History

The course examines the history of Chile from its foundation until present times. It focuses on the history from the social angle and with a feminist, intersectional and decolonial approaches. It identifies three historical periods: Creation of Chile, Welfare and Neoliberal states. The course proposes students to reflect on the role of the social worker in relation to the history of Chile and the importance of knowing this history for working in this profession.

Ireland, beyond the six counties of Northern Ireland, was once a constituent of the United Kingdom, and remains the UK's closest European neighbor. Ireland's history is simultaneously distinctive and interconnected with that of modern Britain. This course explores the political and social history of Ireland from the period of insurgency and union in the 1790s, when some key political ideologies and movements were constructed, through to the achievement and consolidation of Irish independence in the years before the Second World War. The course provides an understanding of some of the central themes within the history of Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It addresses the issues of emerging republicanism and unionism, the evolution of Catholic politics, and the impact of famine and migration on Irish society.

Today's climate and ecological issues require a great transformation in the perception of human life and the relationship of humans to nature as a whole. Ecological and environmental history is a perspective and method of history to respond to the great transformation.  

This course covers major research achievements and methods of ecological and environmental history from a global perspective and from a standpoint that history is no longer the history of humans, but the history of interactions between humans and other living things and materials. As a result, we expand our perception of history by considering the achievements and limitations of modern civilization. 

Topics include Environmental history – what is it, Imjin War, Colonial environment, Forestry/Heat, Imperial weather/Imperial Japan/Republican China, Korean War and environmental history, North Korea and environment, South Korea/post Korean War rebuilding, Park Chung-Hee era, Environment and Developmental dictatorship, legacy. 

This course introduces students to the range and scope of social policy analysis by showing how the subject has developed over time. It covers the history and development of Irish social policy and examines how social change has influenced and has been influenced by social policy developments since the nineteenth century.

This course surveys Korean history from antiquity to the present, tracing the evolution of politics, society, and culture on the peninsula. The course begins with Old Joseon and the Three Kingdoms, examining early state formation, before turning to the Goryo dynasty and the establishment of Joseon. We highlight the structures of Joseon society, cultural achievements, and Korea’s place within the East Asian world, including encounters with Ming China and Japan during the Imjin War. In the modern era, we explore the Daehan Empire, the colonial period under Japanese rule, and the profound transformations that followed liberation and the Korean War. The course then examines the divergent paths of North and South Korea, with particular focus on South Korea’s rapid industrialization, the rise of chaebol, and the movement toward democratization. 

This course explores ideas and representations of race, gender and enslavement in 18th and 19th century British Caribbean and the wider Atlantic world. Focusing on questions of colonial connection, representation, identity, creolization, resistance, and power, the course engages primary and secondary materials in order to analyze and critically interpret the ways in which those who were enslaved related to, and resisted, the oppressive systems under which they were forced to labor, as well as the convictions and actions of enslavers and anti-slavery campaigners.

This course examines the region of Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean between 1500 BCE to 100 CE. Topics include an introduction to Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world, the Neo Assyrians and their Empire – 900 to 600 BCE, the Neo Babylonians and their rule – 600 to 537, and the Achaemenid Persian Empire – 537-333BCE. The Hellenistic Empires, Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires, and the Romans and Parthians are also covered.

This course examines the constructed images and historical realities of some of the most important peoples in the ancient world, other than the Greeks and the Romans. The three main directions of the course are: (1) an analysis of the concept of ‘barbarian’ in the Classical world; (2) an examination of selected Greek and Roman sources on Northern barbarians, especially Celts and Germani; (3) a study of these same peoples ‘from within’, i.e. based on archaeological and linguistic evidence. The course investigates the role which the so-called ‘barbarians’ of northern Europe played in ancient history, from the earliest documented contacts with the Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, to the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.

This course examines different historical models for explaining the shocking rise and ultimate decline of witchcraft as a crime with dramatic social repercussions. It covers accused female and male witches of all ages and all social levels, as well as inquisitors, judges, torturers, accusers and victims. It assess the social, political, religious, legal, environmental and cultural underpinnings of witchcraft panics in locations including Germany, France, England, Scotland, Spain and Italy. It looks at European anxieties about non-European diabolical magic, and the notorious New England Salem witch trials of 1692 in North America. 

This course explores the social, political, and economic structures that constitute what Elizabeth Hinton and DeAnza Cook describe as “the antiblack punitive tradition in America,” as well as the critique and forms of resistance engendered by this tradition. Students engage with historical sources, theoretical analyses, and cultural productions that illuminate the relation between policing and race more broadly—including their imbrication with issues of class and gender—across US history, from slave codes to ICE raids. Students explore the fundamental questions about the historical roots, structural persistence, and systemic character of racialized state violence.