Fall 2024 Curriculum

HIST 1100 – Law and History

Introduces the role of law in shaping human society. Explores how laws have evolved over the past two millennia in different contexts under the influence of different religious systems and political, economic, and social theories. Studies key legal texts and analyzes legal traditions in several regions of the world. Considers how laws have affected the everyday lives of subjects, slaves, and citizens.

Professor Simon Rabinovitch

MR, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 1130 – Introduction to the History of the United States

Engages with the major issues in U.S. history. Topics include the interaction of native populations with European settlers, the American Revolution and the Constitution, slavery, the Civil War, industrialization and migration, the growth of government and rise of the welfare state, media and mass culture, struggles for civil rights and liberation, and America’s role in the world from independence to the Iraq wars.

Professor Richard M. Freeland

MR, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 1150 – East Asian Studies

Seeks to provide an understanding of the constituent characteristics that originally linked East Asia as a region and the nature of the transformations that have occurred in the region over the last two thousand years. Concentrates on China and Japan, and addresses Korea and Vietnam where possible. Also seeks to provide students with effective interdisciplinary analytical skills as well as historical, ethical, cultural diversity, and aesthetic perspectives. ASNS 1150 and HIST 1150 are cross-listed.

Professor Philip Thai

MWR, 10:30am – 11:45am

HIST 1185 – Introduction to Middle Eastern History

Relies on historical and literary sources, as well as such other cultural artifacts as architecture and photography, and focuses on interaction and changing relations and perceptions between Europe and the Middle East. Surveys the major political and economic events that have linked the trajectory of both civilizations, as well as broad patterns of human activity, such as migrations, conversions, and, cultural exchange. Emphasizes the commonality of encounters, and analyzes the construction of an “other” and its enduring legacy in modern times.

Professor Ilham Khuri-Makdisi

TF, 9:50am – 11:30am

HIST 1200 – Historical Research and Writing

Offered in conjunction with HIST 1201. Introduces incoming history freshmen to the history major in the context of other disciplines within the college and University. Offers students an opportunity to learn and to practice methods and conventions of research and historical writing.

Professor Malcolm Purinton

Does Not Meet

HIST 1201 – First Year Seminar

Provides an introduction to historical methods, research, writing, and argument in which all students produce a substantial research project that passes through at least two revisions, and that is presented publicly to other members of the colloquium.

Professor Malcolm Purinton

MR, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST/WMNS/ACFS 1225 – Gender, Race, and Medicine

Examines the basic tenets of “scientific objectivity” and foundational scientific ideas about race, sex, and gender and what these have meant for marginalized groups in society, particularly when they seek medical care. Introduces feminist science theories ranging from linguistic metaphors of the immune system, to the medicalization of race, to critiques of the sexual binary. Emphasizes contemporary as well as historical moments to trace the evolution of “scientific truth” and its impact on the U.S. cultural landscape. Offers students an opportunity to develop the skills to critically question what they “know” about science and the scientific process and revisit their disciplinary training as a site for critical analysis. AFAM 1225, HIST 1225, and WMNS 1225 are cross-listed.

Professor Margot Abels

TF, 1:35pm – 3:15pm

HIST/ASNS 1246 – World War II and the Pacific

Studies World War II, the most devastating war in history, which began in Asia and had a great long-term impact there. Using historical and literary texts, examines the causes, decisive battles, and lingering significance of the conflict on both sides of the Pacific.

Teaching Professor: TBA

MWR, 4:35pm – 5:30pm

HIST 1270 – Ancient Greece

Professor: TBA

MW, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

HIST 1286 – History of the Soviet Union

Examines Russia and the Soviet Union in the 20th century focusing on empires and revolutions: the Russian empire’s dissolution, the Russian Revolution and civil war, building the Soviet Union, World War II, the cold war and Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe and Asia, the breakup of the Soviet Union and its newly independent states, and Russian efforts to maintain influence in the post-Soviet space. Assesses the construction of Soviet identity by interpreting Soviet culture in the form of film, literature, art, and music. Evaluates explanatory theories of revolution and empire and the evolution of Marxism in the context of revolution and state building. 

Professor Erina Megowan

MWR, 10:30am – 11:35am

HIST 1390 – Espionage 2: Cold War Spies

Explores the history of espionage during the Cold War era (1943–1991) through a series of case studies. Draws from a wide variety of published and unpublished primary and secondary sources, supplemented by modern theoretical and social science perspectives, literature, and films. Students work individually and in teams to explore the history of covert operations, including the following subthemes: the origins of the Cold War in World War II, the postwar battle for German scientists, containment and rollback, Venona and code breaking, nuclear spies, defectors, proxy wars, insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, terrorism, and technology. 

Professor Erina Megowan

MWR, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

HIST 2000 – Native American Resistance: Past and Present

Introduces the Indigenous peoples of North America and the academic field of Native American and Indigenous studies. Combines public history and public art, field trips, and original research to focus on the ongoing resistance to colonization and erasure and the resilience of Indian nations in New England and beyond. Covers particular themes, including the present-day impact of historical treaties and policies including land allotment, relocation, termination, boarding schools, and natural resource extraction.

Professor Nicholas Brown

WF, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 2011 – Capitalism and Business: A Global History

Analyzes the emergence of capitalism as a global system, from the emergence of early modern market societies to today’s globalization and its discontents. Considers how technological and geopolitical developments changed the economic lives of people around the world and how those people responded. Examines historical debates about ethics of redistribution and economic justice. Topics include empire and slavery, industrialization and deindustrialization, moral economy and market societies, and finance and speculation, as well as the histories of money, commodities, and consumer cultures. Sources include historical scholarship, archive documents, economic philosophy, and cultural production such as novels, music, and art.

Professor Louise Walker

MWR, 1:35pm – 2:40pm

HIST 2211 – The World Since 1945

Examines the political, economic, social, and cultural relationship between the developed and developing world since the end of World War II. Topics include the Cold War, independence and national movements in developing countries, the globalization of the world economy, scientific and technological innovations, wealth and poverty, the eradication of some diseases and the spread of others, the fall of the Soviet Union, Middle East turmoil, and the enduring conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Section 01 – Professor Malcolm Purinton

MW, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

Section 03 – Professor Peter Fraunholtz

Online/Asynchronous

HIST 2220 – History of Technology

Offers an interdisciplinary survey of the global history of science and technology. Explores how scientific and technical knowledge, processes, and innovations developed and circulated. Examines how science and technology both shaped and responded to society, culture, ethics, and thought.

Professor Malcolm Purinton

MWR, 1:35pm – 2:40pm

HIST/POLS/JWSS – The Holocaust and Comparative Genocide

Examines the origins of the Holocaust, perpetrators and victims, and changing efforts to come to terms with this genocide. The Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews by Germans in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, is one of the crucial events of modern history. Investigates the uniqueness of the Holocaust relative to other acts of ethnic cleansing or genocide, including mass death in the New World and mass murder in Armenia, Bosnia, and Rwanda.

Professor Natalie Bormann

MR, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 2301 – The History Seminar

Introduces history majors to advanced techniques of historical practice in research and writing. Offers students an opportunity to conduct original research and write an original research paper. Seminar themes vary; students should check with the Department of History for a list of each year’s seminar offerings. May be repeated without limit.

Professor Louise Walker

MWR, 10:30am – 11:35am

HIST 2302 – Historical Writing

Covers learning and practicing methods and conventions of historical writing for publication. Adjuncted to a Seminar in History, which fulfills the Advanced Writing in the Disciplines requirement.

Professor Louise Walker

Does Not Meet

HIST 2311 – Colonialism/Imperialism

Examines the military, economic, political, and cultural expansion of world powers since the fifteenth century, and the ways in which colonized peoples were ruled. Why did colonialist countries feel the need to conquer and dominate, how did they do it, and why did they retreat on some fronts? How did people resist and cooperate with colonialism? How did colonialism affect national and cultural identities? Colonialism is examined as a global phenomenon and from a comparative perspective that looks at particular case studies. Also examines decolonization in the twentieth century.

Professor Kris Manjapra

T, 11:45am – 2:25pm
R, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

HIST 2360 – History of Capitalism in East Asia

Traces capitalism’s transformation of economic life in East Asia from the early modern era to the contemporary world. Explores changes in the human participation of production, exchange, and consumption. Reading a wide range of scholarly articles and monographs, the course examines key topics, including the great divergence debate, commodification of labor, consumer cultures, birth of industrialization, resilience of family enterprises, gender and the economy, and the role of the developmental state.

Professor Philip Thai

MW, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

HIST 2397 – Modern Africa

Introduces the history of modern Africa. Topics include European colonization in the 19th and early 20th centuries; African states’ freedom movements and emergence from colonial rule through the 1960s; the fall of the apartheid state in South Africa in the 1990s; and current political, environmental, and economic trends.

Professor Katherine Luongo

MWR, 1:35pm – 2:40pm

HIST 3330 – The Global Cold War

Examines the Cold War, emphasizing how the Soviet-American struggle for global preeminence intersected with decolonization and the rise of the “Third World.” Uses primary sources, monographs, and scholarly articles to trace the major events and developments of the Cold War—ideological differences between the capitalist and socialist systems, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War—while also exploring how and why the Cold War came to pervade economic, cultural, and social relations globally. Examines how unexpected actors—Cuban doctors and Peace Corps volunteers—responded to and shaped superpower rivalry. Considers how the Cold War continues to shape the world today.

Professor Peter Fraunholtz

Online – Asynchronous

HIST 3333 – Showcasing the World: Museums in History and Practice

Examines the social, cultural, and political history of museums and exhibitions around the world over the past 500 years. Focuses on the formation of the modern museum with the goal of illuminating contemporary museums’ contributions and controversies. Offers special emphasis upon the history of U.S. museums. Topics include museum collecting and collections; governance; the influence of nationalism and colonialism; cultural heritage, property, and repatriation; museums’ historical and present roles in education and exhibition; past and present understandings of curators, visitors, and communities; museum architecture; the impact of digitization on museum collections and exhibitions, visitor access and institutional strategy; contemporary efforts in decolonization and community building. Regular field trips to local museums are required.

Professor Victoria Cain

T, 11:45am – 2:25pm
R, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

HIST/ENGL 3340 – Technologies of Text

Examines innovations that have reshaped how humans share information, e.g., the alphabet, the book, the printing press, the postal system, the computer. Focuses on debates over privacy, memory, intellectual property, and textual authority that have historically accompanied the rise of new media forms and genres. Offers students an opportunity to gain skills for working with texts using the rapidly changing tools of the present, e.g., geographic information systems, data mining, textual analysis.

Professor Jessica Linker

MR, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 3400 – The Making of the Modern City

Combines urban history, spatial history, environmental history, and cultural history. Focuses on cities and their inhabitants from the 18th century to the present. Covers topics such as modernization debates, globalization, national capitals and nation-states, women in the city and gendered uses of urban space, contested cities, cities at war, the city and its natural environment, and some of the main challenges facing cities today. Larger themes include urban design and ideology; resistance, rebellions, and social movements in the city; exclusion and inclusion and spatial segregation; violence and the city; the production and contestation of urban heritage; and the production of space.

Professor Ilham Khuri-Makdisi

WF, 11:45am – 1:25pm

HIST 4701 – Capstone Seminar

Offers students an opportunity to make use of advanced techniques of historical methodology to conduct original research and write a major, original research paper as the culmination of their work toward the history degree. This is a capstone research and writing seminar for history majors.

Professor Heather Salter

MW, 2:50pm – 4:30pm

Graduate Courses

HIST 5101 – Theory and Methodology 1

Examines the following questions in the context of major issues in current historical research and debate. Where do historical questions come from, and how do we answer them? How do we produce knowledge about historical events and processes? What theoretical models guide historians work? Emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches as well as concrete techniques in historical research. Required of all first-year graduate students.

Professor Chris Parsons

M, 4:35pm – 7:30pm

HIST 5237 – Issues and Methods in Public History

Examines and analyzes major issues and methods in public history in the United States and the world. Topics include the nature and meaning of national memory and myth, the theory and practice of historic preservation, rural and land preservation and the organizational structures and activities associated with those efforts, the interrelationship of historical museums and popular culture, the history and organization of historic house museums, historical documentary filmmaking, historical archaeology in world perspective, interpreting “ordinary” landscapes, and the impact of politics on public history.

Professor Jessica Parr

R, 4:35pm – 7:30pm

HIST 5241 – Museums and Exhibitions

Considers the history of museums and exhibitions from a transnational perspective in order to examine the various roles museums have played in historical and contemporary global culture. Explores museums as cultural institutions and institutional cultures through historical and theoretical readings, museum visits, and the development of students’ own exhibitions. Currently among the world’s most popular sites of education and leisure, museums have held a wide range of social, political, and cultural roles over the past 500 years. Offers students an opportunity to develop more acute insight into the ways museums and their exhibitions have made and reflected ideas about history, science, art, identity, and culture.

Professor Victoria Cain

T, 4:35pm – 7:30pm

HIST 7221 – Topics in World History: Human Rights Histories

Professor Katherine Luongo

This graduate readings course examines world history the through the lens of human rights scholarship. Readings will focus on the development of human rights as an historical, ethical, and legal concept. Through a variety of case study analyses, students will interrogate core instruments, institutions, and ideas pertaining to global human rights. They will carry out a research project engaging with this scholarship and human rights literatures more generally.

M, 4:35pm – 7:30pm

HIST 7250 – Topics in Public History

Professor Garrett Dash Nelson

W, 4:35pm – 7:30pm