History

This course provides an overview of Swedish and Nordic history from the Viking Age to the present. To allow a critical approach to an otherwise Swedish interpretation of history, the course is taught from a Nordic perspective. Selected issues from Swedish and Nordic history are discussed in order to orient students in relevant discussions and arguments in historical theory. Students are also trained in historical argumentation based on scholarly foundations.

According to recent World Economic Forum polls conducted among 18-35 year olds in nearly 200 countries, the planet’s most urgent crises include religious conflict, government accountability, poverty, food and water (in)security, inequality, and climate change. These problems, in turn, raise pressing collective conundrums, such as: How can population growth and resources be brought into better balance? How can changing the status of women help improve the broader human condition? How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes? How can the threat of new and re-emerging diseases be reduced? How can shared values and security strategies reduce ethnic conflict, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction? And how can governments work together to address the threats associated with global warning? But every global challenge has its own particular "history," closely linked to developments taking place in different parts of the world over the last century or so (if not longer). This course, therefore, adopts a thematic approach towards making sense of the recent historical context in which these challenges have emerged.

The course addresses the development of communism after World War II, focusing on the situation in Central and Eastern Europe. The aim is to study the development of communism during the Cold War, from the Yalta conference in 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and its consequences in the 1990s and early twenty-first century. The subject is addressed from both genetic and genealogical perspectives.

This course examines the world of the supernatural and paranormal from both historical and contemporary perspectives.

Throughout history our understanding of what it is to be human has depended upon our perceptions of, and relations with, non-human animals. This course traces the emergence and development of animal experimentation from the mid-19th century through to the late 20th and examines how it has informed our understanding of human behaviors, emotions, and their discontents.  Beginning with Charles Darwin's interactions with the orangutan Jenny in London Zoo through to the use, on an industrial scale, of laboratory animals to understand stress-related illnesses and devise drugs to relieve them, students explore the profound effect various species, such as rats, mice, dogs, and monkeys, have had on the human condition in the modern era.

This course provides a study of the text and context of Zi Zhi Tong Jian, and covers the historical background of the era and the corresponding ideas and culture of Zi Zhi Tong Jian. The course also provides a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the author's ideas. This course combines thought analysis with historical interpretation to analyze and guide the reading of Zi Zhi Tong Jian. It is intended to use the "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" as an entry point to interpret relevant literature so as to trace the changes of ideas and culture concepts during the Tang and Song Dynasties.