2023-2024 Course Catalog
Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.
Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.
Introduces students to the main concepts and issues of discipline of history. Familiarizes students with the Department of History, educational requirements, university resources, and career opportunities for History majors.
Introduction to fundamental issues in history through historical simulations. Enacting specific roles in historical situations while improving liberal learning skills, including evaluating evidence, understanding multiple perspectives, writing persuasive essays, and developing public speaking skills. Specific topics may vary from semester to semester. May be repeated one time with different content for a maximum of six credits.
Surveys the civilizations and peoples of Greece, Rome, and the Ancient Near East (including Egypt and Mesopotamia) from the invention of writing around 3,000 B.C. to the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century C.E. through study of literature as well as archaeological artificts. Examines the interactions and interdependencies of these civilizations and considers their enduring influence.
Examines the political, social, and cultural history of Europe since the medieval period. Focuses on the complex interplay between demographic transformation, social and political change, and cultural development. 1025: Explores the legacy of the Roman Empire, the expansion and consolidation of “Europe,” the medieval world and expansion in the Atlantic World. 1026: Explores the rise of Absolutism and the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolutions, imperialism, the rise of new political ideologies and nation-building, and Europe in the twentieth century world.
Examines the political, social, and cultural history of Europe since the medieval period. Focuses on the complex interplay between demographic transformation, social and political change, and cultural development. 1025: Explores the legacy of the Roman Empire, the expansion and consolidation of “Europe,” the medieval world and expansion in the Atlantic World. 1026: Explores the rise of Absolutism and the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolutions, imperialism, the rise of new political ideologies and nation-building, and Europe in the twentieth century world.
Interdisciplinary introductory course explores how food shapes and is shaped by culture and society. Examines how people use food to express meanings (e.g., via foodways, story, art, architecture, religion, ethical codes), how food options, practices, and inequities are shaped by social structures (e.g. cultural and legal norms regarding race, class, and gender), and how the material properties of food (e.g., chemical, ecological, technological) are linked to identities, ideological commitments, and historical moments.
Examines the history of the United States through intersections of politics, economics, sciences, the arts and significant social movements. Considers how the modern United States has emerged through the interactions of diverse ethnic, racial, national, class, and religious groups. 1115: pre-Columbian societies through the Civil War; 1116: Reconstruction through present. Sequence recommended as preparation for advanced courses in United States history.
Examines the history of the United States through intersections of politics, economics, sciences, the arts and significant social movements. Considers how the modern United States has emerged through the interactions of diverse ethnic, racial, national, class, and religious groups. 1115: pre-Columbian societies through the Civil War; 1116: Reconstruction through present. Sequence recommended as preparation for advanced courses in United States history.
An examination of the global significance of the critical political, social, cultural, and international issues in the 20th century.
Examine political, economic, social, and cultural change around the world over the course of human existence, with particular emphasis connections and comparisons of human societies across space and time. 1215: Covers early civilizations to 1500 CE. Major themes include the development of human civilization and the interactions of different societies through exchange of people, ideas, goods, and disease. 1216: Covers from 1500 CE to present. Major themes include the spread of European imperialism and resistance to it, development of nation-states, world wars, and post-colonial globalization.
Examine political, economic, social, and cultural change around the world over the course of human existence, with particular emphasis connections and comparisons of human societies across space and time. 1215: Covers early civilizations to 1500 CE. Major themes include the development of human civilization and the interactions of different societies through exchange of people, ideas, goods, and disease. 1216: Covers from 1500 CE to present. Major themes include the spread of European imperialism and resistance to it, development of nation-states, world wars, and post-colonial globalization.
Explores major themes and events in the political and cultural history of major empires in Mexico and Peru from 900 to 1600. Examines the emergence of indigenous empires, their confrontation with European conquistadors, and life in the early colonial period. Discusses the cultural collision that occurred when Europeans arrived in the Americas, and complicates the narrative of the conquest. Focuses on the complex interplay between geography, political and economic organization, and social change. Investigates the position of indigenous peoples in pre-Columbian and European empires in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Discussion of the methods and sources to interpret postclassic and early Colonial Latin America.
Survey of the 20th century history of five states in northeast Asia, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, North and South Korea, and the connections between them. Causes and consequences of war, colonization and nationalist movements and their implications for contemporary regional and global relations. Emphasis on cultural concepts, political ideologies, social relations and historical conflicts as background to current security concerns.
Examines political, economic, social and cultural themes in African history from the beginnings of human civilization to the recent past, with particular emphasis on historical experiences of race, gender, class, religion, ethnicity, and nationality. 1515: Covers early civilizations through the abolition of the slave trade. Examines migrations and trade, the expansion of Islam, and slavery in Africa and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 1516: Covers Africa since the nineteenth century. Examines European conquest, and major political, cultural and social changes during the colonial and post-colonial eras.
Examines political, economic, social and cultural themes in African history from the beginnings of human civilization to the recent past, with particular emphasis on historical experiences of race, gender, class, religion, ethnicity and nationality. 1515: Covers early civilizations thorugh the abolitionof the slave trade. Examines migrations and trade, the expansion of Islam, and slavery in African and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 1516: Covers Africa since the nineteenth century. Examines European conquest, and major political, cultural and social changes during the colonial and post-colonial eras.
Rock ‘n’ roll in historic and cultural contexts. Effects on social identity, worldviews, economic justice, cultural appropriation, diversity, power, and traditions. Creative and aesthetic influences in human experience and cultural expression. Significant music figures, movements, and trends in artistic, political, social, technological, and industrial developments in the U.S.
Explanation of the discipline of history: its history, philosophies, and methods, with emphasis on historical research.
Development of engineering and its cultural values in historical and transnational perspectives. Explores the varying knowledge, identities, and commitments of engineers and engineering across different countries. Examines values in emergent infrastructures of engineering education and work, and the participation of engineers and engineering in evolving forms of capitalism. Helps students learn to reflect critically on their knowledge, identities, and commitments in varying curricula and a globalizing world.
Introduction to the problems, methods and skills of the discipline of history through the study of significant themes and critical issues in the history of the United States. Emphasis on the study of source materials and historical interpretations of specific themes in American history. Themes grounded in issues of class, race, gender, and equality in US history. Specific topics will vary from semester to semester. Course may be repeated twice for a maximum of 9 credits.
This course allows Honors students to explore more thoroughly selected themes in the history of the United States, from its initial settlement to the present. Students must have University Honors status or permission of the instructor to take this course.
Introduction to the problems, methods and skills of the discipline of history through the study of significant themes and critical issues in European history. Emphasis on the study of source materials and historical interpretations. Specific thematic content is variable. Themes grounded in European history/Europe’s role in world that interrogate the concept of “the West.” Specific topics will vary from semester to semester. Course may be repeated twice for a maximum of 9 credits.
An exploration of critical issues in modern European history, through the study of source materials and historical interpretations. University Honors standing is required.
Introduction to the problems, methods and fundamental skills of the discipline of history through the study of significant themes and critical issues in world history. Emphasis on the study of source materials and historical interpretations. Specific thematic content is variable. Examines political, economic, social, and cultural change at historically specific periods of time around the world with a focus on drawing comparisons and making connections across regional spaces. Specific topics may vary from semester to semester. May be repeated two times with different content for a maximum of 9 credit hours.
Explores topics in history through the lens of specific TV shows or series. Featured shows and topics will vary from semester to semester. Considers how television programs have represented historical events, ideas, and communicated ideas about race, gender, sexuality, class, or culture. May be repeated once with different content for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
French history from Roman Gaul to the present. 2165: Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance France; Absolute Monarchy. 2166: The Revolution; Nineteenth and Twentieth Century France.
French history from Roman Gaul to the present. 2165: Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance France; Absolute Monarchy. 2166: The Revolution; Nineteenth and Twentieth Century France.
History of Southeastern Europe from the sixth century to the present. Chief themes are movement of peoples, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, religious conflicts, social developments, and rival nationalisms.
Examines the history of ancient Greek and Roman women from ninth century BCE to the fall of the Roman Empire. Analyzes contributions of women to each civilization. Studies construction of and contemporary debates about women’s ascribed social, political, and cultural roles.
Examines the influences, traditions, and receptions of the ancient Greeks and Romans in the modern world, especially in the United States. Explores the re-interpretation of the ancient Greek and Roman world across mediums, and by leaders and governments in diverse societies. Discusses contexts and ideologies of re-makings of the ancient Greek and Roman world.
Examines the building development of the ancient city of Rome and selected Roman cities; investigates how social, political, and cultural aspects of private and public architecture in these physical cities both create meaning and preserve memory. Explores the ways in which later cultures, especially through literature, have engaged with the pervasive and persistent influence of ancient Rome, not just as a physical place, but also as a cultural construct.
Surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the U.S. over the long Sixties (mid-1950s to mid-1970s). Examines the civil rights movement, Vietnam War and antiwar movement, identity politics, cultural revolutions, American liberalism, and American conservatism. Explores how intersection of race, class, gender, ethnicity and age shaped varying experiences of the 1960s. Emphasis on the study of source materials and historical interpretations.
2275: African continent through Civil War. Examines trajectory of slavery as well as its global impacts and legacy, the development of racial thought, slave resistance and rebellions, the fight for Emancipation, and African American contributions to culture, economics and society of United States. 2276: Reconstruction through present. Examines impact and legacy of Reconstruction, the fight against Jim Crow segregation, and the social, cultural, political and economic contributions of African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. Exploration of the global implications of race relations in the United States.
2275: African continent through Civil War. Examines trajectory of slavery as well as its global impacts and legacy, the development of racial thought, slave resistance and rebellions, the fight for Emancipation, and African American contributions to culture, economics and society of United States. 2276: Reconstruction through present. Examines impact and legacy of Reconstruction, the fight against Jim Crow segregation, and the social, cultural, political and economic contributions of African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. Exploration of the global implications of race relations in the United States.
History of the Middle East from the seventh century to today, with emphasis on formation of Islamic civilization, medieval and early modern political systems, European imperialism, and the struggle for independence. 2345: seventh century to 1914; 2346: independence, wars, revolutions, and social change since 1914.
History of the Middle East from the seventh century to today, with emphasis on formation of Islamic civilization, medieval and early modern political systems, European imperialism, and the struggle for independence. 2345: seventh century to 1914; 2346: independence, wars, revolutions, and social change since 1914.
China from prehistory to the present. Special attention to political, social, economic, and cultural developments. 2355: Prehistory, Imperial China to the sixteenth century; 2356: late Imperial China to modern and contemporary China.
China from prehistory to the present. Special attention to political, social, economic, and cultural developments. 2355: Prehistory, Imperial China to the sixteenth century; 2356: late Imperial China to modern and contemporary China.
Political, social, economic, and cultural development of Japan from earliest times to present; emphasis on problems of modernization in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.
History of India from pre-historical times to approximately 1700, with particular focus on the interplay between religion and politics. Emphasis on sources for and interpretations (historiography) of early Indian history. Literary versus archaeological record of pre-historic India, the earliest empires and rulers, and impact of the Islamic and wider world on India. Legacies of ancient and medieval India in the contemporary world.
History of India since approximately 1700, with particular focus on Gandhis influence on modern India and the world. Emphasis on sources for and interpretations (historiography) of modern Indian history. Examination of pre-colonial and colonial pasts and legacies. Exploration of Gandhis role in political, social, cultural, and religious movements of the early 20th century, and Gandhis legacy in the independent states of South Asia and the contemporary world.
Exploration of the evolution and alterations of food and cuisines throughout Asian history. Examination of the economic, geographical, political, philosophical/religious, and social underpinnings of food in premodern Asian societies; influence of the Columbian Exchange of Asian and global cuisines; Euro-American imperialism’s impact on food and society in Asia and in the European and American metropoles; emergence of national cuisines in Asia; and Asian food in the post-colonial diaspora.
Political, social, economic, and cultural history of Germany since 1815. Discussion of the origins, experience and impact of political ideologies and national unification/reunification, colonial expansion, Nazism, war and genocide, and the role of Germany in Europe and the world. Diverse perspectives on German history and its implications through primary and secondary source materials. Particular focus on historiographical interpretations of the German past.
Examines the changing conditions of urban life and the shifting roles that cities have played in U.S. history. Identifies transformations and movements in physical development, including urban form, architecture, urban planning, infrastructure, and environmental conditions. Details the processes of immigration and the consequences of demographic change in cities. Analyzes the contests over politics arising from these urban changes.
Analyzes changing understandings of crime and punishment from the Colonial Era to the Age of Mass Incarceration. Considers how factors of race, ethnicity, class, and gender intersected with changing ideas of criminality and punishments.
Introduction to the history of food in the United States. Examines food cultures, food systems, food industries, nutrition, government regulation, inequalities, and environmental effects of food and agricultural production. Studies these topics across different demographics in the United States and its global context, with attention to change over time.
Survey of agricultural history in the United States, with comparative global case studies. Examination of indigenous practices, labor, development of market economies, relationships among plants and animals, scientific and technological change, landscape transformation and sustainability, food systems, and inequality and exploitation within cultures and societies.
The United States at war from the American Revolution to the War on Terror. Emphasis on how U.S. policymakers have justified war, popular understandings of “the enemy,” the merits and limitations of distinctions between civilians and service members, and the role of technological innovation. Engagements with interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives with a war and society approach.
Surveys history and cultures of the U.S. South from the Pre-Colombian era to the modern South. Analyzes the enslavement and emancipation of Black southerners, slave resistance, the impact of capitalism, Reconstruction, the creation of the Lost Cause mythology and Jim Crow segregation. Examines the political and economic influences of the region from the emergence of abolitionist thought, populism, the long struggle for racial equality, and the creation of the Sunbelt. Special emphasis placed on struggles for social justice, civil rights and demographic changes within the region.
Examines the use of data to identify, reveal, explain, and interpret patterns of human behavior, identity, ethics, diversity, and interactions. Explores the historical trajectories of data to ask how societies have increasingly identified numerical measures as meaningful categories of knowledge, as well as the persistent challenges to assumptions about the universality of categories reducible to numerical measures.
Examination of the meaning of data in historical context. Exploration of how historical context shapes classification, collection, and interpretation of data. Analysis of data as a meaningful category of human experience. Variable content. May be repeated once for up to six (6) hours of credit.
Development of technology and engineering in their social and cultural contexts. Examines the interaction of people, cultures, technologies, and institutions such as governments, religious bodies, corporations, and citizens groups. 2715: Examines the creation and modification of technologies to establish the basic structures of civilization, from prehistory to the Industrial Revolution (about 1800). 2716: Examines the nature of technological change and consequences in society, from about 1800 to present.
Development of technology and engineering in their social and cultural contexts. Examines the interaction of people, cultures, technologies, and institutions such as governments, religious bodies, corporations, and citizens groups. 2715: Examines the creation and modification of technologies to establish the basic structures of civilization, from prehistory to the Industrial Revolution (about 1800). 2716: Examines the nature of technological change and consequences in society, from about 1800 to present.
Examines key concepts, ideas, and technologies in global population displacement, including categorization, distribution and governance of displaced groups. Introduces displacement drivers such as natural disaster, climate change, civil unrest, infectious disease, and forced relocation. Identifies digital infrastructures used for, by, and against displaced populations. Describes experiences of displaced people.
Critical analysis of early American society. Founding and development of the colonies in the 17th century; 18th century colonial life.
Causes, nature, and results of the American Revolution, 1763- 1789.
Causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War. Emphasis on transformations in regional and national identity, race relations, the status of African Americans, gender roles, military affairs, and the United States place on the world stage. Develop skill in written and oral discourse.
America from end of Reconstruction to World War I: industrial and urban growth, the last frontier, worsening status for African Americans, immigration and new ethnic currents, Populism and Progressivism, cultural ferment, and overseas expansion, Americas entry on the world stage.
Social, economic, cultural, and political history of America from the entry into World War I, the turbulent 1920s, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, postwar prosperity, the Cold War, social and cultural ferment, Vietnam, Watergate, to the new anxieties about the limits of power in the 1980s.
Examination of the lives of ordinary people in order to understand the human experience through a focus on race, ethnicity, class, gender, and region.
Roles of women from colonial settlement to the present. Special attention to family experiences, political agendas, and economic contributions of women and to social construction of gender identities. 3105: to 1865; 3106: since 1865.
Roles of women from colonial settlement to the present. Special attention to family experiences, political agendas, and economic contributions of women and to social construction of gender identities. 3105: to 1865; 3106: since 1865.
Examines the changing economic and political conditions under capitalism since the Industrial Revolution. Outlines key ideas and figures that shaped the system of capitalist accumulation and industrial production. Identifies changes in systems of production, exchange, labor, and distribution and distinguishes between organizational innovations, technological advancements, and political responses. Discusses the ethical and moral implications and consequences of state policies, economic exchanges, and individual actions in the capitalist creation and distribution of wealth and various critiques of the system.
Considers how the definition of murder as a crime has changed from the colonial period to the present day. Uses murder cases to study the dynamics of American society in condemning, condoning, or celebrating murder. Asks how cultural factors, including racial prejudice, gender stereotypes, beliefs about sexuality, and class status affected the act of killing, media coverage of the event, societal reactions, and the execution of justice. Topics covered include abortion, lynching, vigilante justice, and the evolution of the legal system.
Impact of sports in American history. Emphasis on the impact of team sports (college and professional basketball, baseball, and football) and individual sports (golf, boxing, and automobile racing) on the development of American society and culture.
Explores interactions between Americans and the environment from the time of European contact to the recent past. Traces the sometimes unexpected ways in which nature has shaped history, humans have altered the natural world, environmental attitudes have evolved, and environmental inequalities have arisen.
Examines the changing social and cultural meanigns of sexual behavior and identity in American life from the colonial era to the present. Explores relationships between sexuality and power, culture and politics, and government regulation with consideration of theoretical frameworks of interpretation. Focuses on dynamics of race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
The Native experience in North America or Latin America from 1491 to present. Emphasis on social diversity and organization, resistance to colonization, leadership and cultural change, and political sovereignty among indigenous peoples. Methods for interpreting a variety of primary sources, including texts, material culture, and archaeological findings. Engagements with shifting historiographical perspectives and political movements for recognition of Native sovereignty.
Food sovereignty, the right to produce and consume culturally relevant food, as a set of practices and as a social movement through comparative case studies. Origins of food sovereignty in response to effects of colonialism, the green revolution, and the global corporate food system on peasant and Indigenous subsistence livelihoods and the concept’s transformation through dialogue with indigenous agricultural knowledge and poor peoples’ environmentalism. Food sovereignty’s challenge to the dominant food system and conceptions of development, how groups implement this vision of democratized social and productive relations through projects of agroecology and land reform, and its potential in the context of ecological calamity.
The southern experience from Old to New South with emphases upon racial accommodation, social hierarchy, cultural identity, political struggle, and intellectual change. 3205: to 1900; 3206: since 1900.
Early settlement, religion, the pre-industrial economy, the coming of the coal and lumber industries, labor activism, politics, migration, and regional identity.
Social, political, cultural, and economic developments in Virginia, from the sixteenth century to the present.
A study of the peoples and history of the North American West from the sixteenth century through the twentieth.
A critical study of the causes and consequences of the Vietnam War, 1945-1975. Analysis of Americas strategic and military objectives, the nature and conduct of the war, and the growth of the antiwar movement at home.
History of the ancient Greek city-state (polis) from the Archaic period (800-500 BC) to the creation of the Roman Empire. Principal topics are: origins and definition of the polis; Greek colonization throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas; the struggle for autonomy in the Classical and Hellenistic periods; and the Hellenizing impact of the polis on non-Greek populations.
History of the Roman world from 264 B.C. to A.D. 180. Particular attention to the three themes of imperialism, revolution, and empire through extensive reading of the contemporary authors.
Examines the social, political, and military origins of early England from Stonehenge to the Norman Conquest; emphasis on archaeology and material culture; and the legacy of the Romans and Romanization on forging a British identity.
Examines the life and times of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World, a new cosmopolitan multicultural world initiated by his conquests. Analyzes the rise of Mecedon, the accomplishments and powers of Alexander, and discusses the world forged after him through analysis of literary and non-literary primary sources.
Roman Empire in the west from A.D. 180 to A.D. 476 and in the east from A.D. 476 to A.D. 1071. Particular attention to the causes of the fall of the empire in the west and to the Byzantine Empire in the east until the coming of the Turks and the Christian Crusaders.
Characteristic thought and institutions of high and late Middle Ages.
The Italian Renaissance in its European context. Emphasis upon the culture and institutions of Italian states from 1300 to 1500.
Development of Protestantism and reformation of the Catholic Church from 1500 to about 1600. Emphasis upon social, political, and economic factors as well as theology. Examination of conflicts engendered by the reformation movements.
Examines the political, social, economic, and religious history of early modern England. Focus on the English Reformation and descent into Civil War and Revolution. Discussion of the Houses of Tudor and Stuart and their roles in radically transforming England into a constitutional monarchy in which the rule of law reigned supreme. Engagement with diverse perspectives on the religious, social, and political upheaval of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through focused study of primary and secondary source materials.
The French Revolution in its European and global context, with particular attention to social and political causes of unrest, strategies of popular mobilization, debates about authority and order, the emergence of empires, and the long-term implications of revolutionary change.
History of French empire from the seventeenth century to the present, in the Carribean, Canada, Asia, North America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Considers indepdendence movements and the effects of post-colonial migrations on metropolitan France. Focus on issues of religion, race, and human rights
Europes political and economic recovery since 1945; development of the Cold War; Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before and after Stalin; Western European integration and development of a consumer society; Ostpolitik and Detente; decolonization and neo-colonialism; Europes position in the world economy, dependence on imported materials and energy; the Revolutions of 1989 and post-Marxist Eastern Europe.
Causes, course, and consequences of the rise of National Socialism in Germany. Political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of life in Germany. Conditions of Weimar Germany; fascism; the emergence of the Nazi Party and its acquisition, exercise and abuse of power; transformation of German society; the problem of Hitler; the Second World War and Holocaust; and memory and representation of the Nazi period.
This course provides a historical account, a psychological analysis, and an occasion for philosophical contemplation on the Holocaust. We will examine the deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate the Jewish people by the National Socialist German State during World War II. Although Jews were the primary victims, Gypsies, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and political dissidents were targeted; we will discuss their fate as well. The class will be organized around the examination of primary sources: written accounts, photographic and film, and personal testimony.
The origins and development of religious violence examined from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective; the place of that phenomenon in medieval society. Christianity, Islam, Judaism and their interactions in the medieval world.
Analysis of change in warfare from the ancient Greeks to the French Revolution. Emphasis on the social and technological causes of military change.
Evolution of warfare in its political and social setting since the French Revolution. Discussion of both European and American military institutions.
Examines the origins, nature, and consequences of the Second World War in transnational perspective. Discussion of social, economic, political and diplomatic conditions that led to and shaped the conduct of the war. Engagement with diverse perspectives on the war and its implications through primary and secondary source materials.
An examination of historical forces that have shaped patterns of globalization, with emphasis on the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Key themes: debates about the origins of globalization, causes and consequences of global inter-relatedness, influence of key people, events, and ideas on patterns of globalization, and the effects of disease, technology and environment on processes of globalization.
Examines politics, society, and culture of the Cold War in transnational perspective. Discussion of origins of the Cold War and the emergence of superpowers; cultural, economic and territorial imperialism in the Cold War; the role of ideology; lived experience and the legacy of the Cold War. Engagement with diverse perspectives on the Cold War and its implications through primary and secondary source materials.
Major themes and issues in Modern Latin American History. Discussion of the rise of Latin American nations, stressing the internal and external challenges new republics confronted during the nineteenth century and the opportunities and conflicts of the twentieth century.
Russian history from the founding of Russia in the ninth century to the reign of Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century, with special attention to political developments, changes in society and culture and regional context.
Russian history from Peter the Great to the Revolution of 1917, with special attention to political developments, changes in society and culture, and the impact of the regional context.
Examines key subjects and themes in the history of health, medicine, and disease in African history. Topics include indigenous health systems, colonial medicine, and post-colonial health crises, including HIV/AIDS.
The history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the present, with particular emphasis on collectivization, industrialization, ideology, international relations, and other factors that have determined the peculiar character of the Soviet state.
Examines the origin and evolution of the Arab-Israeli Conflict from the late Ottoman era to present. Considers a variety of perspectives on the major events, places, people and history of the conflict, including the British Mandate period, independence, and post-1967. Connects the relationship between events and ideas in Palestine/Israel and their local, regional and global significance through analysis and synthesis of primary and secondary texts. Promotes interpretation of the conflict and potential solutions in written and oral form, both from the student’s own and alternative points of view.
Ideological and institutional development of the Chinese Communist movement since 1920; emphasis on problems of historical change in modern China.
Examination of variable topics in Chinese history, ranging from the beginnings of civilization to the recent past. Examines the primary sources and histriographic debates of a particular issue. Explores the diversity within China and its relatiionship with the rest of the world. Can be repeated with different content up to 9 hours.
History and main characteristics of cultural life and the arts in the former Soviet Union, with emphasis on film, music, literature, and the relationship between elite and popular culture.
This course introduces students to critical issues in history and representation, utilizing film to analyze central historical issues. The specific thematic content is variable. Course may be repeated for up to 9 credits.
Conceptual and institutional development of physical and biological sciences viewed within a cultural and societal context. 3705: Early Science; 3706: Modern Science.
Conceptual and institutional development of physical and biological sciences viewed within a cultural and societal context. 3705: Early Science; 3706: Modern Science.
Examines the relationship between war and medicine. Focus on suffering and care during and after major conflicts, both on the battlefield and the home front. Emphasis on race, class, and gender.
Development of Western concepts and institutions of disease, medicine, and health with emphasis on nineteenth century to present. Social construction of disease, and relationship between health and social, economic, and political structures. Special attention to roles of race, class, gender and ethical issues in medical care and research, and to the lived experience of suffering, treatment and healing.
Exploration of the history of biology during the nineteenth century and twentieth centuries, including developments in evolutionary biology, genetics and molecular biology, biology and race, and conservation biology. Emphasis on biology’s reciprocal relationship with society, how it has helped shape ideas of race and ethnicity, and the ethical dilemmas it has generated.
This course introduces students to critical issues in the social history of film, examining the production and consumption of film in specific historical moments as well as the effects of film on society, culture, and politics. The specific thematic content is variable. May be repeated with different content for a maximum of 9 credits.
Investigation of the ways in which historians research, interpret, and present the past to the public.
Explores the theory and methodology of oral history practice. Considers the use of oral history interviews in historical research, and explores questions of ethics, interpretation, and the construction of memory. Includes training in technical operations and a variety of interview techniques, transcription, and historical use of interviews.
Develops skills and methods for researching and presenting history in a digital environment, with special emphasis on use of digital media as a tool for public historians.
Examines the history of western development and humanitarian projects in Africa, considering western and African perspectives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Discussion of slavery and abolition, the civilizing mission, modernization and development theory, the impact of humanitarian projects, and international volunteerism. Provides a foundation for students interested in international service learning or careers with NGOs or international aid agencies. No prior knowledge of African history required.
Develops critical reading skills in history. Demonstrates that historical knowledge is part of a scholarly conversation that grows and evolves over time. Assesses the critical role of interpretation in history, investigates historical controversies and debates, and develops skills to evaluate historiographical trends.
Selected topics in social and cultural history. May be repeated with different content. 3 other hours of history and junior standing required.
Application of creative technologies to visualize hidden histories in transdisciplinary experiential learning projects. Training in creative technologies, informal learning techniques, interpretation of marginalized histories, and digital cultural heritage design. Consideration of ethical questions involving the representation of diverse social identities, traditions, and histories. Pre: Sophomore Standing.
Variable topic, writing-intensive, capstone course for history majors. Provides in-depth knowledge of a specific historical subfield. Utilizes archival historical sources, online research databases, and existing literature to create an original work of historical scholarship. May be repeated with different content up to 6 hours. Junior standing or above required.
Print this page.
The PDF will include all information unique to this page.