printer friendly pageHISTORY 197: Southeast Asia: From Antiquity to the Modern Era
The history of S.E. Asia, comprising Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, from antiquity to the present. The spread of Indian cultural influences, the rise of indigenous states, and the emergence of globally linked trade networks. European colonization, economic transformation, the rise of nationalism, the development of the modern state, and the impact of globalization.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 203B: Secret Societies in Western History (HISTORY 303B)
What drives human beings to join secret societies? What is the knowledge so jealously guarded by these groups? Are they just for men or are there female secret societies? Is there really a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy to dominate the world? These are some of the questions we will answer in this course. Surveying ancient civilizations to contemporary society, we will discuss secret societies from anthropological and sociological approaches, but especially from a historical perspective, by reviewing their political, religious and cultural impacts in Western History as well as the myths surrounding them.
HISTORY 207B: Environment, Technology and Revolution in World History
Exploration of historiographical and interdisciplinary methodologies and approaches to intersections among environmental, technological, and revolutionary social change in diverse geographical and temporal contexts. Readings include broad theoretical and synthetic works as well as case studies of American, French, Mexican, Russian, Chinese, and Hungarian revolutions.
HISTORY 208S: Facing the Past: The Politics of Retrospective Justice
Forms of injustice in history including slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, forced religious conversion, and torture of prisoners. Mechanisms developed over the last century to define, deter, and alleviate the effects of such offenses, including war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, national apologies, and monetary reparations. Case studies chart the international field of retrospective justice, exploring the legal, political, and moral implications of confronting traumatic pasts.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
HISTORY 209B: The Idea of Politics (HISTORY 309B)
Can we live without politics? Is politics indispensable for humanity and vice-versa? The idea of politics is that it must transform, through human action, conditions of collective life. But the 20th century produced colliding beliefs about what that life might be and what the human being itself might look like. Explore whether, after the century, we might still think of politics as an ethical idea and the "human" as foundational political category. Keywords: Civility, Cruelty, Friendship, Empire, Democracy, Humanism, Animals.
HISTORY 209D: Postcolonialism and Universalism (HISTORY 309A)
Key texts and motifs from postcolonial theory: empire, class, exile, suffering, textuality, archive in juxtaposition to 20th-century philosophical questions about universal history and the relevance of humanist inquiry.
HISTORY 214D: Mediterranean Crossroads: Power, Culture, and Religion in Medieval Sicily (HISTORY 314D)
Sicily in the Middle Ages was a Mediterranean crossroads, a dynamic and diverse kingdom in which Muslim and Christian, Viking and African, European and Eastern Cultures all came together. Explores the life and times of Frederick II (1194-1250). He claimed universal authority as a Christian emperor, yet ruled multireligious Sicily as king. He promoted crusading, yet was accused of being a heretic and a crypto Muslim. He spoke six languages and actively patronized the arts and sciences. Topics include: structures and influences that made such a figure possible; how he managed the tensions of governing a diverse and disparate empire; how religion and cultural production created and maintained his authority; how contemporaries and later generations reacted to this enigmatic emperor; why has he continued to generate such polarizing reactions; and how did Frederick become a figure revered by Nazis and multiculturalists alike.
Instructors:
Miner, J. (PI)
HISTORY 222: Honor, Law, and Modernity
How Europe evolved from medieval to modern; focus is on standards for conflict resolution emphasizing insults to honor. How attitudes towards the self and society, and the state's relationship to individuals, changed from the 16th to 18th centuries in Europe and Russia. Traditional concepts of honor and patterns of settling disputes contrasted to early modern concepts of honor, private life, civility, and crime and punishment.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 230A: The Witness in Modern History: Memoir, Reportage, Image
The rise of the witness as icon and debates about its reliability as a historical source. The power of eyewitness accounts to convict accused criminals, inspire indignation about war and genocide, and attract attention to humanitarian crises. Their notorious unreliability due to exaggeration and misapprehension. Sources include reportage, photography, and documentary film. Case studies include criminal cases, war, poverty, and natural disasters.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 230D: Europe in the World, 1789-Present (HISTORY 330D)
The European conquest of parts of Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific by European merchants, missionaries, armies, and administrators had significant, and often cataclysmic, effects on indigenous political alliances, cultural practices, and belief systems. But were the effects of expansion entirely one-sided? What impact did the experiences of colonialism have on European politics, culture,and Europe's relations with the rest of the world? Explores how interaction between Europe and the rest of the world redefined the political, racial, sexual, and religious boundaries of both Europe and its colonies and gave rise to the more "globalized' society we live in today.
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