History

Since the Scientific Revolution of the early 17th century, France has been the site of many of the most important scientific innovations of the modern age. More than this, science has played a crucial role in the construction of French national identity. From the 1635 foundation of the Jardin des Plantes by Louis XIII as a center of botanical and medical research, to the construction of the Eiffel Tower as a monument to the scientific accomplishments and to the engineering might of France, discoveries, innovations, and scientific feats have long been at the heart of France’s understanding of its own place in the world. In this course, students investigate the history of science in modern France, with a particular focus on the figures and institutions that contributed to this history within the walls of Paris. The course develops a critical approach to these figures, borrowing methods and insights from the scholarly discipline known as “history and philosophy of science”, or “HPS”.

The course examines the global history of migration and experiences of migration in the past. The first part of the course explores the reasons for individual and group migration, exploring the demographic context and impact of geographical mobility across different periods, and identifying different types of migration. Taking a long view of the history of migration, the course highlights the way shifting push and pull factors have shaped patterns of mobility in the past. With this demographic context in mind, the second part of the course examines migrant experiences since 1800 in more detail, considering how migration has been differentiated by class, race, gender, and age. By critically examining the sources, students recover migrant experience and consider both the subjective experience of migration and the ways in which migrant experiences have influenced national identities.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course discusses the conceptual grounds of the Universal claim in Roman culture, which are connected to political-military elements as well as to cultural and juridical patterns. The course examines elements of continuity and change in representations and auto-representations of the roman universal cosmic order within historiographical debate and will be able to critically assess the relevance of the theme in the actual organizational and political patterns. Students learn to apply a comparative approach to ancient sources and connect the roman idea of a Universal empire with other contemporary Universal empires, like e.g. Alexander the Great's empire or the Chinese Han dynasty’s Empire, as well as a diachronic approach, by considering how the notion of universal imperial rule has shaped the idea of international order after the end of Antiquity, from the Middle Ages to the present days. The course explores the reception of the historical experience of ancient Rome as a universal model, examining some aspects in which the influence of this historical experience was particularly significant.

This course introduces early medieval medical history. It looks at the ways in which medical knowledge developed in relation to changing culture and politics ca. 500-1000. It begins with the crisis of the sixth century, when climate change, pandemic, political instability, and new ideals about education led to a divergence between Greek and Latin medical traditions. This is sometimes described as a "dark age" of ignorance and superstition, but students look at the growing evidence of widespread interest in medical books and rational understandings of disease. 

This course covers the theoretical approaches and methodological components within cultural memory studies concerned with minoritarian groups and affect/emotion: e.g. Nora, Stoler, Rigney, Trouillot, Said, Azoulay, Sharpe, Hartman, Muñoz, Mbembe, Campt, Arondekar. It provides an introduction into archives (theory) and memory, especially in relation to power by introducing the political and academic assessment of the post-colonial dimension of cultural memory, and the queer dimension of historical scholarship.

This course focuses on protest and activism in contemporary Eastern Europe. It focuses primarily on the post-Soviet region, particularly Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. However, through guest lectures, it also explores protest in Poland and the former Yugoslavia. The course examines various types of protest movements and political activism, including environmental movements and grass-root initiatives, protest events and large scale protest movements, activism and political activities of political emigrants, and other contemporary cases in the region. Furthermore, it introduces several theories related to studies of protest and social movements. The course consists of lectures, discussions, and student presentations.

This course studies the colonial history of Latin America during the 16th through 18th centuries. Topics include: America-- the fourth part; population and society; models of political organization; colonial spaces; colonial economy; work and slavery; resistance to the colonial world; religiosity and identities.