History

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.

This is a course in an all-round way to review Chinese history from ancient times to the Qing Dynasty. The students will know the outline of ancient Chinese history and be interested in it. 

This course covers African American movements including CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality (1942), which concentrated on strategies such as sit-ins and picket lines; the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957); the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement dedicated to put an end to segregation practices and offer alternate means to achieve somewhat similar ends: the transformation of American democratic institutions. It addresses the movement from litigation and nonviolent action to a more radical approach, and later from black power to black politics and the Black Lives Matter movement. The course also covers the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a multifaceted cultural movement which arose from the Civil Rights struggle and the Black Power movement. It included all the arts – music, literature, theater, dance, the visual arts – and relied on regional cultural infrastructure built after the major riots which erupted during the first half of the 1960s. It was embodied by African American artists and intellectuals, and deeply influenced American culture, in particular the relationship between popular culture and “high” culture, as well as other minority arts in the same period. The course looks at its history, its different forms, its sources and its heritage.

In a process of progressive construction of the knowledge, fields, sources and methods of the history of contemporary worlds, the introduction to the history of the 20th century constitutes an essential second stage. While the history of the 20th century is traditionally approached from the top, i.e. national and international institutions, democratic and totalitarian political regimes, and economic and social theories, and while it is primarily marked by the two world wars and the tensions of international economic crises, it must also be approached from the bottom, at the level of societies and individuals. The course studies the common experiences, cooperation, and exchanges that have developed in different areas over a long twentieth century.

This course encourages students to critically engage with key concepts and historiographical issues in the social and cultural history of the transitions from war to peace in the post-1918 and post-1945 period. It considers the complexity of French, British, German experiences of the transition from war to peace and the differences between the aftermaths of the First and Second World Wars. Students assess primary sources, particularly ego-documents such as letters and diaries, and interweave primary and secondary sources in arguments and discussions.