History

The course offers a unique and scholarly history of the complexity of the British Empire through its origins, rise, fall, and legacy. Its primary focus is on understanding the experience of and the reasons for these processes including controversies and catastrophes. It includes histories of black women and men in Britain and the experience of what it was like being from the Empire and living in Britain.  Many of the case studies are Africa focused. Within the context of Britain's wider political, social, and cultural history, the course examines from the late 1700s the following: the origins of the second empire; explorers; liberalism and racism; the expansion of colonies of white settlement; the role of missionaries; the scramble for Africa; the Victorians and popular imperialism; the contribution of empire to the First and Second World Wars; fast exit strategies; violent decolonization; race and  immigration; post-colonial dictators and the legacy of white settlers. Case studies include Britain and Zimbabwe; Idi Amin and Uganda;  the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya; plus British rule in Somaliland and the fallout of the Somali civil war. The thread of racism, the imperialism of industrial capitalism, and the role of key individuals are recurring themes. 

This course examines Australian history from the convict period to the present, examining frontier violence, the making of a nation state, and the manifold transformations of the twentieth century. Taking advantage of the university's location, the course uses Sydney-area museums and site visits to bring Australia's past to life.

This course examines architectural history and theory. It includes a concise chronological survey of key periods of architectural history from antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century, as well as closer investigation of some particular architectural themes and ideas across history. Students will interrogate these themes through intense study of significant buildings, which they will research, document, and analyze. They will be introduced to fundamental principles and skills of scholarly research in the discipline, including locating and evaluating sources, and constructing arguments.

The twelfth century was a period of rapid change in Ireland as the English conquest and the resulting foundation of an English colony remade the political, social and economic landscape of the island. This development, and in particular the presence of a significant population of colonists, led to major shifts in the way that the Irish envisioned themselves as a group and the way in which they were described by their English neighbors. This course traces the ways in which the ethnic identities of Irishness and of Englishness (to which it was so often opposed in contemporary sources) evolved through the high and later middle ages. Students analyze primary sources from the period to reflect on questions of identity, the terminology of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’, and what it meant to be ‘Irish’ in the middle ages.

World War I and World War II were the key events in twentieth-century history, shaping the contemporary world. Societies mobilized for “total war” and aimed for unconditional victory, sacrificing unprecedented amounts of blood and treasure. Through lectures and tutorials using primary and secondary sources encompassing the latest scholarly perspectives, this course analyzes these formative events. Through these wars, the contemporary world came into being, and this course helps to understand the wars as interrelated processes of social transformation.

This course look at a historical understanding of Australian society including gender, class, politics, foreign relations, or Indigenous and settler experiences of colonialism and environment. 

This course covers the history of Egypt from the Middle Kingdom to the end of Pharaonic history. The course focuses on the "official" history of Egypt rather than the cultural/social history that is covered in a separate course. The scope of "official" history includes: the different rulers of Egypt and their contributions to the state in terms of buildings, religious changes and foreign policy, the economy, social organization, and Egypt’s foreign relations. Literary sources are augmented by archaeological evidence. Field trips to archaeological sites are an important component of the course.

The general idea of “narrating” is to detect “history” through various expressions by those who lived it, interacted with it, and “narrated” it through various vehicles: literature, music, poetry, the cinema, visual arts, photography, chronicles and memoirs, customs and habits, etc. “History” here is traced not as a narrative of the grand struggle for political power, or a succession of past events within a singular or mainstream narrative of it that suppresses variations in perspectives, but as a set of experienced realities and processes that conditioned “LIFE”--viz. the plurality of different lives--in different ways and at different times. Documentaries, films, literature, music, live narratives, historical anecdotes, etc. are all seen as possible forms of narratives. It is through the freely-flowing combination of all of those and other sources that the course exposes an assortment of voices, perspectives, and representations: by travelers, novelists, poets and colloquial poets, singers and composers, film directors, journalists, historians, statesmen and politicians, and of “ordinary people” as well as activists. All of these sources define the broad framework of the seminar and the potential opportunities it opens up. This course is run in the spirit of a Cultural Salon: in a free-flow style of discussion, seeking contribution from all of its participants, in the form each finds most conducive to expressing themselves, while all get engaged in a collective exploration, and are all bound by a collective commitment and understanding rather than a preconceived agenda or menu of requirements.
 

This module provides a general understanding of the history of tourism and history of infrastructures from the 15th to the 19th century, using primary sources and in particular travel accounts by foreign travelers in Italy. The course covers the following topics; pilgrimage, practices of travel between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, travel infrastructures, Humanism and Renaissance: tourism before tourism, the birth of modern tourism, Venice as a case study, travel diaries and travel accounts, and spas and the birth of contemporary tourism. A section of the module (6 hours) will be dedicated to British travelers in Italy in the 16th-17th century, with a particular focus on the eclectic English architect Inigo Jones and his influence on the British and American cultural contexts and beyond.  

This course offers an introduction to the history of women in medieval Islamic societies (600 - 1500 AD), through their experiences and representations in art and literature. The course aims at finding the boundaries that divided the worlds of women and men in the economic, legal, and spiritual spheres. It does so by looking at a variety of texts, including the Qur'an, Prophetic traditions, marriage contracts, travelers' accounts, and the tales of the Arabian Nights. By comparing sources from diverse cultural perspectives, students consider the development of a cultural, economic, legal, and spiritual female identity in the Middle Ages, and critically examine medieval and modern discourses on women and Islam.