Stanford University Explore Courses

HISTORY 308D: Pre-Modern Warfare (HISTORY 208D)

This course examines the evolving nature of warfare and its impact on society across the Eurasian continent up to the Gunpowder Revolution and rise of the nation-state. Beginning with an attempt to define war, it will trace the evolution of military technology from the Stone Age through the rise of the chariot, the sword, and the mounted rider, and examine how changing methods of conducting warfare were inextricably linked to changes in the social order and political structures.

Terms: Win | Units: 4-5

Instructors: Lewis, M. (PI)

HISTORY 309F: Maps in the Early Modern World (HISTORY 209F)

The significance of cartographic enterprise across the early modern world. Political, economic, and epistemological imperatives that drove the proliferation of nautical charts, domain surveys, city plans, atlases, and globes; the types of work such artifacts performed for their patrons, viewers, and subjects. Contributions of indigenous knowledge to imperial maps; the career of the map in commerce, surveillance, diplomacy, conquest, and indoctrination. Sources include recent research from Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Last offered: Spring 2016

HISTORY 310: The History of Occupation, 1914-2010 (HISTORY 210)

( History 210 is an undergraduate course offered for 5 units; History 310 is a graduate course offered for 4-5 units.) Examines the major cases of occupation in the twentieth century, from the first World War until the present, and issues of similarities, differences, and implications for contemporary policy making. Topics include European and Asian cases emerging from World War I and World War II, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank; the Soviet and American occupations of Afghanistan; and the American occupation of Iraq. Discussions will revolve around the problems, efficacy, and effects of occupation in historical perspective.

Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5

HISTORY 311: Out of Eden: Deportation, Exile, and Expulsion from Antiquity to the Renaissance (HISTORY 211)

This course examines the long pedigree of modern deportations and mass expulsions, from the forced resettlements of the ancient world to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and from the outlawry of Saga-era Iceland to the culture of civic exile in Renaissance Italy. The course focuses on Europe and the Mediterranean from antiquity to the early modern period, but students are welcome to venture beyond these geographical and chronological boundaries for their final papers.

Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5

Instructors: Dorin, R. (PI)

HISTORY 311A: Family, Gender, and Production in Ancient Rome

Seminar. The household as the basic unit of production in Rome in the context of family relations and ideologies of gender. Methodological challenges of doing social and economic history from literary, epigraphic, and literary texts. Demography of family and kinship in ancient Rome. Ideologies of gender and family roles and their influence on economic production. Economic theories of the family and human capital.

Last offered: Winter 2008

HISTORY 311G: Big Ancient History

How the shift away from thinking about European history in terms of a western civilization model toward embedding it in stories of how global history affects research and teaching on ancient Greece and Rome. Conventional, evolutionary, and global history narratives of the past 5,000 to 15,000 years and some new ideas about how Greco-Roman history might fit into different storylines.

Last offered: Spring 2009

HISTORY 313: Core Colloquium: Graduate Readings in Medieval History

This course serves as a graduate-level introduction to major themes, problems, methods, and historiographical traditions in medieval European history.

Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5

Instructors: Dorin, R. (PI)

HISTORY 316: Women and the Book: Scribes, Artists, and Readers from Late Antiquity through the Fourteenth Century (ARTHIST 206H, FEMGEN 216, HISTORY 216)

This course examines the cultural worlds of medieval women through particular attention to the books that they owned, commissioned, and created. Beginning with the earliest Christian centuries, the course proceeds chronologically, charting women¿s book ownership, scribal and artistic activity, and patronage from Late Antiquity through the fourteenth century. In addition to examining specific manuscripts (in facsimile, or digitally), we will consider ancillary questions to do with women¿s authorship, education and literacy, reading patterns, devotional practices, and visual traditions and representation.

Last offered: Winter 2015

HISTORY 318: The Holy Dead: Saints and Spiritual Power in Medieval Europe (HISTORY 218, RELIGST 218X, RELIGST 318X)

Examines the cult of saints in medieval religious thought and life. Topics include martyrs, shrines, pilgrimage, healing, relics, and saints' legends.

Last offered: Autumn 2017

HISTORY 322A: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe and Russia (HISTORY 222)

Explores criminal law in early modern Europe and Russia, ca 1500-1800, in law and in practice. Engages debates about use of exemplary public executions as tactic of governance, and about gradual decline in "violence" in Europe over this time. Explores practice of accusatory and inquisitory judicial procedures, judicial torture, forms of punishment, concepts of justice.