May 21, 2024  
College Catalog 2014-2015 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Catalog Home
  2014-2015 Calendar
  Mission, History and Religious Affiliation
  Admissions
  Expenses
  Financial Aid
  The Academic Program
  The Curriculum
  Areas of Study
  Courses
  Student Support Services
  Scholarships and Special Endowed Funds
  Directories
  Special Programs
  Archived Catalogs
HELP
College Catalog 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses

 

History
  

  • HIST 115 - Africa Since 1800

    This course is designed to introduce students to the history of Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines major themes relating to change in the colonial period such as European conquest and imperialism, the development of the colonial economy, African responses to colonialism and the rise of nationalist movements that stimulated the movement towards independence. Students will examine these themes by applying them to case studies of specific geographic regions of the continent. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 121 - The Greek World

    Cross-Listed as CLAS 121 
    This course surveys the political, economic, and cultural development of the peoples of the ancient Greek world from the late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era. Students will hone their critical thinking skills while working with translations of ancient literature, archaeological remains and works of art. The basic structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the interaction between physical landscape and historical change; rule by the one, the few and the many; the nature and development of literary and artistic genres; the economic, military, and/or cultural dimensions of empire; or the intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, slave/free status and civic identity in the Greek world. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 122 - The Roman World

    Cross-Listed as CLAS 122 
    This course introduces students to the Roman world, which at its height stretched from Britain to Iran, from Germany to Africa, and lasted well over a thousand years. Students will develop critical thinking skills while working with Roman literature in translation, art, architecture and other archaeological remains. The structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the development of Roman literature out of and in response to Greek culture; the effects of the civil wars and the resulting political change from a republic to a monarchy; the cultural, religious and/or military aspects of the Roman empire and its immediate aftermath; Roman conceptions of gender, sexuality, slave and free status, citizenship and/or ethnicity, and how these social categories were used to legitimize or exercise power. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 135 - American Violence to 1800: Age of Contact to the American Revolution

    This course will interrogate the way scholars study large-scale violence in its many forms between human communities. Throughout class discussions we will consider the ways in which warfare has been recorded and analyzed in early America. While warfare and major political conflicts will be discussed, the class will also engage the meanings of violence by investigating intra- and inter- cultural violence within and between colonial America’s many ethnic, political, and religious groups. The chronological focus of the course, circ. 1500-1800, also permits our examination of the idea of American exceptionalism. Is there a specific form or pattern of violence or warfare that can be called “American?” If so, does this type of violence remain present in our contemporary society? Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 136 - American Violence 1800 to 1865: The Early Republic to the Civil War

    This course will interrogate the way scholars study large-scale violence in its many forms between human communities. Throughout class discussions we will consider the ways in which violence has been recorded and analyzed in the Early Republic, Antebellum, and Civil War eras. While warfare and major political conflicts will be discussed, the class will also engage the meanings of violence by investigating intra- and inter- cultural violence within and between early America’s many ethnic, political, and religious groups. The chronological focus of the course, circ. 1800-1865, also permits our examination of the idea of American exceptionalism. Is there a specific form or pattern of violence or warfare that can be called “American?” If so, does this type of violence remain present in our contemporary society? Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 140 - Introduction to East Asian Civilization

    Cross-Listed as ASIA 140 
    This course introduces the cultures and societies of China, Japan and Korea from the earliest times to the present day. Primarily an introductory course for beginners in East Asian civilization, this course considers a variety of significant themes in religious, political, economic, social and cultural developments in the region. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Every fall. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 154 - African Life Histories

    In this course we will learn about African history through the stories that Africans themselves have told about their own lives. We will use oral history, songs of West Africa’s griots; slave narratives; political autobiographies; theatre and film to explore the personal narration of lived experience. To guide our class discussions we will also consult scholarly essays about life history as a genre, to help us understand the methodology behind the production of these important texts. Class activities will include seminar discussions, writing workshops, a field trip and intermittent background lectures. Each student will carry out an individual research project on their topic of choice. Offered annually. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 180 - Going Global: The Experiment of World History

    What broad patterns do we see repeated across human cultures and eras? How do current international concerns shape the way we perceive these patterns, and retell the past? This course is an introduction to the youngest and boldest experimenters in the discipline of history: global historians. We follow these trail-blazers to every corner of the planet and across the grandest expanses of time, all the way from the emergence of Homo sapiens to present day. Such a sweeping survey of human history invites us to look beyond chronological, national, cultural and geographic boundaries. It also forces us to sharply rethink the methodology of traditional historians. Throughout our critical survey of world history we will assess the usefulness (and potential outdatedness) of the concepts of civilization, empire, revolution, and global networks. This course fulfills the global/comparative requirement for the major. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 181 - Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean

    Cross-Listed as LATI 181 
    This course offers a general survey of the complex and heterogeneous region we somewhat reductively term Latin America. It follows a roughly chronological approach, beginning with the eve of encounter and continuing through the contemporary era. Discussions will consider themes such as the institution and legacy of colonialism, the search for new national identities, and the onset of modern racial and political strife. The course will emphasize the import of global economic, political, and cultural trends on the formation of the region. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Offered every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 190 - Topics in US History

    A topical analysis of United States history stressing the historical antecedents of selected contemporary issues; designed primarily for underclassmen who have no previous college-level background in this general field. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 192 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (2 Credits)
  

  • HIST 194 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 201 - History of U.S. Feminisms

    Cross-Listed as WGSS 201 
    This is an introductory course about the history of U.S. feminism as it was articulated and experienced in the United States from roughly 1800-1970. We will focus on not only on the experience of those who worked for the cause of women’s rights but also the ideologies at home and abroad that influenced feminist thought. In so doing, we will interrogate the myths about feminism and the backlash against it that are central to the history, culture, and politics of the United States. This course is especially concerned with the multiple and contradictory strains within feminism. Topics that the class will consider include: the roots of feminism as it took shape in the anti-slavery movement, the overlap of women’s rights and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, and the women’s health movement, among others. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 213 - Women in African History

    The objective of this course is to explore the role that women have played in the development of African history and to understand the major issues that define their experience as women from this region of the world. This course introduces students to the ways in which gender is studied in African history and to the major “break-through” works on women in African history. An important component of this course is the study of life histories of women from various geographical regions of the continent. Alternate years (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 220 - Ethics of Service

    In this course we will discuss the ethical questions that arise when students engage in service and learning in contexts of difference. Taking our examples from Peace Corps, Teach for America, travel/study abroad, community activism and human rights work, we will read and discuss diverse perspectives on the ways that power and privilege relate to service and altruism. We will place our discussion in historical perspective while considering its implications for today’s world. We will therefore locate our inquiry within a broader historical and global framework that acknowledges traditions of philanthropy from diverse religious and cultural contexts. Our course materials will include personal memoirs and travel narratives, multi-disciplinary analytical texts, reflections on experience from study abroad participants and invited guests, films and field trips. The course will take the form of an interactive seminar and will welcome all points of view. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Course offered as S/N grading only. Offered annually. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 222 - Imagining the American West

    Cross-Listed as  
    Fantasies about the U.S. West are central to American history, popular culture, and collective memory. From John Wayne to Zane Grey to Disneyland, ideas about the West have shaped the ways we think about settlement, conquest, race, gender, and democracy. This course examines the myths that have circulated about the West alongside what has been called new western history, in an attempt to make sense of western Americans and the societies they created. Beginning with notions of the frontier, we will consider the scholarship that challenges our thinking about a region that has defied simple constructions. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 224 - African American History: Slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction

    Cross-Listed as AMST 224 
    This course explores the Afro-American experience from the villages of West Africa to the cotton plantations of the antebellum South. Considers West African social structure and culture, the international slave trade, the development of racism, the development of American slavery, the transformation of Afro-American culture over more than two centuries, the struggle, the possibilities of reconstruction, and the ultimate rise of share-cropping and segregation. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 225 - Native American History

    Cross-Listed as AMST 225 
    Historian Daniel Richter once wrote, “for better or worse, native history belongs to all of us.” What could Richter have meant by this statement? What is native history and why would it belong to “all of us?” The history of America covers a much longer span than that usually covered in U.S. history courses. The coasts, plains and mountains of the North American continent may have been a “new world” to European traders and explorers, but to the two million people who already inhabited these lands, America was as much the “old world” as was Europe. In this course we will examine the history of North America from the age of contact to the end of the 19th century. Instead of approaching American Indian history from the perspective of Europeans, we will attempt to reconstruct the history of 16th-19th century North Americans from an indigenous perspective. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 228 - Gender and Sexuality in Colonial America and the Early Republic

    Cross-Listed as WGSS 228 
    Since the 1960s historians have revisited early American history to identify populations on the margins and historical actors whose stories and experiences were neglected in the traditional canon of history. Historians of women made some of the first forays into this important work of recovery. Building up the foundations produced by women’s historians, the field of gender and sexuality studies have flourished and enriched the narratives of American history. This course examines American peoples and cultures from the 16th through early 19th centuries to uncover the ways in which gender and sexuality shaped the formation of an early American society. Particular attention will be given to the way that ideologies of gender and sexuality shaped early concepts of race and the development of North American political institutions. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 230 - Women and Work in US History

    An historical overview of women’s changing experiences with work-both paid and unpaid-from the mercantilist economy of colonial times to the post-industrial era of the late twentieth century. This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Approved for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 232 - Immigration and Ethnicity in US History

    Cross-Listed as AMST 232 
    An overview of U.S. history as seen through the experiences of newly arriving and adjusting immigrant groups. This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 234 - American Environmental History

    Cross-Listed as  
    People have always had to contend with the natural world, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and their environment over time. In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connections and interdependencies between the two that are often overlooked. Fall semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 236 - Consumer Nation: American Consumer Culture in the 20th Century

    Cross-Listed as ENVI 236 
    “Of all the strange beasts that have com slouching into the 20th century,” writes James Twitchell, “none has been more misunderstood, more criticized, and more important than materialism.” In this course we will trace the various twists and turns of America’s vigorous consumer culture across the twentieth century, examining its growing influence on American life, its implications for the environmental health of the world, and the many debates it has inspired. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 237 - Environmental Justice

    Cross-Listed as   and AMST 237 
    Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices. Spring semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 239 - Farm and Forest: African Environmental History

    In this course we will explore the complex interaction between the African physical world or “nature” (plants, soils, water, climate) and “culture” or human society over time, from the pre-colonial through the colonial period to present. We will also seek to understand the meanings (including cultural and symbolic meanings) associated with the African natural world, both for African societies and for non-Africans who have lived, worked, or been engaged with the continent. We will delve into historical controversies about land use. population growth, wildlife conservation, desertification and other topics. Each student will gain insight into a particular historical issue or case study through an independent research project. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 244 - US Since 1945

    This course examines the tumultuous changes that define the postwar era in U.S. society and culture. Themes of the course will vary depending on instructor. Topics may include: cultural tensions of the Cold War era, the civil rights movement and Black Power, the women-s movement, postwar prosperity, suburbanization, the Vietnam War, and the New Right. Occasionally (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 248 - Jim Crow

    Cross-Listed as  
    This course examines the political, cultural, economic, and social ramifications of segregation in the United States from approximately 1865 to the present. While much of the course will focus on the South, we will also consider how racial boundaries were drawn in the West and North. The course will pay special attention to the ways racial boundaries became “fixed”, and how black men and women defied Jim Crow in the streets, courts, and in their homes. Additionally, this class examines how segregation has been forgotten and how and when it is remembered. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 250 - Science, Magic and Belief

    Events of the distant European past continue to shape our modern attitudes towards religion, magic and science. How did people in the sixteenth- and seventeenth- century Atlantic world use these frameworks to make sense of the world around them? In this course we will journey back to the period of the “Scientific Revolution” to investigate how and why people began to distinguish sharply between the three systems. Who lost, and who profited, from this transition? What similarities between religion, magic and science persisted? To understand this turning point, we will compare contemporaneous cases of individuals who practiced magic, science and religion and ran afoul of authorities. Their trials highlight how the three spheres began to diverge. Cases we will consider might include the 1633 trial of Galileo, and the 1663 witchcraft trial of Tempel Anneke in Germany. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 251 - Pirates, Translators, Missionaries: Between Atlantic Empires

    Why are cultural intermediaries often remembered as villains or traitors? This course calls the popular stereotype into question by focusing on four dramatic case studies of notorious but pivotal mediators who moved between the Spanish, Aztec, English, French, Kongolese and Portuguese empires of the early modern period. Among others, we will consider conflicting primary source accounts and current scholarship about the Dona Marina, the Mexica translator for the Army of Cortes; Nathaniel Courthope, and English profiteer who made a fortune peddling nutmeg between India and New York; two competing French pirates who sacked the South American port city of Cartagena de Indias twice in a single month; and Dona Beatriz, an Kongolese convert to Christianity who was burned at the stake for professing that she was possessed by the spirit of Saint Anthony. This diverse group of pirates, missionaries and translators walked a similar tightrope between worlds, both liberated and constrained by their border crossings. We will evaluate how gender, race, religion, and imperial loyalties affected the survival of this small group of interlopers, and how, in spite of this, they came to disproportionately influence events in the Atlantic world. This course fulfills both the global/comparative and pre-1800 requirements for the major. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 252 - Conversion and Inquisition: Religious Change

    What causes people to change their religious beliefs? How have societies handled those who do alter their spiritual attitudes? This course focuses on several dramatic case studies of men and women who self-consciously changed their religion during the turbulent period of imperial encounters between the mid-1500s and the 1700s. Among others, we will examine and interrogate reports of converts to Christianity including Jewish and Muslim prisoners of the Inquisition, captives of Mediterranean pirates, and the nearly canonized Mohawk convert Catherine Tekakwitha. We will consider how violence, national loyalties, gender, charisma, local power dynamics, environmental upheaval, and serendipity affected the choices and fates of these converts. This course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the major. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 256 - Transatlantic Slave Trade

    Cross-Listed as AMST 256 
    This class examines the Atlantic commerce in African slaves that took place roughly between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities, the gendered dimensions of the slave trade, resistance to the trade, the world the slaves made, and the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will read a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a more complex understanding of the slave trade and how it changed over time. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 257 - Empires

    This course will survey the evolution of modern European empires from their inception in the mid-nineteenth century to their aftermath in the 1980s and 1990s. The course will be organized topically, separate modules being devoted to theory, imperial administration, race and segregation in the colonies, cultural and economic exploitation of colonies, European culture and imperialism, indigenous anti-colonial movements and decolonialization, and the issue of colonialism’s role in globalization. Materials will be drawn from the experiences of the British, French, German, Dutch and Russian empires. Lectures, class discussions and films. Essay exams prepared outside of class and quizzes.  Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 258 - Europe Since 1945

    A survey of European history from the end of World War II to the present, emphasizing social and economic history and including both western Europe and the former socialist republics of eastern Europe. The course tests the hypothesis that Europe constitutes a social and political entity as well as a geographic one. Among the topics the course will cover are a comparison of European post-World War II reconstruction (East and West), Europe’s power decline in a global context, Europe as a tool and a participant in the Cold War, political trends and their roots in social and economic change, and the origins and European-wide implications of the collapse of the socialist states of eastern Europe. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 260 - Rise/Fall of Tsarist Russia

    A survey of the development of Russian social and political institutions from Peter the Great (1682-1724) to 1917. The course will explain the growth of the tsar’s authority, the origins and outlooks of Russia’s major social/gender groups (nobility, peasants, merchants, clergy, women, minorities, Cossacks) and the relations which grew up between the tsar and his society. The course will conclude with an appraisal of the breakdown of the relationship in 1917, and the tsarist legacy for Russia’s social and political institutions in the Soviet Union and beyond. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 261 - Making History: Russian Cinema as Testimony, Propaganda, and Art

    Cross-Listed as RUSS 261 
    Through the study of Russian films starting from the silent era up to the present day, the course will explore how storytelling in cinema differs from professional history and fiction, as well as how power relations, technology, and aesthetics shaped cinematic depictions of major historical events in Russia and the Soviet Union, from medieval times to post-Soviet era. Students will view and analyze films that are among the essential Russian contributions to world cinema, by directors including Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Mikhalkov, and Sokurov. Course readings will draw upon film theory, history, fiction, and memoirs. We will use our readings to create a conceptual framework for examining the films as documents of real events, as vehicles of propaganda, and as imaginative works of art. In addition to attending weekly film screenings and discussing the films and readings in class, students will give presentations on topics of their choice arranged in consultation with the instructors. Two professors will teach the course jointly, one a historian of Russia and the other a specialist in Russian literature and visual culture. Alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 262 - Soviet Union and Successors

    A survey of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet history from the Russian Revolution to the present. Topics include the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Bolshevik rule and its tsarist heritage, Soviet “monocratic” society under Lenin and Stalin, dissent in the USSR, the “command economy” in the collapse of Communist political power, and national consciousness as an operative idea in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 263 - Global Encounters in History: China and Africa

    Is China a “new colonial power” that threatens to gobble up Africa’s natural resources? Or does China offer an alternative development model that results in a “win-win” relationship for Africa and nations starting to “look East?” Both sides in this heated current debate about China and Africa have overlooked the critical historical dimensions of China-Africa engagement. In this course we will begin by exploring the long history of interaction between Africa and East Asia, from the time of early sailing ships in the Indian Ocean through the Afro-Asian solidarities of the Cold War. We will focus specifically on the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and African nations, from the 1960s through to the present day. We will place these relations in context, not only historically but also in terms of global processes of economic, social and cultural interaction. We will use written texts, film and visual media, poetry, life stories and other resources to understand China-Africa relations from the perspective of everyday, lived experience. Each student will also carry out a research project on an individual topic. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 274 - The Great Tradition in China before 1840

    Cross-Listed as  
    A study of the culture and society of China from earliest times to the eighteenth century, when the impact of the West was strongly felt. The course will feature themes in Chinese history, including the birth of the Great Philosophers, the story of the Great Wall, the making and sustaining of the imperial system, the Silk Road and international trade and cultural exchange, the emergence of Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, Genghis Kahn and his Eurasian Empire, the splendid literary and artistic achievements, the Opium War and its impact on modern China. Lecture/discussion format. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 275 - The Rise of Modern China

    Cross-Listed as  
    A study of leading institutions and movements of nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. Major emphases include the impact of Western imperialism, intellectual and cultural changes, the transformation of peasant society through revolution, the rise of Mao Tse-Tung, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and the rise of China as a world power. Special attention will be given to China’s international relations. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 276 - The Great Tradition in Japan before 1853

    Cross-Listed as  
    A survey of the major political, social, religious, intellectual, economic and artistic developments in Japan from earliest times to the opening of Japan in the 1850s. The course will revisit Japan’s emperor system, Shintoism, feudalism, Samurai as a class, selective borrowing from China, Korea, and the West, and the background of Japan’s rapid modernization after the Meiji Restoration. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 277 - The Rise of Modern Japan

    Cross-Listed as  
    Japan’s rapid industrialization in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and its phenomenal rise as the number two economic power in the world after the devastation wrought by World War II, have led many scholars to declare Japan a model worthy of emulation by all “developing” nations. After an examination of feudal Japan, this course probes the nature and course of Japan’s “amazing transformation” and analyzes the consequences of its strengths as a nation-state. Considerable study of Japanese art, literature, and religion will be undertaken and American attitudes toward the Japanese and their history will also be examined. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 281 - The Andes: Race, Region, Nation

    Cross-Listed as LATI 281 
    This course provides a survey of Andean history with an emphasis upon the formation of collective identities. Class discussion will treat continuities and divergences between the Andean colonial and post-colonial experiences, especially the intersection between racial and regional tensions and their impact upon the emergence and construction of nation-states. Recent topics explored have included the role of landscape in Andean culture, Incan and neo-Incan cultural mythologies, the conflation of racial and class identities in the twentieth century, violence and guerrilla movements, urbanization, and the various shades of indigenismo. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 282 - Latin America: Art and Nation

    Cross-Listed as LATI 282 
    This course presents an historical overview of the interaction between artists, the state, and national identity in Latin America. After an introduction to the import of images to crafting collective identities during the colonial era and the 19th century, we will focus on the 20th century. Topics to be discussed include the depiction of race, allegorical landscapes and architectures, the art of revolution, and countercultures. Multiple genres will be explored with an emphasis on the visual arts, architecture, and popular music. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 283 - Amazon: A Cultural History

    This course traces depictions of the Amazon rainforest from the 16th century to the present with an emphasis on three central allegories - the Amazon as cultural crossroads; the Amazon as untapped economic resource; and the Amazon as a-historical paradise (or hell). Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 294 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 340 - US Urban Environmental History

    Cross-Listed as ENVI 340 
    In the minds of many Americans, cities are places where nature is absent-places where nature exists only in the crevices and on the margins of spaces dominated by technology, concrete, and human artifice. This course confronts this assumption directly, drawing on the scholarship from the relatively young field of urban environmental history to uncover the deep interconnections between urban America and the natural world. Among the other things, we will examine how society has drawn upon nature to build and sustain urban growth, the implications that urban growth has for transforming ecosystems both local and distant, and how social values have guided urbanites as they have built and rearranged the world around them. Using the Twin Cities has a backdrop and constant reference point, we will attempt to understand the constantly changing ways that people, cities, and nature have shaped and reshaped one another throughout American history. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 343 - Imperial Nature: The United States and the Global Environment

    Cross-Listed as ENVI 343 
    Although the United States accounts for just five percent of the world’s population, it consumes roughly twenty-five percent of the world’s total energy, has the world’s largest economy, and is the world’s largest consumer and generator of waste. Relative to its size, its policies and actions have had a significantly disproportionate impact on global economic development and environmental health. Mixing broad themes and detailed case studies, this course will focus on the complex historical relationship between American actions and changes to the global environment. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 345 - Car Country: The Automobile and the American Environment

    Cross-Listed as ENVI 345 
    At the dawn of the twentieth century, automobiles were newfangled playthings of the very wealthy; by century’s end, they had become necessities of the modern world. This momentous change brought with it a cascading series of consequences that completely remade the American landscape and touched nearly every aspect of American life. This course will explore the role that cars and roads have played in shaping Americans’ interactions with the natural world, and will seek an historical understanding of how the country has developed such an extreme dependency on its cars. In the process, we will engage with current debates among environmentalists, policymakers, and local communities trying to shape the future of the American transportation system and to come to grips with the environmental effects of a car-dependent lifestyles and landscapes. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 350 - Race, Gender, and Science

    How has science informed definitions of race, sex, and gender in the past? This class examines the scientific discourses and methodologies that have, historically, sought to explain racial and sexual difference. We will examine scholarship that considers the social effects of science and the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and science. Among the topics under consideration: the definitions of deviance in colonial and post-colonial societies, eugenics, contemporary debates on race, sexuality, and genetics. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 352 - Modern Britain

    The development of English politics and society from the time of George III to the twentieth century. Among the topics to be considered are: the transition from rural to urban society; the American Revolution; the rise and decline of Britain as world leader; Victorian and Edwardian society; England and Ireland; and the future of Britain in the modern world. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 353 - Oceans in World History

    Between 1450 and 1850, people started to venture farther outward into oceans that had previously been understood as dangerous and hostile environments. This course takes the Age of Sail as a starting point to track changes in human approaches to boundless waters. We will consider two questions in particular: How have oceans functioned as a means of global integration rather than division? How are historians using oceans to further the study of world (versus regional) history? Readings will cover and compare the Atlantic, pacific, and Indian Oceans, and address themes of diaspora, port cities, banditry, trade, and imperial encounters. Every other year. This course fulfills the global/comparative requirement for the history major. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 364 - Germany from 1871 to Present

    A survey of the history of German society and politics from the Bismarckian unification to the present with emphasis on the origins of the German and world catastrophe of 1933-45. Among the major issues covered will be Bismarck and his legacy for German politics, the army and German political life, the Weimar Republic and German political culture, the origins and development of the Nazi party, Germany between the United States and the USSR, and Germany’s significance in post-Cold War Europe. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 366 - Europe in the Age of Upheaval and Revolution

    A study of European politics, culture and society during the years (1780-1850) in which Europe experienced the most profound social and political transformations in its history. Among the topics to be considered are the French Revolution, urbanization, industrialization, new concepts of the family, Darwin, and the growth of new ideologies. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 376 - Public History

    This course introduces students to the ways history is being practiced in the public sphere. We will examine a wide array of topics that fall under the rubric of public history including the study of archives, museums, and oral histories. The course will also consider historical reenactment, commemoration, digital history, and the preservation of historical sites. As we explore these topics we will be asking larger questions about who practices history, the role of audience, and the relationship between history and memory. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 378 - War Crimes and Memory in East Asia

    Cross-Listed as ASIA 378 
    This course’s main goal is to introduce evidence of the major crimes and atrocities during World War II in East Asia such as the Nanjing Massacre, biochemical warfare (Unit 731), the military sexual slavery (“comfort women”) system, the forced labor system, and inhumane treatment of POWs. The course will also help students understand the contemporary geo-political and socio-economic forces that affect how East Asians and Westerners collectively remember and reconstruct World War II. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 379 - The Study of History

    This advanced course is required for majors. It examines the various forms of analysis used by historians through a study of different kinds of historical texts and sources. It provides an opportunity for students to develop the skills and habits of thinking essential to practicing the discipline of history. This course invites students to address some of the myriad questions and controversies that surround such historical concepts as “objectivity,” “subjectivity,” “truth,” “epistemology,” and thereby to develop a “philosophy” of history. At the same time, it stresses the acquisition of such historical tools as the use of written, oral, computer and media sources and the development of analytical writing skills. The subject matter for study changes each year. Recent themes of the course have been memory, empires, and class formation. Every year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 381 - Transnational Latin Americas

    Cross-Listed as INTL 381  and LATI 381 
    This course examines critical and primary literatures concerning the transnational, hemispheric, Atlantic, and Pacific cultures that have intersected in Latin America since the early colonial era, with a particular focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 382 - Remembering the Modern City

    This class interrogates the role that memory and history have played in the formation of modern urban landscapes and identities during the 19th and 20th centuries. Besides introducing theoretical and global case studies, the course considers the layering of metahistorical significance upon sites in the Twin Cities and includes an archival research component. Meets global and/or comparative history requirement. Offered every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 394 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 490 - Special Advanced Topics

    The senior seminar is taught every fall on themes that cross chronological and geographic lines. Past themes have included Memory, Migration, Gender and Micro-History.
     Every fall. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 494 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 601 - Tutorial

    A student or a small group of students may get together with a department member to examine a theme in which the latter has considerable expertise but which is not normally covered in his or her regular courses. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • HIST 602 - Tutorial

    A student or a small group of students may get together with a department member to examine a theme in which the latter has considerable expertise but which is not normally covered in his or her regular courses. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • HIST 603 - Tutorial

    A student or a small group of students may get together with a department member to examine a theme in which the latter has considerable expertise but which is not normally covered in his or her regular courses. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • HIST 604 - Tutorial

    A student or a small group of students may get together with a department member to examine a theme in which the latter has considerable expertise but which is not normally covered in his or her regular courses. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 611 - Independent Project

    Students may carry out independent research on specific topics under the supervision of a member of the department with expertise on that particular field. The work should result in an original paper or series of papers. Only one independent study may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • HIST 612 - Independent Project

    Students may carry out independent research on specific topics under the supervision of a member of the department with expertise on that particular field. The work should result in an original paper or series of papers. Only one independent study may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • HIST 613 - Independent Project

    Students may carry out independent research on specific topics under the supervision of a member of the department with expertise on that particular field. The work should result in an original paper or series of papers. Only one independent study may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • HIST 614 - Independent Project

    Students may carry out independent research on specific topics under the supervision of a member of the department with expertise on that particular field. The work should result in an original paper or series of papers. Only one independent study may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 621 - Internship

    A student may register for an internship with any member of the department. Off campus learning experiences must have explicit historical content. The student, the faculty sponsor, and the site supervisor will negotiate a learning agreement which specifies the student’s goals, means of achieving them, and the manner in which the internship will be evaluated. A standard internship will involve ten hours per week and earn four credits. Only one internship may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • HIST 622 - Internship

    A student may register for an internship with any member of the department. Off campus learning experiences must have explicit historical content. The student, the faculty sponsor, and the site supervisor will negotiate a learning agreement which specifies the student’s goals, means of achieving them, and the manner in which the internship will be evaluated. A standard internship will involve ten hours per week and earn four credits. Only one internship may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • HIST 623 - Internship

    A student may register for an internship with any member of the department. Off campus learning experiences must have explicit historical content. The student, the faculty sponsor, and the site supervisor will negotiate a learning agreement which specifies the student’s goals, means of achieving them, and the manner in which the internship will be evaluated. A standard internship will involve ten hours per week and earn four credits. Only one internship may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • HIST 624 - Internship

    A student may register for an internship with any member of the department. Off campus learning experiences must have explicit historical content. The student, the faculty sponsor, and the site supervisor will negotiate a learning agreement which specifies the student’s goals, means of achieving them, and the manner in which the internship will be evaluated. A standard internship will involve ten hours per week and earn four credits. Only one internship may count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
  

  • HIST 631 - Preceptorship

    Students may arrange to precept a course with a department member. They will normally be expected to attend the course, do the reading and participate in discussion, look over student writing, and provide guidance or tutor as necessary. Preceptorships do not count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • HIST 632 - Preceptorship

    Students may arrange to precept a course with a department member. They will normally be expected to attend the course, do the reading and participate in discussion, look over student writing, and provide guidance or tutor as necessary. Preceptorships do not count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
  

  • HIST 633 - Preceptorship

    Students may arrange to precept a course with a department member. They will normally be expected to attend the course, do the reading and participate in discussion, look over student writing, and provide guidance or tutor as necessary. Preceptorships do not count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
  

  • HIST 634 - Preceptorship

    Students may arrange to precept a course with a department member. They will normally be expected to attend the course, do the reading and participate in discussion, look over student writing, and provide guidance or tutor as necessary. Preceptorships do not count toward the ten courses required for a history major. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (4 Credits)

Interdisciplinary Courses
  

  • INTD 90 - Practicum in Forensics

    (1 Credits)
  

  • INTD 100 - Supplementary Writing Workshop

    Limited to First Year Students, by invitation only. S/N grading. Every semester. (1 Credits)
  

  • INTD 191 - Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies

    Interdisciplinary course offerings, topics to be announced at the time of registration. Enrollment is typically by invitation only, and course work graded S/N. Occasional. (1 Credits)
  

  • INTD 401 - Urban Studies Colloquium

    This course provides students with a culminating experience in the urban studies concentration. Students will use the course to integrate past coursework in urban studies and reflect on where their interests in the diverse field of urban studies lie. Weekly meetings will explore the breadth and diversity of urban studies through guided readings, meetings with faculty in the urban studies program, and conversations with urban studies professionals in the community. Students will also be responsible for organizing a colloquium meeting and making a presentation on an interest of theirs germane to urban studies. S/SD/N grading only. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing;  , at least two discipline-based theoretical courses, and at least one applied course as identified in the description for the Urban Studies concentration. Instructor permission required. (2 Credits)
  

  • INTD 411 - Sr Seminar in Community and Global Health

    (1 Credits)
  

  • INTD 421 - Human Rights and Humanitarianism Colloquium

    This course is designed to provide students with a culminating experience in the human rights and humanitarianism concentration. Through this experience, students will bring together past coursework, along with internship and/or study abroad experiences, reflect on their interests and future goals, and, for some, begin to prepare for further study and/or careers in the fields of human rights and humanitarianism. Class sessions will vary and will include student-led discussions and/or presentations, meeting with concentration faculty, and conversations and interactions with professionals, including Macalester alumni, working in human rights and humanitarianism. S/SD/N grading only. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing; permission of instructor required. (2 Credits)

International Studies
  

  • INTL 110 - Introduction to International Studies: Globalization - Homogeneity and Heterogeneity

    Globalization is upon us, resulting in unprecedented cultural interpenetration and civilizational encounter. Most of what animates this condition is old. However, the contemporary velocity, reach, and mutations of these forces suggest a new “world time,” full of contradictions, perils, and promises. This course introduces students to globalization by asking What is globalization, and how does one study it? What are the principal forces (social groups, ideas, institutions, and ecological circumstances) that shaped and now propel it? What are its concrete consequences, and how are we to respond? Open to first- and second-year students. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 111 - Introduction to International Studies: Literature and Global Culture

    One of the most significant trends of the current era has been globalization: the shrinking of distances, the greater interpenetration of the world’s peoples, and the rise, perhaps, of a so-called global culture. Yet it is too simple to say, “it’s all a big mix,” for the questions of how the mixing is done, and who mixes, are complex. The study of literature illuminates these questions. By reading important recent texts, this course tackles “world” questions: what does it mean to be from a certain place? what is a culture? and who are we in it? We’ll work to link our own personal readings with the texts in dialogue with the world. Texts will be drawn from U.S. multicultural, “world,” and travel literature, and rich theoretical readings. Prerequisite(s): Open only to First Year students and rising sophomores. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 112 - Introduction to International Studies: Globalization, Media, and Cultural Identities

     What roles do media play in constituting identities for people and places both near and far? How do various media facilitate or hinder globalization? How are cultures and cultural identities shaped by contemporary media practices and globalization? The course introduces some key concepts in social theory that have been central to how media is researched (i.e.: public sphere, nation, media, identity, diaspora, multiculturalism and so on). We will investigate the role of media in constituting national identities, contesting and proposing political visions, creating subcultures, and representing and shaping social categories such as race, gender and class. How do media create categories of people? How do people inhabit, resist, subvert, reproduce those categories in and through media? This course focuses on thinking through, about and with media.

      (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 113 - Introduction to International Studies: Identities, Interests, and Community

    Open to first- and second-year students. This course develops a base of knowledge, concepts, and analytical skills for engaging with International Studies’ multi-dimensional concerns. Ranging across disciplines but with an emphasis on social science, we study global theories of interaction and conflict between human groups and explore sites and implications of increasing encounter. Focusing on culture, people flows, nationalism and ethnicity, democratization, contending interests, security, religious fundamentalism, gender, and modes of community integration, we examine how particular cases reflect broader processes. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 114 - Introduction to International Studies: International Codes of Conduct

    Can we all live by one set of rules? This course investigates the broad field of global studies by addressing fresh and age-old issues in international law from the personal to the global, including borders, sources and enforcement of international law, law of the sea, immigration and asylum, post-national federation, colonization, world order, and global citizenship. Readings include case studies, memoirs, fiction, and other texts focusing on individuals, cultures, and states. Open to first- and second-year students. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 115 - Introduction to International Studies: World Travel

    Travel, whether by diplomats, migrants, soldiers, scientists, traders, or tourists, is at the core of countless past and present societies, and connects closely to how we live, work and conceive ourselves in today’s interconnected world. Thus this course introduces students to international studies in two ways: by exploring a set of ideas and authors influential in the study of world travel and mobility in its many forms; and by investigating, through examples drawn from many actors, centuries, and locales, the countless motives for and consequences of world travel. Open to first- and second- year students. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 190 - Mediterranean, Baltic, Black: Seas, Identities and History

    People typically organize the world by its landmasses: but the regions around seas are just as integral and important. This course explores the civilizations around the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black seas, which bridge Europe, Africa, and Asia. We will probe the history, culture, economy and politics of maritime and coastal zones, and extend to linked inland societies. Critical focus will be devoted to identity, nation, territory, border, culture, and coexistence. Readings, films and more will draw from diverse sources. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 194 - Topics Course

    Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 202 - Global Media Industries

    Cross-Listed as MCST 202 
    Global media collectively have tremendous influence in how many see and comprehend the world and therefore on the information and beliefs upon which they feel or act. While media are central to the continued production of a sense of “the world” at large or the “global” scale, media industries are situated geographically, culturally and institutionally. Even if they promise worldwide coverage or are multinational companies, there is much to be gained from studying how media are produced and distributed differently according to specific social, political, economic and historical conditions. This course considers media industries around the world with a focus on the relationships between the labor and infrastructures behind representations in a broad range of media (television, radio, cinema, news, telecommunications, internet). (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 225 - Comparative Economic Systems

    Cross-Listed as   
    This course examines the workings of economic systems from the perspective of the incentives facing the firm and consumer. The course provides an introduction to the economics of information and organization which is used to evaluate resource allocation under the specific institutional environment of different economic systems. Our understanding of the incentive system is then used to evaluate the overall economic system. The focus of the course is primarily on the U.S., Japan and the former Soviet Union/Russia. As time permits the course may examine China, Germany and Central Europe. This course counts as a Group A elective for the Economics major and serves as a prerequisite for ECON 361 . Prerequisite(s): ECON 119  (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 245 - Introduction to International Human Rights

    This course offers a theoretical and practical introduction to the study and promotion of human rights. Using broad materials, it focuses on the evolution and definition of key concepts, the debate over “universal” rights, regional and international institutions, core documents, the role of states, and current topics of interest to the human rights movement. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 253 - Comparative Muslim Cultures

    Cross-Listed as  
    This course examines the cultures of three globally influential Islamic civilizations: Arab, Persian, and Indian. We will explore pre-Islamic frameworks, and engage diverse primary Islamic political, intellectual, and spiritual sources and recent scholarship. We’ll ask, what (if anything) is essential to all Islamic societies? What varies? What of interactions with neighboring religions and traditions? And how have these core traditions extended into today’s North American, French, German-Turkish, East or West African, British, and other forms of Islam? Prerequisite(s):   or   (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 265 - Translation as Cross-Cultural Communication

    Cross-Listed as  
    When communication takes place across language barriers, it raises fundamental questions about meaning, style, power relationships, and traditions. This course treats literary translation as a particularly complex form of cross-cultural interaction. Students will work on their own translations of prose or poetry while considering broader questions of translation, through critiques of existing translations, close comparisons of variant translations, and readings on cultural and theoretical aspects of literary translation. Prerequisite(s): Advanced proficiency in a second language. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 269 - Economics of International Migration

    Cross-Listed as   and LATI 269 
    This course will examine the global movement of people through an economic lens. The course will study the impact that emigration has on the economy of the home country, such as brain drain and population change, the historic role that migration has played in economic development, and finally the effect that immigration has on immigrant-receiving countries. The various economic issues in the current immigration debate in the United States will be analyzed including the economic assimilation of immigrants, and the impact of immigration on native born workers. Every other spring. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 272 - Post-Nationalism: The Post-Soviet Sphere

    Cross-Listed as  
    The USSR’s 1991 dissolution ended one of history’s great experiments. Socialism sought to dissolve ethnicity and overcome ethnic conflict with a focus on equality. Instead it exacerbated nationalism and created-separated identities. But how? Topics include ethno-creation, control, and resistance; ethnic animosities and the USSR’s destruction; new states after 1991; “diaspora” populations beyond ethnic homelands; local rebellions; new “native” dictatorships; and recent international organizations. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 280 - Indigenous Peoples’ Movements in Global Context

    Cross-Listed as  
    During the last three decades, a global indigenous rights movement has taken shape within the United nations and other international bodies, challenging and reformulating international law and global cultural understandings of indigenous rights. The recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in international law invokes the tensions between sovereignty and human rights, but also challenges the dominant international understandings of both principles. In this course, we examine indigenous peoples’ movements by placing them in a global context and sociologically informed theoretical framework. By beginning with a set of influential theoretical statements from social science, we will then use indigenous peoples’ movements as case studies to examine the extent to which these theoretical perspectives explain and are challenged by case studies. We will then analyze various aspects of indigenous peoples’ movements and the extent to which these aspects of the movement are shaped by global processes. Every other year. (4 Credits)
  

  • INTL 282 - Introduction to International Public Health

    This course introduces and explores the major health problems facing developing countries, and the main approaches to remediation. The course considers the social determinants of health, and the need for public health programs to address the root causes of health inequities as well as illness itself. Focus is at the country, international-organization, and donor levels. Attention will be given to major indicators, recent trends, policies, and metrics for monitoring progress. A case study, such as international tuberculosis control, will be used as an applied analysis. Every year. (4 Credits)
 

Page: 1 <- 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 -> 20