History

This course examines the history of the British Empire from the late eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Topics include: the cultural and material foundations and the economic, political, and social consequences of empire; the relationship between metropole and periphery; collaboration and resistance; the dynamics of race, gender, and class; the relationship between empire and art; new national and local identities; decolonization, and independence; and the legacies of empire. 

This course examines environmental history. It covers specific examples of past environmental change in relation to human society. 

This course charts the rise and fall of the USSR, from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1991. Students meet familiar characters, including Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev. But they are also introduced to the ordinary people that called themselves Soviets. The course covers themes including ideology, gender, sex and sexuality, race and anti-racism, religion, and multi-nationalism. Students travel from Moscow to Siberia, via the Caucasus and Central Asia, exploring the Soviet Union through a variety of primary sources, including political writings, party resolutions, newspapers, letters, memoirs, agitation and propaganda, and material history. 

This course examines the history of the Indian subcontinent from the 18th century to the present day. It begins by examining the twilight of the Mughal empire on the one hand, and the gradual expansion of European power across the region on the other. After looking at the ways in which the Portuguese and the Dutch established themselves around the Indian Ocean littoral at a time when territorial control was firmly in the hands of local rulers, it then examines how large parts of this region were incorporated into the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the process it examines the pivotal political, economic and social transformations witnessed under colonial rule and examine its legacies. Using a focus on South Asia to probe and better comprehend the development and dissolution of colonialism, it will simultaneously probe forms of colonial control to identify the forces that have most profoundly shaped the region today.

This upper-level seminar course focuses on the history and historiography of the most consequential imperial nation-state in the world today, from its founding at the supposed end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 to the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989. After a brief, synoptic overview of modern Chinese history until 1989 in the first two weeks, students spend the rest of the semester working through chronologically and thematically the major periods and issues in PRC history.

This course covers the history of Cairo with an emphasis on social, political, and economic developments in the twentieth century.

This course provides students with an understanding of the origins, main features, and impact of the Jacobite movement, and places Scotland’s experience of Jacobitism within its wider British and European context. It seeks to deepen historical and transferable skills already acquired or to assist students coming to history as a discipline for the first time. Students look at the societal changes that occurred in Scotland in the 18th century, the Jacobite rebellions and the Enlightenment period, and learn how to collect, evaluate, and use sources to support a historical case and evaluate conflicting historical interpretations.

This course is a survey of the history of Great Britain from the Revolution of 1688 to Brexit. The course seeks to understand how Britain and the British came to be the way they are at present-economy, society, politics, and culture. It covers the rise and fall of British power and influence; the expansion of English power within the British Isles; the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain; the transformation of a traditional society; the rise and decline of British industrial power; the development of a class society, and the rise and fall of Britain as a great power. 

Through an interdisciplinary theoretical, methodological and historiographical analysis, this course examines key issues and representative themes, problems, and events, relating to the history of culture and thought in Latin America. Topics covered include: meeting of cultures; culture of the Baroque; the Enlightenment; insurgency and independence; modernization and progress; new trends of the twentieth century; challenges of the twenty first century; models and case studies.

Along with an introductory survey of the most important art of the period, the course covers various controversies regarding the works' essence. The central aspects and artists of the period are introduced in the first seven weeks. Based on the textbook, lectures, and excursions, students are challenged to create a kind of survey for themselves. The second part of the course gives representative examples of the methods and fields of research that are central to the subject of seventeenth-century Dutch art. An attempt is made to offer a complete survey of the important painters from the seventeenth century, but of course a selection has to be made. There is an emphasis on Rembrandt, not only because he was the most important seventeenth-century Dutch artist, but also because his work has been researched in a number of ways. Additionally, there is an emphasis on painters and art historians from Utrecht, because their work is close at hand in the museums in this city, and because knowledge of Utrecht culture might contribute to a feeling of home. Prerequisites for this course include a course on art history or museum studies.