History

Through case studies, this course explores the port city and the 'maritime world' in Asia. It introduces the history of China's maritime world with a focus on the challenges it faced through encroachment by Western imperial powers. This course also examines Asia's colonial port cities, including Calcutta and Singapore, as sites of Western influence and modernization and also as sites of local resistance and transformation. 

The years from the founding of the republic in 1919 to the National Socialists' seizure of power in 1933 are among the most politically and artistically eventful in German history. While the young Weimar Republic initially struggled with start-up and legitimization problems, culture experienced a period of prosperity that has lost none of its fascination to this day. Expressionist film, Bauhaus, New Objectivity, and epic theater are just some of the cultural achievements of the Weimar Republic. However, the Golden Twenties came to an abrupt end due to the world economic crisis, which led to the collapse of the republic, which was to bring the National Socialists to power in 1933 and meant the end of all diversity. Using historical sources, various art forms, and scientific presentations, the seminar provides an overview of central aspects of the politics and culture of the Weimar Republic. Starting with an examination of the political background of the founding of the republic, the course deals with the above-mentioned aspects and social phenomena such as the "new woman" type.

This course offers a study of the history of Barcelona between the 13th and 18th centuries with a focus on common people and their daily activity.

This course examines and unpicks the memory of Fascism and the Holocaust from the Italian perspective. Through a combination of class lectures and discussions, film screenings and readings, and site visits, students connect decisions taken in Fascist Italy with the end result of forced labor and mechanized killing that occurred principally outside of the country’s borders. The course explores pre-Fascist and Fascist Italy’s relationship with its Jewish population, the repressive nature of the dictatorship, its involvement in the Second World War, and its alliance with Nazi Germany to gain a thorough grounding how scholars have sought to explain Italy’s Holocaust. Having established the history of the Jews in Italy and the processes and practicalities by which they were rounded-up and deported from occupied Italy, the course reflects upon debates surrounding guilt and how this has been used to excuse or deflect responsibility for the deportation and murder of religious and political prisoners. The memory, or otherwise, of the Holocaust in Italy has been heavily influenced by domestic identities, politics, and culture and the course examines this through film. As arguably the most important artistic medium of modernity, cinema allows one to construct and deconstruct many myths and identities. This course analyzes some of the most relevant Italian film productions relating to the memory of Fascism and the Holocaust in Italy, primarily as socio-historical documents. Instruction consists of a series of lectures and class debates around assigned readings and film analysis.