History

The history of climate and environment are rapidly evolving fields of study that aim to reconstruct environmental and climate conditions over past centuries and millennia, and to understand how societies perceived and responded to changing environmental conditions and events such as natural disasters and extreme weather. These aims can be best achieved by combining evidence from both natural and human archives. In this course, students examine how natural archives such as tree-rings and sediment cores can be used to reveal climate and environmental variations in the past. They examine how this information can be combined with evidence from human archives, including written and archaeological records, to understand the social impacts of environmental change. In doing so, they draw upon case studies from the ancient, medieval, and early modern eras. The case studies range from ancient Egypt and Babylonia to the ancient American Southwest, and from there to Medieval Ireland, and into the oceanic realm. In these places students examine the role of pre-modern societies in transforming the face of the earth, and how humans perceived and coped with a changing environment.

Based on the most recent research, this class retraces the modern history of homosexuality in European and American societies since the late eighteenth century, not only as an individual and collective experience, but also as a medical and theoretical concept, and a social battlefield. The progression is roughly chronological but also focuses on specific issues such as the legal situation of homosexuals, the medical and psychological discourses on homosexuality, the common ground and differences between the history of male and female homosexuality, the role of art, literature, and urban life in shaping homosexual identity and subculture. The course considers how and why Western countries shifted from condemnation to acceptation, though past prejudice and stigma still interfere with the present.

The European Renaissance was an age of revolutions: in thought and discourse, politics and government, philosophy and religion, and science and technology. According to an older view of history, these revolutions inaugurated the modern world, thus giving birth to a glorious age of enlightenment and progress. More recently this narrative has been seriously challenged from a variety of standpoints, including from feminist, postcolonial, and global paradigms. The value of Western culture has been deconstructed, the history of “the West” and its place in global history soberly re-evaluated. In 2017 a new study appeared that invites us to revisit the Renaissance and its importance for world history: Bernd Roeck’s DER MORGEN DER WELT. Integrating comparative and counterfactual approaches, it asks what was special about the Renaissance, why it did not happen elsewhere or at another point in time, and what its legacy is today.

This pre-semester course offers an exciting and comprehensive introduction to the history of Copenhagen and to the Danish language. This course is a perfect introduction for students who wish to gain a solid understanding of the cultural, political, economic, and social history of the Danish capital. The course consists of a series of lectures supplemented with excursions out in the streets of Copenhagen. Over three weeks, students learn about the city’s history from its foundation in the early Middle Ages, when Copenhagen was just a fishing village, through a millennium of history up to modern Copenhagen, often ranked as one of the best cities in the world when measured by the quality of life. As well as covering the rich history of Copenhagen, the course also includes several lessons in Danish for beginners to introduce the basics of the Danish language including conversation, grammar, and pronunciation. Students learn to present themselves, describe where they live, and learn how to order coffee in Danish. It also covers some of the Danish terminology related to the cultural content of the course. This intensive three-week course is open to all international students and assumes no prior knowledge of Danish history or language. 

This course examines modern Middle Eastern history from the nineteenth century to the Arab Spring in 2010. The framework study of the region and its peoples is political history. Starting in the early nineteenth century, European states such as France and Britain invaded the region, ushering in a new era. In response to the European threat, Ottoman, Egyptian, and Iranian governments instituted drastic military, economic, and political reforms. Inevitably these reforms also led to social and cultural transformations. World War I disrupted these states and a variety of new states including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the Gulf emirates emerged from the cataclysm. We will study the efforts of these states, along with those of Egypt and Iran, to achieve independence and find a new political identity and structure for their communities. The end of World War II marked a drastic period of decolonization for Britain and France, and many Middle Eastern states now fully independent, developed military-authoritarian regimes. We will study the dynamics of these regimes, the socio-economic changes they enacted, and socio-religious groups that mobilized in protest. This course then moves toward the twenty-first century to understand the increasing wealth of the region, stagnation, and violence in the region up to the Arab Spring.

The course provides an introduction to the study of the Holocaust--the term used to describe the killing of the European Jews--and its causes and mechanisms. It also provides a basis for seeking answers to difficult questions, such as why this tragedy occurred. By examining the circumstances and mechanisms leading to genocide, and especially to the Holocaust, students are oriented on the post-war interpretations and debates. The effects of the Holocaust, how the Holocaust has affected post-war political and cultural discourses, and the reasons behind the delayed interest in it are also introduced. The Holocaust is also viewed in the context of other genocides committed both before and after World War II. Related lectures, readings, and seminars provide an overview of the Holocaust through empirical, chronological, theoretical, political, and other perspectives. Assessment is based on two short papers on elective readings related to the course topics and a take-home exam that is discussed at the final class meeting.