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HISTORY 40A: The Scientific Revolution

(Same as History 140A. 40A is 3 units; 140A is 5 units.) What do people know and how do they know it? What counts as scientific knowledge? In the 16th and 17th centuries, understanding the nature of knowledge engaged the attention of individuals and institutions including Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, the early Royal Society, and less well-known contemporaries. New meanings of observing, collecting, experimenting, and philosophizing, and political, religious, and cultural ramifications in early modern Europe.

Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

Instructors: Riskin, J. (PI) ; Fennell-Chametzky, M. (TA)

HISTORY 40S: The Mind's Not-So-New Science: Thinking About Thinking in the Modern World

What is a mind? Who has one? How can you know? This course investigates how psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, statisticians, test-makers, medical practitioners, linguists, economists, and others wrestled with these questions from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries all across the globe. Through analyses of treatises, letters, newspapers, tests, illustrations, diagrams, instruments, and videos, we follow how theorists of the mind, thinking, rationality, madness, and more were attuned to one another and to the societal developments around them. "The mind" and its associated ideas have their own, particular history - pinning down what it is has been thought consistently important yet never at all obvious. Through this course, we will see how knowledge of minds was crucial for defining good thoughts, for arbitrating who counted in society, and for arguing over what makes us human.

Terms: Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

Instructors: Fennell-Chametzky, M. (PI)

HISTORY 41N: Visible Bodies: Black Female Authors and the Politics of Publishing in Africa (AFRICAAM 140N, AFRICAST 51N, ENGLISH 54N)

Where are the African female writers of the twentieth century and the present day? This Introductory Seminar addresses the critical problem of the marginalization of black female authors within established canons of modern African literature. We will explore, analyse and interrogate the reasons why, and the ways in which, women-authored bodies of work from this period continue to be lost, misplaced, forgotten, and ignored by a male-dominated and largely European/white publishing industry in the context of colonialism, apartheid and globalization. nnYou will be introduced to key twentieth-century and more contemporary female authors from Africa, some of them published but many more unpublished or out-of-print. The class will look at the challenges these female authors faced in publishing, including how they navigated a hostile publishing industry and a lack of funding and intellectual support for black writers, especially female writers. nnWe will also examine the strategies these writers used to mitigate their apparent marginality, including looking at how women self-published, how they used newspapers as publication venues, how they have increasingly turned to digital platforms, and how many sought international publishing networks outside of the African continent. As one of the primary assessments for the seminar, you will be asked to conceptualize and design an in-depth and imaginative pitch for a new publishing platform that specializes in African female authors. nnYou will also have the opportunity for in-depth engagement (both in class and in one-on-one mentor sessions) with a range of leading pioneers in the field of publishing and literature in Africa. Figures like Ainehi Edoro (founder of Brittle Paper) and Zukiswa Wanner (prize-winning author of The Madams and Men of the South), amongst others, will be guests to our Zoom classroom. One of our industry specialists will meet with you to offer detailed feedback on your proposal for your imagined publishing platform. nnYou can expect a roughly 50/50 division between synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as plenty of opportunity to collaborate with peers in smaller settings.

Last offered: Winter 2021 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

HISTORY 41Q: The Ape Museum: Exploring the Idea of the Ape in Global History, Science, Art and Film (GLOBAL 41Q)

This course will explore the idea of "the ape" in global history, science, art, and film. The idea that apes might be humanity's nearest animal relatives is only about 200 years old. From the start, the idea developed in a global context: living fossil apes were found in Africa and Asia, and were immediately embroiled in international controversies about theories of human origins and racial hierarchies. This class will look at how and why "the ape" became a generative and controversial new concept in numerous national and regional contexts. We'll explore some of the many ways humans have looked at, studied, and thought about apes around the world: the "out of Asia" versus "out of Africa" hypothesis for human origins; Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee raised as a human child; Koko, the gorilla who may have learned sign language; Congo, the chimpanzee who made "abstract" paintings; films such as King Kong, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: Space Odyssey; the ape in World War II and Cold War propa more »

This course will explore the idea of "the ape" in global history, science, art, and film. The idea that apes might be humanity's nearest animal relatives is only about 200 years old. From the start, the idea developed in a global context: living fossil apes were found in Africa and Asia, and were immediately embroiled in international controversies about theories of human origins and racial hierarchies. This class will look at how and why "the ape" became a generative and controversial new concept in numerous national and regional contexts. We'll explore some of the many ways humans have looked at, studied, and thought about apes around the world: the "out of Asia" versus "out of Africa" hypothesis for human origins; Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee raised as a human child; Koko, the gorilla who may have learned sign language; Congo, the chimpanzee who made "abstract" paintings; films such as King Kong, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: Space Odyssey; the ape in World War II and Cold War propaganda in Japan, the Soviet Union, Germany, and the United States; Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees "culture" and "personality"; the place of apes in natural history museums and zoos around the world; and Stanford's own fraught history of comparing apes and humans through the archival writings of eugenicist founding president David Starr Jordan. Taught in conjunction with an exhibit on global ape imagery at the Stanford Library curated by Professors Riskin and Winterer in 2024, the course will culminate in students' own miniature exhibits for a class-generated "Ape Museum."

Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

Instructors: Riskin, J. (PI) ; Winterer, C. (PI)

HISTORY 41S: The Spirit in Motion: Desire in Early Modern Europe

How did people experience and express desire -- for objects, for ideas, or for each other -- in the early modern period? From lusting after a beautiful woman to frantically seeking gold in the farthest corners of the earth, early modern individuals and societies were shaped by the many things they craved. This course will use desire as a lens to better understand its impacts on daily life and culture, and to explore what it meant to want in early modern Europe.

Last offered: Winter 2023 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

HISTORY 42N: The Missing Link

This course explores the history of evolutionary science, focusing upon debates surrounding the evolutionary place of human beings in the natural world, by examining the history of the idea of a "missing link," an intermediate form between humans and apes. We will consider famous hoaxes such as the Piltdown Man, and films and stories such as King Kong and Planet of the Apes, as well as serious scientific work such as that of EugÃ¨ne Dubois, the paleoanthropologist and geologist who discovered Homo erectus (first called Java Man and then Pithecanthropus erectus) and first developed the notion of a missing link. We will take an interest not only in scientific aspects of missing-link theories but in their accompanying political, social and cultural implications. And we'll watch some classic monster films.

Last offered: Autumn 2020 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

HISTORY 42Q: Animal Archives: History Beyond the Human

There's a great big world out there. We humans are just one of a million or more animate beings on this planet. Nonhuman animals have their own histories that influence, intersect with, and stand apart from our own. This IntroSem takes animals seriously as subjects of historical study. Together we'll explore how the study of animals--from platypus to (plastic) pink flamingo--offers new ways of seeing human history. We'll examine how animals have shaped historical events and, inversely, how animals are historical artifacts. And we'll spend the majority of the course puzzling through challenges that arise when studying nonhumans. Can we understand creatures that do not communicate the way we do? Do nonhumans tell stories and chronicle their own histories? Are animals themselves archives of historical information? If so, how do we read them? This course will introduce you to diverse ways of studying historical animals and contemporary creatures too. You'll write animal biographies, practice slow witnessing of the more-than-human world, and conduct research deep dives into nonhuman narratives. You'll encounter multi-disciplinary approaches to our core questions, including historical and cultural analysis, ethnography, scientific inquiry, and technological surveillance. Ultimately, you'll gain insight into how scholars reconstruct the past and know the lives of others, whether human or nonhuman. The creative research skills and critical analysis that you exercise in Animal Archives will serve you in other history courses and beyond.

Last offered: Spring 2022 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

HISTORY 42S: Cannibalism in Early Modern Europe: The Ultimate Taboo in Historical Context

Cannibalism (or anthropophagy) may be one of many societies' greatest taboos, but how have ideas about the act changed over time? Taking a historical perspective on cannibalism, this course explores its meanings in Europe during the early modern period, when the word "cannibal" emerged in the context of the "discovery" of the Americas. Focusing on cannibalism offers insight into events like the witch craze, the Reformation, and colonization, as well as larger issues such as social and religious conflict, responses to disasters, and ideas about human nature.

Last offered: Autumn 2021 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

HISTORY 44Q: Gendered Innovations in Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Environment (FEMGEN 44Q)

Gendered Innovations harness the creative power of sex, gender, and intersectional analysis for innovation and discovery. We focus on sex and gender, and consider factors intersecting with sex and gender, including age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational background, disabilities, geographic location, etc. We start with the history of gender in science in the scientific revolution to understand how to transform research institutions so that women, men, and non-binary individuals can flourish. The majority of the course is devoted to considering gendered innovations in AI, social robotics, health & medicine, design of cars and cockpits, menstrual products, marine science, and more. This course will emphasize writing skills as well as oral and multimedia presentation; it fulfills the second level Writing and Rhetoric Requirement (WRITE 2), WAY-ED, and WAY-SI.

Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI, Writing 2, GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP

Instructors: Schiebinger, L. (PI)

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