History

This course provides an overview of what has changed (and what has not) in British society and culture since the early nineteenth century. It does not attempt to be comprehensive, but rather uses historical debates to provide a context to questions which remain highly pertinent in Britain today.  Why does Britain, uniquely in Europe, still have a monarchy?  Why is social class still such an important aspect of how the British see themselves? Why have statues of nineteenth-century imperial figures become a source of such violent controversy since the emergence of the BLM? In what ways has ‘Brexit’ revealed Britain’s difficulty to confront its national decline over the last hundred years?  How might movements for racial and social justice in contemporary Britain work within a specific British radical paradigm?  All these questions can only be answered if we address the last two centuries of British history, confronting the longer-term patterns of continuity and change which are still playing out in a nation which struggles to confront both its past and its present. Specific topics covered include: aristocracy and monarchy since 1800; nineteenth and twentieth century movements for social change; advocates and critics of the British empire; explanations for British ‘decline’ in the twentieth century; gender and sexuality, 1800-1914; youth and popular culture since the 1930s.

This course explores the making of contemporary Europe diachronically and in a global context through four parts. It considers the plurality of “Europes” that emerged in the postwar period, including the institutional evolution of the European Communities and European Union, their challenges and their achievements. It situates the development of regional cooperation agreements within the global context of World War, decolonization, Cold War, economic crises, globalization, the Soviet collapse, and the turmoil of the early 21st century. It evaluates the the roles that different actors – including multilateral organizations and multinational corporations – played in shaping European governance. It equips students to apply this knowledge to their own analyses of contemporary political debates, through readings, discussions, and a capstone podcast project. 

This course teaches the materials, theories and methods of the comparison of classical civilizations in the Two Rivers region, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the ancient Middle East, medieval Europe, Central America, South Asia, etc.Focusing on the frontier discussions of interdisciplinary research in the disciplines of paleography, history, literature, philosophy, etc. of classical civilizations, the study of cross-cultural primary materials, and the analysis of civilization comparison cases, this course introduces and discusses the frontiers of comparative research on classical civilizations. 

This course examines how the sky has shaped cultures from across the world and in different times. Students explore how sky watching has provided answers to fundamental questions, such as the origins of life and the world, how society should be organized, and how lives should be led. Topics include perspectives from Indigenous, European and Asian cosmologies, practices of prediction including astrology and meteorology, and implications of technology that is now reshaping the sky. 

This course critically examines the ways the past is established, experienced and represented in the present. The objective is to foster an appreciation of history as a dynamic undertaking in which not only academics, but societies as a whole participate. The course is comprised of theoretical core and changing case studies that touch on media representations, museology and conservation, historiography and the philosophy of history. CA projects afford students the opportunity to experience first-hand how history, far from being confined to libraries and archives, is part of daily life. While the course targets primarily History majors, its cultivation of critical skills in the analysis of written and visual texts is relevant to students from all faculties.

This course examines the sweeping changes in religious life in Europe between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century. It concentrates on the upheavals associated with the Protestant and Catholic Reformations (the latter known also as the Counter-Reformation), but places these in a much broader context, examining the role of religion in the social, cultural, and political world of early modern Europe. The course does not treat religious issues solely in theological or ecclesiastic terms, but also in terms of piety – the "varieties of religious experience" Europeans had, and community – the social and spiritual bonds formed by religion. It pays attention to the "common folk" as much as to famous leaders, and looks for long-term shifts behind the era’s revolutionary events

The course provides students with a thorough understanding of the phenomena of witchcraft belief and prosecution in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries. The course focuses mostly on social and cultural themes but an understanding of the political, economic, and religious context is important. Topics include the functions and meanings of witchcraft and magic, elite and popular beliefs, witches and community relations, witchcraft and gender, witchcraft and religion, witchcraft and the law, and the decline and survival of witchcraft beliefs.

Beginning with the Young Turk and Iran’s Constitutional revolutions, this course follows the fate of Middle Eastern societies and states during the twentieth century, with a special focus on colonialism and nationalism; independence movements and decolonization; the Arab-Israeli conflict; society, politics, and culture. It focuses on the social, political, and intellectual history of this period to better understand the genealogy of trends and events that dominate our present time.

Despite its apparent proximity to the history of cinema, this course is in fact a "History and Cinema" course. It looks at both fiction and non-fiction cinema and considers questions posed by Michèle Lagny and Marc Ferro on how film allows us to rethink the historicity of history and whether cinema and television modify our vision of history.

This course looks at the political, cultural, and religious translation undergone by the Roman empire - and with it classical civilization - in Late Antiquity (ca. 300-ca. 800). How did the monolithic late Roman state give way to Germanic kingdoms in western Europe, and develop into the Greek-speaking Byzantine empire of the eastern Mediterranean? And how did the monotheistic religions, Christianity, and Islam, establish themselves and impact politics and everyday life across the Mediterranean and Near East? The central themes of the course are understanding the political transformations of the period in relationship to profound social, cultural, and religious change, and preparing students for specialized courses at a higher level.