11 - 20 of 789 results for: HISTORY

Nature is everywhere. It pops up in advertisements, in news stories, and popular culture. We talk about nature all the time, sometimes without even realizing it: conserving nature, loving nature, and being in nature. But what actually is nature? Are oak trees nature? What about gardens, sunsets, or garbage? Are human beings nature, or is nature a state one can enter into? Do you have to go outdoors to be in nature? In this course we'll get out of the classroom and use the Stanford campus to explore how people in the past have thought about nature and why it has been and continues to be such a potent idea that is so hard to define. Together in this seminar we'll examine the history and design of Stanford University. We'll explore a range of narrative approaches to nature stories. And we'll consider current problems and debates about nature from pollution, to drought, to wildfire, and climate change. The course will culminate in a fun, hands-on project.

Spying has long captured the public imagination, portrayed both as a sinister threat to civilization and a heroic force capable of altering history. This course explores these contrasting perspectives by thoroughly examining the history of intelligence. We will investigate how the definitions of 'spy' and 'spying' have evolved across different eras and cultures. Topics include the legacies of spies, the history of spycraft, and the cultures of intelligence communities. Through historical snapshots from Renaissance Venice and Elizabethan England to Revolutionary America and Tsarist Russia, we will trace the development of spycraft, as well as discuss 'modern' espionage, from World War I to the Cold War and beyond. This comparative history will use an array of primary sources, including recently declassified documents, memoirs, material culture, sensory and visual history.

(Same as History 105C. 5C is 3 units; 105C is 5 units.) Interdisciplinary approach to understanding the extent and complexity of the global phenomenon of human trafficking, especially for forced prostitution, labor exploitation, and organ trade, focusing on human rights violations and remedies. Provides a historical context for the development and spread of human trafficking. Analyzes the current international and domestic legal and policy frameworks to combat trafficking and evaluates their practical implementation. Examines the medical, psychological, and public health issues involved. Uses problem-based learning. Required weekly 50-min. discussion section, time TBD. Students interested in service learning should consult with the instructor and will enroll in an additional course.

Worldwide there are more refugees and displaced people today than in any other period of human history. More than 90 million people across the planet have been forcibly displaced from their homes in recent years. How do we account for this crisis? And how might we imagine altering its trajectory? This course explores the varied forces, from war to climate change to narcotrafficking, that have uprooted these populations. It also seeks to understand the politics of migration by focusing on the experiences of refugees narrated by themselves. We analyze films, memoirs, novels and scholarly literature. Students will have the option of producing papers and/or audio and visual projects.Readings include:Viet Than Hguyen, ed., The DisplacedReyna Grande, The Distance Between Us Behrouz Boochani, No Friend But the MountainsEmmanuel Mbolela, RefugeeLeila Abdelrazaq, Badddawiand others

What do tea, rain boots, and borders all have in common? All three were produced by migrant laborers toiling in a region ranging from South Africa to Singapore. Why did these people choose to sail thousands of miles to pick tea and tap rubber? How can we tell the histories of laborers who struggled to read, write, and live with dignity? This course studies the lived experiences of enslaved people and workers across the Indian Ocean world - particularly in South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and southern Africa - during the 19th and 20th centuries. We draw on sources ranging from folk songs to strike pamphlets to seek answers to three major questions: Why and how did the global abolition of slavery lead to the rise of "free" wage labor? How did peoples' ideas of race, gender, caste, and other identities change once they began working for wages? How did these workers respond to and participate in decolonization movements in Asia and Africa?

This course looks at pollution in the modern period through the lens of energy and resource use, focusing on four major categories of resources: coal, oil, nuclear power and metals. Key themes and topics, including colonialism, exploitation, disposability, and sustainability, will be explored through the use of archival documents, newspaper articles, maps, and multimedia. We will examine the histories of pollution worldwide and their legacies today -- as such the course intersects with international politics, environmental justice and human rights.

Considers purpose, practice, and ethics of service learning. Provides training for students' work in community. Examines current scope of human trafficking in Bay Area, pressing concerns, capacity and obstacles to effectively address them. Students work with community partners dedicated to confronting human trafficking and problems it entails on a daily basis. Must currently be enrolled in or have previously taken History 5C/105C ( FemGen 5C/105C, HumBio 178H, IR 105C, CSRE 5C/105C). (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it." That was how Martin Luther King, Jr. described nonviolent resistance in his 1964 Noble Peace Price lecture. In the time since, both of King's claims--that nonviolence is powerful and that it is just--have been questioned as often as they are supported. Is nonviolent resistance the most effective way to produce political or social change? Is it the most just? In this course we will grapple with these questions and more through an exploration of the history of pacifism as a political philosophy and nonviolence as a form of political action: from their origins in multiple global religious traditions, to their role in some of the major political struggles of the 20th century, to their challenged status in present-day political movements. We will read about and discuss the lives and ideas of those who have advocated for nonviolence around the world, both famous--like King and Gandhi--and lesser-known. Throughout, we will critically engage with arguments both for and against nonviolence as a just and effective method of resistance and grapple with how nonviolence might fit into the political and social struggles of today.

The history of the twentieth-century Pacific World is the history of imperialism on a global scale. And cities were both the stages and actors of this global dynamic of domination and resistance. We will examine ten cities around the Pacific Rim (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seoul, Panama, Auckland, Shanghai, Lima, Singapore, Kyoto, and Ho Chi Minh City) and explore how we can use local historical sources to study the transnational processes of empire-building and capitalism. In this class, we learn to read city plans, maps, business documents, policy documents, newspapers, photos, diaries, interviews, and landscapes to do environmental, colonial, international, social, gender, and cultural history.