Only HIST-UA 9XX courses fulfill the Workshop requirement and only HIST-UA 4XX courses fulfill the Capstone Seminar requirement. If you have any questions please contact the Undergraduate Program Administrator, Jackie Menkel at jackie.menkel@nyu.edu. *Please view Albert for the most accurate information. Schedule is subject to change in Albert. Cross-listed courses are not listed here.
Excel sheet of the Fall 2022 course schedule.
All students welcome, including first-years and non-majors in addition to majors and minors.
Nicole Eustace
Tues. & Thurs. 11:00-12:15pm
GCASL 388
(Fullfills Intro US & Pre-1800 major requirement)
This course will trace the history of the United States in an Atlantic context, charting massive population shifts that culminated in new ways of organizing society. The first three centuries of American life were shaped by unprecedented demographic change, from the era of first contact between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in North America, through the development of colonial settlements, to the founding of a new nation, and then finally to the testing of that nation.
Daniel Juette
Mon. & Wed. 3:30-4:45pm
KIMM 808
(Fullfills Intro European & Pre-1800 major requirements)
This course provides an introduction to the culture, society, and politics of Renaissance and early modern Europe (ca. 1450-1800). We will explore major topics and themes, including the Italian and Northern Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing religious wars, Europe’s “discovery” of other societies and cultures, the origins and development of nation states, the Scientific Revolution, the European Enlightenment, and the origins of the French Revolution.
Timothy Naftali
Tues. & Thurs. 12:30-1:45pm
19W4 101
(Fullfills Intro US OR Intro European major requirement)
ISIS/ISIL attacks, Wikileaks, Russian involvement in the 2016 US presidential campaign, the coup in Turkey and the war in Syria are the most recent reminders of why we need good intelligence. Since World War II ushered in the modern espionage era, secret intelligence and intelligence services have shaped the course of international history. This course introduces the student to the great sweep of world history from 1938 to 2019 through the lens of the role played by spies, code-breakers, saboteurs, intelligence analysts and the organizations for which they worked. How much did all of this secret stuff matter? Why did countries set up organizations to undertake spying and covert action? Have these activities made them, especially the US, more or less secure? And what has been the cost to private individuals of these activities? Although the focus will mainly be on the activities of US, Russian (Soviet) and British intelligence, the class will also explore cases involving Chinese, Cuban, French, German, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Saudi and Vietnamese intelligence.
Timothy Naftali
Wed. 4:55-6:35pm
19W4 101
(2 credits)
The key events you read about in your morning twitter feed or on your favorite news sites are usually not unique in world affairs. They have a background, a context, that makes them more understandable and often more interesting. History is about everything that happened before you started reading this course description. And thinking historically means trying to make sense of the news in the context of what human beings have done before. In this lecture series, History Department experts will take you on a behind the scenes tour of current events you thought you knew about, with the goal of making you a better observer and analyst of the world around you.
David Ludden
Tues. & Thurs. 9:30-10:45am
ARC LL03
(Intro US OR Intro European OR Intro Non-West major requirement)
Pandemics have travelled long distances to infect people in territories connected by routes of mobility since ancient times. Pandemic mortality and morbidity have provoked political, social, and cultural change; they have stimulated all kinds of intellectual activity, from medicine to philosophy, poetry, polemics, and folklore. This lecture and discussion course surveys the world history of pandemics and provides students opportunities for specialized research and creativity, including participation in the development of a course website. We focus primarily on the spatial, social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of pandemics, their Asian connections, and their entanglements with empire, capitalism, and globalization.
Yijun Wang
Mon. & Wed. 9:30-10:45am
7E12 134
(Fullfills Intro Non-West & Pre-1800 major requirements)
This survey introduces the history of imperial China, from the first emperor of a unified China (200 BCE) to the collapse of the last dynasty in 1912. In addition to stories about great men and political changes, this course guides students to understand social changes and cultural identities through the experience of people from different classes. This course will introduce entry-level theories about the history of technology, gender, material culture, and basic debates about modernity. It aims to show how cultural interactions, trade, and exchanges of technologies with surrounding cultures contributed to the configuration of Chinese culture. Primary and secondary sources are supplemented by visual materials and film screenings.
The below courses fulfill the US major requirement.
Irvin Ibarguen
Tues. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 607
(OR fulfills Non-West major requirement)
This course functions along two paths. First, it is an introduction to Latino history. As such, it will present students to core sub-topics, including the maturation of various Latino ethnic groups, the dynamics of immigration control and border enforcement, the role of American imperialism and political economic development in fomenting the movement of people, and the unfolding of movements for civil rights, power and belonging, to name a few. Second, students will become more acquainted with the genre of history-writing. They will understand how to frame historical arguments, how to interrogate primary sources, how to trace the evolution of scholarly conversations, and how to develop their own historical arguments.
David Oshinsky
Tues. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 701
This seminar will explore the immense historical importance of infectious disease, using it as a lens to flesh out larger issues in the changing world of medical research, practice, and investigation. We will study the impact of disease at critical moments in American history. We will discuss the great epidemics that devastated our nation, as well as the scientific breakthroughs in epidemiology, germ theory, antiseptic practice, vaccines, and antibiotics that tamed the scourge of smallpox, cholera, polio, typhoid fever, and influenza, among other deadly diseases. We will look at recent diseases yet to be fully conquered or understood, such as HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, including their impact upon different segments of our society.
Kevin Kenny
Thurs. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 607
This intensive readings course will examine the main themes in the history of U.S. immigration from the American Revolution to the present. Topics include the origins of migration; forced migration and slavery; naturalization and citizenship; anti-immigrant sentiment (nativism); ethnicity and race; and the evolution of government policy. We will consider these topics in the context of historiographical debates concerning the foundation of the United States and the three great waves of immigration that followed: largely Irish, British, German, and Chinese before the 1870s; predominantly Eastern and Southern European from the 1880s through the 1920s; and genuinely global from 1965 to the present.
Michele Mitchell
Tues. & Thurs. 11:00-12:15pm
TISC LC11
(Also fulfills Pre-1800 major requirement)
This course is designed as a survey of African American people, politics, and culture from the initial arrival of Africans in the North American colonies to the late 1860s. We shall consider how a range of laws, codes, statutes and practices crucially shaped the lives of black people and how certain laws and practices became more rigid over time. As such, we shall analyze a key contradiction that began after the American Revolution and lasted until the end of the Civil War—the enslavement of human beings in a “free” nation. Whereas this particular survey course focuses largely upon slavery, we will actively discuss ways in which people of African descent sought to assert their own agency, whether as indentured servants, enslaved laborers, or free people of color. Given that free people of color existed both North and South, we shall also examine the complexities of their lives; in the process, we will explore reform, resistance, and intraracial dynamics. This course highlights broader social, political, and economic dynamics as well. If black women, men, and children found themselves on the margins of North American society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was also the case that their labors, intellectual productions, and presence vitally informed social and political culture of the colonies that would become the United States.
The below courses fulfill the European major requirement.
Thomas Truxes
Mon. & Wed. 11:00-12:15pm
ERIN 102
(OR fulfills US OR Non-West & Pre-1800 major requirements)
Trade is a potent driver of change—economic, political, and social. Beginning with primitive exchanges in the remote past, this course traces the emergence of trade and long-distance commerce in Europe, Africa, and Asia. As trade expanded, interconnections among distant markets and financial resources accelerated. Students will witness these processes at work in the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the Mediterranean, Europe’s Atlantic Coast, and the Baltic Sea. The 17th and 18th centuries saw long-distance commerce move to the center of state policy and in the 19th century breed exploitive colonial systems buoyed by trade. Global war traumatized international trade in the 20th century but gave rise to our world of supertankers, giant container ships, global air freight, and monetary transfers at the speed of light. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Brigitte Bedos-Rezak
Wed. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 607
(Also fulfills Pre-1800 major requirement)
The chief purpose of this colloquium is to explore the manifold aspects of medieval magic. Spanning the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim western world, we will consider tales and legends of the supernatural, and the ways in which medieval people accepted and sought to engage otherworldly powers, in everyday life and through a variety of practices: beliefs in fairies and miracles; the cults of holy men and women; astrology and fortune-telling; alchemy; folk medicine, including remedies and healing spells; and death, burial customs, and vampires.
The Devil was recognized large fields of action, such as the imagination, sorcery, and witchcraft. Both learned and popular medieval cultures admitted the practice of magical arts. There was, however, a differentiated sociology of magic, so that rural folk, urbanites, aristocrats, women, and clerics, all engaged with their own brands of beliefs and modes of participation, which were in turn variously accepted or rejected by official authorities. The history of medieval magic intersects that of repression and persecution.
Anne O'Donnell
Mon. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 607
(OR fulfills Non-West major requirement)
This course will examine the politics, aesthetics, and economics of cultural production in the Soviet Union from its inception in 1917 to its collapse in 1991. It will draw upon a diverse range of cultural products, from ballet to film, literature to poster art, and architecture to fashion to the prison tattoo. Along the way, students will confront key questions facing the would-be producers of Soviet culture: what was socialist culture supposed to look like, and who should make it? How were the artists and bureaucrats in charge of cultural production to relate to each other, to the public, and to the ever-present shadow of the West? How was Soviet culture financed, regulated, and disseminated? Who were its makers, and what was their relationship with the Soviet state? How, if at all, was a unitary or syncretic Soviet culture produced across the multiethnic landscape of the Soviet empire? In answering these questions students will additionally encounter arguments and analytical methods that shed light on the boundaries and nature of “culture(s)” and its interaction with other significant categories of social analysis, including practice, power, and gender.
Stephen Gross
Tues. 2:45-4:45
KJCC 324
Nineteenth century Europe was the birthplace of economic liberalism. The gold standard, the night watchman state, and the writings of the classical economists laid the foundation for a golden age of laissez-faire capitalism centered on the nation-state. More than a century later Europe is known as the pioneer of the welfare state, the host for an experiment in fascist and communist economics, and the center for a supra-national process of economic cooperation: the European Union.
This course traces the evolution of European capitalism during the twentieth century, from laissez-faire to welfare state economies. Throughout the semester we will study the key themes and turning points that shaped Europe’s economic development: the Great Depression, the world wars; alternative ways of organizing economic life under fascism and communism; the stagnation and crises of the 1970s; and finally Europe’s ongoing project of economic integration.
Yanni Kotsonis
Thurs. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 607
(OR fulfills US major requirement)
The expansion of the modern economy over the past 200 years is unprecedented and awesome. Liberals, socialists, Marxists, Keynesians, and supply-siders alike recognized this capacity, and together they overturned the Malthusian propositions of old. We began to think in terms of ‘growth’ rather than ‘wealth,’ and ‘income’ rather than ‘assets.’ They provided the toolkits into which we reach when we redress economic crisis and seek sustained improvement. We thought our way out of crisis after 1945 and 1973, after some spectacular failures in the 1930s. Arguably we are failing again today, with much of the industrialized world hovering between recession and tepid growth and enormous inequalities.
The course proposes that this same world of economic thought places limits on our actions, partly because new orthodoxies have made certain options unthinkable, however reasonable they me be; inequality for example is accepted as necessary and even good. Good ideas notwithstanding, we also operate in a world of politics and unequal power, and these must be accounted for in any history of economic thought. Sharp and sharper inequalities exist from household to household, country to country, and continent to continent, and zero-sum competitions between and within national economies are embedded in our policies.
The aim of the course is to make common names of economics familiar and understandable; basic economic concepts intelligible; and all participants critical in their approach to economics. We will study thinkers such as Smith, Mill, Malthus, Marx, Keynes, and Friedman, the ‘greats’ who offered us some foundational approaches to modern eco¬-nomics. We will consider how their thinking made for contrasting approaches to the crises of 1929, 1973, and 2008. We will continue with the context of the EU and the euro, considering how the country and continent have undergone a profound socio-political transformation, enabled and yet constricted by the architecture of the EU and the Eurozone. This part will include the current debate over growth and austerity in the treaties that created the euro. We will end with the latest US policies and the ongoing debate over deficits and government spending.
TBD
Tues. 10:15-12:15pm
KJCC 324
The course examines the liberal order in Europe that was formed after WWII, its institutional design, the challenges it has been facing, and the implications of the liberal order for politics, society, and culture in Europe. The first part of the course reviews the social, economic, and security concerns Europe faced in 1945, and the institutions that were constructed to respond to these concerns. We will also explore the Cold War and its consequences for the politics, and the realities of people throughout Europe. The second part of the course explores the integration of Europe into a social, economic, and identity community, and the expansion of European institutions and identity first to Southern Europe and then to the former Soviet Bloc. The third part of the course addresses the current "Crisis of Europe" from the 2008 financial crisis through the surge of refugee migration and the rise of populism. We will ask whether and to what extent the current crisis threatens the system formed after 1945. The course is interdisciplinary in nature. To explore political change and continuity in contemporary Europe we will combine theories from international relations, political science, sociology, and economics, as well as readings of historical primary and secondary resources. In addition to scholarly literature we will use contemporary media outlets, cultural resources and video, when available.
Stefanos Geroulanos
Thurs. 2:00-4:45pm
60FA 824
This intensive seminar offers students an advanced understanding of Freud’s thought and the development of psychoanalysis in its cultural, scientific, and political contexts through the end of the twentieth century. As a course in modern intellectual history, it proposes to handle a particular conception of the self, an intellectual movement, the development of psychoanalytic and non-psychoanalytic concepts in psychiatry and related sciences, the therapeutic practice and the politics of psychoanalysis.
The course is structured in three parts. First, we will focus on the thought of Freud and his interlocutors, attending to key texts that demonstrate the development of his psychological and philosophical apparatus, and paying particular attention to his conceptions of the unconscious, sexuality, life, and abnormality. How did sexuality become the basis for a psychiatric treatment aimed at handling conditions that had frequently been handled by, or resulted in, institutionalization? Second, we will study the development of psychoanalysis as a therapeutic practice in different post-1930 cultural contexts. What were the cultural and subjective underpinnings and implications of psychoanalytic treatment? How did Vienna and Freud’s Judaism play into the picture? How did psychoanalysis relate to other psychiatric and physiological treatments? What were the key tensions in psychoanalytic theory after Freud, and how did Freud and his successors balance the treatment of specific conditions that lacked corporeal explanations, scientific expectations, the philosophical study of human life and sexuality? Third, we will attend carefully to the political commitments of psychoanalysts. From patriarchal and homophobic to revolutionary and feminist movements, psychoanalysis has played key roles. How do we understand its role in arguing against fascism, its postwar conservatism, but also its occasional involvement in anticolonial politics and its frequent invocation by feminists? Perhaps above all, how do we think of the politics of its handling of the patient? On this last, psychoanalysis has been as much celebrated as decried. Thinking historically and conceptually about these questions offers us a way to open up the twentieth century to some of its greatest and trickiest questions.
Intellectual curiosity and a readiness to read closely and historically are essential! Advance knowledge of psychoanalysis is not.
Daniel Juette
Thurs. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 607
(Also fulfills Pre-1800 major requirement)
This seminar probes the complex entanglement of culture and politics in German history. In the absence of a unified nation-state—which only emerged in the late nineteenth century—many Germans believed in the idea of a German Kulturnation, a nation bound together by a common “German” culture. Together, we will explore four centuries of discussions about “German culture,” with an eye toward how these discussions were linked to the political history of Germany. Thematically, this course addresses a broad range of cultural fields, including music, literature, art, and architecture; at the same time, it surveys key exponents of “German culture,” including Luther, Goethe, Wagner, and Nietzsche. In sum, this course offers a multifaceted encounter with German culture while also highlighting the raw ambiguities of Germany’s history.
The below courses fulfill the Non-West major requirement.
Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer
Mon. & Wed. 2:00-3:15pm
GCASL 274
(Also fulfills Pre-1800 major requirement)
Monique Bedasse
Tues. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 701
During the early 1950s, war erupted in colonial Kenya. Referred to as the "horror story of the British empire," the Mau Mau insurgency made headlines around the world. This course will use primary and secondary sources to examine the origins of the insurgency, its evolution, and the different ways that historians have interpreted its legacy.
Tansen Sen
Tues. 4:55-7:35pm
BOBS LL146
This course focuses on the debates about the origins, cultural imaginations, nationalist discourse, as well as the controversies surrounding the terms “China,” “Zhongguo,” “Han,” and “Chinese.” It surveys a wide range of writings, and some select cinematic productions to understand the complexities and the wider historical and geo-political implications of the concepts of “China” and “Chinese.” The course examines the varied methods of examining and understanding issues of national and cultural identities as they pertain to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It also scrutinizes the process of nation-state formation employing political, social, and cultural imaginaries, as well as a new narrative of history introduced in the PRC through textbooks and museums since 1991.
This course takes a historical approach to critically analyze concepts of culture, nation, and identity. However, it also introduces other disciplinary approaches and methodological tools to study issues of ethnic politics, language reform, self-perception, and national identity. Students are expected to be active participants both with respect to the analysis of the readings and in expressing their opinion on the topic.
Rebecca Karl
Tues. & Thurs. 11:00-12:15pm
BOBS LL141
This course traces the history of “students” (in the 1920s and after often overlapping with the category of “youth”) and protest in modern China, from the established culture of memorials/ petitioning in the waning years of China’s dynastic system through to the umbrella and “be water” uprisings in Hong Kong (2014, 2019). We will consider the many ways in which students/youth and protest have been enmeshed in social, political, and cultural movements and how forms and practices of protest have developed in tandem with and in opposition to state power, in alliance with or apart from other social constituencies.
Yijun Wang
Tues. 4:55-7:35pm
60FA C12
(Also fulfills Pre-1800 major requirement)
From the Silk Road to the Belt and Road Initiative, China has always been connected and intensively interacted with the world. From the 15th to the 18th centuries, China witnessed a series of developments that connected to the making of the modern world in the West. This seminar aims to discuss the dynamics of Chinese history in the early modern period from a global perspective. The class is organized thematically, focusing on connections and encounters in trade, commerce, science, technology, environment, diseases, food, migration, and capitalism. By situating early modern China in world historical time, this seminar encourages students to examine the formation of modernity in Chinese terms and in a global context.
Jim Peck
Thurs. 11:00-1:45pm
SILV 518
(OR fulfills US major requirement)
This course will focus on U.S. foreign policy in Asia since 1945. The ways U.S. global interests and concerns sought to shape Asian realities (and were shaped in turn by them) will be the touchstone for examining the Cold War in Asia. We will examine the following topics: Asia at the end of World War II; the occupation of Japan and early US global economic visions; the US and the Chinese revolution before the Korean War; the Korean War and the isolation of China; US India-Pakistan policy from the late 40s too 1965; the Vietnam War and the Kennedy/Johnson years; Nixon’s global geopolitical vision and his policies towards China; U.S. policy and CIA covert operations in Indonesia, Tibet, and Afghanistan; George H. W. Bush and Asia’s place in “a New World Order.”
Kevin Li
Tues. & Thurs. 2:00-3:15pm
GCASL 288
This course examines the conflicts that engulfed Vietnam and its neighbors in the aftermath of World War II. This period saw violent decolonization, revolutionary struggle, postcolonial state formation and nation building, as well as superpower interventions. We will spend the semester exploring all of these phenomena at different scales, from great power competition to street-level contests over local authority. We will foreground Vietnamese actors and examine the wars within the broader context of Vietnamese history.
David Klassen
Tues. & Thurs. 12:30-1:45pm
25 W4 C-20
A comparative survey of Latin American social, economic, cultural, and political history from 1800 to the present. Students will learn about state-formation, social conflict, exploitation, resistance, and other trends throughout the hemisphere. We will explore commonalities across Latin America as well as some of the regional, national, and local particularities of the area.
Ada Ferrer
Tues. & Thurs. 3:30-4:45pm
SILV 520
Cuba was one of the first territories colonized by Spain and among the last of its colonies to secure its independence. Its struggle for independence from one country (Spain) helped usher in an age of imperialism by another (the United States). It was among the last territories in the hemisphere to abolish slavery, yet home to the first Black political party in the Americas. After the revolution of 1959, among the most radical of the modern world, it became an important international symbol of third world socialism and anti-imperialism and an unexpected focus of global Cold War struggles. Today, a new twenty-first century Cold War between the two countries seems alive and well. This course serves as a sustained examination of that complex and fascinating history. The course focuses in depth on the major themes that have shaped Cuban history to the present: race and slavery; nationalism and imperialism; reform and, in particular, revolution.
An introduction to historical methods; required for all History majors.
Susanah Romney-Shaw
Mon. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 701
(Also fulfills US & Pre-1800 major requirement)
Looks at the origins of slavery in colonial Dutch Manhattan, the Indian slave trade, the growth of enslavement in the English period, the development of New York as a contested site of freedom during the Revolution, gradual emancipation, and the continuing involvement of the city in the 19th century US slave economy. Students will also consider the enduring imprint of slavery on today’s urban environment.
David Klassen
Mon. 4:55-7:35pm
KJCC 607
(Also fulfills Non-West & Pre-1800 major requirement)
Revolution in Latin America will examine both the history of Latin America and the meaning of mass upheaval in history by exploring a series of political and social revolutions from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Through examining diverse mobilizations including the Haitian Revolution, the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and various movements up into the contemporary period we will have a chance to question what constitutes a revolution, how historic change takes place, what constitutes a just society, and who decides how people should be governed. The history of Latin America allows us to examine concepts and ideologies such as nationalism, fascism, liberalism, communism, and others in historical context. And because the historical memory of these revolutions is still contested and deeply political, we will discuss and debate how events have been seen through different interpretive frameworks by historians. In the course, students will choose a revolutionary movement or episode to explore through a combination of primary and secondary sources.
Robyn d'Avignon
Wed. 11:00-1:45pm
TISC LC7
(Also fulfills Non-West major requirement)
In 1957, Ghana became the first sovereign nation in Africa to declare independence from colonial rule. Dozens of African nations soon followed suit. While people across the continent and the world celebrated the end of empire, not everyone agreed about what Africa’s new nations should look like. What did national sovereignty mean in practical terms? How would citizens of nations with boundaries largely designed by European colonizers develop a sense of collective identity and destiny? Would political decolonization bring an end to the economic inequalities of the colonial era? Through weekly discussions of primary sources, monographs, articles—and through the pursuit of individual research proposals—members of this seminar will grapple with how Africans constructed their world and their future in the aftermath of colonial rule.
This course is designed as a workshop for advanced methods in historical practice. Therefore, written assignments and class discussion will emphasize the reading and interpretation of primary source documents, the development of research bibliographies, and the nature of debate among professional historians. Many of the primary sources we will discuss will be provided for you on the course website. But we will also be looking for sources that will become the basis for further research, and developing annotated bibliographies based on these sources.
Sandrine Kott
Tues. 4:55-7:35pm
KJCC 607
(Also fulfills European major requirement)
From 1815 to 1930s,the nation state gradually imposed itself as the model of political organization in Europe. We will examine the various forms adopted by these national constructions and how they were accompanied or gave rise to nationalist movements and ideologies that took extreme forms during the Second World War.
Andrew Lee
Mon. 11:00-1:45pm
TISC LC7
(Also fulfills European major requirement)
This is a workshop class in the History Department. We will focus on developing the “unnatural” skills of thinking historically. This requires you to apply the five C’s of historical thinking (causality, change over time, complexity, context, and contingency) to one specific event: the 15 April 1989 Hillsborough Disaster or Tragedy. This is the unlawful death of ninety–seven fans of Liverpool Soccer Club in Sheffield. We will listen, read, and watch sources, evaluating and using these sources as well as others discovered in research to make historical arguments.
The research course that serves as the culmination of the major; one Capstone Seminar is required of all History majors before graduation; pre-requisite: Workshop.
Michele Mitchell & Ada Ferrer
Wed. 2:00-4:45pm
KJCC 701
(Also fulfills US major requirement)
Ren Pepitone
Tues. 4:55-7:35pm
SILV 406
(Also fulfills European major requirement)
By the late nineteenth century, ordinary people in Britain and its empire increasingly found themselves with leisure time. Recreational organizations, such as sports teams, youth clubs, and dancing societies, proliferated. The impetus behind creating these organizations varied widely, from middle-class reformers who hoped to instill respectability in working-class participants to nationalists across the empire who saw connecting with lost cultures as a form of political consciousness-raising. Historians of race, class, and gender have debated how to interpret the organized leisure that arose across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, asking whether these activities were forms of middle-class social control or of political expression and social identity for otherwise marginalized groups. In this course students will examine primary and secondary sources to produce a 20-25 page research paper which considers the varied and contested meanings behind recreational and leisure practices.
Steven Hahn
Tues. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 607
(Also fulfills US major requirement)
Tatiana Linkhoeva
Thurs. 9:30-12:15pm
KJCC 701
(Also fulfills Non-West major requirement)
This course is a capstone seminar designed for History majors. In this course we will cover the history of modern Japan through the interconnected themes of mobility and mobilization. We will conceptualize these themes from different perspectives: imperial and capitalist mobilization of people and resources, settler colonial and labor migrations, war mobilization and mobility in the age of decolonization. The course puts a particular emphasis on the regional and global comparative context of Japanese modern development and situates it deeply in the political and social history of the age. The course is also designed to develop students’ skills in argument and expression, historical research and writing.