History

This course offers a study of the history and cultures of the United states from its origins to the end of the 18th century. Topics include: indigenous cultures; the meeting of different cultures-- European arrival and African slaves in the American colonies; the cultural and political context of the 18th century.

This course covers the history of Islam in France. It explores the great influence of Islam and Islamic nations on the French language and terminology used in France and Francophone cultures as well as the diversity among nations within the Islamic culture and religion. The general focus of this course is the impact that Islam has had in France from long ago to today and how Islamic culture in France is largely underrepresented in French history.

During the course students study primary sources from the Viking period from Sagas and chronicles to rune stones and material culture, and use classic textbooks to further their understanding of the Vikings.

This course explores the history of clothing and fashion from a gender perspective. It emphasizes the way constructions and norms on gender identities and roles determine what we consider appropriate or inconvenient, in terms of appearances.

This course begins with an examination of the Zionist idea; its common denominators and variegated factions. Due consideration is given to the late-nineteenth century European context in order to appreciate the socio-economic, political, and cultural factors that impacted upon the Zionist movement. The course explores how competing visions for the Jewish state responded to the realities of Palestine, its local Arab population, Ottoman rulers, and existing Jewish population. The class discusses the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Balfour Declaration in order to appreciate whether Palestine was “a twice promised land.” The class examines the various British attempts to restore law and order and placate the ambitions of the Arab national movement whilst at the same time not giving the appearance of abandoning its commitments to the Zionist movement. The course studies the Peel Commission partition plan (1937) and the reactions of the Zionists, Palestinian Arabs, and emerging Arab states. The course discusses Arab and Zionist approaches towards the Allied war effort as well as their respective attitudes towards the future of the territory in a post-war settlement. The course explains the various claims as to why the British left Palestine, the recommendations of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and its majority proposal for the partition of the territory. Students discuss the first Arab-Israeli war, the refugee crisis, and the Rhodes armistice agreements. Students are introduced to the writings of the New Historians and their critics. At this half way point the course turns its attention to internal and external dilemmas that faced and indeed continue to face the Israeli state. The schism surrounding religious – secular relations is studied both in its manifestation in the early years of statehood as well in ensuing years. The claim that Israel adopted a position of consociational politics in this arena is examined. A further field of study will be the approach of the hegemonic Labor movement towards the Mizrachi-Oriental immigrations of the 1950s and early 1960s. Expressions of alienation and discrimination are explored as well the claim that the ethnic gap remains real and not only symbolic in contemporary Israel. The course proceeds to examine other competing voices in Israeli society including those of its Arab citizens. It asks whether existing tensions can be accommodated by a reaffirmation of the Jewish-democratic characterization of the state or whether alternative paradigms might be considered. The various expressions of the Israel-Arab conflict are given due consideration as well as the efforts at peace making, particularly those with Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. The failure of the negotiations at Camp David in 2000 are addressed as well as the second intifada. Classes take the form of lectures, discussion based on the assigned readings, and one on-site visit.

The course examines the history of Jewish life in Berlin from its beginnings in the sixteenth century, to the literary salons of Rahel Levin and Henriette Herz in the nineteenth century and the descriptions of the musician Konrad Latte, who survived the persecution of the Jews during National Socialism under false identity. The history of German-Jewish life in Berlin did not come to an end in the horrors of the Holocaust, but came to life again after 1989 and has set new cultural accents in the Berlin of the twenty-first century.

The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “City as Public Forum” sessions, students are introduced to French history and culture through a series of lectures and site visits. Students discover some of the fascinating ways the core principles of social justice were tested in theory and practice on the streets of Paris in the past and explore how they evolved into the pillars of French society today. The course focuses on just how an ideal society should be forged, where all are free individuals and members of a cohesive community at the same time. Trying to make individuals believe—as religions do—in the primacy of the collective, and in its concomitant goal of protecting human rights, is at the core of social justice in France. From 52 B.C.E to today, France has been an exemplar of how—and how not—to construct a just society. To render these values visible, and therefore legible, to all by adding a physical dimension—whether constructive or destructive—to the usual means of establishing laws or setting policies, is what distinguishes the history of France's capital city of Paris. Those who control Paris—be they monarchs, revolutionaries, or presidents, past and present—believe that erecting all kinds of physical structures will render their values concrete and immutable. The ideal French society did not always necessarily mean a democratic or inclusive one. Since the French Revolution, however, institutionalizing the concept of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” has been France's greatest universal achievement and a source of constant upheaval, eliciting a unique form of secular activism that has led to targeting buildings and monuments that no longer reflect the collective's values. Students discuss how the diverse social actors, who constitute “the French,” continue to thrust their bodies and minds into the physical spaces of the public sphere in the pursuit of social justice. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students learn targeted language skills through situational communication, so they have the opportunity to use everything they learn as they go about their daily activities. Advanced French students will participate in conversation courses on the program’s theme. This is the spring semester version of the course.

This course focuses on the development of ‘modern’ London (c.1800 to the present day) to explore a set of wider intellectual issues about the nature of cities and urban ways of life. It takes an interdisciplinary perspective drawing upon a range of and scholarship –including social and cultural history, art history, geography, and sociology –central to the broad field of urban studies. Three sets of interrelated themes provide a theoretical focus: modernity and the city; landscapes of power and inequality; and culture, identity and urban space. The three main sections of the course deal with key periods of in the history of modern London. The first part of the course, London: Capital of Modernity, examines the ways in which London became a ‘modern’ city in the 19th Century. The second part of the course, The Challenge of Modernity: London in the Twentieth Century, considers London in the turbulent decades of the early 20th Century and the efforts to repair bomb damaged London and the comprehensive reconstruction of some parts of the city after World War Two, The third part of the course, Global London: Transforming Society and Space,  studies in depth some of the major features of the city in the later 20th and early 21st Centuries, focusing on London’s global city characteristics and considers intellectual debates about contemporary society and culture in an urban context.