History

This course introduces the current and past issues at stake in the political, legal, and cultural relations between religions and states. A subject of recurrent debate and controversy in France, laïcité (or rather, secularism) is rarely treated critically, dispassionately and from an international perspective. Such is the focus of this seminar. Depending on the areas covered, the course discusses more generally about “laïcité” (in the case of France) or “secularism” (in the case of Anglo-Saxon countries). The course is interdisciplinary, drawing on historical, political, legal, and sociological approaches. It also focuses on comparative approaches in Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. 

This seminar discusses the concept of genocide and the meaning of violence. As a first step, students read theoretical texts about genocide, mass violence, different forms of war and the Holocaust. Second, students study several examples of genocides in the modern and premodern periods. They analyze the specific nature of each and compare them to find out what unites and separates them. Students read theoretical texts about the concept of genocide and study the history of mass violence, war, and the Holocaust. Applying a global perspective, the course compares different forms of genocide and gets to the bottom of the question what unites and separates them.

In a process of progressive construction of knowledge, fields, sources, and methods of the history of contemporary worlds, initiation to the history of the 19th century constitutes an essential first step. From the end of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, this course demonstrates how the 19th century was primarily the century of the construction of nation-states. The affirmation of the principle of nationalities and the right of peoples to self-determination was achieved through multiple crises, revolutions, and military conflicts and new continental balances emerge. The 19th century is also that of the dynamics and tensions of industrial revolutions, in a new wave of globalization marked by an apogee of imperialism. The program of this EU, in its chronological, spatial and thematic definition, is specified each year within this general framework.

This course takes a sociological approach to study events that get termed, in a contested manner, as revolutions; it focuses on cases from the contemporary Middle East and North Africa region. The first two sessions of the course provide the sociological tools to study social movements. The rest of the course is divided into three parts: first, the socio-political factors that lead to a revolution; second, living in the revolution; and, third, the afterlives of the revolution. Overall, the course ask questions like: What socio-political context pushes people to protest? When do protests get termed a "revolution"? What are the differences in the experiences of the revolution along gender, socio-economic class, migrant-citizen, and racial lines? What type of afterlives do the revolutions take in terms of the discourses about them as well as the socio-political trajectories of the states experiencing them? A basic knowledge on the politics and societies in the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as knowledge of Arabic and French languages, is helpful but not required.

This course covers the major themes of European cultural history since the end of the 18th century. It studies institutions (schools, universities), vectors (books, press), actors, and audiences. This study is also part of the political history of the continent, through the commitment and birth of the “intellectual”, as well as the debates and polemics of the time.

This course focuses on the transatlantic Cold War and thus on developments in and interactions between the US, the USSR and Europe from the angles of primarily diplomatic, as well as cultural and technological history.  After completing this course students are able to: summarize the main developments in international politics in the post-World War II world, as well as some of the main themes in international relations theory; plan their own research, i.e. find relevant literature, and work out a thesis on their particular topic; and present the results of their research, both orally and in writing.  Prerequisites include one of the following courses: Ancient Literature and History, Ancient History, Medieval History, Early Modern History, Modern History, or Introduction to Political Theory. Knowledge of modern history (especially post-World War II history) is required for this course. If students have not taken a prerequisite course, they must request permission from the instructor to enroll.

This course offers a broad introduction and critical review of recent trends in the field of digital humanities, with particular attention paid to applications relevant for the study of premodern societies (history, archaeology, anthropology, theology, museum studies). The course is divided into four broad themes – text, image, place, and object – highlighting an extensive interdisciplinary range of evidence that both sits within students' fields of study and encourages them to create connections with parallel avenues of scholarship. Following these themes, the course introduces cutting edge tools, successful research projects, and recent scholarship that have leveraged digital advances to fundamentally reshape our understanding of the past. Simultaneously, it engages with more complex topics concerning the ethical and methodological implications of the “Digital Turn” in humanistic studies and its implication for more traditional modes of enquiry. As a whole, this course prepares students to both more substantively engage with digital methodologies and their potential for novel research in religious studies, broadly defined. The course provides hands-on experience developing fundamental skills in digital humanistic scholarship, developing a “Digital Toolbox” that allows students to both undertake digital scholarship in their own studies and to critically engage with ongoing trends and projects relevant to their own research. These tools include, but are not limited to, introductions to GIS, database development, 3D modeling, text encoding, large language models, network modeling, and semantic modeling. Special attention is paid to ongoing research at the University of Copenhagen, highlighting the fundamental skills and research objectives of the diverse research programs taking place throughout the university. The Faculty of Theology, in particular, hosts several compelling case studies for the development and implementation of digital humanities and offers a behind-the-scenes look at these methods in action.

This course addresses Jewish migration as a part of Germany's past and present, explores integration issues from the perspective of Jewish immigrants and the non-Jewish majority, and makes relevant comparisons with the current population of refugees in Germany. Topics include the trend of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe to Germany as early as the late 19th century and with the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, how Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union fundamentally changed Jewish life in Germany. Students also examine the increase in migration from Israel.

This course is a survey of the history of the Americas from the late 19th-early 21st centuries. While we will focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, we will also learn about U.S.-Latin American relations. Through weekly lectures and exploration of primary documents and bibliography, we will discuss four main themes: state formation; constructing national identity through popular culture; economics and commodities; and the intersection of race, class, and gender.