History

This course examines the popular experience of life in 20th-century Ireland. Rather than seeing Irish culture in terms of elite experiences, this course explores life as it was lived by the majority of Irish people. To do this, the course broadly traces key experiences from birth to death, examining each experience from as many viewpoints as possible. Certain key themes run throughout the course such as the social and cultural effects of economic, political and demographic change, the evolving role of the state and legislation as it affected daily life, the process of secularization, changes in public and private morality, an increasing openness to international influence and the conflicts, and tensions that these various developments unleashed. The course examines the interpretative challenges of social and cultural history in an Irish context, and examines some of the new certainties that seem to be emerging in the growing literature on various aspects of Irish experience.

The course will deal with the involvement of Jews as a group and as individuals in the civic and political life of the United States, during the period since 1920. The course will be given in English. The students will learn about the complex character of civic participation in a changing American political landscape, in which Jews have expressed their interests and taken part in the discourse of political events and public affairs.

This course discusses subjects on iconic figures and events throughout Chinese history that students may have learned about previously, and uses a more in depth approach on these events to learn about connecting past history with modern world problems, and how we can solve them. Assessment: Participation 40%, Final Exam 60%.

The course covers the history of Britain from the late 18th century through to c.1870. The focus is on political history broadly defined. Consideration is given to the impact of ideological, sexual, demographic, social, cultural, and economic change on the political process and policy-making, as well as more conventional issues such as constitutional reform and party politics. The course seeks to provide students with an appreciation of the wider contexts in which politics took place (social contexts especially), as well as a secure understanding of political developments themselves. 

The Frankish super-state pieced together by bloody conquest in the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) comprised much of modern-day France, Germany, Italy, Catalonia, and the Low Countries. It remains popularly seen today as at once a restoration of the western Roman Empire, and as a precursor to modern European unity.

By consulting first-hand the remarkable variety of contemporary literature produced at the courts and monasteries of this age, together with the boom in modern scholarship on the subject published in recent decades, we will seek to deconstruct both these notions, and uncover instead a ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ on its own, eighth- and ninth-century terms: one of ritual, theocracy, and prophetic visions; of brutal violence, learned polemic, and carefully balanced consensus. Above all, the course asks: how were such extraordinary political and territorial ambitions achieved and legitimized in a world of such rudimentary resources? And why, once accomplished, could it not last?

The course focuses on the methods of gender studies and applies them to the context of medieval historiography. For this purpose, the course highlights narrative sources, legislation, treatises, literature, and iconography. Students are required to write a short paper demonstrating the use of the tools of historical research and communication, and the ability to customize one's own learning path. This course covers the multiple aspects of female monasticism in the Early Middle Ages through the analysis of narrative sources, charters, and iconography. The course illustrates the problem of the representation of female monasticism during the Early and Central Middle Age period. The use of conceptual tools in gender history allows students to identify the shapes assumed in the specific historical contexts through the construction of the social identity of individuals, both male and female.

Through visits to ten of London’s most important institutions, this course examines the development of how institutions curate culture from Renaissance "cabinets of curiosities" to the modern "white cube" gallery space. The course equips students with the historical, theoretical, and practical knowledge necessary for studying culture through institutional collections. Students analyze the techniques and practices museums use to collect, organize, and display their objects; consider the messages these institutions send through their architecture, patronage, and methods of display; and delve into some of the most important issues affecting cultural institutions today like decolonization, repatriation, and social impact.

This course is a study of the history of Israel as seen through films. The course examines various angles of the socio-political reality displayed in both fiction and documentary films. From the early twentieth century in Palestine and onwards in Israel, mainly through Israeli cinema, a flourishing industry nowadays, as well as through foreign cinema, the course covers the main events that shaped and continue to shape the reality of this young state: the historical events that led to its foundation, the wars which drew its borders, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and its multi-cultural identity.