History

This course taught in Spanish explores political thought through a Latin American lens. The course begins with indigenous primary sources and their views on the Conquista and maintains those indigenous viewpoints through different eras in Latin American history. The course focuses primarily on the indigenous role, post-colonial impacts, and contemporary Latin America.

This course gives an outline of the historical development of Swedish society from prehistoric times to the present. Important periods and developments, such as the Middle Ages, the Great Power Period, and the nineteenth century mass emigration are highlighted. Special emphasis is put on the twentieth century, including Sweden's security policy and the emergence of the welfare state. Specifically, Swedish political history is discussed in an international context (Scandinavian, European, American and Global). This course is a module within the SWEDISH CULTURE course.

This course explores the city of Barcelona from a historic, artistic, literary, and cinematographic perspective. Topics include: the roman city; the Gothic Quarter; a bohemian and modernist city; a global city-- Universal Exposition, Olympic Games, and Universal Forum of Cultures.

Taught by numerous site visits to historic buildings alongside lectures and seminars, this course introduces students to the study of architecture by exploring buildings in the London area from the start of the 17th century to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. During the course, students witness London burn to the ground, be comprehensively rebuilt, and then expand from a small European capital into the largest city in the world. Along the way, students encounter a wide variety of buildings including cathedrals, palaces, churches, synagogues, breweries, shops, and hospitals. Students  acquire skills in looking at, reading, and understanding buildings and become adept at using them as historical evidence. Students also learn how to relate architecture to its social, political, and intellectual context, and develop insights into the ways that buildings may carry and convey meaning, whether to an expert or to a more general audience. No prior knowledge of architecture or architectural history is required to undertake the course.

This course examines Indigenous ways of knowing and history making in Australia; key theoretical and political debate connected to the rise of Aboriginal history in Australia; key theoretical and political debated connected to oral history methodology as a methodological discipline in history; and oral history narratives and other sources across time that provide insight into Aboriginal history making.

The course examines social developments and political tensions that shaped the modern United States, including visions of early century reform; the emergence of mass society and the "new woman"; the redefined role of the State in the aftermath of the Great Depression and in World War II; racial reform and the white supremacist backlash in the 20s and 60s; sexual liberation and counterculture in the 60s; the renewed power of Conservatism in the 70s and 80s; and the crises and culture wars of the late 20th century.

This course focuses on the history of writing, storytelling, and books. It begins with the first signs of writing known to man, then explores the evolution of the creation of writing and what is known as a book today. The course studies the different methods used to create written works and includes guided visits to the printing museum. The first part of the course focuses on the global history of writing, and the second part of the course concentrates on the history and evolution of writing in France.  

From ancient times people have been interested in recording or analyzing past events, thereby giving birth to different traditions of telling history and the development of history as an academic discipline with a strict methodology. Still, people often ignore the conventions of this field when they refer to past events. We must deal with the whole of the past and reveal it based on valid methods, without making choices based simply on what we like. There were always kings, politicians etc. who tried to create a glorious past or hide an inglorious past, to change or use memories of the past for harming others or benefiting themselves. The misuse of history is part of our long history, and it has always been the responsibility of historians to organize/analyze past sources and describe a fair picture of the past.

This course aims to provide a firm understanding about history as an academic discipline, with its general rules and methods, its strengths and limits, while at the same time, gaining an understanding of why a correct or decent understanding of history is (and was) important for us to cope with internal and external problems in our world.

This course focuses on four major themes in Japanese and East Asian history:
(1) Diplomacy and trade;
(2) Disasters and Pandemics;
(3) War and Politics; and,
(4) Territory.
 

Each week the course explores a selection of primary documents related to these themes and key events. The goals of this course are: (1) To think about how and why different people have recorded and written about past historical events; (2) To consider how these events and documents were interpreted by different stakeholders/audiences/winners/losers at the time, and (3) to identify the challenges and limitations faced by historians as we seek to better understand the past, and its relevance for the world we live in today.