printer friendly pageHISTORY 354: Law, Slavery, and Race (AFRICAAM 254D, CSRE 154D, HISTORY 254D)
(Same as
LAW 747.) This course will explore the interaction of law, slavery and race in the United States, as well as from a comparative perspective. We will read original documents, including excerpts of trial transcripts, appellate opinions, treatises, codes, and first-person narratives. We will study the way law, politics and culture interacted to shape the institution of slavery and the development of modern conceptions of race. Course lectures and discussions will focus on questions such as: Did different legal regimes (Spanish, French, British) foster different systems of race and slavery in the Americas? How did/does law work "on the ground" to shape the production of racial hierarchy and creation of racial identities? In what ways did slavery influence the U.S. Constitution? How has race shaped citizenship in the U.S., and how can we compare it to other constitutional regimes? The course will begin with the origins of New World slavery, race and racism, and move chronologically to the present day.
Last offered: Winter 2015
HISTORY 354D: Religion and War in America (AMSTUD 105R, CSRE 105, HISTORY 154D, RELIGST 105)
Scholars have devoted much attention to wars in American history, but have not agreed as to whether religion was a major cause or simply a cover for political, economic, and other motives. We will compare interpretations that leave religion out, with those that take it into account. We will also look at the impact of war on the religious lives of ordinary Americans. We will examine both secondary as well as primary sources, beginning with King Philip's War in the 17th century, and ending with the "War on Terror" in the present day.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
HISTORY 355D: Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AFRICAAM 255, AMSTUD 255D, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 255D)
From Sally Hemings to Barack Obama, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American society. Most broadly, this course interrogates the problem of American identity and examines the interplay between racial identity and American identity. This course moves along both chronological and thematic axes to investigate the problems of racial mixture, mixed-race identity, racial passing and racial performance across historical periods. Themes of ambiguous, hidden and hybrid identity will be critical to this course. This course will also explore the interplay of the problems of class, gender and sexuality in the construction of racial identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Hobbs, A. (PI)
HISTORY 356G: Constructing Race and Religion in America (CSRE 246, HISTORY 256G, RELIGST 246, RELIGST 346)
This seminar focuses on the interrelationships between social constructions of race, and social interpretations of religion in America. How have assumptions about race shaped religious worldviews? How have religious beliefs shaped racial attitudes? How have ideas about religion and race contributed to notions of what it means to be "American"? We will look at primary and secondary sources, and at the historical development of ideas and practices over time.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Lum, K. (PI)
HISTORY 357: Was the American Revolution a Social Revolution? (HISTORY 257)
What kind of a revolution was the American Revolution? The revolution gave colonial Americans political independence from Britain to found the United States. But did the revolution also transform American society in its wake? This course explores how historians and historical participants alike have answered this question paying attention to historical changes (or lack thereof) that took place in American society between c. 1750-1820 as well as grappling with what conceptually constitutes a "social" revolution in the first place.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
HISTORY 358: Sexual Violence in America (AFRICAAM 192, AMSTUD 258, CSRE 192E, FEMGEN 258, FEMGEN 358, HISTORY 258)
This undergraduate/graduate colloquium explores the history of sexual violence in America, with particular attention to the intersections of gender and race in the construction of rape. We discuss the changing definitions of sexual violence in law and in cultural representations from early settlement through the late-twentieth century, including slavery, wartime and prison rape, the history of lynching and anti-lynching movements, and feminist responses to sexual violence. In addition to introducing students to the literature on sexual violence, the course attempts to teach critical skills in the analysis of secondary and primary historical texts. Students write short weekly reading responses and a final paper; no final exam; fifth unit research or CEL options.nnLimited enrollment, permission of instructor required. Submit application form (available in course syllabus or History department main office, 200-113) by November 15, 2016 and indicate interest in CEL option. Priority admission to History, FGSS, CSRE, AFRICAAM, and AMSTUD declared majors and minors. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Freedman, E. (PI)
HISTORY 359D: From Colony to Empire: America and the World in the Long Eighteenth Century (HISTORY 259D)
At the start of the eighteenth century, European empires claimed much of North America. By the century's close, however, thirteen colonies had become a republic and began to build an empire of their own. This course explores the relationship of America and empire in a globalizing world. We will follow the movement of people, money, and ideas across North America and the Atlantic Ocean through the Seven Years' War, plantation slavery, westward expansion, and Indian removal.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Dorner, Z. (PI)
HISTORY 359E: American Interventions, 1898-Present (HISTORY 259E, INTNLREL 168A)
This class seeks to examine the modern American experience with limited wars, beginning with distant and yet pertinent cases, and culminating in the war in Iraq. Although this class will examine war as a consequence of foreign policy, it will not focus primarily on presidential decision making. Rather, it will place wartime policy in a broader frame, considering it alongside popular and media perceptions of the war, the efforts of antiwar movements, civil-military relations, civil reconstruction efforts, and conditions on the battlefield. We will also examine, when possible, the postwar experience.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Rakove, R. (PI)
HISTORY 362G: The Pivotal Decade in U.S. History: 1960's or 1970's?
Which had more lasting impact, the civil war of the 1960s or the conservative revolt of the 1970s? Should the 1970s supersede the 1960s as a pivotal moment when something happened of considerable importance to historians? Considers this debate of the decades comparatively and thematically, addressing topics including civil rights, foreign policy, electoral politics, popular culture, law, economics, labor, and social movement organizing.
Last offered: Spring 2013
HISTORY 365: Writing Asian American History (AMSTUD 265, ASNAMST 265, HISTORY 265)
Recent scholarship in Asian American history, with attention to methodologies and sources. Topics: racial ideologies, gender, transnationalism, culture, and Asian American art history. Primary research paper.
Last offered: Winter 2015
Filter Results: