Oct 05, 2024

College Catalog 2022-2023

College Catalog 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses

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German
	GERM 101 - Elementary German I Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course focuses on vocabulary and structural acquisition as a way to develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Students both develop facility with German in highly structured contexts through work with authentic texts and become familiar with a variety of contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Every fall. (4 Credits)
	GERM 102 - Elementary German II This course continues the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. Students also continue to explore contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 101 with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor. Every spring. (4 Credits)
	GERM 110 - Accelerated Elementary German A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102 . The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab. Every semester. (5 Credits)
	GERM 174 - Vampires - from Monsters to Superheroes Vampires are cyclical. Just a few years ago you ran into them anytime you walked into a bookstore or turned on the TV-just like in Victorian times when Bram Stoker’s famous work emerged from a vampire craze. Vampires have always been popular fodder and will continue to be so, even if and as the image of the vampire shifts dramatically over time. The popularity of vampires has waxed and waned for over a hundred years, partially because vampirism can be used as a metaphor for almost anything-from the plague to sexuality to addiction. We will juxtapose classic tales of vampires as monsters with the more recent generation of vampires. What happened to change our imagination of vampires from monsters into hip, outsider superheroes? And what can the examination of vampires tell us about the context in which they were created? Occasionally offered. (4 Credits)
	GERM 194 - Topics Course Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
	GERM 203 - Intermediate German I This course is designed to help students increase their proficiency in the German language while emphasizing authentic cultural contexts. Through exposure to a variety of texts and text types, students develop oral and written proficiency in description and narration and develop tools and discourse strategies for culturally authentic interaction with native speakers. Cultural topics are expanded and deepened. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 204 - Intermediate German II The course aims to help students attain a comfort level with extended discourse in German within culturally appropriate contexts. Students develop the ability to comprehend authentic spoken German on a variety of topics at length. They develop effective strategies for comprehending a variety of texts and text types. They gain increased facility with extended discourse, such as narrating and describing. Writing in German is also developed so that students can write extensively about familiar topics. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 230 - Green Germany Cross-Listed as ENVI 230 Germany is famous today as a worldwide leader in discussions about environmental sustainability, green politics, and renewable energy. The term “sustainability” is in fact the translation of the much older German word “Nachhaltigkeit.” In this course, we will explore the development of ecological consciousness in the German-speaking world, with a focus on the relationship between environmental movements and broader cultural and intellectual traditions of thinking about nature. Through the study of visual art, literature, film, scientific texts, and philosophical writings, we will discuss topics such as: the political and theoretical underpinnings of eco-activism in Germany; the specter of disaster in the German environmental imaginary; influential scientific, literary, and philosophical attempts to challenge the division between the human and the nonhuman; and eco-architecture and related efforts to envision and create alternative modes of human-nonhuman coexistence. Taught in English. No previous knowledge required. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 271 - “Dead White Men” in the Era of Antiracism Cross-Listed as MCST 271 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Commenting on the relation between Africa and European philosophy and culture, Kwame Anthony Appiah maintains that the temptation for Africa “to forget Europe is to suppress the conflicts that have shaped our identities; since it is too late for us to escape each other, we might instead seek to turn to our advantage the mutual interdependencies history has thrust upon us.” Appiah’s interracial approach is equally recommendable for the epistemological relation between the European philosophical tradition and contemporary culture-a culture that understands itself as post-ideological and declares any truth to be constructed (except for the inexorable laws of the market). In this culture, we can hear the question: Why should we bother with “dead white men”-who harbored universal truths and a universal self-conscious rational (male and white) subject-now that we understand that truth depends on historical context, that the self is decentered by the unconscious, that identity is constituted by factors such as class, race, and gender, and that truth is interlaced with imagination, ideology, and power? The faultiness of this question consists in presuming a clear-cut distinction or even break between philosophical tradition and contemporary culture, as if the latter had emerged autonomously and had not been shaped in relation and in conflict with this tradition. To gain insight into these mutual interdependencies, both epistemological and racial, in this course we shall pursue a double movement. On the one hand, we shall read closely texts by various “dead white men” as the unconscious (i.e., repressed and, for that matter, possibly all the more powerful) undercurrent of contemporary culture. And on the other hand, we shall read critiques of “dead white men” that point to the racialist unconscious that undergirds their argumentations. Emphasis may be placed on one or several main figures of any period since the early modernity (17th century) (e.g., Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida) and on their commentators and critics. The course may be offered in different iterations, and under different topics this course may be taken more than once for credit. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 273 - German-French Dialogues in Critical Theory: Marx-Freud-Sartre-Lacan Cross-Listed as MCST 273 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. This course focuses on the dialogue and mutual influence between the German- and French-speaking traditions of political economy and philosophical and theoretical thought, as it becomes evident in the relations among German Idealism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, (post-)Structuralism, and their productive interconnections in the development of Critical and Political Theory. While becoming familiar with the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacque Lacan, as well as the work of relevant thinkers who influenced their thought, we shall be examining the structural and conceptual homologies and differences among political economy, abstract thought, and human subjectivity. The dialogue will include the voices of race and feminist theory (e.g., Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Julia Kristeva, Jacqueline Rose). The last part of the course will focus on the relation between these interconnections (among economy, ideas, culture, and the constitution of identities) and the exercise of power in the era of global capitalism, as theorized by thinkers who draw on this German-French-speaking line of thought. French majors and minors may read the French texts in the original and do some writing in French. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 274 - Spinoza’s Eco-Society: Contractless Society and Its Ecology Cross-Listed as ENVI 274 and POLI 274 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) has been called the “savage anomaly” of the Enlightenment because his philosophy enables an alternative or ‘hidden’ modernity based on the interdependence of beings rather than their hierarchy. Ever more political theorists, environmentalists, and ecologists are turning to Spinoza’s vision of a nonhierarchical union of nature and society that rejects anthropocentrism as the promise for a more equitable and sustainable life. In this course we shall focus on the foundation of Spinoza’s unconventional thesis: his intertwined conceptions of the human being as part of nature-as opposed to the prevailing notion of the human as an autonomous “imperium” in, yet above, nature-and of society as a continuation of nature-as opposed to the dominant theories of the “social contract” that ground society on its break with, or repression of, nature (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant). We shall examine Spinoza’s entailed radical revision in understanding both the “political” and the “environment.” Beyond Spinoza’s Ethics and his Theologico-Political and Political treatises, we shall read major commentators on Spinoza’s ethical and political theory and on his role in environmental ethics and Deep Ecology. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 275 - Theoretical Approaches to European and American Cinema Cross-Listed as MCST 275 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall approach films as a medium that, through all of its means (from dialogue to more formal aspects, such as camera angle or editing), raises and attempts to negotiate philosophical, ideological, and political issues and conflicts. We shall be exposed to different methodologies of film analysis while examining: (a) a few representative films of three influential European film movements (German expressionism, Italian Neo-Realism, French nouvelle-vague), as a means of tracing the itinerary of European cinema from an action-oriented to a reflection-oriented practice; (b) the British and later American work of Alfred Hitchcock, as a mode of cinematography that employs the “gaze” as a principle of structural organization; and (c), American films of the 1970’s - 1990’s, as attempts to represent the world of late capitalism. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 276 - Marx, the Imaginary, and Neoliberalism Cross-Listed as MCST 276 , POLI 276 , and RELI 276 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Marx’s contribution to the theorization of the function of the imaginary in both the constitution of subjectivity and the mechanisms of politics and economy-usually referred to as ideology-cannot be overestimated. The first part of this course traces Marx’s gradual conceptualization of the imaginary throughout his work-as well as further Marxist theoreticians, such as Louis Althusser, Étienne Balibar, and Slavoj Žižek-while exploring how the imaginary enabled Marx’s discovery of three further crucial concepts: structure, the unconscious, and the symptom, all of which are central in the analysis of culture and ideology. In the second part of the course, we shall focus on the logic and mechanisms of power in contemporary neoliberalism, including the claim that today Marx’s theory is no longer relevant (readings will include Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Maurizio Lazzarato, McKenzie Wark). Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 277 - Metaphysics in Secular Thought Cross-Listed as POLI 277 and RELI 277 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. A widespread tendency in contemporary Western societies is to associate metaphysics with religion, if not with what is often dismissively called the “irrational.” This course will dismantle this myth by reading closely European philosophy and political theory, mostly since the seventeenth century, in their relation to theology and their reception by twentieth-century critical theory. This will allow us to examine the ways in which secular thought emerges not as an alternative to metaphysics-something which thought cannot supersede anyway-but rather as a different way of dealing with the very same metaphysical questions and issues that concern religion, from the meaning of life to the imminence of death, and from (actual or imagined) guilt to the hope for redemption. We shall endeavor to identify the similarities and differences between the ‘secular’ and the ‘religious’ ways, including their respective relations to rationality. Readings may include: Aristotle, Talal Asad, George Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Kenneth Burke, Richard Dienst, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Peter Harrison, Jacques Lacan, Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, Carl Schmitt, Baruch Spinoza, Alberto Toscano, Max Weber, Slavoj Zizek. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 278 - Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race Cross-Listed as MCST 278 , POLI 278 , and RELI 278 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx’s work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to “take life” (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit “secular,” biopower is a form of “pastoral power” (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx’s critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; and the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 279 - Value: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Cheap Cross-Listed as MCST 279 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. For thousands of years value has been scrutinized in philosophy, art history, and economic analysis, as it cuts across three constitutive aspects of social, cultural, and political life: economy, aesthetics, and ethics. Not only do we have and impose on the world our moral, aesthetic, and exchange values, but these three fields often become difficult to distinguish, as is evident in the slippery flexibility of words that allow us to say as much “this painting is bad or worthless” as “I think this person is bad or worthless,” or “this is a bad, or worthless, remark” and “this is a bad or worthless check.” This course will focus primarily on influential accounts of value in aesthetic theory, while also examining the ways in which aesthetic value demarcates itself from or implicates its moral and economic counterparts, and what the interplays among the three fields entail for aesthetic value. Our readings will focus on the impact of primarily German thought on the formation of modern aesthetic theory-from the early eighteenth century through the Enlightenment and Romanticism to high modernism and the Frankfurt School. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	GERM 294 - Topics Course Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
	GERM 308 - German Cultural History I: Uniting and Dividing Germany This course prepares students with intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with a critical investigation of important political, social, and aesthetic topics in German cultural history. These topics may include the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1813-1815), the 1848 European revolution, the impact of industrialization, the foundation of the German Reich (1870/1871), the economics and philosophical critique offered by socialism, the feminist movement, imperialism and WWI (1914-1918), the aesthetic revolution of modernism in the arts, and the beginning of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). In the late part of the course, we shall also introduce ourselves to aspects of living on the East side of the wall dividing Berlin (1961-1989). In addition to historical sources, we shall read literary texts and view art and films relating to these topics. Taught in German. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor. Fall semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 309 - German Cultural History II: Ruptures and Remakings of Modern Germany This course prepares students with advanced intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with a critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in German cultural history from 1933 to the present. Such topics include the debacle of fascism, WWII and the Holocaust, the tension between consumer culture and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the West Germany of the 1950s, the theory and practice of collectivism in East Germany, the significance of the Wall, political upheaval and terrorism in West Germany, German unification, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and sustainability. In addition to historical sources, students read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and investigate examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor. Every spring. (4 Credits)
	GERM 316 - Reading Marx Cross-Listed as PHIL 216 For Marx, “private capital” is an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms, since by its very nature capital is social. And “philosophy” is really not a thing, at least not the way it’s always been defined, since the world of ideas has no existence independent of the material conditions of human existence. In this course, we will try to recover the revolutionary force of these arguments with a focus on what they show us about the illusory or fantastic character of modern life. From the early critique of alienation to the late analysis of surplus value, Marx showed over and again how the so-called rational world is not as rational as it seems: specters, fetishes, deceptive appearances, “false consciousness” are just some of the features of life under capital that Marx exposes and that continue to haunt our world (just think of how we appeal to the “magic of the market,” its “invisible hand” or to “creative destruction”). We will read selections from Marx’s early writings on religion and alienation through the theory of ideology, of commodity fetishism, and of primitive accumulation to his late programmatic texts in tandem with texts by 20th-century thinkers who critiqued and further developed Marx’s thought (Lukacs, Gramsci, Lefort, Derrida). Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	GERM 363 - Cyborgs, Puppets and Borderline Humans “We are all cyborgs,” Donna Haraway tells us: fabricated hybrids of machine and organism, and increasingly so in the digital age. In this course, we will explore the porous boundary between the human and the parahuman in literature, film, and popular culture. Robots and androids, puppets and marionettes, living statues and Doppelgänger, prosthetic devices from artificial limbs to canes and eyeglasses are just some of the phenomena that inhabit and traverse the border between wo/man and machine, the natural and the artificial. How does culture figure the border between the human and its others? How does this border shift through history? How are parahumans gendered? How natural and how artificial is gender? Texts by Goethe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, Irmgard Keun, and Yoko Tawada; films and television series from Ernst Lubitsch to Tatort; documents on artificial intelligence, transhumanist politics, and the history of toys. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 308 or GERM 309 ; or completion of Macalester’s or another approved study abroad program; or permission of the instructor. Offered fall term of even-numbered years. (4 Credits)
	GERM 364 - Migration, Then and Now Like few other countries, Germany exemplifies how the migrant is the political figure of our time (Thomas Nail), exploding our image of “national” culture and putting flight and movement, rather than citizens and the state, in the focus of cultural scholarship. In this course, we will explore the political reality and the cultural imaginary of migration both to and from Germany in the 20th- and 21st centuries. In addition to working with course materials, students conduct remote interviews with professionals in Germany who work with or on migrants. Possible discussion topics include: “Gastarbeiter” in Germany since the 1960s; refugees and asylum in Germany; German immigration to the US; refugees from National Socialism; Hannah Arendt’s critique of human rights; flight and expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after WWII; so-called “second generation” immigrants in contemporary society, culture, and politics; the Willkommenskultur in 2015 and its aftermath; current initiatives in Germany for and by migrants. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 308 or GERM 309 ; or completion of Macalester’s or another approved study abroad program; or permission of instructor. Offered fall term of odd-numbered years. (4 Credits)
	GERM 365 - A Kafkaesque Century Cross-Listed as ENGL 235 Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German. What does the internationally (mis)used word “kafkaesque” actually mean? This course approaches Kafka’s work both as a case for literary analysis and as one that offers insights into modernism. In one way or another, Kafka sheds light on massive industrialization, bureaucratization, the commodification of art, the destabilization of patriarchy, and the development of technology and media, as well as on the question: what is literature itself. In addition to a selection of Kafka’s fiction, we shall read Crumb and Mairowitz’s graphic version of Kafka’s life and work, allowing students to produce their own graphic group project. Prerequisite(s): For the optional German component: GERM 308 or GERM 309 , or study abroad, or permission of instructor. Alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
	GERM 366 - Cinema Studies Cross-Listed as MCST 266 Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German. Cinema Studies is a film course with a special emphasis on some aspect of German culture relating to cinema, such as German film production, film adaptations of German literary texts, or the representation of German history in world cinema. While familiarizing students with the methodologies of film analysis, the course focus may vary from a historical or genre survey to a particular concept (such as representations of gender, race, nationality) to a cross-section between film and other texts. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of German history and culture. Students may register more than once in this course, provided a different topic is offered. Prerequisite(s): Requirement for those who would like to take the course as a taught-in-German course: GERM 308 or GERM 309 Alternate spring semesters. (4 Credits)
	GERM 394 - Topics Course Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
	GERM 488 - Senior Seminar Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the seminar brings together fundamental questions engaged by the field of German studies, and enhances students’ understanding of the theories and methodologies informing contemporary scholarship. Part of the seminar will be devoted to study of an aspect of German studies; students will then conduct independent research, which will serve as the basis of class discussions during the latter part of the semester. Changing topics may include: Constructing National Identity; Radicalism and Conservatism in Modernism; Goethe’s Faust ; Centrality and Marginality in German Culture; Translingual Interventions: Migration and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Germany, Stardom and Charisma. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): One of the following: GERM 308 or GERM 309 or GERM 363 or GERM 364 or GERM 365 or GERM 366 , or Study Abroad Every year. (4 Credits)
	GERM 494 - Topics Course Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing. (4 Credits)
	GERM 601 - Tutorial Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
	GERM 602 - Tutorial Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
	GERM 603 - Tutorial Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
	GERM 604 - Tutorial Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 611 - Independent Project Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
	GERM 612 - Independent Project Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
	GERM 613 - Independent Project Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
	GERM 614 - Independent Project Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 621 - Internship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
	GERM 622 - Internship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
	GERM 623 - Internship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
	GERM 624 - Internship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 631 - Preceptorship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
	GERM 632 - Preceptorship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
	GERM 633 - Preceptorship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
	GERM 634 - Preceptorship Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (4 Credits)
	GERM 641 - Honors Independent Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
	GERM 642 - Honors Independent Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
	GERM 643 - Honors Independent Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
	GERM 644 - Honors Independent Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
History
	HIST 111 - Making Modern Europe Curious about Brexit? Or the colonial origins of European racism? Ever wondered “why the French don’t like headscarves”? Have you asked yourself what it might have been like to live on a continent divided by an Iron Curtain? Do you want to know more about the origins of Europe’s migrant “crisis”? In this history-of-the-present course, you’ll learn how to do historical detective work to better understand the world we live in today. Instead of a traditional European history survey with exams and lots of dates to memorize, think of this as “un-survey” course where the goal is to challenge and re-think traditional narratives about Europe’s past. We’ll focus on asking questions, delving into historical sources, and making arguments. We will devote ample class time to developing research and writing skills and we will work together to support each other as a community of scholars and fellow humans. This course fulfills the “post-1800” requirement for the history major. It counts towards the “Europe” geographic field and the “Colonization and Empire,” “Gender,” and “Race and Indigeneity” thematic fields. Alternate fall semesters. (4 Credits)
	HIST 113 - Time Travelers: Tourism in Global History This course explores the history of tourism in the modern world from a global perspective. We will consider how tourists engaged with transnational processes like world war, decolonization, and global economic shifts that allowed for the slow and uneven democratization of leisure travel over the course of the twentieth century. We will also investigate the ways that racism and other forms of discrimination have become deeply embedded in global travel networks and infrastructure. Over the course of the semester we will “visit” a wide range of locales, traveling from the United States and its Pacific empire to Antigua, the Soviet Union, and Peru. As we “tour” the globe, we will contemplate a range of transportation options, including the role that cars, trains, and planes played in shaping the evolution of global tourism. Meets the global and/or comparative requirement for the history major and can count towards the “Colonization and Empire,” “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Global/Comparative” fields. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 114 - History of Africa to 1800 A study of the history of Africa before 1800, this course covers the major themes relating to the development of African societies and cultures from the earliest times. Students will engage with themes of state-building, trade and religion as catalysts for change and learn how historians have reconstructed the history of early Africa. This course will provide students with knowledge of specific case studies from North, South, East, West, and Central Africa. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields. Every year. (4 Credits)
	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. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields. 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. Meets History Department pre-1800 requirement. 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. Meets History Department pre-1800 requirement. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 125 - Influential Indians: A Biographical Approach to American Indian History This course introduces students to American Indian history through the biographical studeis of famous (and not-so-famous) American Indians. From athletes to activists, warriors to writers, and political pundits to performers, American Indians were and are a driving force in shaping not only their worlds but the world around them. The historical and contemporary aspects of American Indians’ political sovereignty, cultural preservation, and economic development underscore their agency and highlight their resistance to federal Indian policy. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources written by and about American Indians, students will develop their critical reading skills while fostering their historical research and writing abilities. Occasionally offered. (4 Credits)
	HIST 137 - From Confederation to Confederacy: US History from Independence to the Civil War In the Plan of Union prepared during the 1754 “Albany Convention,” Anglo-American colonists met to consider uniting as a loose confederation for their common defense and to ally with the Iroquois confederacy. That plan failed, but a later experiment in unity succeeded when the united colonies declared independence. Nevertheless, social, cultural, and ideological differences persisted, and the union formed in 1776 was tried and tested before finally fracturing with the secession of South Carolina, precipitating the Civil War. In the intervening years, Americans grappled with how they should govern themselves, who should be included in the polity, and how society should be organized. Reformers considered the controversial issues of women’s rights, the role of Native Americans within the US, and the place of slavery in a nation founded on the precept that “All men are created equal.” This course covers the periods of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the early national and antebellum periods, before concluding with the Civil War. It also considers the global causes and consequences of the war and the rise of the new United States. We will also analyze the construction of the myth and historical memory of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who has captured the imagination of people in the modern U.S. Through a study of the recent biography of Hamilton along with the music and stage production of Hamilton, we will consider both the biographical and mythical Alexander Hamilton in order to understand his era and our own. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Spring semester. (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. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Asia” fields. Every fall. (4 Credits)
	HIST 149 - First Encounters This introductory course invites you to reflect on how past peoples have confronted the other and the alien. How do we behave in the intense moments of first encounters with substantially different people? What are the patterns, pitfalls or unspoken protocols? Case studies we will consider may include first meetings between Vikings, Spaniards, Englishmen, and Native Americans (1000, 1500s and 1620s), missionaries and native peoples in Canada and Africa (1600-1700), Dutch merchants and Chinese warlords (mid-1600s), Europeans and Australian aborigines (late 1700s), doctors and Goliath pygmies (early 1900s), and humans and extraterrestrials (1950-present). In revisiting these moments, we will practice four mainstays of academic conversation. We will read closely and critically, and often quickly and widely, for the purposes of scholarly analysis; we will respond to and make use of the work of others; we will draft and revise texts; and we will make our writing public. These skills are applicable across disciplines and outside of college, but this course focuses on them through the particular lens of History. Class assignments are designed for you to become familiar with the conventions followed by professional historians, culminating in a final assignment where you will present your own original interpretation of a firsthand report of encounter. For the History major, this counts towards the “Colonization & Empire,” “Global/Comparative” and “pre-1800” thematic fields. Alternate years. (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. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields. Offered annually. (4 Credits)
	HIST 164 - Global Health Histories How can history help us understand the landscape of global public health today? This “history of the present course” will help you situate contemporary global health topics in a broader historical perspective and show you how skills from the “historian’s toolkit” can be instrumental in helping us build better public health systems. “Global Health Histories” is organized around three topic-focused mini-units. Possible topics include: pandemics; disease control and eradication; racism and health; vaccines and vaccine hesitancy; health and colonialism; international and regional health organizations; Communist health systems; public health in film and literature; family and child health; and the intersections between public health and eugenics and/or population control. In the fourth unit, students will design and execute independent research projects on a topic of their choice. We will devote ample class to developing research and writing skills and we will work intentionally to build a supportive and inclusive scholarly community. We welcome Community and Global Health concentrators, including folks without previous history experience. For History majors, this course meets the global and/or comparative requirement and can count towards the following fields: “Race and Indigeneity;” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Global/Comparative.” Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 168 - Introduction to Gender History This introductory course will use a global/comparative approach to introduce students to the ways that historians think about gender. Students will engage with a wide variety of historical sources, including memoirs, poems, novels, art, film, and photography and will engage with a range of theoretical approaches. This course will emphasize critical reading skills and will also introduce students to the basic tenets of historical research and writing. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 170 - History of Childhood Cross-Listed as WGSS 170 This course examines the history of childhood and youth in the United States. The historical voices and perspectives of childhood that we study will pay close attention to the significance of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, time periods, and social settings. Some questions we will consider relevant to the study of history: Do children have agency? What is the role of children as subjects in history? How has childhood been socially and historically constructed? Why are children such galvanizing social and political symbols? How is identity shaped in childhood and what impact does this have on adult society at certain historical moments? Offered occasionally. (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. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Environment,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Global/Comparative” fields. 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. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Latin American/Caribbean” fields. Offered every year. (4 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. Can count towards “Gender,” or “North America” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 209 - Civil Rights in the United States Cross-Listed as AMST 209 The course examines the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement led by African Americans in the United States. In the class, students will analyze key people, issues, events, and debates within movement history, including, but not limited to, gender and leadership; struggles for civil rights in the south, west, and urban north; the impact of the Cold War on race relations; student activism; movement strategies; and the emergence of Black Power. Throughout the semester, students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary texts to illuminate the activities and life stories of individual participants as well as the broad historical forces that characterized this long era of insurgency. Can count towards “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Every year. (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. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 219 - In Motion: African Americans in the United States Cross-Listed as AMST 219 In Motion is an introduction to modern African American History from slavery to contemporary times. In Motion emphasizes the idea that both African Americans and the stories of their lives in the United States are fluid, varied and continually being reinterpreted. Rather than a strict chronological survey, this course is organized thematically. Some of the important themes include movement/mobility/migration; work/labor; resistance to systems of oppression; gender/sexuality/culture/performance; politics/citizenship; and sites of (re)memory. While the course is geographically situated in the United States, we will also consider African American life, culture, thought and resistance in global perspectives. In this course, students will read important historical texts, both primary and secondary, engage in discussion, and write essays that ask them to critically engage the history of African Americans in the US. Can count towards “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Every year. (4 Credits)
	HIST 222 - Imagining the American West Cross-Listed as AMST 222 The American West is central to the construction of America’s identity and popular culture. The mythology of the American West, built on a narrow foundation of Euro-American settlement and conquest, is critical to understanding the role of the West in the national narrative of American history. Using a variety of materials, including films, art and photography, literature, and historical sources, this course will examine how writers, artists, actors, settlers, and government officials, among others, shaped the creation of the mythic West. This course will investigate what - and who - is and is not considered part of this mythology, as well as the ways in which these constructs attempted to make sense of the diverse populations converging in the West. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “North America” fields. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 224 - Enslavement, Resistance, and Emancipation in Comp N Amer and Caribbean Perspectives Cross-Listed as AMST 224 The experiences of African-descended peoples in the Americas, both in slavery and freedom, varied enormously across geography and changed over time. Focusing on North America and the Caribbean before 1865, this course will highlight ways that people suffered under systems of slavery but also explore how they struggled against bondage, created new identities, and formulated a distinctive Black Protest Tradition. The course will interrogate the changing ways that race functioned legally, politically, and culturally before 1865. It will also examine the various ways that Africans in the Americas resisted legal enslavement through violence, political activism, and cultural creativity. Because this is a history course, we will examine the nature of sources, including archives, to consider how we know what we know about the past. Can count towards “Race and Indigeneity,” or “North America” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 225 - Native History to 1871 Cross-Listed as AMST 225 The history of American Indians is wonderfully complex, but this history is simultaneously fraught with misconceptions and misinterpretations. European (and, later, Euro-Americans) alternated among fascination, fear, and frustration toward American Indians, while American Indians sought to maintain tribal sovereignty and control over their lands, cultures, religions, politics, and lifestyles amidst continuing encroachment and settlement. This course examines American Indian history to 1871 - the year that Congress stopped making treaties with Native nations - by considering the complicated and multifaceted history of the nation’s indigenous people. By looking at American Indian interactions with Spanish, French, British, and American explorers, settlers, missionaries, militaries, and government officials, this courses argues that the history of American Indians is essential to understanding past as well as present issues. Furthermore, this course looks to move beyond the notion that American Indian history is one of inevitable decline by creating a more nuanced understanding of the American Indian experience from pre-contact toward the twentieth century. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 226 - American Indian History since 1871 Cross-Listed as AMST 226 This course examines Native American history since 1871. We begin with an introduction to indigenous history before 1871, characterized by centuries of Euro-American attempts to colonize and Christianize, to assimilate Native bodies and allot Native lands. We will then analyze the ways in which Native Americans have continually fought to sustain their cultures, languages, and religions, as well as their political and socio-economic structures, throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. Focusing on themes such as Native resistance to the development of U.S. federal policies and the proliferation of Native culture, we will also consider the shifting nature of Native American sovereignty and the importance of indigenous identity in regards to the experiences of Native Americans. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Offered spring semester. (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. Can count towards “Gender,” or “North America” fields. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 229 - Narrating Black Women’s Resistance Cross-Listed as AMST 229 and WGSS 229 This course examines traditions of 20th century African American women’s activism and the ways in which they have changed over time. Too often, the narrative of the “strong black woman” infuses stories of African American women’s resistance which, coupled with a culture of dissemblance, makes the inner workings of their lives difficult to imagine. This course, at its heart, seeks to uncover the motivations, both personal and political, behind African American women’s activism. It also aims to address the ways in which African American women have responded to the pressing social, economic, and political needs of their diverse communities. The course also asks students to consider narrative, voice and audience in historical writing, paying particular attention to the ways in which black women’s history has been written over the course of the twentieth century. Can count towards “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Every year. (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. Can count towards “North America” field. Occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 234 - U.S. Environmental History Cross-Listed as ENVI 234 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. Meets History’s post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Environment,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)
	HIST 235 - Captives, Cannibals, and Capitalists in the Early Modern Atlantic World Cross-Listed as AMST 235 and LATI 235 This course explores cross-cultural encounters in the Americas that characterized the meetings of Europeans, Africans, and Americans in the early modern world between 1492 and 1763. During this period, the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent land masses became critical locations for economic, biological, and cultural exchanges. This course focuses on the Americas as sites for discovery, mutual incomprehension, and exploitation. The course explores the ways that conquest, resistance, and strategic cooperation shaped peoples’ “new worlds” on both sides of the Atlantic. It also considers how colonialism framed and was framed by scientific inquiry, religious beliefs, economic thought, and artistic expression. Students interrogate primary sources-written, visual and aural–that emerged from these encounters and the secondary literatures that have sought to make sense of them. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Africa and Atlantic World” fields. Offered occasionally. (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. Meets History’s post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Environment,” or “North America” fields. Offered occasionally. (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. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Occasionally. (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. Meets the pre-1800 and the global and/or comparative history requirements, and can count towards “Law and Social Justice,” or “Global/Comparative” fields. Every other year. (4 Credits)
	HIST 251 - Pirates, Translators, Missionaries 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. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Africa and Atlantic World” fields. 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 both the global/comparative and pre-1800 requirements for the major. Meets the pre-1800, and the global and/or comparative history requirements, and can count towards “Law and Social Justice,” or “Global/Comparative” fields. 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. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Africa & Atlantic World” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 258 - Postwar Europe This course will trace the history of European politics, culture, and society from the end of the Second World War to the present. We will explore topics such as postwar reconstruction and memory, the creation of the European Union, the Cold War, the disintegration of Europe’s overseas empires, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, and the ongoing challenges of responding to an increasingly diverse cultural landscape in Europe today. Throughout the course we will ask: In what ways is the history of postwar Europe a story of recovery, integration, and unification, and in what ways is it a story of a continent haunted by growing divisions between different cultures, political systems, and values? In order to answer these questions and to situate Europe within a broader global framework, we will explore a wide range of sources, including film, art, memoirs, journalistic accounts, political speeches, and government documents. Our exploration of these sources will be coupled with a reading of historian Tony Judt’s “magisterial” account of Europe since 1945: Postwar. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Europe” fields. Offered annually. (4 Credits)
	HIST 259 - Women, Gender, and the Family in Contemporary Europe Cross-Listed as WGSS 259 This course will explore the ways in which the major events and processes in contemporary European history shaped the lives of women and families as well and the way that both individual women and women’s movements have shaped the history of contemporary Europe. Much of our discussion will revolve around the themes of equality and inequality and their evolution over the course of the last two centuries. Our exploration will begin with the French Revolution in 1789 and end with the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century. We will focus on issues such as family policy, reproductive rights, labor, immigration, women’s political representation, and LGBTQ equality in Europe. We will also explore the importance of children and childhood in the context of contemporary European society and the role that the state has played in shaping the lives of young people. Whenever possible, we will approach the topics at hand by exploring the voices of our historical actors themselves and we will consider the experiences of people from a wide range of identities. Can count towards “Gender,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Europe” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 260 - Rise/Fall of Tsarist Russia Cross-Listed as RUSS 260 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. Can count towards History’s “Europe” and “pre-1800” and “Race/Indigeneity” and “Colonization/Empire” fields. 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 that in 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 narratives about 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 instructor. Can count towards History’s “Europe” field. Occasionally offered. (4 Credits)
	HIST 262 - Soviet Union and Successors Cross-Listed as RUSS 262 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. Can count toward History’s ”Europe” and “pre-1800” and “Colonization/Empire” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 265 - Europe in the Era of World War Rather than approaching the history of Europe in wartime solely through the lens of military history or the history of international relations, this course will also delve into European culture, politics, and society in the period 1914-1945 and will explore the ways that both world wars profoundly changed the lives of Europeans living at the time, as well as the landscape of Europe itself. We will take a peripatetic approach, diving into different themes in different places and times. We will explore, for example, the lives of a young British nurse and a young German soldier during the First World War. We will grapple with the experiences of a concentration camp survivor during the Holocaust. We will think about the ways that critics of empire drew on the experiences of fascism in the twentieth century to build their case against colonialism. And finally, using more contemporary accounts and news coverage, we will consider the legacies of these two transformative wars and think about how they shape our conceptions of Europe and Europeans today. The class will strongly emphasize the development of research and writing skills. We will engage with a wide range of primary source material and students will conduct historical research on a topic of their choice, culminating in a major research paper that they will present as part of an in-class research conference. Can count towards “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Europe” or “Post-1800” fields. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 266 - European Revolutions, 1789-1917 This course will provide an introduction to the study of history and to European politics, culture, and society in the long nineteenth century from the French Revolution in 1789 to the Russian Revolution in 1917. We will explore a multitude of different kinds of revolutions - including political revolutions, dramatic changes in class and social structure, evolving gender roles for men and women, and the establishment of new empires and nation states. This class will situate these vast changes in Europe in a broad global context and will consider the experiences of people with very different identities, ranging from women fighting for equal rights under the banner of the French Revolution to Russian peasants to African workers in the Belgian Congo. We will challenge traditional notions of what constitutes Europe and we will explore the various transnational connections that linked Europe to the rest of the world. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Europe” fields. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)
	HIST 267 - Race and Immigration in Europe This course will explore the way that questions of race have shaped European society and politics, as well as the ways that immigration has created the uneasily multi-cultural Europe that we know today. We will explore topics such as the origins of immigration policy in interwar Europe, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, race and empire, post-colonial immigration from Africa and Asia, the place of Islam in European society, the emergence of anti-immigration political movements on the extreme right, and we will end the course with a discussion of the current migration crisis in Europe and the connections between European xenophobia and “Brexit.” In addition to our readings of leading scholars in this field, we will engage with historical documents, literature, and film, as well as with contemporary European news coverage. Can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Europe” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 268 - American Indians in Public History: Museums and Memor This course examines the historical and contemporary role of American Indians in public history and the often-contradictory goals of Native nations and museums. Many museums see themselves as the authorities on the proper storage, maintenance, and care of sacred items or cultural objects, while American Indian nations argue that the impositions of museum collectors and curators fail to acknowledge indigenous traditions and belief systems. We will investigate how American Indians work to regain control of sacred objects and, in turn, regain control of their history and the historical narrative through the repatriation of stolen items and objects, the implementation of decolonization practices in museums, and the growth of tribal museums. This course combines scholarly research and readings with field trips to exhibits at several local museums. Occasionally offered. (4 Credits)
	HIST 271 - Uses and Abuses: Drugs, Addiction and Recovery Cross-Listed as AMST 271 After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the “War on Drugs,” the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Gender,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “North America” fields. Fall semester. (4 Credits)
	HIST 274 - The Great Tradition in China before 1840 Cross-Listed as ASIA 274 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. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Asia” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 275 - The Rise of Modern China Cross-Listed as ASIA 275 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. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Asia” fields. Every year. (4 Credits)
	HIST 276 - The Great Tradition in Japan before 1853 Cross-Listed as ASIA 276 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. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Asia” fields. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 277 - The Rise of Modern Japan Cross-Listed as ASIA 277 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. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Law and Social Justice,” or “Asia” fields. Every year. (4 Credits)
	HIST 281 - The Andes: Landscape and Power Cross-Listed as ENVI 281 and LATI 281 This course explores the interaction between landscape and power in Andean history from the colonial period to the present day. The dramatic mountains have both shaped and have been shaped by sociopolitical relations, from the “vertical archipelagos” of ancient Andean peoples to the extractive economies of the Spanish and post-colonial Andean states. The course incorporates analytical perspectives from environmental, cultural, and urban history, alongside eyewitness accounts, to consider the relationship between the natural and built environments, on the one hand, and Andean racial and social identities, on the other. In selected years, this course will involve collaboration with contemporary Andean communities deploying oral history as a means of community and environmental preservation. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Environment,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Latin American/Caribbean” fields. 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. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Latin American/Caribbean” field. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
	HIST 283 - Amazon: A Cultural History Cross-Listed as LATI 283 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). Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards “Colonization and Empire,” or “Environment,” or “Race and Indigeneity,” or “Latin American/Caribbean” fields. Every other year. (4 Credits)

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Courses

GERM 101 - Elementary German I

GERM 102 - Elementary German II

GERM 110 - Accelerated Elementary German

GERM 174 - Vampires - from Monsters to Superheroes

GERM 194 - Topics Course

GERM 203 - Intermediate German I

GERM 204 - Intermediate German II

GERM 230 - Green Germany

GERM 271 - “Dead White Men” in the Era of Antiracism

GERM 273 - German-French Dialogues in Critical Theory: Marx-Freud-Sartre-Lacan

GERM 274 - Spinoza’s Eco-Society: Contractless Society and Its Ecology

GERM 275 - Theoretical Approaches to European and American Cinema

GERM 276 - Marx, the Imaginary, and Neoliberalism

GERM 277 - Metaphysics in Secular Thought

GERM 278 - Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race

GERM 279 - Value: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Cheap

GERM 294 - Topics Course

GERM 308 - German Cultural History I: Uniting and Dividing Germany

GERM 309 - German Cultural History II: Ruptures and Remakings of Modern Germany

GERM 316 - Reading Marx

GERM 363 - Cyborgs, Puppets and Borderline Humans

GERM 364 - Migration, Then and Now

GERM 365 - A Kafkaesque Century

GERM 366 - Cinema Studies

GERM 394 - Topics Course

GERM 488 - Senior Seminar

GERM 494 - Topics Course

GERM 601 - Tutorial

GERM 602 - Tutorial

GERM 603 - Tutorial

GERM 604 - Tutorial

GERM 611 - Independent Project

GERM 612 - Independent Project

GERM 613 - Independent Project

GERM 614 - Independent Project

GERM 621 - Internship

GERM 622 - Internship

GERM 623 - Internship

GERM 624 - Internship

GERM 631 - Preceptorship

GERM 632 - Preceptorship

GERM 633 - Preceptorship

GERM 634 - Preceptorship

GERM 641 - Honors Independent

GERM 642 - Honors Independent

GERM 643 - Honors Independent

GERM 644 - Honors Independent

HIST 111 - Making Modern Europe

HIST 113 - Time Travelers: Tourism in Global History

HIST 114 - History of Africa to 1800

HIST 115 - Africa Since 1800

HIST 121 - The Greek World

HIST 122 - The Roman World

HIST 125 - Influential Indians: A Biographical Approach to American Indian History

HIST 137 - From Confederation to Confederacy: US History from Independence to the Civil War

HIST 140 - Introduction to East Asian Civilization

HIST 149 - First Encounters

HIST 154 - African Life Histories

HIST 164 - Global Health Histories

HIST 168 - Introduction to Gender History

HIST 170 - History of Childhood

HIST 180 - Going Global: The Experiment of World History

HIST 181 - Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean

HIST 194 - Topics Course

HIST 201 - History of U.S. Feminisms

HIST 209 - Civil Rights in the United States

HIST 213 - Women in African History

HIST 219 - In Motion: African Americans in the United States

HIST 222 - Imagining the American West

HIST 224 - Enslavement, Resistance, and Emancipation in Comp N Amer and Caribbean Perspectives

HIST 225 - Native History to 1871

HIST 226 - American Indian History since 1871

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

HIST 229 - Narrating Black Women’s Resistance

HIST 232 - Immigration and Ethnicity in US History

HIST 234 - U.S. Environmental History

HIST 235 - Captives, Cannibals, and Capitalists in the Early Modern Atlantic World

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

HIST 244 - US Since 1945