History

Over the course of the 19th century, North Americans in the United States and its territories experienced overwhelming social, political, technological, and economic change. At the same time, they faced significant health challenges from epidemic disease to unfamiliar environmental ills, to feuding physicians. This course addresses such changes in context and introduces students to the debates surrounding the American public's health.

From his emergence on the international stage with the Italian and Egyptian campaigns of the late 1790s to his death in 1821 and beyond, Napoleon Bonaparte’s career, first as all-conquering general, then as Emperor and finally as exile inspired an unprecedented explosion of visual imagery throughout Europe. From epic canvases of the enlightened hero on horseback and caustic caricatures of a demented ‘little Boney’ to physical mementos of the Emperor and booty plundered during the wars he waged, these images and objects offer important insights into how contemporaries understood and expressed their experience of revolution and regime change, of conquest and colonisation, of victory and defeat. Surveying the history of the Napoleonic period and its aftermath through its visual and material culture, this course draws upon local and international research collections to explore the interaction between image-making and empire-building in the early 19th century and to interrogate the relationship between art and politics in the making of modernity. In so doing, it also asks how historians can bring visual culture to bear upon their study of the past.

This introductory course provides a survey of Western history from the ancient period through the nineteenth century. It is designed for students who wish to pursue more specialized topics in Western history in the future and/or who plan to major in history.  Students are introduced to key historical figures and events, while the course also emphasizes how perceptions and expectations of both individuals and collectives (such as nation and religion) have evolved over time.  

Lectures proceed chronologically and are complemented by in-class activities that center on a variety of primary sources. Through these materials, the course uncovers the historical complexity of important concepts that are often simplified or taken for granted, such as liberty, equality, progress, and truth.  Ultimately, the course invites students to consider how they, as historical actors, wish to engage with knowledge and the world around them. 

This course looks at historical approaches to political trials in the twentieth century with a focus on the Scottsboro Trial, a major civil rights case in the Depression-era United States. Which historical sources can we use to understand the history of political trials, justice, and law? What makes a trial 'political'? The course examines a diverse range of sources including the contemporary press, poetry, theater, legal documents, speeches, and literature from the period, as well as the memory of the case through the Cold War and beyond. The course places the case in an international perspective and uses it to examine the controversial and contested intersection between contemporary law, race, and politics.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students are aware of the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the European colonization of America and of its relationship with the early modern globalization. Students will be able to recognize the active role played by indigenous groups and individuals in the shaping of the emerging global world. At the end of the course, the student is able to contextualize the European conquest of America within a global historical and cultural framework, as well as to independently engage in the critical analysis of historical sources and early modern ethnographic records. The students are also able to deploy such analytical skills to professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical and anthropological knowledge. This course examines the cultural processes that unfolded during the European colonization of the Americas and their role in fostering Early Modern globalization. A special attention is devoted to the Mesoamerican cultural area.

Week 1 introduces the course and provides an overview of the European colonization of the Americas. Week 2 examines the impact of the conquest on early modern globalization, focusing on phenomena such as the Columbian Exchange, the international trade of American resources and the transatlantic slave trade. It also introduces Mesoamerica as a cultural area and, more specifically, the Late Postclassic Nahua world. Week 3 describes the Conquest of Mesoamerica and the political and economic structures of New Spain. One session this week is dedicated to a collective discussion of selected articles and book chapters provided by the instructor. Week 4 addresses the so‑called "spiritual conquest", the emergence of mestizaje across social and cultural domains, and the epistemological dimensions of colonialism, which at the same time extracts and downplays local indigenous knowledge. Week 5 considers the role of missionary‑ethnographers like Bernardino de Sahagún, the colonial origins of anthropological practices, and early modern conceptions of human difference as a formative stage in the development of racism and coloniality. 

This course examines Thailand through the perspective of its military experience from past to present. It introduces students to various aspects of Thailand within the realm of conflict from its military history to its strategic culture. As such, the course adopts a multidisciplinary approach, encouraging students to look at Thailand from a range of disciplines whether it is history, politics, or international relations. Though it may be helpful, no prior knowledge or experience will be assumed. Students are expected to develop the ability to manage and analyze potentially complex and challenging issues through the use of evidence and theories, and be able to communicate them in both oral and literary manner.

This course provides an overview of some of the major developments in American culture since 1840. It introduces the basic methods of cultural history and teaches them how to place cultural developments within broader economic, political, and social contexts. Some of the themes discussed in the module include: the way culture has shaped racial, gender, and class conflicts and identities; the role of popular music in American life; the growth of advertising and consumer culture; the role of culture in debates over immigration and multiculturalism; and how the conquest of the American West was registered in American culture.

This class deals with various global historical issues ranging from politics to culture, sometimes using basic IR (International Relations) theories. The course covers such current issues as US foreign policy, Middle Eastern questions, Russian invasion of Ukraine, conflicts in Africa, re-surging nationalism and gender and minority questions from global historical perspectives.

In this course, students analyze the main physical and human characteristics of the continent and of contemporary Chile. Students gain a critical understanding of the changes and permanences in the geographical and physical and humane spaces of the continent and the conceptual grounds of the geographical spaces (landscape, territory, place, region, localization and scale) for its application into interdisciplinary research. Topics includes the physical geographical space of the Americas, regional synthesis of Chile, and the regional development of the country. 

The course covers the history of media in the period 1600 – 1850. Major emphasis is placed on the media system concept and material aspects of early modern print. The course focuses on the breadth in early modern media systems and the interplay between different media such such as rumours, sermons, newspapers and pamphlets. Other themes that are examined are censorship and the emergence of a mediated public sphere.