein and Dracula, in the dystopic science fiction of H.G. Wells, fears of social degeneracy, and the radical ideologies of Fascism and Nazism. The time period covered will be 1789 to the outbreak of World War II.

Whether it was to go to Jerusalem to see where Jesus lived, to make the hajj to Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, or to travel beyond unchartered territory, the longing to see distant lands was a common desire in the Middle Ages (500-1500 C.E.). This course will reflect on how aspects of medieval travel have shaped our understanding of movement, tourism, pilgrimage, and even wanderlust in today’s world. The goal to move and discover in the medieval world permeated all facets of life: religious, political, economic, and the personal desire to encounter the unknown. Through great economic and personal costs, many made dangerous journeys to visit places of religious significance. Those who couldn’t travel read travelogs and letters from pilgrims who had made the arduous trek. Through the shared experiences of walking through religious spaces in D.C., as well as physically handling manuscripts and other medieval objects, students will gain a first-hand connection to the medieval world.

The goal of this course is to provide students with the tools to analyze, navigate, and research processes of violence and justice in recent Latin American history. Violence is *not* endemic in Latin America, nor is discussing trauma the objective of this course. Through the study of theory on the causes of violence in Latin America, the historical roots of violence and justice projects, and the analysis of local, domestic, and international transitional justice and post-conflict programs, this course will demonstrate that incidents of violence are always accompanied by efforts for justice, sparking discussion of exactly what justice looks like in different historical contexts.

This course focuses on the lived experiences of Palestinians in the Middle East from the late Ottoman period to the present and the key historical developments that have shaped those experiences. Over the course of the semester, students will write a research paper on a topic of their choice relating to modern Palestinian history.

This course examines the influence of intelligence on U.S. foreign policy from 1914, when the First World War brought American entry onto the global stage, and will trace its evolution through a Second World War, a Cold War, and a War on Terror, to today. We will ask whether and how, and to what extent, intelligence impacted policy in some cases, and why, in others, it did not. In doing so, we will explore core themes of culture and emotion, the influence of sources, the efficacy of tradecraft and the phenomenon of intelligence failure, bureaucratic rivalries, and the relationship between American intelligence and the policymaker.

What are the origins and manifestations of fascism? Why did fascist ideology entice so many Europeans from different social backgrounds between World Wars I and II? Is fascism something that belongs to the history of the 20th Century, or are there parallels with what some call fascism today? In this course students will find responses to these and related questions, learning about the nature of fascism as an ideology and as a set of practices. The course will explore the birth and first flourishing of fascism in interwar Italy, Germany, Romania, Hungary, and other regions, before turning to its legacy for today’s far-right populism and debates about fascism’s resurgence.

This is a multidisciplinary research colloquium on the Indian Ocean with an experiential learning component, designed to allow students to develop independent research projects.

In this interdisciplinary course, students will pursue a semester-long project in the medical humanities. The course provides a brief introduction to the medical humanities and its subfields, from medical history to the philosophy of medicine to medicine in literature to medical anthropology, before diving into the process of designing, researching, and preparing a major medical humanities project.

This course introduces students to the subject matter and methods of the economic approach to studying the past. Students will learn how quantitative data and economic logic can help historians frame and answer certain historical questions. Readings and examples from economic historians will represent various schools of thought and will address salient questions in world history. This is a seminar course, which means that instruction is mainly discussion-based. The course will also include historical workshops – class periods in which students have the opportunity to engage with historical material hands-on, to discover and debate the meaning of the traces of the past. No prior course in economics is required.

The independence of African countries from colonial rule remains one of the pivotal events in the making of the modern world. Before and after the imperial flags were lowered in countries such as Ghana and Tanzania, many people of African descent questioned the extent to which decolonization equated to liberation. This course invites students to examine how different segments of African society across age, class, gender, and ethnic backgrounds struggled for economic, gendered, social, and political freedom from the Second World War until the present. How did these actors define, experience, and imagine decolonization? What impact did their ideas have on their societies and the African diaspora? How can we apply their theories and practices of decolonization? The answers to these questions and more will help to shape students’ understanding of this pivotal period in world history.

This course is aimed at establishing literacy in the Pacific Islands, their storied histories, and their complex presence. It will take students through the Indigenous human geographies in the Pacific, the coming of Europeans, and the establishment of spheres of influence through various economies and imperial activities. It will pay close attention to the causes and consequences of power shifts, the imposition of imperial powers and resistance to it as well as the movement of Asian people into the island Pacific as indentured plantation laborers from the mid-C19th. It will investigate the building of tensions that led to World War Two and what happened in its aftermath. From here the course looks at the reasons the Pacific Islands have returned to western focus as the frontline of climate change and more urgently still, driven by massive and recent Chinese attention as an extension of its Belt and Road Initiative. As well as paying close attention to perspectives from Washington, Canberra, Wellington, Paris, and Beijing, this course will be Pacific-focused, giving much attention to Pacific island actors, voices, and perspectives, and framed around the urgent situation of the present. Information about the course instructor Patricia O’Brien, Ph.D., can be found at this link: https://www.tautaithebook.com/

This course examines beliefs about and the lived realities of women in Europe between 800-1600. The course traces the power and authority of women rulers, warriors, religious leaders, and authors alongside the role of women within family networks and among the dispossessed, servants, and the sexually exploited. It examines theological opinions, legal codes and practices, and literary representations, among other sources, in order to address questions regarding the status of women, their power, authority, and opportunities or lack thereof. Along the way, the course will examine case studies of particular women and selected texts written by women.

This course will look at the origins, practice, and nature of Fascism as it developed in Europe between the world wars. To that end, readings by Fascist theorists such as Mussolini and Hitler, as well as by historians who analyze and describe the phenomenon will be used. Films from and about the era will also be part of the material for the course. In addition to discussing historical Fascism, the course will also take a look at what, if anything, connects the meaning of Fascism as it existed in the past and how that term is used today.

The course will analyze the traditions of insurrection in the Andean countries, from the Túpac Amaru/Túpac Katari rebellions of the late eighteenth century to the modern-day indigenous movements in Ecuador and Bolivia. Other major movements, such as the role of indigenous peoples in the construction of the Peruvian nation, the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, and the Peruvian Shining Path guerrilla movements will be studied in a comparative perspective. Each student will prepare a research paper on an Andean indigenous movement and present it to the class.

Explores Mexican history and northward migrations setting cinematic classics in the context of leading histories: Steinbeck’s Viva Zapata linked to Womack’s Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, followed by Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (The Damned), Cuaron’s Roma, Nava’s Mi Familia, and Riggen’s Under the Same Moon–all linked to relevant historical/analytical studies. We will watch films together, and discuss them as films, then return to discuss them in the context of historical visions–engaging the evolution of both over time. Students will write independent analytical essays, one on 20th-century Mexico, and one on migrations north.

This course explores Russian history through the life and work of Fedor Dostoevsky. In his lifetime, the great Russian writer witnessed political reform and revolutionary agitation, terrorism and political assassination, occultism and scientific positivism, mass migration, and urban growth, and all of these events informed Dostoevsky’s novels, short stories, journalism, and his life more broadly. In this course, we shall read Dostoevsky and his contemporaries selectively and examine recent historical scholarship on 19th-century Russia. We shall focus specifically on intelligentsia debates, revolutionary circles, mass incarceration, political exile, mental illness, urban environments, and the sex trade. In short, this course explores the history of Dostoevsky’s Russia.

Embark on a profound journey through Ukraine’s tumultuous history, exploring the haunting theme of genocide from the era of Hitler to the present day under Putin’s regime. This course offers a meticulous examination of historical events and political dynamics, providing students with a deep understanding of the tragic occurrences that have shaped Ukraine’s destiny. By engaging with primary sources and expert analyses, participants will critically evaluate the far-reaching impact of genocidal actions against Jews and Poles on the nation’s culture, identity, and relationships with its neighbors. Additionally, the course will shed light on Putin’s view of history and global order, highlighting their relevance in Russia’s war against Ukraine and offering insights into how historical narratives can be manipulated for political purposes.

This course offers a useful history to the category of the “undocumented immigrant,” or — more negatively — “illegal alien ” It offers a chance to do original research on the fascinating time period in immigration history from 1880 to 1929. It was during these years that the legal restrictions that ended mass immigration to the United States until the 1950s were put into place. Using both primary and secondary sources, the course will trace the rise of immigration and restrictions placed on it, changing notions of citizenship, and the differentiation by race—or scientific racism—among immigrants of Asian, Mexican, and eastern and southern European backgrounds. Topics explored will include the relationship between race and citizenship status; the history of the idea of the “illegal alien”; and the gendered aspects of the immigration experience. Each student will have the opportunity to do original research using both published and archival primary sources. The first half of the course will focus on common readings to establish themes and background; the second half will be built around developing individual research interests.

Hist 4998-4999 form a two-semester study of History as an intellectual discipline and culminates in the production of a history thesis, an original work of scholarship grounded in primary source research. Enrollment is by invitation of the Department. Fall: Readings and discussions of theory, method, and research process, resulting in a research prospectus and the drafting of one substantive, primary-source-based chapter. Spring: Drafting, peer editing, and revising the thesis with the assistance of the seminar and a faculty mentor. Students commit to the full two semesters. The Department expects the Honors Seminar to be each student’s main academic priority. Enrollment only by permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

HIST 1099 – Caliphs & Emperors – Osama Abi-Mershed
HIST 1099 – Internationalism: The Geneva System – Nicole Albrecht
HIST 1099 – American Revolution – Chandra Manning
HIST 1099 – Asian American Labor History – Crystal Luo
HIST 1099 – Rio de Janeiro – Bryan McCann
HIST 1099 – US Working Lives – Joseph McCartin
HIST 1099 – 1741 New York Slave Revolt – Maurice Jackson
HIST 1102 – World II: Global Warming – Emma Moesswilde
HIST 1106 – Atlantic World – Alison Games / George Clay
HIST 1107 – Pacific World – Christine J Kim
HIST 1109 – The Islamic World – Jonathan Brown
HIST 1111 – World I: The Little Ice Age – Emma Moesswilde
HIST 1201 – Africa II – Ishmael Annang
HIST 1401 – Europe I – James Shedel / David Collins
HIST 1410 – Europe: Age of Reason/Sentiment – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 1501 – The Americas I – John Tutino
HIST 1703 – East European History I – Christopher Stolarski
HIST 2410 – Europe After Rome – Timothy Newfield
HIST 2416 – The Crusades – Stefan Zimmers
HIST 2421 – Modern Ireland – Darragh Gannon
HIST 2422 – The French Empire since 1600 – Elizabeth Cross
HIST 2806 – The US in the World to 1945 – Susan Perlman
HIST 2821 – U.S. in the 1960’s – Michael Kazin
HIST 3106 – History of Globalization – Michael Douma
HIST 3110 – Pirates: Atlantic & Caribbean – Claire Steele
HIST 3133 – Global Env. History since 1900 – John McNeill
HIST 3313 – Life and Legacy of Mao Zedong – Emily Matson
HIST 3333 – Uses of the Past in Modern China – Denise Ho
HIST 3410 – The European Left: 1870-1945 – J. Killion
HIST 3419 – Conflict (Resolution) in Northern Ireland – Darragh Gannon
HIST 3428 – Eternal City: History of Rome – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 3501 – Making Nations in Latin America – Erick Langer
HIST 3810 – Workers on Strike! – Joel Berger
HIST 3815 – Latinx Social Movements – Mireya Loza
HIST 3820 – Intel in US Foreign Policy – Susan Perlman
HIST 4108 – Russia & China: Imp. Encounters – Gregory Afinogenov
HIST 4132 – South Asia in the Indian Ocean – Ananya Chakravarti & Cóilín Parsons
HIST 4206 – Apartheid – Meredith McKittrick
HIST 4308 – ThePacific: Past, Present, Future – Patricia O’Brien
HIST 4408 – Kristallnacht as Global Hist – Aviel Roshwald
HIST 4600 – Islam and War – Gabor Agoston
HIST 4607 – Ottoman Palestine in the Global Age – Mustafa Aksakal
HIST 4711 – Memory Wars: Ukr, Rus & EE – Diana Dumitru
HIST 4900 – History Portfolio Workshop – Meredith McKittrick
HIST 4998 – Sr Sem: History Honors – Chandra Manning

HIST 1099 – Far Right Politics in Global Perspective – Brent McDonnell
HIST 1099 – Propaganda in Russia/USSR – Michael David-Fox
HIST 1099 – Race Policing & Incarceration – Luke Frederick
HIST 1099 – Italian Renaissance – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 1099 – Internationalism: The Geneva System – Nicole Albrecht
HIST 1099 – Hist Focus: Women in Early Modern Europe – Leigh Stephens
HIST 1102 – World II: Global Warming – Dagomar Degroot
HIST 1102 – World II, World History: Power, Health, Environment – John McNeill
HIST 1106 – Atlantic World – Matthew Goetz
HIST 1150 – Global History of Skateboarding – Bryan McCann
HIST 1201 – Africa II – Elijah Zehyoue
HIST 1301 – History of China I – Yuan Gao
HIST 1302 – History of China II – Emily Matson
HIST 1308 – Modern South Asia – Ananya Chakravarti
HIST 1311 – Hist of Korea in NE Asia – Christine J Kim
HIST 1401 – Europe I – Elena Brizio
HIST 1402 – Europe II – Susan Pinkard
HIST 1504 – Latin America II – Xenia Wilkinson
HIST 1602 – Middle East II – Idun Hauge & Yasser Sultan
HIST 1702 – History of Russia II – Christopher Stolarski
HIST 2104 – Italy’s Muslim Empire – Mustafa Aksakal
HIST 2105 – Medieval Iberia: Cultures in Contact – Jonathan Ray
HIST 2411 – Mid Ages: Millennium–Bl Death – Jo Moran Cruz
HIST 2414 – Europe in World Wars:1914–1945 – Aviel Roshwald
HIST 2417 – The Reformations in Europe – Amy Leonard
HIST 2421 – Modern Ireland – Darragh Gannon
HIST 2424 – The Renaissance – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 2603 – Mediterranean in History – Mustafa Aksakal
HIST 2807 – The US in the World Since 1946 – Susan Perlman
HIST 2811 – Baseball/American Society – Chandra Manning
HIST 3103 – Comparative Empires – Alison Games & Josiah Osgood
HIST 3105 – Global History: Empires in History – Osama Abi-Mershed
HIST 3300 – Japan in Korea, Korea in Japan – Christine Kim & Jordan Sand
HIST 3308 – Manchuria – Emily Matson
HIST 3310 – Indochina: The Makings of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos – Jeffrey Ngo
HIST 3401 – Jesuits: Ignatius to Francis – David Collins
HIST 3412 – Art & Power Europe: 1300–1800 – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 3415 – Neghbring Wrlds: Mars, Moon, V – Dagomar Degroot
HIST 3418 – Medieval Cooking in America – Susan Pinkard
HIST 3419 – Culture of Conflict– Northern Ireland – Darragh Gannon
HIST 3425 – Mary Through the Ages – Vanessa Corcoran
HIST 3610 – Political Ethnic Conflict in ME/EUR – Armen Manuk-Khaloyan
HIST 3710 – Russian Borderlands – Christopher Stolarski
HIST 3807 – History of American Gentrification – Mike Amezcua
HIST 4104 – Global Plague – Timothy Newfield
HIST 4107 – Fascism and its Legacy – Diana Dumitru
HIST 4160 – Medical Humanities – Timothy Newfield
HIST 4301 – The Silk Road – James Millward
HIST 4308 – The Pacific: Past, Present, Future – Patricia O’Brien
HIST 4403 – Sex & Power in Europe 800–1600 – Jo Ann Moran Cruz
HIST 4405 – European Fascism – James Shedel
HIST 4505 – Capitalism/Community/Americas – John Tutino
HIST 4601 – Pirates/Soldiers/Diplomats – Gabor Agoston
HIST 4603 – Colonial North Africa – Osama Abi-Mershed
HIST 4707 – Ideology in Imperial Russia – Gregory Afinogenov
HIST 4710 – Hitler, Putin, Ukraine – Diana Dumitru
HIST 4804 – Social Movements in US History – Michael Kazin
HIST 4999 – Sr. Sem: History Honors – Chandra Manning
HIST 4999 – Sr. Sem: History Honors – Amy Leonard

HIST 1099 – Caliphs & Emperors – Osama Abi-Mershed
HIST 1099 – American Activism – Mireya Loza
HIST 1099 – Women in Early Modern Europe – Leigh Stephens
HIST 1099 – Rio de Janeiro – Bryan McCann
HIST 1099 – Material Culture – Susan Pinkard
HIST 1099 – Nationalism – Aviel Roshwald
HIST 1106 – Atlantic World – Alison Games
HIST 1107 – Pacific World – Michael Wall
HIST 1107 – Pacific World – Christine J Kim
HIST 1109 – The Islamic World – Nader Hashemi
HIST 1111 – World I: The Little Ice Age – Dagomar Degroot
HIST 1201 – Africa II – Elijah Zehyoue
HIST 1301 – History of China I – Yuan Gao
HIST 1308 – Modern South Asia – Dale Menezes
HIST 1401 – Europe I – James Shedel
HIST 1401 – Europe I – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 1410 – Europe:Age of Reason/Sentiment – Tommaso Astarita
HIST 1501 – The Americas I – John Tutino
HIST 1601 – Middle East I – Gabor Agoston
HIST 1701 – History of Russia I – Gregory Afinogenov
HIST 1703 – East European History I – Christopher Stolarski
HIST 2103 – History of Antisemitism – Jonathan Ray
HIST 2302 – History of Australia – Patricia O’Brien
HIST 2410 – Europe after Rome – Timothy Newfield
HIST 2413 – The Vikings – Stefan Zimmers
HIST 2806 – The US in the World to 1945 – Toshihiro Higuchi
HIST 2815 – Black History and Culture – Maurice Jackson
HIST 2816 – Conflict & Reform: US 1877-1920 – Michael Kazin
HIST 3101 – Global Catholicism – David Collins
HIST 3106 – History of Globalization – Michael Douma
HIST 3110 – Global Hist of Photography – Idun Hauge
HIST 3210 – Urban History of Africa – Tracy Mensah
HIST 3310 – Historical Memory of WWII in East Asia – Emily Matson
HIST 3402 – Collaboration/Resistance in WWII – Aviel Roshwald
HIST 3501 – Making Nations in Lat America – Erick Langer
HIST 3810 – New Orleans in the Atlantic World – Greg Beaman
HIST 4102 – Global Age of Revolution – Elizabeth Cross & Greg Afinogenov
HIST 4105 – Global Slavery – Ananya Chakravarti
HIST 4106 – Environmental Inequality – Meredith McKittrick
HIST 4209 – Resistance/Reparations in Africa – Meredith McKittrick
HIST 4305 – China since 1949 – Michael Wall
HIST 4308 – The Pacific: Past, Present, Future – Patricia O’Brien
HIST 4600 – Islam and War – Gabor Agoston
HIST 4811 – Islam, Black Atl, Afr Am – Maurice Jackson
HIST 4812 – Genealogy & U.S. History – Katherine Benton-Cohen
HIST 4900 – History Portfolio Workshop – Amy Leonard
HIST 4998 – Sr Sem: History Honors – Chandra Manning