The Romans and Their World

This course examines the history of the Roman Empire from the formation of the Roman monarchy in 753 BCE to the collapse of the Western Empire in 476 CE. At the heart of the class is a single question: how did the Roman Empire come to be, and why did it last for so long? We will trace the rise and fall of the Republic, the extension of its power beyond Italy, and the spread of Christianity. Epic poetry, annalistic accounts, coins, papyri, inscriptions, and sculpture will illuminate major figures like Cleopatra, and features of daily life like Roman law and religion. The destructive mechanics by which Rome sustained itself--war, slavery, and environmental degradation--will receive attention, too, with the aim of producing a holistic understanding this empire.  Discussion Section Required.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Sailakshmi Ramgopal
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

The Battle for North America: An Indigen

Battle for N. America

This course will explore the struggle to control the continent of North America from an Indigenous perspective. After a century of European colonization Native peoples east of the Mississippi River Valley formed a political confederation aimed at preserving Native sovereignty. This Native confederacy emerged as a dominant force during the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. At times Native political interests aligned with the French and British Empires, but remained in opposition to the expansion of Anglo-American colonial settlements into Indian country. This course is designed to engage literature and epistemology surrounding these New World conflicts as a means of the colonial and post-colonial past in North America.  We will explore the emergence of intersecting indigenous and European national identities tied to the social construction of space and race. In this course I will ask you to re-think American history by situating North America as a Native space, a place that was occupied and controlled by indigenous peoples.  You will be asked to imagine a North America that was indigenous and adaptive, and not necessarily destined to be absorbed by European settler colonies.  Accordingly, this course we will explore the intersections of European colonial settlement and Euro-American national expansion, alongside of the emergence of indigenous social formations that dominated the western interior until the middle of the 19th century.  This course is intended to be a broad history of Indigenous North America during a tumultuous period, but close attention will be given to use and analysis of primary source evidence.  Similarly, we will explore the necessity of using multiple genres of textual evidence – archival documents, oral history, material artifacts, etc., -- when studying indigenous history.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Witgen
  Info
• 4 points

The Year 1000: A World History

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of premodern history, with a substantive focus on the variety of cultures flourishing across the globe 1000 years ago.  Methodologically, the course will emphasize the variety of primary sources historians use to reconstruct those cultures, the various approaches taken by the discipline of history (and neighboring disciplines) in analyzing those sources, and the particular challenges and pleasures of studying a generally “source poor” period. The course queries the concepts of “global history” and “world history” as applied to the “middle millennium” (corresponding to Europe’s “medieval history”), by exploring approaches that privilege connection, comparison, combination, correlation, or coverage.

• TR 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Adam Kosto
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 4 points

The Year 1000: A World History - DISC

The Year 1000 - DISC

Required zero-credit/ungraded discussion for The Year 1000: A World History lecture (HIST UN1942). Discussion section day & times to be determined.

• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• T 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• W 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
• Instructor: Caitlin A Liss
  Info
• 0 points

MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN 2ND C BC

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Richard A Billows
  CULPA: 40 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

NATURE & POWER: ENV HIST NORTH AMERICA

Environmental history seeks to expand the customary framework of historical inquiry, challenging students to construct narratives of the past that incorporate not only human beings but also the natural world with which human life is intimately intertwined. As a result, environmental history places at center stage a wide range of previously overlooked historical actors such as plants, animals, and diseases. Moreover, by locating nature within human history, environmental history encourages its practitioners to rethink some of the fundamental categories through which our understanding of the natural world is expressed: wilderness and civilization, wild and tame, natural and artificial. For those interested in the study of ethnicity, environmental history casts into particularly sharp relief the ways in which the natural world can serve both to undermine and to reinforce the divisions within human societies. Although all human beings share profound biological similarities, they have nonetheless enjoyed unequal access to natural resources and to healthy environments—differences that have all-too-frequently been justified by depicting such conditions as “natural.”

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Karl Jacoby
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 8 Info
• 4 points

NATURE & POWER: ENV HIST NORTH AMER-DIS

• R 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• R 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• 0 points

WAR IN GERMANY 1618-2018

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Adam Tooze
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Britain, Ireland and Empire, 1789-1901

19th C Britain & Ireland

Nineteenth-century Britain has traditionally been portrayed as the dominant power in the world of its time: one that forged a path towards various kinds of ‘modernity’ at home, while ruthlessly subjugating and exploiting the peoples subject to its colonial empire.

In this course, we will take a sceptical look at these claims. How coherent a political entity was ‘Britain’—a monarchy composed of at least four distinct and fractious nations, presiding over a scattered empire of trade, conquest and settlement? Who in Britain really benefited from the prosperity made possible by the dramatic industrial and imperial expansion that characterised the period? What forms of freedom, and what kinds of social control, were made possible by Victorian ideologies of ‘liberal’ government and
laissez-faire
economics? Why were British elites so often uncertain and divided when it came to questions of imperial rule—especially in Ireland, the oldest and nearest dependency of the empire?

In the course of asking these questions, we will of course be learning about the history of Britain itself, alongside the parts of the world it interacted with during the nineteenth century: something that, thanks to a wealth of primary sources (many of them now online) and a strong tradition of sophisticated historiography, will be a highly rewarding intellectual experience.

We will also, however, be learning and thinking about other things—the histories of capitalism, religion, gender, empire, fossil fuels, migration, agriculture, slavery and political ideology, among others—that are of a much more general, and contemporary relevance. We do not have to buy into simplistic narratives of nineteenth-century Britain’s importance or distinctiveness to recognize it as an interesting place for thinking through some of the central problems of global history and modern politics.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: James Stafford
  Info
• 4 points

POLITICS OF TERROR:FRENCH REV

This course examines the political culture of eighteenth-century France, from the final decades of the Bourbon monarchy to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Among our primary aims will be to explore the origins of the Terror and its relationship to the Revolution as a whole. Other topics we will address include the erosion of the kings authority in the years leading up to 1789, the fall of the Bastille, the Constitutions of 1791 and 1793, civil war in the Vendee, the militarization of the Revolution, the dechristianization movement, attempts to establish a new Revolutionary calendar and civil religion, and the sweeping plans for moral regeneration led by Robespierre and his colleagues in 1793-1794.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Charly J Coleman
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 4 points

US INTELLECTUAL HIST 1865-PRES

This course examines major themes in U.S. intellectual history since the Civil War. Among other topics, we will examine the public role of intellectuals; the modern liberal-progressive tradition and its radical and conservative critics; the uneasy status of religion ina secular culture; cultural radicalism and feminism; critiques of corporate capitalism and consumer culture; the response of intellectuals to hot and cold wars, the Great Depression, and the upheavals of the 1960s. Fields(s): US

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Casey Blake
  CULPA: 22 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

US INTELLCT HIST 1865-PRES-DIS

• R 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• R 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Casey Blake
  CULPA: 22 Wikipedia Info
• 0 points

American History at the Movies

Amer. Hist. at the Movies

This lecture explores major topics in modern American history through an examination of the American film industry and some of its most popular films and stars. It begins with the emergence of “Hollywood” as an industry and a place in the wake of WWI and ends with the rise of the so-called ‘New Hollywood’ in the 1970s and its treatment of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. For much of this period, Hollywood’s films were
not
protected free speech, making movies and stars peculiarly reflective of, and vulnerable to, changes in broader cultural and political dynamics. Students will become familiar with Hollywood’s institutional history over this half-century in order to understand the forces, both internal and external, that have shaped the presentation of what Americans do and don’t see on screens and to become skilled interpreters of American history at the movies.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Hilary-Anne Hallett
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

LATIN AMERICN CIVILIZATION II

This course explores major themes in Latin American history from the independence period (ca 1810) to the present. We will hone in on Latin Americas “chronic” problems of social inequality, political polarization, authoritarianism, incomplete democratization, and troubled memory politics. The course covers economic, social, and cultural histories, and gives special weight to the transnational aspects of Latin American ideological struggles – from its dependency on Western capital to its ideological “inner Cold War” – and the way they influenced the subaltern strata of society. The section discussions are a crucial component of the course, and will focus on assigned historiography. While the lecture centers on constructing a cogent meta-narrative for Latin America’s modern era, in the section we will explore not only the historical “facts,” but will instead ask: how do historians know what they know about the past? What sources and analytic methods do they use to write history? And what ethical dilemmas do they confront when narrating politically-sensitive topics? 

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Alfonso Salgado
  Info
• 4 points

Atlantic Slave Trade

The history of human trafficking in the Atlantic world from the first European slaving expeditions in the late fifteenth century down to the final forced crossings in the era of the U.S. Civil War.  Themes include captive taking in West Africa and its impact on West African societies, the commercial organization of the Atlantic slave trade in Europe and the Americas, and the experience of capture, exile, commodification, and survival of those shipped to the Americas. 

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher L Brown
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4-4.5 points

Atlantic Slave Trade - DISC

Required discussion section for HIST UN 2679 - The Atlantic Slave Trade

• R 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher L Brown
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 0 points

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

This course will cover the seven-century long history of the Ottoman Empire, which spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa as well as the medieval, early modern, and modern period. The many levels of continuity and change will be the focus, as will issues of identities and mentalities, confessional diversity, cultural and linguistic pluralism, and imperial governance and political belonging of the empire within larger regional and global perspectives over the centuries. The course also seeks to cultivate appreciation of the human experience through the multifarious experiences culled from the Ottoman past.

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Tunc Sen
  Info
• 4 points

S ASIA II:EMPIRE/ITS AFTR

Prerequisites: None. (No prerequisite.) We begin with the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire, and examine why and how the East India Company came to rule India in the eighteenth century. As the term progresses, we will investigate the objectives of British colonial rule in India and we will explore the nature of colonial modernity. The course then turns to a discussion of anti-colonial sentiment, both in the form of outright revolt, and critiques by early nationalists. This is followed by a discussion of Gandhi, his thought and his leadership of the nationalist movement. Finally, the course explores the partition of British India in 1947, examining the long-term consequences of the process of partition for the states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We will focus in particular on the flowing themes: non-Western state formation; debates about whether British rule impoverished India; the structure and ideology of anti-colonial thought; identity formation and its connection to political, economic and cultural structures. The class relies extensively on primary texts, and aims to expose students to multiple historiographical perspectives for understanding South Asias past.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Anupama Rao
  CULPA: 28 Info
• 4 points

S ASIA II:EMPIRE/ITS AFTR - DISC

S ASIA II - DISC

Required discussion for History of South Asia II lecture (S ASIA II:EMPIRE/ITS AFTR HSME UN2811). Discussion section day & times to be determined.

• M 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• M 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• T 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• T 11:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Anupama Rao
  CULPA: 28 Info
• 0 points

Technology and US Politics

The course investigates the relation between politics and technology in the Unites States during the twentieth century. Following the telegraph, radio, the mainframe computer, the internet, and online platforms, the course asks how have Americans conceptualized the relation between technological developments and democratic ideals starting in the late nineteenth century? Are new technologies forms of control or of liberation? Do they enhance or curtail free speech? Has the public sphere been strengthened or weakened by new communication technologies? What has been the rule of government regulation in the adoption of these technologies? Students will be introduced to basic ideas and methodologies in the history of technology, while focusing on the relation between politics of technology. 

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Alma Steingart
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

CENS/FREEDOM-EXPR-ERLY MOD EUR

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Elisheva Carlebach
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Global Urban History of Housing Justice

Global Urban Hist of Hous

Shelter is one of our most basic human needs. Yet
housing
, and its legal, social and political meanings and struggles around its distribution, possession and safety, is a concept that can only be fully understood as a historical phenomenon. In the industrializing and urbanizing world, the concept of “housing” emerged at the intersection of questions of property rights, the study of urban problems, and the legal and cultural distinctions between public and private spheres. Throughout the world, the provision of shelter for urban populations has been at the center of urban crises and conflicts, as well as their solutions. This course will examine the deep history of urban segregation, fights for healthy and safe housing, and scholarly and policy debates about the “planet of slums.” The course’s geographic scope is global, using both comparative and transnational approaches, and we will explore the connections between local and global movements and historical processes. Through a historically-oriented but interdisciplinary set of readings, students in this class will become familiar with the terms of debates about the right to shelter as a social, political and legal problem in the modern (nineteenth- and twentieth-century) world. We will explore how history provides a unique view on how the question of housing is a social justice issue connected to other ones like mass incarceration and the destruction wrought by wars, famines, and intergenerational racial, ethnic and class inequalities. There are no pre- or co-requisites for this class.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Amy E Chazkel
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

East Central Europe in the Twentieth Cen

ECE INT AND CULT HIST 20t

This course analyses the intellectual and cultural history of East Central Europe in the ‘long twentieth century.’ Approaching East Central Europe as a ‘suburb of Europe’ (Jerzy Jedlicki) where some of the most contested questions of modern and contemporary times have been repeatedly raised with great urgency, the course places special emphases on political thinking and history writing while also drawing on examples from literary and visual cultures. Dissecting key achievements in these areas from across the twentieth century, we shall explore intellectual and cultural contributions from East Central Europe to discussions of wider relevance. We shall also consider how the specific forms of creativity in this diverse region may be connected to and embedded in broader European and global trends.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Ferenc Laczo
  Info
• 4 points

The Critique of Curiosity

“All persons desire to know,” Aristotle declared in his
Metaphysics
.  But given that not all desires are good ones, the question naturally arises whether curiosity is.  In the era of modern science and education, we tend to take this for granted.  But for centuries – also well before Aristotle – people have concluded just the opposite. Their reasons have been various: religious, psychological, philosophical, pragmatic.  In this junior seminar we will examine select thinkers in the stream of Western thought that has questioned the value of curiosity and, more fundamentally, of knowledge itself.

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Mark Lilla
  CULPA: 57 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Collapse: The Fall and Afterlife of the

Collapse of Soviet Union

On Christmas Day 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev ended two things: his tenure as President of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union itself. The following day, Boris Yeltsin entered office as the first president of the Russian Federation, and without delay, began to institute radical economic and social reforms. Under his watch, the country privatized national industry, cut the state budget, and courted foreign multinational businesses. The world most commonly used to describe Russia in the early 1990s is “disappear”: money, jobs, food, and people. The very things that Soviet-style socialism had committed itself to providing for started to vanish as a result of invisible and market forces. At the same time as they were being told to welcome the approaching era of capitalist abundance, ordinary Russians were scrambling to cope with and recover from all that appeared to be suddenly and permanently missing from their pay stubs, kitchen tables, and family photographs.

This course will explore what emerged in the spaces left empty after Soviet-style socialism’s demise. The course will be divided into three parts. The first part of the semester will examine the origins of the Soviet Union’s collapse and its breakup into fifteen successor states. Who was Mikhail Gorbachev, and why did the reforms instituted as part of
glasnost
and
perestroika
fail to revitalize the Soviet system? How did citizens - elites and average people alike - from Russia, the Soviet republics, and satellite states witness the collapse, and how did they manage the immediate transition to capitalism? The second part of the semester will survey the political, economic, and social processes that followed the collapse. How did former Soviet citizens reintegrate themselves in the new economies, political movements, and social structures that emerged in the Russian Federation under Yeltsin? In what ways did privatization and the arrival of foreign capital shape labor practices, consumer habits, the natural and built environment, and forms of cultural expression? What forms did nationalist movements in the former republics and and Warsaw Pact countries take? Finally, the third part of the course will focus on Putin’s ascendancy to the presidency and its consequences for Russian citizens at home and Russia’s image abroad. We will consider the role that memory and myth play in the formation of a “United Russian” consciousness, the costs and benefits of life in Putin’s Russia, and the

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Yana Skorobogatov
  Info
• 4 points

CORP BEHAVIOR & PUBLIC HEALTH

In the decades since the publication of Silent Spring and the rise of the environmental movement, public awareness of the impact of industrial products on human health has grown enormously. There is growing concern over BPA, lead, PCBs, asbestos, and synthetic materials that make up the world around us. This course will focus on environmental history, industrial and labor history as well as on how twentieth century consumer culture shapes popular and professional understanding of disease. Throughout the term the class will trace the historical transformation of the origins of disease through primary sources such as documents gathered in lawsuits, and medical and public health literature. Students will be asked to evaluate historical debates about the causes of modern epidemics of cancer, heart disease, lead poisoning, asbestos-related illnesses and other chronic conditions. They will also consider where responsibility for these new concerns lies, particularly as they have emerged in law suits. Together, we will explore the rise of modern environmental movement in the last 75 years.

• W 8:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
• Instructor: David Rosner
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Indians and Empires in North America

Indians & Empires in N Am

In this course you will be asked to re-think American history.   That is, we will approach the history of America as a continental history.  This will require that we think of North America as a New World space, a place that was inhabited and occupied by indigenous peoples, and then remade by the arrival and settlement of Europeans.  You will be asked to imagine a North America that was indigenous and adaptive, as well as colonial and Euro-American.  This approach to the study of North American history is designed to challenge the epistemology and literature of the history of colonization and American expansion, which displaces Native peoples from the central narrative of American history by placing them at the physical margins of colonial and national development.  Instead we will explore the intersection and integration of indigenous and Euro-American national identity and national space in North America and trace their co-evolution from first contact through the early nineteenth century.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Witgen
  Info
• 4 points

COLUMBIA 1968

This undergraduate seminar examines the social, political, and cultural transformations of the 1960s through the lens of local history. The course is centered on the student and community protests that took place at Columbia University and in Morningside Heights in 1968. Scholarly and popular histories have underscored the ways 1968 was a watershed moment in the history of the 20th century. Although the protest is one of the touchstone events from the year and the decade, reliable historical treatment is still lacking. This class encourages students to examine and craft histories of the university and the surrounding community in this period. Designed to work in tandem with the “Columbia and Slavery” course, this course is a public-facing seminar designed to empower students to open up a discussion of all the issues connected with the protests, its global, national, and local context, and its aftermath. The course aims to raise questions, elicit curiosity, and encourage students and those interested in Columbia and Morningside Heights history to investigate one of the most important events to take place in the university’s history. The recent 50th anniversary of those events, and the availability of new sources & publications on the protests, have presented opportunities to prompt fresh answers to old questions: What were the factors that led to the protests? How did student and community mobilization shape, and were shaped by, national and international forces? What are the local, national, and international legacies of Columbia 1968? The recent graduate student strike is a very tangible legacy of the protests. This seminar is part of an on-going, multiyear effort to grapple with such questions and to share our findings with the Columbia community and beyond.  Working independently, students will define and pursue individual research projects.  Working together, the class will create digital visualizationsof these projects.

 

Course Objectives:

1.     To explore, document, and contextualize the Columbia/Morningside Heights protests of 1968.

2.     To practice the “historian’s craft” by conducting research, analyzing primary material, and making coherent arguments based on an interrogation of evidence.

3.     To analyze, engage in, and reflect on the relationship between archival research and the produ

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Frank Guridy
  CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

The Historical Imagination in Caribbean

Hist Imagination Caribbea

Caribbean literature offers complicated and vivid portrayals of the Caribbean’s past, and grapples with difficult histories lived by its people that compromised colonial archives can only partially capture. Literary works far exceed the limited narratives of Caribbean history by imagining entire worlds that official documents could never contain, rich selves, cultures and communities built by many generations of Caribbean people. This course is aimed at bringing forth a broader understanding of Caribbean history by examining a body of creative works by feminist and womanist writers that continuously remain attuned to the complexities of the past, which are either underrepresented or absent in the record. Chosen literary texts will also be paired with historical works that will illuminate and contextualize the multiple themes with which these Caribbean authors frequently engage, including slavery, and colonialism, racism and colorism, migration and immigration, gender and sexuality, poverty and globalization. From these pairings, students will explore both the divergences and alignments in how writers and historians approach the work of retelling the past, and will acquire reading and writing skills that will foster thoughtful critical analysis of the ever-changing contours of the Caribbean’s history.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Natasha J Lightfoot
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

Dancing New York City in the 20th Centur

Dancing NYC 20th Century

 

The 20th century saw New York City emerge as an artistic and economic capital on the world stage. Although these trends are often considered separately, the history of dance in NYC demonstrates their interrelations. This seminar will interweave the history of New York City with the history of dance across the twentieth century. It will use the work of dancers, choreographers, and critics to illuminate social, political, and cultural trends in New York’s urban life. Topics include dance in working-class leisure, dance as cultural activism during the Popular Front and Black Arts eras, immigration and assimilation in NYC, and the impact of urban renewal on communities and the performing arts. No prior experience with dance is necessary; this course welcomes all students interested in cultural history, urban history, and intellectual history. Through reading and viewing assignments, class discussion and activities, and written assessments, students in this course will learn to analyze movement, write clearly and vividly about dance performance, conduct primary source research, and assess the role of the performing arts within the New York cityscape.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Emily A Hawk
  Info
• 4 points

JEWS AND THE CITY

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Over the course of the nineteenth century, millions of Jews uprooted themselves from their places of birth and moved to cities scattered throughout the world. This mass urbanization not only created new demographic centers of world Jewry, but also fundamentally transformed Jewish political and cultural life. In this course, we shall analyze primary source material, literary accounts as well as secondary sources as we examine the Jewish encounter with the city, and see how Jewish culture was shaped by and helped to shape urban culture. We shall compare Jewish life in six cities spanning from Eastern Europe to the United States and consider how Jews’ concerns molded the urban economy, urban politics, and cosmopolitan culture. We shall also consider the ways in which urbanization changed everyday Jewish life. What impact did it have on Jewish economic and religious life? What role did gender and class play in molding the experiences of Jews in different cities scattered throughout the world?

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Rebecca Kobrin
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 4 points

The Crucible of Nations: Race, Migration

This course is an historical introduction to the study of race and migration in the modern Mediterranean with a particular focus on histories from Africa and the Middle East. We will explore the fundamental migration events that have shaped Mediterranean history, including global settler movements, enslavement and forced migration, partitions and population transfers, and contemporary refugee crises. Building on Mediterranean history, we will discuss how race and migration shaped successive border regimes and competing world orders from 19th century to the present. Analyzing a diverse array of primary sources from legal texts, government reports, and maps to film, poetry, and visual arts, we will pursue answers to questions such as: What are the legal, social, and political structures which govern international migration? What laws, ideas, and affects construct political borders? What happens to those who breach them? How do the legacies of racial slavery, settler colonialism, and ethno-nationalism unsettle the borders of contemporary Mediterranean?

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Hatice A Polat
  Info
• 4 points

American Commercial and Business Interes

American Commerce in Turk

This course provides a comprehensive exploration of the American commercial and business interests in the Ottoman Empire and its successor, Turkey, from the beginning of the relations in the early 19th century until the 1960s. Through a multidisciplinary approach, students will also examine the diplomatic, economic, and cultural factors that shaped the relationship between the United States and Turkey during this period. In addition to the state-level relations, personal accounts of the Americans settled in Turkey will be highly consulted. The course begins by delving into the historical context of American-Ottoman relations, highlighting key events and developments that generally influenced commercial and business interactions. Students will gain insights into the diplomatic efforts, trade agreements, private initiatives, and cultural exchanges that fostered economic ties between the two countries in changing periods. Throughout the course, students will critically analyze primary and secondary sources, engage in discussions, and prepare a research paper to deepen their understanding of the topic.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Murat Iplikci
  Info
• 4 points

Fighting Inequality: Struggles for Econo

This seminar explores the history of economic justice in the “Global South,” with a particular focus on African movements for anti-colonialism and economic redistribution. It interrogates the concept of the “Global South” and analyzes the ways activists, political figures and thinkers fought for economic justice. The class starts with a focus on economic theories of redistribution. It then analyzes how slavery and emancipation, as well as capitalism and colonialism shaped 19th century hierarchies and struggles for economic and political rights. The second half of the course focuses on colonial exploitation and anticolonial struggles for economic sovereignty in the 20th century. The course ends with a study of postcolonial and early 21st century movements for economic sovereignty and demands for reparations and redistribution.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas B Zuber
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR

A year-long course for outstanding senior majors who want to conduct research in primary sources on a topic of their choice in any aspect of history, and to write a senior thesis possibly leading toward departmental honors. Field(s): ALL

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Samuel F Coggeshall
  Info
• Instructor: Paul T Chamberlin
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Susan Pedersen
  CULPA: 15 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Malgorzata Mazurek
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

WARS OF INDOCHINA

This course will analyze the wars for Vietnam in the Cold War era from a multitude of perspectives, vantage points, and mediums. Using the
 
award
-
winning documentary
, The Vietnam War
, as the basis of the seminar, students will explore this violent period in Indochinese history that witnessed decolonization movements, revolutionary struggles, state and nation-building, superpower interventions, and devastating warfare. At the same time, the battles that unfolded in mainland Southeast Asia posed geostrategic challenges to former imperial powers and the superpowers of the Cold War era. The class will not only familiarize students with Vietnam's tumultuous history, it introduces the latest debates, newest research, and most recent documentary films on this oft-studied topic.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Lien-Hang Nguyen
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

EASTERN EUROPE'S COLD WAR

This seminar explores the Cold Wars impact on Eastern Europe (1940s-1980s) and Eastern Europes Cold War-era engagements with the wider world. We will address the methodologies used by historians to answer questions like these: What was the Cold War? What did it mean, and for whom? We will also look at the Cold War as something more than a series of events; we will consider its value, uses, and limits as a device for framing the second half of the twentieth century.

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Elidor Mehilli
  Info
• 4 points

UKRAINE IN NEW YORK

Ukraine in New York is a multidisciplinary exploration of the Ukrainian-American community in New York City from its beginning in the late 19th century to the present. The course focuses on the history, demographics, economics, politics, religion, education, and culture of the community, devoting particular attention to the impact thereon of the New York setting, shifting attitudes towards American politics and culture and homeland politics and culture, the tensions encountered in navigating between American, Soviet Ukraine, and independent Ukraine...

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Alexander J Motyl
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

The Legacies of Division. East-West Enta

EAST-WEST IN CONT EUR HIS

Through exploring how the asymmetrical relationship between Eastern and Western Europe has transformed since the 1970s, this course aims to decenter and reconsider contemporary European history. We shall focus primarily on political-institutional change, socioeconomic matters, and questions of political culture. We will pay special attention to key themes – such as the end of empire and Europeanization, the contemporary meanings of democracy, changing gender regimes, patterns of migration, and ongoing contestations of how Europeans remember – through which this complex relationship can be grasped.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Ferenc Laczo
  Info
• 4 points

Black Sea Virtual Textbook: A Digital Re

This course is a continuation of History 4218, The Black Sea in History. It is open to all alumni of that class, from Fall 2023 or earlier. The goal of this research seminar is to craft a “virtual textbook” that gathers materials for each session of The Black Sea in History and posts them to a student-designed site. The primary “pull” of this class is that upper-level undergraduates, MA students, and PhD students will write (at least) one research article that will be published on the site. The site will serve as a textbook for future iterations of The Black Sea in History, and, while we will have a complete version by the end of the semester, future students will also be able to contribute. BSVT will be publicly accessible, so not limited to classroom use.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Catherine Evtuhov
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

Montaigne and the Modern Self

This seminar, which focuses on Montaigne’s 
Essays
, is one of a series on the history of the modern self.  The series has included seminars on figures like Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, and will continue to expand.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Mark Lilla
  CULPA: 57 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Empire and Environment in Eurasia, 1700-

Empire & Environ. in Eura

The Soviet Union, like the Russian Empire before it, straddled one-sixth of the planet’s landmass. Both powers drew on this territory’s vast resources—organic, mineral, animal, and human—to dominate their neighbors and exert power on the world stage. In the process, they dramatically reconfigured local ecosystems, from Central Asian deserts to Pacific islands. This seminar traces the interaction between empire and environment across three eras: Tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet. Its approach is comparative, framing developments in Russia alongside those elsewhere—in China, Europe, and the US. The course asks: How have modern polities transformed Eurasia’s land, water, and air? In turn, how has the natural world shaped the trajectories of diverse imperial projects? And what legacies have these encounters left for today? Topics include settler colonialism, energy transitions, “natural” disasters, warfare, environmentalism, scientific diplomacy, ecocide, climate change, and the comparative footprints of capitalism and communism. While the approach is historical, students will engage materials from across disciplines (alongside films, novellas, and other primary sources) with an eye towards today’s political and ecological dilemmas. The seminar is designed for upper-division and graduate students with an interest in environmental history methods. Previous exposure to Russian and Eurasian Studies is helpful, but not required.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Taylor Zajicek
  Info
• 4 points

Trials for history: How should Nazi crim

Trials for history (1945-

Nearly 80 years have passed since the Second World War: a majority of Europeans no longer have an autobiographical memory of the war. Yet the legacy of the Second World War is all the more present because the “heroic” myths that many European nations adopted after 1945 have now been replaced by negative memories. Europe no longer celebrates the Resistance fighter who died for a cause, but now recognizes European Jews as victims. To explore the way in which the Second World War remains present in post-war European societies that it helped to shape, the seminar will take as its starting point the Nuremberg trials of 1945-1948 and continue throughout the last trials of Nazi criminals in Germany. It will also look at the responses of the judicial, political and social actors. The seminar highlights the extent to which the complex relationship between justice, history and memory surrounding the Second World War is still relevant today. Through various case studies, we will examine the political, memorial and legal issues and debates raised by this difficult history through a comparative analysis of trials in France and Germany, thereby situating these processes in a European context. The seminar questions the place of witnesses and the administration of evidence in these collective crimes and invites reflection on the types of sources that public policies of the past can mobilize to mediate these trials for the "devoir de mémoire” (obligation of remembrance). A variety of sources will be used including, news clips, photographs and legal documents, in addition to the preparatory readings for each session.

• M 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Fabien Theofilakis
  Info
• 4 points

Britain and the end of empire in Southea

Britain/Southeast Asia 19

This course examines the contraction of British imperial power in Southeast Asia from the opening of the Pacific War in 1941/42 to the decisions of the Labour Government in 1967/68 to withdraw from ‘East of Suez’.  As well as analysing the explanations offered for the retreat from formal colonial rule, the course explores how attempts were made to preserve influence and control the pace of change.  The interactions between metropolitan weakness and local nationalisms will be emphasised, as will be the effects of the Cold War.  Attention will also be paid to Anglo-American relations and the wars in Indochina. 

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew Jones
  Info
• 4 points

PROBLEMS IN INT'L HISTORY

US in the World 1970s

The 1970s were a pivotal decade for the United States, both as a society and a superpower. Runaway spending and an energy crisis brought on the worst recession since the 1930s, revealing the tenuous basis of American prosperity and ending the spectacular “postwar boom.” The Vietnam War’s conclusion and revelations of CIA perfidies prompted soul-searching and eventually human rights as a new justification for U.S. foreign policy, yet those rights—and who deserved them—remained unclear. A radical “New Left” and “New Right” challenged the political center, each with lasting (though disproportionate) impacts on American politics.

This course will explore these and other major changes in American society and foreign relations in the 20th century through the lens of  the 1970s. Familiarity with the contours of post-1945 American and/or international history is useful, but there are no requirements beyond an interest in the readings, topics, and current affairs.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Franczak
  Info
• 4 points

RACE, DRUGS, AND INEQUALITY

Note: Admission to this course is by application only.  Please use the form found in the SSOL course message.

Through a series of secondary- and primary-source readings, digital archive research, and writing assignments, we will explore the history of harm reduction from its origins in syringe exchange, health education, and condom distribution, to the current moment of decriminalization, safe consumption politics, and medically assisted treatment (MAT). At the same time, we will think about how harm reduction perspectives challenge us to rethink the histories and historiography of substance use, sexuality, health, and research science. Along with harm reduction theory and philosophy, relevant concepts and themes include syndemic and other epidemiological concepts theory; structural inequities (structural violence, structural racism); medicalization; biomedicalization; racialization; gender theory and queer theory; mass incarceration, hyperpolicing, and the carceral state; the “housing first” approach; political and other subjectivities; and historical constructions of “addiction”/“addicts”, rehabilitation/recovery, what are “drugs,” and the “(brain) disease model”/NIDA paradigm of addiction. 

Readings are multidisciplinary and include works in history, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines, and the syllabus will include at least one field trip to a harm reduction organization. Students will complete a short research project.

There are no official prerequisites. However, students should have some academic or professional background in public health, African-American/ethnic studies history or social science, and/or some other work related to the course material. 

Admission to this course is by application only. Please use the form found in the SSOL course message. 
Students may not enroll in this course on a pass/fail basis or as an auditor without instructor permission. 

Student assessment will be based on various criteria:
Class discussion participation - 35%
Presentation of the readings - 15%
Writing assignments - 50%

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Samuel K Jr Roberts
  Info
• 4 points

Indigenous Worlds in Early Latin America

This seminar deals with the presence of indigenous peoples in Latin American colonial societies and aims to analyze indigenous responses to conquest and colonization. How did indigenous people see themselves and interact with other groups? What roles did they play in shaping Latin American societies? What spaces were they able to create for themselves? These and similar questions will guide our discussion through the semester. Every week, we will read documents written by the indigenous people themselves, as well as academic studies of their cultures and societies. The course will offer a survey of the main indigenous groups; however, the case studies are by necessity just a selection. The seminar is conceived for students interested in race and ethnic relations and in the mechanisms of colonization and responses to it, as seen through the lenses of Latin America, between the 16th and the 18th centuries.

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Caterina Pizzigoni
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 4 points

Histories of the Public Sphere in Latin

Public Sphere: Justice Me

The history of the recent history of dictatorship, justice, memory and democracy in Latin America is examined in this seminar through the lens of the theory of the public sphere. We will also look at the paradigmatic cases of the processes that followed crimes against humanities in other regions in order to identify the specificity of the Latin American experience.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Pablo Piccato
  CULPA: 22 h-index: 20 Info
• 4 points

Medieval Franciscans and their World

This course will offer an examination of the birth and development of the Franciscan Order between 1200-1350. The topics will include Francis of Assisi, the foundation of the three orders of Franciscans, education, poverty, preaching, theology internal strife, antifraternalism, and relations with secular governments and papacy.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Neslihan Senocak
  CULPA: 5 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Politics of Archaeology

“Who owns antiquities?” “Who owns culture?” These questions that appear frequently today in both popular and scholarly discourse are deeply embedded in political issues and have a long history, going back to the nineteenth century. The seminar will investigate the origins of the battles over antiquities and their links empire building, colonialism, Orientalism, modernity, power, identity construction, racial hierarchies, and money. The chronological frame is from the 1850s to1914 and the geographical focus in the Ottoman Middle East, which was the major theater of contestations. We will look closely into two areas: archaeological excavations and museums. If objects were unearthed (“discovered”) in the first, they were displayed in the second; the Middle East was crowded with the first, while the major museums were in the West, with the exception of the Museum of Antiquities in Istanbul. We will also consider the vast and complex human landscape around the antiquities. In addition to archaeologists, this community included emperors, sultans, diplomats, spies, artists, inspectors, bureaucrats, technocrats, and workers, hence a cohort of individuals from many nationalities, economic strata, ethnic groups, and religions.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Zeynep Celik
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Sources and Methods in Islamic History

Source + Method Islamic H

This course trains students in approaching sources in Arabic and Persian from the premodern period. Depending on interest and experience, the course will expand to include Turkic and Hindvi/Urdu as well too. Students will gain a solid understanding of the wide range of historical writings in these languages, the conceptual and methodological problems involved in working with each, and how this source base changed over the centuries all the while reading exemplary historical studies that creatively and proficiently engaged with these materials. Students will gain proficiency in archival research while also reading a wide swathe of primary texts in the target languages (or in translation if students lack the proper language training). Upper intermediate Arabic and/or Persian preferred.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Ali Karjoo-Ravary
  Info
• 4 points

AFRICAN FRANCE, FRENCH AFRICA

This seminar
explores a tradition of historical writing (historiography) that constructs “Africa and France,” or “France and Africa,” or “FrançAfrique” as an historical object and as an object of knowledge. That body of writing accounts in various and sometimes contadictory ways for the peculiar, intense, and historically conflictual relationship that exists between France and the sub-Saharan nation-states that are its former African colonies.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Gregory Mann
  CULPA: 15 h-index: 13 Info
• 4 points

Encounters with Nature: The History and

This course offers an understanding of the interdisciplinary field of environmental, health and population history and will discuss historical and policy debates with a cross cutting, comparative relevance: such as the making and subjugation of colonized peoples and natural and disease landscapes under British colonial rule; modernizing states and their interest in development and knowledge and technology building, the movement and migration of populations, and changing place of public health and healing in south Asia. The key aim of the course will be to introduce students to reading and analyzing a range of historical scholarship, and interdisciplinary research on environment, health, medicine and populations in South Asia and to introduce them to an exploration of primary sources for research; and also to probe the challenges posed by archives and sources in these fields. Some of the overarching questions that shape this course are as follows: How have environmental pasts and medical histories been interpreted, debated and what is their contemporary resonance? What have been the encounters (political, intellectual, legal, social and cultural) between the environment, its changing landscapes and state? How have citizens, indigenous communities, and vernacular healers mediated and shaped these encounters and inserted their claims for sustainability, subsistence or survival? How have these changing landscapes shaped norms about bodies, care and beliefs? The course focuses on South Asia but also urges students to think and make linkages beyond regional geographies in examining interconnected ideas and practices in histories of the environment, medicine and health. Topics will therefore include (and students are invited to add to these perspectives and suggest additional discussion themes): colonial and globalized circuits of medical knowledge, with comparative case studies from Africa and East Asia; and the travel and translation of environmental ideas and of medical practices through growing global networks.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
  Info
• 4 points

The City & the Archive

How to write the city? What is an archive for writing the city? What liminal and marginal perspectives are available for thinking about writing the city? What is the place of the city in the global south in our historical imagination? Our attempt in this seminar is to look at the global south city from the historical and analytical perspectives of those dispossessed and marginal. Instead of ‘grand’ summations about “the Islamic City” or “Global City,” we will work meticulously to observe annotations on power that constructs cities, archives and their afterlives. The emphasis is on the city in South Asia as a particular referent though we will learn to see Cairo, New York, and Istanbul.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Manan Ahmed
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia h-index: 6 Info
• 4 points

History of Asian Communism

From the hereditary rule of a single family in Pyongyang to the eighteen different Communist Parties contesting democratic elections in Nepal; from the brave women warriors of the Filipino and Malayan Communist Parties to the fiercely independent Global South leaders who charted unique courses for their Communist Parties and countries; this course invites students to take a deep dive into the many adaptations and evolutions of communist thought and practice in Asia. Students will familiarize themselves with the works of key Asian communist figures in the historical and political contexts in which they lived and struggled. By showcasing the incredible diversity of communist theories, systems, experiences, and personalities, while providing analytical tools and documentary resources, History of Asian Communism will help students grow as critical readers and knowledge producers through facilitating lively and informed debate and praxis of communist thought and history.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Hoang Vu
  Info
• 4 points

WRITING LIVES:HISTORICAL APPROACHES

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Mark Mazower
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

French Empires: History and Historiograp

At the beginning of the 21st Century, forty years after its last colonial war, France, which had primarily seen itself as a “nation” in the previous two hundred years, discovered that it had been an “empire” for most of its history. The questions of slavery, colonial violence, racism, exclusion, and exploitation became prevalent in public debates with the conviction that colonial legacies continued to shape France’s present. This new interest in the imperial trajectory of France both informed and was shaped by the publication of many historical works.

This class will explore this 'imperial turn' and examine its specificity vis-à-vis the historiographies of other European empires. We will examine the questions that have been at the center of the historian's agenda: what kind of historical processes is revealed (or masked) by the imperial perspective? How do we think historically about the relationships between nation, Republic and empire?  How has the 'imperial turn' shaped the categories and writing practices of historians? How have new repertoires of questions about citizenship, gender and sexuality, racism, capitalism, and the environment emerged in the study of imperialism?  What are the contributions of historians to the understanding of postcolonialism?

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Emmanuelle Saada
  CULPA: 13 Info
• 4 points

American Radicalism in the Archives

US Radicalism in the Arch

“American Radicalism in the Archives” is a research seminar examining the multiple ways that radicals and their social movements have left traces in the historical record. Straddling the disciplines of social movement history, public humanities, and critical information studies, the seminar will use the archival collections at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library to trace the history of social movements and to consider the intersections of radical theory and practice with the creation and preservation of archives.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Thai S Jones
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

Visualizing History: Photography in conf

Photographs capture history as it happens, before events becomes history in the conventional sense, and these same photographs provide a visual archive of the past available to later historians.  This course explores the relationship between photography and history in selected conflicts and crises across the world in modern times, from the Crimean War to the war in Ukraine, from a Portuguese fascist internment camp for political prisoners to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the Arab Spring, and the current refugee crisis.   In each case we use a combination of  text and visual materials, with the focus on the latter, in order to trace the role of photography in history as well as the impact of changing photographic media, from large format cameras to cell phones.  Course requirements center on projects rather than papers and emphasize the analysis of visual materials as well as words.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Joao Pina
  Info
• 4 points

Nations and Nationalisms

This seminar offers a critical overview of recent literature on the historical emergence of national identities and the creation of national states. We will examine a series of books that present new ways of problematizing the nation and its construction and consolidation. These works take novel approaches foregrounding gender, temporality, memory, religion, economic development, local affinities, networks, and empire, among other frameworks. Building on classic literature on the nation and its origins from history, anthropology, political science, and political economy, the texts covered in this course nevertheless suggest new conclusions about the foundations, conditions of emergence, and persistence of national states and national identities.

What is a nation? How are nations formed? What could the nation have been, what other forms could it have taken, and what other types of political organization could have provided the basis for group identification or the structure of global order? To what extent did regional identities, on one hand, and imperial or supranational identities, on the other hand, affect the development of specific nations and of the nation-state in general? Why does every national group implicitly deserve or possess a state? Why are those nation-states territorial? How do nation-states generate and maintain the allegiance of their citizens and instill or ascribe membership in a national group? How do nations police or depend upon the gender, racial, and class identities of their subjects?

This seminar also seeks to raise a set of other questions about historical method and craft. How do we write and think about nationalism today? With histories of the nation rightly challenged by transnational approaches, does the nation still constitute a meaningful unit of historical analysis, and if so, in what ways? How do we take account of the nation as a historical fact while acknowledging the nation as a construction? With more virulent forms of right-wing nationalism and nationalist populism on the rise around the world, on the other hand, how should national histories and mythologies be questioned, reframed, and undermined?

Drawing on this recent literature, this seminar will seek to propose provisional answers to these questions and others about the nation and nationalism. Texts examined will cover both classic works on the nation and new works that revise or supplement them, as well as works that take novel approaches. Part of the course will historicize earlier theories

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Samuel F Coggeshall
  Info
• 4 points

RES SKILLS/MTHDS-INT/WRLD HIST

In the first semester a series of workshops will introduce the field of international history and various research skills and methods such as conceptualization of research projects and use of oral sources. The fall sessions will also show the digital resources available at Columbia and how students can deploy them in their individual projects. In the second semester students will apply the skills acquired in the fall as they develop their proposal for the Masters thesis, which is to be completed next year at the LSE. The proposal identifies a significant historical question, the relevant primary and secondary sources, an appropriate methodology, what preliminary research has been done and what remains to be done. Students will present their work-in-progress.

• F 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Line Lillevik
  Info
• 2 points

EARLY MODERN SOUTH ASIA

This graduate seminar focuses on  the material and political orders from 1500-1800 in South Asia. We pair primary, historical texts (in translation) with recent monographs which demonstrate the intersections between narrative and polity within material and epistemic realms. Our guiding interests will be in understanding the intimate relationship between power, agency and materiality within specific political spaces. Eschewing the center/periphery models, we take globally connective approach incorporating Western Asian, North American and Northern European histories. Some key ideas for the seminar include, “oceanic” perspective of the Indian and Atlantic oceans, role of “agents” (travelers, merchants, bureaucrats etc.), theories of colonization and decolonization, gender and sexuality.
 

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Manan Ahmed
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia h-index: 6 Info
• 4 points

Human and Social Sciences as History

Human/Social Sciences as

This cross-departmental, intense reading seminar examines new directions in global history of social knowledge and science from 1800 to 1950. We will study science in context with a special focus on producers, objects and circuits of knowledge, and a relationship between knowledge, power and politics. We will critically investigate theoretical and practical implications of some major works in political economy, anthropology, statistics, sociology, psychology and psychiatry, including often overlooked scholars of color and female intellectuals. In particular, the seminar looks at the ways in which scholarly reflection shaped modern practices of classification, measurement, data collection, and immaterial objects of scholarly inquiry such as the self and the unconscious. Among others, we will discuss the cultural impact of the Enlightenment, imperial conquest, colonialism, nation-state building, mass politics, war violence, and communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and China. In conjuction, we will study  shifting understandings of community, wealth and social inequalities, citizenship, race, sexuality, cultural norms of behavior, and the very role of science in a society and across continents (metropolitan Europe and colonial territories, North and South America, Eurasia, and the Islamic world). The seminar welcomes students from all social sciences and humanities departments.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Malgorzata Mazurek
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

England and Wider World 1550 to 1815

England/Wider World 1550-

This colloquium explores the evolution of English overseas enterprise from the Protestant Reformation through the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Topics include the origins and organization of the early British Empire, the production of wealth through colonial settlement and overseas trade, the development of consumer markets for tropical commodities, the relationship between European and imperial spheres of endeavor, the relationship between overseas enterprise and evolving definitions of British identity, and new problems of governance and administration in the late eighteenth century that accompanied colonial expansion in North America, South Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa.  

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher L Brown
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

HIST-AMER CAPITALISM SNC 1760

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Richard John
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

HEROD TO BAR KOKHBA

A detailed examination based on careful analysis (as far as possible in the original languages) of Josephus, intertestamental literature and Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, Rabbinic literature, in addition to archaeological, epigraphical and papyrological remains, of one of the most tumultuous and best attested periods of Jewish history before modernity.

• M 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Seth R Schwartz
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF LAT AMERICA

This graduate colloquium will introduce you to the literature of colonial Latin American history, discussing both new and early books. The sequence of topics covered will broadly follow the evolution of the field: from narrative history and demography to social history, then on to gender history, ethnohistory, the African presence, and examples of recent research on law, environment, the Atlantic, intellectual history, to conclude with a class that revisits new trends in the history of the conquest.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Caterina Pizzigoni
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 4 points

Readings in Ottoman Historical Documents

This seminar is designed to provide graduate students with the paleographical skills essential for exploring the vast Ottoman archival and manuscript sources. Throughout the semester, we will read, copy, translate, and contextualize select materials from the Ottoman textual archives spanning the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries. By the end of the semester, students will have enhanced their proficiency in reading diverse Ottoman archival materials written in various scripts. They will also practice rendering these original sources accessible to an English-speaking audience, ensuring both accuracy and precision in translating their meanings. Participants should possess a working knowledge of both modern and Ottoman Turkish and have a foundational understanding of Ottoman history.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Tunc Sen
  Info
• 4 points

COLONIAL CITIES

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Zeynep Celik
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

METHODS IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• 4 points

RESISTANCE & THE BLK ATLANTIC

This course investigates in-depth the significance of resistance among African-descended communities in the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanophone and Lusophone Atlantic Worlds from approximately 1700-2000. We will examine the genesis, forms, and limits of resistance within the context of key historical transformations such as slavery and abolition, labor and migration, and transatlantic political organizing. The class will explore the racial epistemologies, racialized labor regimes, and gendered discourses that sparked a continuum of cultural and political opposition to oppression among Black Atlantic communities. The course will also reflect on how resistance plays a central role in the formation of individual and collective identities among black historical actors.Resistance will be explored as a critical category of historical analysis, and a central factor in the making of the “Black Atlantic.”

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Natasha J Lightfoot
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

RESEARCH SEMINAR FOR PHD STUDENTS

This course will provide a structured environment in which graduate students will write a research paper. It will be offered in the spring and will not be field-specific. It will be recommended for first-year students in particular, who will be expected to enter from GR8910 (the required first-year course) and with a topic and/or prospectus for the paper they plan to complete in the course. The aim of the course is to ensure that all PhD students complete one of their two research papers within the first year. This seminar is recommended for, and restricted to, PhD students in the History Department. The aim of the seminar is to guide and assist students in the completion of a 10,000-12,000 word research paper appropriate for publication in a scholarly journal. The seminar is not field-specific, and students may work on any subject of their choosing. The paper must however be based on primary source research and represents a substantial departure from earlier work. The assignments for the course are designed to help students complete a polished piece of work by the end of term.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Charly J Coleman
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: George Chauncey
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

GRAD RES IN ANC NEAR EAST HIST

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Marc Van de Mieroop
  CULPA: 23 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points