Undergraduate Courses

Course Descriptions

Below is a listing of courses that make up the Department of History's current curriculum. Please note: All courses are not available each semester.

In the History Department, 1000 and 2000 level courses are both introductory survey courses open to all students, including first-year students. All 3000 level classes are seminars. These courses are generally aimed at sophomores and juniors, but they are open to all students. 6000-level courses are upper level seminars and are intended for juniors and seniors, although first year and sophomore students may enroll with permission of the instructor.

To view all History Department course offerings, view the University Catalog.

Ancient/Medieval

HISA 1020 After Rome: The Early Medieval World 
A survey of major developments in the political, religious, and social history of Europe from the 5^ththrough the 10^th century. Topics to be explored include the transformation of the Mediterranean world in late Antiquity; the development of the institutions and forms of religious expression of European Christianity; the emergence of kingdoms in Europe; the Rise of Islam; the Carolingian Renaissance; and the Viking invasions.

HISA 1030 Medieval Europe, 1100-1450 
A survey of the period in which Western Europe became the center of medieval civilization.

HISA 2310 Medieval England 
A survey of the political, social, and intellectual development of England from the Anglo-Saxon period to 1485.

HISA 2350 Medieval Italy 
A survey of the political, social, and cultural developments in Italy from the eleventh century to the early fifteenth century, with special attention to the development of institution and culture in the city-states of central and northern Italy.

HISA 2360 History of Christianity, From the Jesus Movement to the Reformation 
A historical overview of the Church and society in Western Europe from the origins of Christianity through the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. This course will examine the development of early Christianities in the period following the birth of the Jesus movement; the emergence of normative or "Catholic" Christian belief and practice; and the institutions and culture of Christianity as it developed in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Themes will include the varieties of monasticism; relationships with Judaism and Islam; the development of Roman primacy and Papal government; scholasticism and other intellectual movements; and late-medieval attempts at institutional and intellectual reform. The course will introduce students to major themes and ideas through the reading of survey texts, and to historical interpretation through the analysis of primary sources.

HISA 2910 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History 
Courses offered by visiting faculty or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering see the Schedule of Classes.

HISA 3070 Topics in Medieval and Renaissance History 
A reading seminar designed to explore in depth some aspect of late medieval history that is of interest to students and instructor.

HISA 3170 Medieval Spain 
Readings, discussion, and essays examine the sweep of Iberian history from the late Roman empire until the early 16th century, with particular attention to the Visigothic monarchy, the society and culture of Islamic al-Andalus, the reconquest and development of the Christian kingdoms of Castile-León, Portugal, and Aragon, and the interaction of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in peninsular society. The development of a distinctive Castilian culture, later transplanted in large part to Spanish America, will be studied through close attention to legal codes, domestic arrangements, military organization, the Inquisition, and the classics of medieval Castilian literature.

HISA 3250 Jews, Christians, Muslims 
This seminar explores the relationships between the three Abrahamic religions during the Middle Ages. It examines the experience of Jews as minorities in both Christian and Muslim territories, encounters between Christians and Muslims both violent and peaceful in the Mediterranean and in Europe, and the ways in which each community was shaped by its encounters with the others.

HISA 3910 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History 
Courses offered by visiting faculty or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISA 4200 Dante's Worlds: The Divine Comedy and History 
This mixed lecture/seminar will explore the world Dante created in his masterwork, the Comedy. and the world that created Dante: the vibrant intellectual. political. and religious culture of medieval Italy. The course will combine a close reading of the Comedy with exploration of important issues engaged by Dante in politics and government; religion and morality; economic theory and social order; gender and social relations; and creativity and the arts.

HISA 4910 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISA 6010 Seminar in Select Topics in Roman History 
Research seminar on select topics in Roman History: Roman Imperialism and Tranmarine Expansion (264-30 B.C.E.); Roman Principate; Roma Provinces; Roman Imperial Army; Later Roman Empire; Peloponnesian and Punic Wars; Rome and the Raj: Imperial Armies, Frontiers, and Societies; Imperial Rome and Imperial China (200 B.C.E.- 200 C.E.); Rome and Iran (100 B.C.E -650 C.E.); or The Conflict of Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire (30-565).

HISA 6050 The Italian Renaissance 
An examination of cultural, religious, and political developments in Renaissance Italy and their impact on the rest of Europe.

HISA 6060 Later Medieval Spain 
Examines the political, religious, social, and cultural history of the Iberian Peninsula from the rise of the Caliphate of Cordoba in the tenth century through the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Isabel of Castile (1479-1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516). Among other topics, readings and discussion will address: the evolution of Islamic and Christian polities, and their centuries-long military confrontation (the 'Reconquest'); convivencia, or the interaction of Christians, Muslims, and Jews within medieval peninsular societies, and the reflections of this coexistence in culture, commerce and law; the partial political unification of Spain under the Catholic Monarchs; mounting religious and ethnic tensions within the Christian states, the rise of the Spanish Inquisition, expulsions of Jews and Muslims, and the imposition of Christian orthodoxy. 
Notes: Capstone.

HISA 6190 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History 
Courses offered by visiting faculty or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department.

HISA 6230 Medieval Cities 
This seminar explores the cities of medieval Europe, particularly in the high and late medieval period (roughly 1100-1500), and the ways in which urban space shaped the social, political, and cultural experience of medieval city-dwellers. Themes for readings and discussions include the idea of the city; sacred space and civic religious culture; governments, their institutions and physical sites; commerce and guilds; the gendering of urban space; and poverty and disease.

HISA 6250 Medieval Religious Culture 
This seminar explores a variety of aspects of medieval religious beliefs and practices, raising questions about the specific character of medieval religious culture and about how historians study it. Themes addressed include the cult of the saints; monastic life and intellectual culture; gender and models of sanctity; art and religious meaning; relations between majorities and minorities; and popular religion.

HISA 6270 Women and Gender in the Middle Ages 
This seminar addresses the construction of gendered identities in the Middle Ages, and on the experience of medieval women and men in relation to those identities. Seminar readings and discussions explore topics such as changes in attitudes towards women's authority during the Middle Ages; the experience of religious women and the meaning of female imagery in religious writings; women's opportunities and experiences in politics and the economy; the lives and writings of illustrious medieval women; and the relationship between medieval conceptions of femininity and masculinity, and their articulation of gender differences in medieval literature and science.

HISA 6910 Special Topics in Ancient History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes

Africa

HISB 1300 Africa to 1800 
This course examines selected topics in the history of sub-Saharan Africa from antiquity to the period immediately preceding colonial conquest. It provides an overview of historical developments in particular regions, considers the implications of Africa as a unit of analysis, and provides a point of departure for more specialized courses in African history.

HISB 1310 Africa from 1800 
This course considers the history of sub-Saharan Africa under colonialism and after: the responses of people to governments very different from those they had previously, changes in African societies, the challenges of the postcolonial period. Topics covered include gender relations, peasant agriculture, wage labor, politics, and development.

HISB 2120 History of Western Africa 
This course is a historical introduction to the themes and events in western and northern Africa from prehistoric times and the peopling of Africa through the advent of Islam; North and West African empires and states in the medieval period; the arrival and departure of European colonial powers; and the re-emergence of independent African states. We will trace topical themes through case studies, exploring the political, cultural, social aspects and the inter-regional dynamics of Saharan Africa.

HISB 2130 History of Southern Africa 
This course examines southern African history from 1652 to the present. It explores the particular political and cultural patterns which arose in the region as a result of contact and conflict between indigenous African societies and European settler communities.

HISB 2140 History of Eastern Africa 
This course provides an historical survey of eastern Africa which examines the role of bantu migrations, the rise of state-building in the 17th and 18th centuries and a primary emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. The course highlights the social, cultural and economic dynamics of both African and settler societies as it explores the historical processes of slavery, migrations in the region, the imposition of colonialism, nationalism and the rise of the independent states of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi. We will use primary sources written or created by Africans and others to explore the developments that affected the region in recent history. This course devotes equal time to lecture and discussion.

HISB 2910 Special Topics in African History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISB 3240 Human Rights/Genocide-Africa 
The notions of human rights" and "genocide" are modern constructions of the twentieth century. What is defined as genocide in the present was simply a good military tactic in previous centuries.

HISB 3250 Archiving Africa 
This is an advanced course in historical methods that uses a service-learning component to enhance student understanding of historical materials, archives and how these connect with the larger community. In this course, students will focus in particular on materials related to African history found in New Orleans archives, allowing students to develop an understanding of the historical links between the local community and the continent of Africa. Moreover, students will consider the methodologies used to preserve the various histories of Africa and consider how these methods can be used for other under-represented communities, such as found in New Orleans.

HISB 3910 Special Topics in African History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISB 4210 Hist of Development in Africa 
This course explores the concept of "development" as it was brought to Africa by Europeans in the 19th century and how Africans have responded until the 21st century.

HISB 4250 The Atlantic Slave Trade 
An exploration of the cultural, economic, and social history of the African slave trade into the Americas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Emphasis is on the nature of this forced migration as a unique process of cultural interaction and cultural change.

HISB 4910 Special Topics in African History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISB 6070 Gender in African History 
This seminar will consider the question of how recent forms of gender theory might be applied to African societies. Readings will include Foucauldian, psychoanalytic, and political theory, as well as historical and ethnographic studies of particular societies. 
credit hours: 4

HISB 6110 Slavery/Emancipation in Africa 
This course focuses on the legacy of colonialism for key political concepts such as citizenship and freedom. We will consider the construction of categories of difference like race, gender, and ethnicity and look at their changing meaning in the context of colonialism, slave emancipation, and freedom struggles in Africa and elsewhere in the colonial world.

HISB 6910 Special Topics in African History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

Asia

HISC 2010 History of China, Prehistory to 1800 
This survey course introduces the main themes of Chinese history, from Neolithic times down to the end of the pre-modern era (marked, both by tradition and for sake of convenience, at 1800 CE). Key topics include the exploration of the religious, moral, and social beliefs of early China as well as the assessment of the significance of the institutions of state and family, which have left such a striking imprint on the whole of Chinese history. This course is intended for those with little or no prior study of Chinese history; by the end of the semester, students should have a rounded perspective on the diversity as well as the essential continuities of Chinese culture in its formative stages.

HISC 2020 History of China, 1800 to the Present 
This survey course introduces the main themes in Chinese history from the height of the Qing dynasty to the end of the twentieth century. The first half of the course explores the political, social, economic, and cultural trends of the late imperial era. The second half of the course examines twentieth-century China, from the turbulent years of the Republican period to the traumatic events of the Cultural Revolution and beyond. This course is intended for those with little or no prior study of Chinese history.

HISC 2120 History of Modern India 
This is an introductory survey of the major cultural, social, political thought, traditions, and institutions of the Indian subcontinent or South Asia from 1500 to the present. No prior knowledge of the area or the culture is assumed or expected from the students.

HISC 2910 Special Topics in Asian History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISC 3910 Special Topics in Asian History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISC 4910 Special Topics in Asian History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISC 6110 Women in East Asian History 
Historically, women in East Asia had to negotiate with a highly patriarchal and Confucian world. This course aims at exploring the lives of women in East Asia, hoping to gain a further understanding of the challenges they faced under traditional Confucian regimes as well as the modernizing states of the 19th and 20th centuries. Special attention will be placed on the roles of personal agency and state power in shaping female lives and identity.

HISC 6120 Women In China & Japan 
This course examines women's history and gender relations in both traditional and modern China and Japan. Themes to be explored include the constantly evolving roles of women in the family and as workers, artists, writers, and revolutionaries.

HISC 6210 The PRC: China Under Communism 
In 1949, as Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese people were once again under a united government, ending decades of civil strife and foreign aggression. Yet the year 1949 represented only the military victory of the CCP, and in the following decades the new rulers of China would attempt to recreate state and society on a previously unimaginable scale. This course explores the dramatic years following the establishment of the PRC and follows the mass campaigns and political upheavals that marked Chinese history under the rule of the Communist Party. Attention will be given to both mass movements in the countryside and events that largely affected urban dwellers and intellectuals. Overall, this course aims at understanding the large-scale structural changes of the revolutionary era of 1949 to 1976 and its aftermath, as well as what these changes meant for the lives of individual Chinese citizens.

HISC 6310 China in Revolution, 1900-1949 
China's twentieth century was irrevocably and profoundly marked by the Chinese Revolution. But how are historians to define the Chinese Revolution, both in setting its temporal boundaries and interpreting the meaning behind the event? Is it possible to determine the causes of the Revolution, or to elucidate why it took the path that it did? What did the Revolution mean for different social groups, as well as the individual? This course, an intensive reading seminar, is designed to address these issues by engaging a wide range of scholarship. Key topics include the legacy of the Republican Era, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, land reform, and the impact of the revolutionary era on the lives of women.

HISC 6410 Empire and Rebellion in China 
During the Ming and Oing dynasties, Chinese emperors faced the enormous challenge of maintaining control over a vast and populous polity. This seminar will explore the methods utilized in the late imperial age to control the populace. These methods-most notably the state, legal, and family systems-were never fully effective in enforcing the will of dynastic rulers. As such, we will also investigate the possibilities for resistance against imperial rule and the Confucian worldview. While control and resistance will be the main themes for this seminar, other topics such as the roles of the environment and identity in history will add to our understanding of the late imperial age. Please note that this is a reading and writing intensive course that will rely heavily on the peer-review process.

HISC 6510 Imperialism in East Asia 
Despite a continuing debate over the exact definition of imperialism, there is no doubt that this phenomenon looms large in the history of modern East Asia. This course explores unequal power relations between nation-states, not only between Europe and Asia, but within East Asia itself. Please note that this is an intensive seminar, with equal emphasis on reading, writing, and in-class discussion.

HISC 6610 Seminar on Modern Japan 
Japan's rapid transformation from a traditional agrarian society to a modern nation-state has been one of the most intensely studied and debated topics in the historiography of Asia. This course explores the continuities and contrasts in Japanese history from the late Shogunate period to the disasters of the Pacific War; particular emphasis will be placed on how Japan came to be defined as a modern nation. Please note that this is a reading and writing intensive course that will utilize both peer-collaboration and peer-review.

HISC 6910 Special Topics in Asian History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

Modern Europe

HISE 1210 Europe and a Wider World: From the Renaissance to 1789 
European history from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution: the Renaissance and the Reformation, the origin of the modern state and of capitalism, the beginnings of colonialism, the scientific revolution, and the Enlightenment.

HISE 1220 The Emergence of the Contemporary World Since 1789 
The impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon; reaction and revolt; the growth of nationalism; the industrial revolution and the rise of socialism; international rivalry, imperialism, and the coming of World War I; rise of totalitarianism and the failure of international security; World War II and postwar developments.

HISE 1510 Napoleon in Russia 1812 
This seminar is a close study of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, the impact it had upon the Russian Empire, and the place that it came to occupy in Russia's historical memory. The seminar, which meets twice per week, emphasizes the timely reading of assigned readings and active participation in class discussions.

HISE 2160 Europe in the 18th Century 
Examines developments in human ecology and power, critiques of tradition from diverse groups, and efforts to implement novel models, both cosmopolitan and nationalistic, for a rational and just society.

HISE 2170 Europe in the 19th Century 
Explores the quest for popular and national security in an age of radically shifting material circumstances deeply influenced by concepts of political and social equality.

HISE 2210 Modern Germany 
A survey of the political, social, and economic development of Germany from the revolution of 1848 to the aftermath of the Second World War. Topics include unification, Bismarckian Germany, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich.

HISE 2220 France in the Tropics 
A survey of the French colonial empire in the 19th and 20th c, with a focus on Africa and Asia. Topics will include the role of race, class, and gender in colonial society, colonial medicine, education, urban planning, among others.

HISE 2230 France Since 1789 
A survey of French history since 1789, with particular attention to social, cultural, and political change. Among other topics, we will examine political upheaval, imperialism, class dynamics, changing gender roles, and questions of French identity in the modern era.

HISE 2240 Russian History from the 9th to the Mid-19th Centuries 
Political, social, and economic developments in Russia from the earliest times to the mid-19th century. Kievan and Muscovite background, reforms of Peter the Great, and the effects of westernization.

HISE 2250 Russian History: The End of the Empire and the Soviet Period 
The Great Reforms and industrialization in Russia and their effect upon political, social, and economic developments. The Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The establishment, development and collapse of the Soviet regime.

HISE 2310 Medieval England 
A survey of the political, social, and intellectual development of England from the Anglo-Saxon period to 1485.

HISE 2320 Early Modern England 
A survey of the political, social, economic, and cultural development of England from the founding of the Tudor dynasty to the rebellion of the American colonies (1485-1776). Topics include the Reformation, the civil war, relations with Scotland and Ireland, political thought, crime and riot, education, and domestic industry.

HISE 2330 Modern Britain 
A survey of the political, social and economic development of Britain from 1760 to the present. The course will examine how and why Britain became the world's greatest economic and imperial power, and in what ways it may have suffered a decline in the 20th century.

HISE 2410 Spain, 1369-1716 
Surveys the course of Spanish history from the completion of the medieval Reconquest and the rise of the Trastamara dynasty in the fourteenth century until the end of Habsburg Spain in the early eighteenth century, with particular attention to state formation and the role of Spain as a great European power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Besides politics, the course examines central topics in the social, religious and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Spain.

HISE 2420 The Age of Reformation 
Surveys the transformation of Western Christendom (c. 1400-1700), with emphasis on: late medieval religious practice; discontent and reform currents within the Church; the Protestant Reformations of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, anabaptists, and others; and Catholic response and Counter-Reformation.

HISE 2430 Modern Spain, 1700 to the Present 
Surveys the course of modern Spanish history from the Bourbon succession through the loss of overseas empire, the political and social evolution culminating in the bloody civil war of 1936-39, and the subsequent dictatorship of Franco, to contemporary democratic Spain and the challenges it faces.

HISE 2500 Memories of Violence in 20th-Century Europe 
Among the many instances of violent and traumatic collective experiences in 20th century Europe, this class will focus on three particular case studies, the Holocaust in Germany, the bombing of Guernica in Spain, and the siege of Saraievo during the Bosnian War. These cases are not chosen at random, but for their ability to shape how we narrate individual and collective responses to most traumatic experiences of state imposed violence in 20th century Europe.

HISE 2910 Special Topics in European History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISE 3190 The Spanish Civil War 
The Civil War of 1936-39 considered both as the watershed of modern Spanish history and as an event of major international significance. Readings and discussion focus on the causes and course of the conflict, and on its consequences down to the present.

HISE 3220 World War II in French Film 
This seminar examines the representation of the era of Nazi occupation and the Vichy Regime (1940-44) in films produced between the 1940s and the 2000s. We will focus on depictions of daily life, the politics of collaboration and resistance, and the French role in the Holocaust.

HISE 3250 Russia at War, 1939-1945 
This seminar provides an overview and analysis of the Second World War on the Eastern front. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, inaugurated one of the bloodiest wars in history. The Soviet victory following devastating defeats and losses at the war's outset, was indispensable to the overall Allied victory. The Soviet victory was won at enormous cost, whether in human lives lost or in the physical devastation of the country. The victory also transformed the Soviet Union into a superpower and left the Soviet Union in control of much of Eastern Europe. The course requires reading, discussion, and the writing of a research paper.

HISE 3260 Putin's Russia 
The period between the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the present in Russia has witnessed dramatic changes in every dimension of Russian life, from political ideology and institutions to the transformation of economy, society, and broader culture. This seminar seeks to illuminate the nature of these transformative changes, focusing particular attention on Vladimir Putin's rise to power, the character of his rule, and the reasons for his popularity in Russia. The reasons for the growth in popular as well as state hostility to the West and Western culture forms a particularly important part of the course.

HISE 3270 Literature and Society in Russia, 1800-1917 
An exploration of the central role that writers and literature played in the culture and society of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Russia. Readings include selected novels, poetry, critical essays, and memoirs as well as secondary historical literature. The course focuses upon the role of literature in Russian society and the relationship between literary representations and history.

HISE 3280 Literature and Society in Russia, 1917-1991 
An exploration of the role that literature and writers played in the history and culture of the Soviet Union from its inception to its collapse in 1991. Readings include selected novels, poetry, and memoirs as well as secondary historical literature. The course focuses on the relationship between writers and the state and society in the Soviet period and the relationship between literary representations and history.

HISE 3290 Origins of the Second World War, 1919-1939 
European international affairs from the treaty of Versailles to Hitler's invasion of Poland, emphasizing the diplomatic, political, and military forces that contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War.

HISE 3300 Death, Disease, Destitution and Despair in Early Modern Europe 
Death, Disease, Destitution and Despair in Early Modern Europe Readings, discussion, and a research paper examining the experience of and social reaction to illness, insanity, poverty, and death in Western Europe.

HISE 3311 History of Gardens, Parks and Green Spaces 
This course examines the creation of gardens, parks and public space in Europe and the Americas from 1500 to the present day. We will study not just the historical evolution, technology or art form of gardens and parks but we will also explore what they mean to people.

HISE 3390 Europe Since 1939 
A survey of European history since the outbreak of the Second World War, covering all major states. Topics will include the war and its aftermath, the division of the continent in the Cold War, the development of welfare states and socialist systems, the emergence of the idea of a united European community, and the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe.

HISE 3513 History of the Jews in Russia, 1772-2000 
This course studies the history of the Jews in Russia from the First Partition of Poland in 1772 until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The course examines the evolution of that Jewish community itself and the issues that divided that community. It also reviews the evolving policies that tsarist and Soviet regimes adopted toward the Jews. Finally, the course addresses the scope of official and unofficial anti-Semitism in tsarist and Soviet Russia. A vital question the course explores is that of Jewish identity and self-definition, particularly the individual and collective responses Russian Jews made to the tsarist regime's profound anti-Semitism, the pronounced emancipation under the early Soviet regime, or to the anti-Semitic policies that emerged in the Soviet Union after WWII.

HISE 3910 Special Topics in European History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISE 4140 Household, Gender, and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe 
This course examines the structure, function, and emotional content of families in Europe from the Renaissance to the 18th century. The construction of gender as well as attitudes to and the regulation of sexuality will also be discussed.

HISE 4350 Britain in Decline? 
This is a history of Britain since 1945. The course will focus on perceptions of Britain's decline and the debates that have developed around that subject. These include not only Britain's decline as a great power, but also the debate over economic decline and whether there was some sort of failure, and the debate over cultural decline and the influence of Americanization and mass culture. Special attention will be paid to social and cultural developments as indications of dramatic improvement rather than decline, as well as the more traditional issues surrounding Britain's economy and its role in the world.

HISE 4910 Special Topics in European History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISE 6050 The Italian Renaissance 
An examination of cultural, religious, and political developments in Renaissance Italy and their impact on the rest of Europe.

HISE 6100 Renaissance and Reformation, 1450-1660 
Examines religious and secular aspects of the breakdown of Christian unity from the Renaissance to the mid-seventeenth century. Topics include the decline of the Church; philosophical and doctrinal conflict; dissent and renewal in the Protestant Reformation; the Catholic Reformation; ideology, politics, and wars of religion; Counter-Reformation; and foreign intervention in France and the Netherlands.

HISE 6140 Revolutionary-Napoleonic Europe, 1789-1815 
This course explores the questioning of traditions throughout Europe, the exchange of concepts of social organization among regions, and the emergence of an imperial power that redirected civilization.

HISE 6330 Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 
Examines the rise and decline of Spanish power in Europe and the Atlantic world and the internal development of the Spanish kingdoms from unification under Fernando and Isabel through the reigns of Charles V and Philip II to the end of the Habsburg dynasty. Besides politics and diplomacy, reading and discussions will address religious practice and the Spanish Inquisition, the art and literature of the Golden Age, and the cult of honor with its consequences for social structure, economic life and gender relations.

HISE 6350 Crime and Punishment in Hanoverian England 
This in depth seminar focuses on crime, punishment and the justice system in eighteenth-century England. We will investigate such topics as the rise of defense lawyers, the goals of punishment and the development of a system of police. Students will also make use of a digitized data base, theoldbaileyonline, which contains the transcripts of trials held at the Old Bailey courthouse in London to write a research paper.

HISE 6360 English Civil War 
This course explores the causes, conduct, and consequences of the English Civil War from 1603-1660.

HISE 6370 Seminar in Early Modern England 
Readings, discussion, and research paper will focus on a selected topic of English history between 1485 and 1789. Topics will include Religion and Society and Georgian England, 1714-1783.

HISE 6380 Seminar in Modern British History 
Readings, discussion, and a research paper focusing on one of the following periods of modern British history: Britain in the Age of Revolution, 1760-1850; The Victorian Era, 1830-1900; Britain in the Age of World War, 1900-1945. On occasion, the seminar might focus on a topic rather than a period.

HISE 6420 Readings in the Holocaust 
Examines the origins and development of the Nazi Final Solution; the experience of the victims, perpetrators, rescuers, and bystanders; and the relationship between history and memory.

HISE 6510 The Russian Revolution, 1900-1924 
The course explores the origins and nature of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. It focuses equal attention upon the policies of the tsarist regime and the various social movements, political parties, and ideologies that arose in opposition to that regime. The reasons for the Bolshevik victory in October 1917 and the character of the early Bolshevik regime from 1917 through the Civil War are problems the course addresses. The contentious debates historians have conducted on almost every aspect of the revolution are an important part of the course's readings and discussions.

HISE 6511 Stalin's Russia, 1924-1953 
This seminar addresses four major questions: 1) What was the nature of the political, social, and cultural system that came into existence under Stalin and how did that system evolve during his lifetime? 2) What was the scope and nature of political repression and state terror under Stalin? Given the reality of state terror, how can we explain the geniune enthusiasm that the regime was able to mobilize for so many of its initiatives? 3) What was the Soviet experience during World War II, and how did the war affect Soviet society and politics? 4) What was the range of experiences that ordinary individuals and families encountered in their private lives during the Stalin era? A major question throughout the course is the character of Stalin's personal rule and the extent of his responsibility for the major developments under his leadership.

HISE 6512 In Stalin's Shadow: The Soviet Union, 1953-1991 
This course examines the evolution of the Soviet Union from Stalin's death until its collapse in 1991. Its primary focus is on the important changes that occurred in the political, cultural, and social spheres within the Soviet Union itself and in the stances that the Soviet Union adopted toward the rest of the world. The initial changes, which contemporaries described as the thaw, witnessed a liberalization that culminated in an explicit denunciation of many of Stalin's policies. The course concludes with an inquiry into the Gorbachev reforms of glasnost and perestroika, which culminated in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

HISE 6520 Immigration and Identity in Contemporary France 
This seminar will explore the history of immigration to France since the late 19th century and attendant debates over national identity, secularism, and race. We will examine colonial and postcolonial migration, the rise of xenophobic extremist political parties, minority activism, and controversies over the place of Islam in French society.

HISE 6600 Photography and the Historical Imagination 
This class aims to explore the relationship between historical memory and photographic practice.

HISE 6601 Jewish Life and Culture in Central Europe, 1750 to the present 
This course explores the many facets of Jewish life and culture in Germany and other cCentral European nations. We will focus on the relationship of various Jewish communities with their Gentile neighbors, local and state authorities and trace the course and success of the Haskalah movement (the Jewish enlightenment). We will be particularly sensitive to the daily life experience of women in their struggles to find a voice and acceptance as women and as Jews, s well as the dramatic rise of a jewish middle class in the realm of science, finance and industry. 
Notes: An elective in Jewish Studies

HISE 6610 Postwar Culture: The Divided Continent 
This course explores the many gays daily practices and political ideologies have intersected in the lives of ordinary European citizens in the era of the Iron Curtain.

HISE 6660 Private Violence, Public Consequences 
Examines and analyzes private violence in a variety of forms that opposed, contested, supplemented, or substituted for state power from the Renaissance through the twentieth century in Europe. Separate multi-week sections of the seminar will concentrate on vendettas and blood feuds, dueling, piracy and banditry, and the Sicilian mafia.

HISE 6910 Special Topics in European History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

Latin America and Caribbean

HISL 1710 Introduction to Latin American History 
Main currents of Latin American civilization from the European conquest to the present, with special attention to the historical background of present controversies.

HISL 1720 Introduction to Caribbean History 
This course provides a survey introduction to the history of the Caribbean basin including the island territories located in the Caribbean Sea as well as those Atlantic islands and regions of mainland Central and South America which have shared similar historical experience with the Caribbean basin. The course covers the period from the mid fifteenth century immediately before European arrival up to the present day. Major themes will include European conquest and colonialism, African enslavement, East Asian immigration, the development of multi ethnic societies, U.S. relations with the Caribbean region, and the role of tourism in recent Caribbean history.

HISL 2100 Latin Am Independence Movement 
Independence movements swept the Americas in an age of radical social and political transformations. New ideas about individual rights, democracy, the public sphere, and equality shaped debates across the region. This class explores how issues of race, gender, and religion influenced these debates and the development of these new nations.

HISL 2110 Colonial Latin America 
The year 1492 marked a major watershed in global history, as Europeans began a process of colonial expansion in the Americas that would continue for several centuries. This course explores the long and complex colonial history of Latin America that began in 1492 and ended in most of the region in the 1810s and 1820s. Main themes include the long processes of material and spiritual conquest; indigenous resistance and accommodation; the Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases; the creation of colonial economies of extraction and regional articulation; the rise of mixed-race societies; and the development of colonial institutions of church and state. The course also treats the expansion of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, along with the rise of resistance movements and frontier challenges to colonial rule. We end with the responses to new crown demands in the eighteenth century and the collective struggle for independence that began in 1808.

HISL 2120 Making the Modern Caribbean

HISL 2760 Colonial Mexico 
Social, intellectual, and institutional history of colonial Mexico.

HISL 2770 Modern Mexico 
Political, economic, and social history of Mexico during the national period.

HISL 2790 Central America 
The history of Central America since 1800 with particular attention to the establishment of political independence, economic colonialism, the transfer of hegemony over the region from Europe to North America, problems of chronic political and social instability, and popular revolutions in the 20th century.

HISL 2810 Colonial Brazil 
Brazilian colonial history from 1500 to 1822. Emphasis on major economic, social, and political developments in the context of the Portuguese Empire. Contrasts and similarities with other imperial systems receive particular attention.

HISL 2820 Modern Brazil 
Brazilian history from 1822, including the first and second empires and the republic. Attention is given to the liquidation of slavery, the replacement of imperial values by the establishment of the republic, and the military question.

HISL 2830 The Andean Nations 
A survey of the development of South America's Andean region beginning with the Inca Empire, through the establishment of the vice-royalty of New Castile and emphasizing the modern nations of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

HISL 2840 History of Argentina 
Political, economic, and social history of Argentina from 1516 to the present.

HISL 2850 Central America Radicals 
Central Americans have engaged in some of the most important radical and democratic movements of the 20th century. Especially after the triumph of the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979, Central America became the news story of the 1980s. Radical movements and civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador intensified over this decade. While some saw these battles as the "twilight struggle" of the so-called Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. a battle over a supposed Soviet beachhead in "our backyard." these events have a much longer legacy. dating at least to the late-nineteenth century and involving domestic issues as much as international ones.

HISL 2910 Special Topics in Latin American History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISL 3100 Explorers, Liars and Travelers 
This course focuses on teaching historical methods-the tools we use, as historians, to interpret and represent the past. Travelers provide an excellent and accessible body of historical sources across a wide range of time and places. But traveling is also a great metaphor for being a historian: like travelers, we lack perfect knowledge, we have questionable cultural understanding, and we try to make sense of the world we live in.

HISL 3200 History of Voodoo and Other African Derived Religions 
Using works of anthropology, folklore, history, and literature, this course examines the history of voodoo in both New Orleans and Haiti, as well as the history of similar religions such as Brazilian candomble, Cuban santeria and Trinidadian orisha worship. Students will explore the development of these religious systems from slavery to the present day.

HISL 3361 Slave Rebellions in American Regional History 
What happened when enslaved Africans, African-Americans and other people of African descent used organized armed resistance to fight the institution of slavery? This course will explore six different slave rebellions in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America using documents, films and different kinds of history text books. Only in the case of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) did a slave rebellion actually succeed. But all slave uprisings left behind fascinating stories--filled with heroism, tragedy, violence; disputed evidence, and angry historical debate. This seminar-style class will delve into all of these questions mostly through weekly readings in both documents and other texts. The class will also focus significantly on questions of historical evidence: What can historians really know, especially when slave rebels themselves left behind relatively few documents? When Methods Practicum is added, this course fulfills Methods Requirement of the History Major.

HISL 3390 The Cuban Revolution 
This course explores the histories, myths, and memories of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, from Fidel Castro to the Miami expatriate communities.

HISL 3710 Seminar: The Colonial Heritage of Latin America 
Readings and research on topics in the Hispanic period aimed at developing an understanding of Latin American society and institutions as they developed from the 16th to the 19th century.

HISL 3720 Seminar: Topics in Modern Latin America and Caribbean History 
Selected topics in Latin American and Caribbean history from 1800 to the present.

HISL 3750 Caribbean Slavery

HISL 3800 Colloquium: Caribbean Revolutions 
Weekly readings and discussions of popular revolutions in the Caribbean region. Some attention is paid to the revolutionary tradition in Middle America before concentrating on the 20th-century revolutions there. In a search for common factors, attention is devoted not only to countries where significant revolutions have occurred already, such as Guatemala, Cuba, and Nicaragua, but also to others where revolutionary potential exists.

HISL 3910 Special Topics in Latin American History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISL 4630 Sex/Gender Colonial Latin Amer 
This course examines conquest and colonialism through the lens of gender and sexuality. It looks at the relationships that emerged among indigenous, African, and mestizo populations and how systems of beliefs about sex, gender, and sexuality facilitated the practice of empire.

HISL 4740 Caribbean Cultural History 
This course explores the development of distinctive cultural forms and patterns in the Caribbean basin from the arrival of Europeans at the end of the 15th century up to the present day. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the diverse origins and particular social contexts from which different aspects of Caribbean culture have developed.

HISL 4780 Women in Latin American History 
An exploration of the pivotal role Latin American women have played in the area's historical development. Attention is given to how women acquired and exercised power in a male-dominated society and how class, race, sex and sex roles, and traditions have influenced and shaped women's roles.

HISL 4840 Piracy in the Americas to 1750 
Who were the "golden age" pirates and who were their main victims? What tactics did pirates use and what was done to stop them? How was piracy related to imperial expansion and resistance to it? How did the golden age pirates come to be lasting iconic cultural figures? Piracy in the Americas traces the rise and fall of sea predators in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from the 16th to 18th centuries.

HISL 4910 Special Topics in Latin American History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISL 6600 Peasants, Rebellion and the State in Latin America 
This seminar explores the history of peasants, rebellions and revolution in modern Lain America. Attention will focus on peasant desires and motivations as Latin America has become increasingly urban and states have grown in size and strength.

HISL 6610 Modernity and Its Discontents in Latin America 
This class explores the history of modernity, modernization and underdevelopment in Latin America since the 19th century. Key themes will include labor and industrialization; urbanization and the middle class; citizenship and ethnicity; and state formation.

HISL 6710 Seminar in Historical Nahuatl 
The purpose of this course is to become familiar with the fundamentals of colonial alphabetic Nahuatl vocabulary and grammar in order to translate historical documents; to learn the different genres of Nahuatl; written expression; to be able to discern regional variations in written Nahuatl; and to be able to recognize the four stages of change in Nahuatl as it evolved over the course of the colonial period.

HISL 6740 Latin American Social History 
A specific topic is chosen each year. The course has dealt with slavery, race relations, and social revolutions in previous years. Future topics include the history of the peasantry and peasant movements in Latin America and the development of the Latin American urban working class. Lectures, readings and discussions.

HISL 6750 Africans in the Americas: Comparative Social and Cultural History of the African Diaspora 
This seminar will explore the dispersion and fate of African peoples and their descendants in the United States, the Caribbean, and Central and South America with a view to developing an understanding of African-American culture as a diverse regional phenomenon rather than one confined to the United States.

HISL 6780 Caribbean History: Major Themes 
A historiographical course focusing on major texts, major themes, and major trends in the historical literature of the Caribbean, including the island territories along with Belize and the Guianas.

HISL 6850 United States-Latin American Relations 
Traces the diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Latin America from the American Revolution to the present. This course seeks to demonstrate the interrelated roles of diplomacy, commerce, and inter-American cultural relations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

HISL 6910 Special Topics in Latin American History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

Middle East and North Africa

HISM 2200 History of Islam to 1400 
This course surveys the rise and expansion of Islam and the Muslim polities and societies between ca. 600-1400. It covers political developments as well as the emergence and development of the Islamic culture and thought.

HISM 2210 History of Modern Middle East, 1750 to the Present 
This course is a survey of modern Middle Eastern history. It starts with an evaluation of the Ottoman and Safavid empires, the two largest early modern political entities in the area. It then proceeds by discussing the nineteenth-century reform movements, the impact of the dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire and the First World War on the region, the post-1945 developments, the rise and development of Arab nationalism and political Islam, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iranian Revolution, the Gulf War and the most recent US intervention in Iraq. The aim of the course is to provide students with a solid grasp of historical events and political processes, as well as a detailed knowledge of important intellectual and cultural developments.

HISM 2910 Special Topics in Middle Eastern History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISM 3220 The Arab-Israeli Conflict 
This seminar traces the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the rise of Zionism, through the various Arab-Israeli wars, and up to the recent peace negotiations. Emphasis is on presenting the perspectives of all the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and placing it in the context of the history of the Middle East as a whole.

HISM 3910 Special Topics in Middle Eastern History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISM 4910 Special Topics in Middle Eastern History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISM 6060 Seminar in the Modern Middle East and North Africa 
Readings and research on the society, economy, and politics of the Middle East and North Africa since the 16th century.

HISM 6110 Religion and Nationalism in the Modern Middle East 
This seminar concentrates on the crucial role that nationalism and religion played in the history of the Modern Middle East during the period between the late nineteenth century and the present day. It explores the general questions of how the "nation" came to dominate both political thought and political reality in the region and how various nationalist movements and ideologies have imagined and constructed national identities. The seminar also critically considers how religions have contributed to and/or challenged these complex processes. Students will read secondary monographs on various Middle Eastern contexts and become familiar with key historical debates on nationalism and religion. The discussions will not only focus on the intellectual and political elites but we will also examine how non-elite individuals and groups influenced nation-building processes.

HISM 6140 Islam and the Western Mediterranean World, 1000-1900 
Islam and the Western Mediterranean World, 1000-1900.

HISM 6210 Modern Turkey: Past and Present 
This seminar introduces students to the past and present of modern Turkey. We will explore the complex processes of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, the formation of a secular, republican Turkish nation-state, and its dramatic socio-political transformation since the 1950s in response to domestic, regional, and international challenges. We will also discuss how religion has contributed to and/or challenged these processes and how these processes have affected ethno-religious minorities, gender, and class relations.

HISM 6310 The Ottoman Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle East 
This seminar is on the history of the late Ottoman Empire. It addresses the complex social and political transformations that the empire went through in the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. Over the semester we will travel along the long arc of the late Ottoman history, observing the many overlapping identities that shaped it. More specifically, the subjects we will discuss include the changing relationship between the Ottoman state and society, ethno-national and religious conflicts, political revolutions and their far-reaching implications, women, Ottoman cities and the countryside. We will also examine the dynamics of the empire's disintegration into independent nation states in the aftermath of World War I and the legacy that the Ottomans left behind.

HISM 6410 State and Society in the Modern Middle East 
This seminar addresses how the emergence of modern states in the Middle East reshaped various aspects of the region's politics, economy, social relations, and culture to create distinct adaptations to modernity. It provides an opportunity for in-depth exploration of the last two centuries of the Middle East through the formation of modern state institutions and practices. Temporally, the course moves from the late 1700s to the first half of the twentieth century. Geographically, the area includes the region from Egypt to Iran, the Balkans to Arabia and Eastern Anatolia, in short, those regions under the dominion of the Ottoman and Qajar Empires and successive nation states.

HISM 6910 Special Topics in Middle Eastern History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

General History

HIST 1500 First Year Seminar: Special Topics 
First year seminars provide special opportunities for first year students to dig deep into a special topic and work closely with a faculty member. These courses emphasize class discussion, writing, and student-faculty engagement.

HIST 1520 Pain and Torture through History 
A seminar course for first year students designed to introduce college level reading, discussion and writing. The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1987 unequivocally banned the use of torture. Nevertheless torture still occurs, even in the 130 countries that ratified the agreement.There is a great deal of controversy about what constitutes torture and some claim that it is justified in special situations like the War on Terror.This course will examine the goals and methods of torture through history, as it moved from a focus of inflicting pain to the use of psychological torture and sensory deprivation.We will explore how to study pain in history - does pain exist as an entity; unravel the changing relationships between the state, law, and torture; look at the torturers themselves - who they are, how they learn the techniques, and the effects on them. We will also consider what it says about us when we pursue "enhanced" quasi-torture interrogation techniques. First Year Students Only. Pre-requistites: First year students only

HIST 1750 Disasters in History 
Disasters have taken many forms in human history, from earthquakes, fires, tsunamis and hurricanes to famine and epidemic disease. Nor should we forget manmade tragedies such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or the devastation produced by a combination of human and technological failures, such as the explosions at Chernobyl and Bhopal or the more recent BP oil spill just off of our own coast. Disasters are an important focus for historical inquiry for quite varied reasons. This is a unique course. It will be team-taught by 12 professors. Each professor will teach a 1-week unit on a historical disaster related to their area of specialization. In addition to an excellent learning experience, you will get to sample the teaching of more than half of the faculty members in the History Department.

HIST 1760 Eating and Drinking in History 
Eating and Drinking are part of our everyday lives and experiences, and in that respect, these processes can seem natural and a historical. However, if we stop and think about it, the politics, economics, and culture of food production and consumption have shaped communities and cultures in specific, and often divergent, ways. In this course, we will take the overarching rubric of eating and drinking; to explore the multiple ways in which studying food can illuminate our understanding of the past. This course will include units on food, war, and hunger; commodity chains and trade; cultural relationships with alcohol; and labor and food production in the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial era. This is a team taught class taught by the History faculty. Each professor will teach a 1-week unit on eating and drinking related to their area of specialization.

HIST 1910 Special Topics in History 
Special topics in history that allow for the introductory study of broad chronological and geographical themes that are not suitable to courses offered under subdisciplines as HISA, HISB, HISC, HISE, HISL, HISM or HISU.

HIST 2910 Special Topics in History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HIST 3210 Visual History and Filmmaking 
In this course students will explore the relationship between history and documentary filmmaking through parallel practices: the critical analysis of historical documentaries and the creation of short historical documentaries as members of small production teams. We will explore questions of narrative form, visual and aural evidence, expertise and authority, and the ethics of representation. Collaboration will also be a central theme of this course since students will have to work together to determine their research subject, carry out research, shoot video, and edit together the final cut.

HIST 3230 Art and Craft of History 
Introduction to researching and writing history. We will develop these skills by studying scholars' investigations of the past, conducting archived research, and writing original essays.

HIST 3910 Special Topics in History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HIST 4004 Markets, Money, and Trade in Pre-Industrial Economies 
This course takes a comparative approach to major issues in the economies of imperial Rome, and the Early Modern European overseas empires. The topics include an introduction to the main features of the these two pre-industrial macro-economies, and then a series of topics that are of interest to both students of history and business majors. Students will also gain knowledge of the sources and historical methods for the study of these economies, many of which differ from those of the modern era. Stress is on analysis and writing, and so the ability of a student to assimilate and synthesize data into coherent essays.

HIST 4560 Internship and Independent Study 
Students will complete a 60-70 hour internship with a community partner. In addition, the student will work with a faculty member in the History Department who will advise the student and provide pertinent academic course work to complement the student's experiential learning. 
Notes: Only one internship may be completed per semester. A maximum of six credits may be earned in one or two courses. 
Pre-requisites: Approval of instructor and department.

HIST 4570 Internship and Public History Seminar 
What is public history? What do public historians do? What does history look like outside of the classroom? What are the public debates about the telling of history, and what are the consequences? This is a hands-on course which requires both an internship and seminar participation. Students will have an internship with a community partner and intern for 60-70 hours for the course of the semester. In addition, we will have regular seminar meetings as well as guest lectures and field trips. This course does have a Co-Requisite for service learning -- it is SRVC 4890. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

HIST 4910 Special Topics in History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HIST 4920 Independent Studies 
Qualified students may arrange for independent study with approval of an instructor (dependent upon area of study) and their faculty adviser. Details of each student's program will vary, but all will involve some combination of readings, oral reports, and written work. 
Notes: Only one course of 4910 or 4920 is accepted toward a major in history. 
Pre-requistites: Departmental approval

HIST 4990 Honors Thesis 
Intensive reading, research, and writing in a selected field of history. Students should discuss their honors thesis with a prospective director during the semester prior to that in which they take H4990. 
Notes: For senior honors candidates.

HIST 5000 Honors Thesis 
Intensive reading, research, and writing in a selected field of history. Students should discuss their honors thesis with a prospective director during the semester prior to that in which they take H4990. 
Notes: For senior honors candidates.

HIST 6910 Special Topics in History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

United States

HISU 1410 The United States from Colonization to 1865 
An analysis of the major forces and events that shaped American history from its beginnings through the Civil War.

HISU 1420 The United States from 1865 to the Present 
An analysis of the forces and events that shaped American history from the Civil War to the present.

HISU 1800 Early New Orleans 
This course explores the history of New Orleans during the colonial and early national periods, when the city was a crossroads of the Atlantic World that linked Africa, the Americas, and Europe. It locates the city's past in a transnational Atlantic context that reaches back to the fifteenth century and concludes with the emergence of New Orleans as a major American city in the early nineteenth century.

HISU 2100 History of Medicine in the United States 
Students in this course will study the social dimensions of medicine, disease, and health in U.S. history. We will examine how ordinary people were affected by pandemics, advances in medical technologies, and changing ideas about health care. Students will consider how ideas about medicine have been shaped by economic, military, political, and social transformations in U.S. history.

HISU 2200 The History of the Digital Revolution, from Ada to Zuckerberg 
This course will explore the history of the digital revolution from the 1830s to the present. It will begin with Ada Lovelace and the conception of a general-purpose computer, and it will culminate with the creation of social networks and the sharing economy. Special attention will be paid to the three great inventions that combined to create the digital age: the computer, the microchip, and the internet. The themes will include the importance of collaboration in innovation, the need to connect the humanities and the sciences, and how networked digital technology disrupts traditional hierarchies. In that context, we will look at what makes a successful digital business.

HISU 2400 Women and Gender in U.S. History to 1865 
This course introduces students to the history of women in North America from 1400 to 1865. Over the course of the semester, we will examine how women were affected by and also influenced historical change. We will consider whether key events and issues, including European colonization, the American Revolution, slavery, and the Civil War look differently when we integrate women into the historical narrative. We will study how women's interactions with work, religious practices, and family life were influenced by race, class and ethnicity. One of the guiding questions of the course will be: how has gender-understood as the meanings attached to being male and female-changed over time?

HISU 2410 Women and Gender in U.S. History Since 1861 
This course examines U.S. history from 1861 to the present using the history of women and gender as the primary analysis. This course will be framed around a consideration of how the history of women intersects with ideas about human rights. We will explore how transformations in American laws, politics, customs, economic and military policies affected and were influenced by women. We will also consider how race, class, region, ethnicity, and age facilitated or prevented women from being able to exercise the full rights and obligations of citizenship.

HISU 2480 Louisiana History 
A survey of the history of Louisiana from its settlement to the present.

HISU 2500 Legal Hist US Gender Sex 
Survey of U.S. legal history, with a focus on how laws shaped understandings of gender and sexuality from the colonial period to the present. Through a study of scholarly monographs and legal decisions, we will evaluate how ideas about marriage, divorce, sexual practices, inheritance, sexual assault, and sexual identity have changed over time. Students will write an original research essay, complete a midterm and final exam, and offer one in-class presentation.

HISU 2510 Atlantic World 1450-1800 
The Atlantic world has emerged as an important field in early modern western history in the past ten years. It is now especially important for students of United States history to have an opportunity to become familiar with the transnational origins of the nation that are rooted in the Atlantic context. Atlantic world history does not replace traditional colonial history, but is now a necessary complement to it.

HISU 2520 Early America to 1800 
This course surveys the development of the North American mainland before 1800 with focus on the thirteen British colonies in mainland North America that chose to declare their independence in 1776, and attention to the broader continental and Atlantic contexts in which they were embedded, including colonial Louisiana.

HISU 2600 The History of Early American Law 
The major developments in American legal history from the colonial settlements to the Civil War with primary emphasis on the period 1776-1865.

HISU 2605 Twentieth Century America 
A survey of twentieth century U.S. history, focused on politics, culture, and the environment. Topics include immigration, imperialism, suffrage, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, the New Deal, world wars, the Civil Rights Movement, conservatism, the War on Terror, climate change, and America's future.

HISU 2610 The Old South 
Was the South born racist? What caused the Civil War? These are a few of the questions that are addressed in this history course of the southern US from the settlement of Jamestown through the Civil War.

HISU 2620 The New South, 1865-Present 
An examination of the economic, political, cultural, and intellectual forces that have shaped the American South since the Civil War. Central themes include the rise of sharecropping and tenancy, the struggle for civil rights, the emergence of two-party politics, and the metamorphosis of popular values and social norms triggered by the events of the 1960s. The course will explore the paradox of continued self-conscious regional identity in the face of constant internal change.

HISU 2630 US Foreign Relations Before World War II 
This course will investigate the history of U.S. foreign relations from the early republic until World War II. The class will span more than a century and students will be asked to consider the economic and ideological objectives embedded in U.S. foreign relations and the growth of the United States as a world power. Topics will include: the Mexican-American war, westward expansion, U.S.-Hawaii relations, the War of 1898, U.S. interventions in the Caribbean, late 19th and early 20th century immigration, World War I, and World War II. In addition, this course will consider representations of the world" in domestic culture by examining the histories of world fairs, tourism, travel literature, and missionaries.

HISU 2640 US Foreign Relations Since 1945 
Foreign relations is front page news every day: the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of terrorism and nuclear proliferation, rising food and oil prices, global warming, debates over human rights practices, and even the Olympics. Although each of these topics has strong contemporary resonance, the United States' role in the world has a long and complex history. In this course, we will study US foreign relations from the end of World War II through the present. The course will define US foreign relations broadly and include diplomatic policy makers, military interventions, economic policy, and non-state actors engaged in international relations. Students will learn to analyze opposing historical interpretations, evaluate primary sources, ask analytic questions, and develop arguments.

HISU 2650 US Immigration History 
In this class students will gain a solid foundation in mid-19th and 20th century immigration in the United States and grapple with the following themes: immigrant community formation, the interplay between immigration and American labor, the changing immigration law, the intersection of immigration and U.S. racial formations, and the prominence of immigrant narratives in American culture. The course will also ask that students grapple with contemporary problems and recognize the historic antecedents and struggles behind today's current events.

HISU 2680 Working in America: Reconstruction to the 21st Century 
In this class, students will gain a solid foundation in mid-19th and 20th century labor history and grapple with the following themes: the rise of corporate capitalism, the development of a labor movement, agricultural, industrial, and service economies, the interplay between immigration and American labor, the decline of labor protections, and the emergence of the ‘gig’ economy. The course will also ask that students grapple with contemporary problems and recognize the historic antecedents and struggles behind today’s current events.

HISU 2690 African-American Slavery 
A survey of the history of people of African descent in the United States from the 17th century to the end of the Civil War. The course will explore the development of a distinct African-American experience within the context of colonial North America and the early United States. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the origins and nature of slavery not simply as a system of forced labor, but as a system of unique cultural relationships.

HISU 2700 African-American Freedom 
This course surveys the history of people of African descent in the United States from the end of the Civil War until the late twentieth century. A central theme of the course will be the varying ways in which African-Americans sought, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to achieve political, social, and economic freedom in the wake of emancipation.

HISU 2911 Special Topics 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

HISU 3100 New Orleans and Senegal, 1400-present 
This course explores the connected and comparative histories and cultures of New Orleans and Senegal. The two were both founded as French colonies. They share histories, cultural traditions, and, by virtue of their geographic location at the edge of threatened estuarian landscapes, a common challenge to their future.

HISU 3120 New Orleans Free People of Color 
This methods seminar examines the origins and experience of the large population of free people of color in New Orleans from 1718-1865. Although most Africans and African-descended inhabitants of New Orleans during this period were enslaved, many attained freedom or were born free. In 1800 fully 1/4 of the free people in New Orleans were free people of color. They joined militias, acquired property, ran business, and produced a vibrant body of literature. 
Notes: Elective in Musical Cultures of the Gulf South and Africana Studies

HISU 3220 Autobiography and Southern Identity 
An interdepartmental seminar that employs autobiography to explore the relationship between regional culture and individual experience in the 20th-century American South. While recognizing the place of autobiography as a literary genre, the seminar will subordinate the concerns of critical theory to the more immediate task of evaluating the strengths and limitations of autobiographical testimony as a form of historical evidence. Class members will read and discuss one book-length autobiography each week. 
Pre-requistites: One prior course in Southern history or literature or approval of instructor.

HISU 3260 America on Trial 
From the Salem Witchcraft trials to the trial of 0. J. Simpson, some sensational legal contests have captured the public imagination and resonated in American history and culture. Why do some trials garner such attention while others, perhaps equally sensational, do not? Clearly, they reflect deeper anxieties and tap into larger themes in American culture. This course will focus on trials like these that have captured the public imagination and ask what these trials reveal about the larger society. Other trials, though not as sensational, also reveal important aspects of American culture. We will also explore the law itself, how it functions in society, and what sort of society it aims to foster and protect.

HISU 3340 Early American Jewish History 
This class focuses on the period from the earliest Jewish settlers in mid-seventeenth century colonial America through the establishment of viable Jewish communities and institutions by the latter part of the nineteenth century. It covers the so-called Sephardic and Germanic periods of American Jewish history, prior to the wave of Eastern European immigration. Among the themes explored are the tension between Jewish identity and the pressures of assimilation; the transformation of the synagogue; the emergence of Jewish social and cultural institutions; changing religious practices and the rise of Reform Judaism. Events and themes are placed within the broader context of American history.

HISU 3360 Slavery in Public History and Public Memory 
This course will explore the history and public memory of slavery and the slave trade in New Orleans and southern Louisiana, as well as regions of North American. Some attention will also be paid to the Atlantic slave trade and areas of the Caribbean and Latin America which shared the history of black enslavement. The focus here will be on major themes in slavery history and memory and the challenge of studying and portraying those themes in various public history venues in the present day. The course will also address debates about reparations for slavery and other contemporary public policy questions related to the history of black enslavement. The Service Learning component of the course, when offered, will involve working with local public history agencies in the preparation and presentation of slavery-related materials at their individual venues.

HISU 3361 Slave Rebellions: Am Reg Hist 
What happened when enslaved Africans, African-Americans and other people of African descent used organized armed resistance to fight the institution of slavery? This course will explore six different slave rebellions in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America using documents, films and different kinds of history text books. Only in the case of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) did a slave rebellion actually succeed. But all slave uprisings left behind fascinating stories--filled with heroism, tragedy, violence; disputed evidence, and angry historical debate. This seminar-style class will delve into all of these questions mostly through weekly readings in both documents and other texts. The class will also focus significantly on questions of historical evidence: What can historians really know, especially when slave rebels themselves left behind relatively few documents? When Methods Practicum is added, this course fulfills Methods Requirement of the History Major.

HISU 3440 African-American Religious History 
This course surveys the history of African-American religious institutions, leaders, and beliefs from slavery to the present. The course examines the diversity of African-American religious expressions within the larger context of black social and political life. Topics include the transmission of African culture to the New World, slave religion, independent black churches, race relations, black nationalism, as well as gender and class, social reform and everyday resistance.

HISU 3541 History of Reproductive Health in the U.S. 
This course will explore the history of reproductive health in the United States from the seventeenth century to the present. Students will read scholarly books and articles, memoirs, and films about Americans' encounters with gynecology, midwifery and obstetrics, birth control devices, abortion, and reproductive technologies. Additionally, students will have opportunities to engage with guest lecturers who study reproductive health issues in the United States and around the world. Students will learn about the history of voluntary and coercive sterilization programs, the history of gynecological and obstetrical care, legal and illegal birth control and abortion practices, and the mobilization of the anti-abortion and pro-choice movements. 
Notes: Elective in GESS

HISU 3642 US War in Vietnam 
Although in the United States, the US conflict in Vietnam is most commonly referred to as the Vietnam War, in Vietnam, it is known as the American War. In this class, we will study the history of the war in Vietnam and the United States through primary sources and US historians' debates over the Cold War and decolonization. We will be reading works by both US and Vietnamese authors, including policy makers, military personnel, anti-war activists, and immigrants. In addition, students will learn to analyze opposing historical interpretations, evaluate primary sources, ask analytic questions, and develop arguments.

HISU 3776 What is an American? 
What does it mean to be an American? This course explores a substantial part of the long, complicated, and interesting history of answers that Americans have given this question over time. Does American have a national identity uniquely its own, or is it best understood as a container of diverse identites defined by separate ethnic and racial groups?

HISU 3910 Special Topics in United States History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISU 4430 History of American Religion 
This lecture course surveys the development of the many different religious traditions in the United States from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. The diverse origins of America's early settlers and the guarantees of religious freedom embedded in the Constitution encouraged the development in the United States of the most religiously diverse society in the Western world. We will explore that diversity and also seek commonalities between religious movements and their impact on the larger society. In such a survey, the emphasis will necessarily be on those formal religious movements that have made a major impact on American culture, but the importance of less mainline groups and popular belief will also be discussed. The course is non-denominational, non-creedal, and taught as cultural/intellectual/social history.

HISU 4560 The Civil War and Reconstruction 
The course treats military, political and economic developments during the American Civil War, and examines the postwar consequences of emancipation for Southern and American history.

HISU 4580 Slavery and Freedom in the Antebellum South 
The course surveys the colonial origins of American racial attitudes; African adaptations to bondage; the historical evolution of plantation slavery as a social institution, labor system, and method of racial control; the nature of white antislavery sentiment; the content and meaning of proslavery ideology; and the status of free blacks in slave society.

HISU 4694 Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 
This course explores the cultural dynamics associated with the origins of jazz in New Orleans and related historiography.

HISU 4910 Special Topics in United States History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISU 6260 New Directions in Women's History 
Until recently, most historians paid little attention to social relationships, race, or to the experiences of the poor. Beginning in the 1960s, scholars began to question the assumption that rituals. customs, and social practices were fixed or experienced the same by everyone. By inserting women into their analysis of U.S. history, historians quickly determined that our understanding of key historical events, economic change, and social customs was incomplete and often failed to capture the lived experiences of most Americans. Historians of women and gender have reimagined the ways we might think about the past, causing us to reconsider assumptions about labor, sex, and politics. In this course, you join the enterprise committed to enlarging our sense of what it has meant to live in or engage with the United States by investigating the experiences of women and men.

HISU 6350: History of Gender-Based Violence in the United States 
This course draws upon historical and theoretical literature, memoir, film, and fiction to examine the history of gender-based violence in the United States. Topics will include domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, forced sterilization, and violence against LGBTQ+ people. We will study power relations related to race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender. We will analyze resistance to violence, systems that enable violence, and the legal, medical, and social discourses that have resisted and enabled gender-based violence. This course does not have any pre- or co-requisites.

HISU 6420 American Revolutions 
The American War of Independence was one of many revolutionary movements that rocked the Atlantic world between 1760 and the 1820s. This course familiarizes students with the major interpretations of the American revolution and situates it within the larger spasm of freedom struggles that characterized the period, including Caribbean slave rebellions and the Latin American wars of independence.

HISU 6510 Recent U.S. from 1945 to the Present 
U.S. domestic history and role in world affairs from 1945 to the present. Topics include the Cold War at home; the Vietnam War; politics and protest in the turbulent 60's; the civil rights and women's movements; and the presidency from Truman to Clinton.

HISU 6540 African-American Culture 
An exploration of the formation of distinctive African-American cultural forms in the United States from the years of African enslavement up to the present day. The course will embrace a broad definition of culture to include religion and other community institutions, folklore and folk belief, various leisure activities as well as more obvious cultural manifestations such as music and the arts.

HISU 6560 Rise and Fall of the Plantation South 
This reading and research seminar will explore major topics in the social, cultural, economic, and political history of the plantation South. The course will begin with the origins of the plantation system in the colonial era to its eventual decline in the 20th century. We will consider regional variations tied to the production of export crops including tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar. Major themes will include issues of race and class, changing labor systems, comparative history, and the impact of the planting system on the region's history.

HISU 6580 Prophets, Sects, & Cults 
Prophet or charlatan? True faith or madness? What separates a cult from any other religious movement? How do new religious movements arise? Why do some fail while others succeed? These questions have surrounded American religious movements from the colonial era to the present.

HISU 6630 US Labor and Migration 
This course is an advanced seminar on the relationships between labor, capital, and migrant populations to (and within) the United States in the twentieth century. Globalization and migration are not new phenomenon. This course will begin in the late nineteenth century and explore the role of labor, industrial capitalism, and markets in the early twentieth century. It will challenge students to recognize the antecedents to today's immigration debates and consider continuities as well as changes in the US economy.

HISU 6750 Africans in the Americas: Comparative Social and Cultural History of the African Diaspora 
This seminar will explore the dispersion and fate of African peoples and their descendants in the United States, the Caribbean, and Central and South America with a view to developing an understanding of African-American culture as a diverse regional phenomenon rather than one confined to the United States.

HISU 6840 US Empire 
What is an empire, who defines it, and does the United States have one? This class will begin by studying sites of formal US control of overseas territories, namely Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It will then consider definitions of economic and cultural empire, particularly after the end of World War II. The course aims to provide students with several case studies in the early twentieth century and to ask students to ponder their legacies in the present.

HISU 6850 United States-Latin American Relations 
Traces the diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Latin America from the American Revolution to the present. This course seeks to demonstrate the interrelated roles of diplomacy, commerce, and inter-American cultural relations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

HISU 6910 Special Topics in United States History 
Courses offered by visiting professors or permanent faculty. For description, consult the department. 
Notes: For special offering, see the Schedule of Classes.

HISU 7450 Seminar in American Political History 
Seminar in American Political History

HISU 7550 Seminar in the Cultural History of the United States 
Seminar in the Cultural History of the United States

HISU 7610 Seminar on the Comparative History of the Americas 
Seminar on the Comparative History of the Americas

HISU 7620 Atlantic World Historiography 
Atlantic World Historiography 
This pro-seminar offers a comprehensive exploration of the scholarship on the Atlantic world and is designed to expose graduate students to the major currents, themes and problems in the field.

Undergraduate Courses

• African
• Ancient/Medieval
• Asian
• General History
• Latin & Caribbean
• Mid East & N. Africa
• Modern Europe
• United States