History

The modern history of Iran has been tumultuous, full of revolts, revolutions and reversals. Key political developments in the nineteenth century included the impact of European political philosophies and Western educational systems, the Tobacco Revolt (1891), the Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) and its aftermath, the rise of feminist movements and its effects in the revolutionary uprising in 2022. Pivotal events in the twentieth century included the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and the modernization project, the nationalization of oil production, the CIA-staged coup that removed the democratically-chosen Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq (1882-1967), the White Revolution and urbanization, the repression of intellectuals and the 1979 Revolution, the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), and the consolidation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These events have been followed in recent decades by reforms and most recently, the revolutionary uprising with the powerful slogan “Women, Life, and Freedom” (zan, zendegi, azadi). The year 1979 marked the start of several weighty political developments in the Middle East, which have considerably changed the region and international relations. The rivalry between Iran and Saudi-Arabia, the Shiite-Sunnite divide, the role of Iran in Afghanistan, the ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and Hizballah in Lebanon are among topics which are going to be treated in this course. The course surveys this period from the perspectives of Iranians, seeing how they view their own history and use religious tenets, poetry, art and material culture to contribute to the modernization of their country. The course address how they positioned Iran in the regional and international political settings? While secondary sources are used to examine Iran’s modern history, key primary sources are introduced in translation, to show how Iranians look at their own history in relation to their neighbors and Western powers.

This course examines five novels by Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. Each novel will provide a starting point from which we will explore the representation of broad themes of historical and literary significance relating to late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain. We will examine the ways in which knowledge of the period in which Austen wrote enriches our understanding of her fiction and how the novels in turn participate in certain crucial debates and developments of the period. Topics to be covered will include the representation within the novels of the following: the Navy, marriage and adultery, fashion and consumption, slavery and empire, the landed estate, Bath, the concept of 'improvement', the female reading public and its institutions, leisure, the Gothic, ideas of the family and domesticity, music, the theatre, female friendship, philanthropy and science. We will also critically examine the significance of the Austen 'craze' with reference to film and television versions of the novels as well as Austen's presence on the internet.

The course studies two very important changes on the political map of Eastern Europe focusing on the period from the fall of Communism in 1989 to 2007 (the independence of Kosovo): the break-ups of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. It explores the reasons behind the brutal Yugoslav wars and the "velvet divorce" of Czechoslovakia, and offers an insight into films, art happenings, images, and texts created during the period in question. Contextualized within these two very different and yet comparable cases of political demise, these cultural products are examined as complex responses to the events, but also as strategies (aesthetic, political and psychological) to deal with the crisis and the imminent transformations. The course explores these cultural outputs as effective tools in voicing and shaping emerging identities and mapping out the real and symbolic geographies of the region.

This course provides students with an overview of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as it affected societies in West Africa and the New World, from the 16th century to the early 19th century. The course is taught thematically, so that major themes are interrelated in both social and political history on both sides of the Atlantic. In Africa we look especially at Angola, Dahomey, the Gold Coast, Kongo and Senegambia while in the New World there is a focus on Barbados, Brazil, Haiti, and Jamaica. Finally, the course will also consider the impact of this history in Europe through discussions of the rise of consumer societies and the relationship between this and the Abolition movement. By the end of the course, students will have enhanced their critical understanding of this major historical event and will have developed detailed knowledge of specific case studies which sharpen this knowledge.

This course offers a chronological overview—from the Enlightenment to the Dreyfus Affair, from May 1968 to contemporary “culture wars”—and addresses the dynamics of the French intellectual, scientific, and artistic fields, the relationships between religion and science, between science and ideologies, sociology and the commitments of intellectuals and artists, the metabolism of intellectual debates—from publishers to the media and social networks. It covers various areas of intellectual history (history of intellectuals, political ideas—liberalism, Marxism, etc., theoretical bodies of work—positivism, structuralism, post-structuralism, etc., and artistic productions), in light of new approaches in the humanities and social sciences (social history of ideas, sociology of intellectuals, Science Studies, gender, transnational history). Precise knowledge of the French political and intellectual context are required.

This course examines the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people draw on a range of personal, social and cultural resources to compensate for adversities brought about by colonization. It explores agency, successes and joys as well as the ways that people live with the challenges and traumas of history. 

The course offers a rigorous, varied, and exciting introduction to the scholarly field of book history, engaging the University of Oxford’s world-famous manuscript and archival collections. Students will take part in hands-on bookcraft workshops and learn from academics undertaking cutting-edge book-historical research. Each week of the program focuses on a particular period of book history, starting with a focus on the medieval period (500-1500), proceeding to the early modern period (1500-1800), and concluding with the modern and contemporary period (1800-present day), while also reflecting on conceptual, textual, and material connections between them.

The course focuses on developments in the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages, in relation to other parts of Europe. After a general introduction, the course focuses on a number of case studies related to medieval court and town culture from the viewpoint of various disciplines. Among the topics covered are defining a medieval town, musical institutions, the role of literature, and the changing function and styles of art and architecture in this period. The classes taught by faculty from different disciplines: art history, history, Dutch language and literature, and music.

This course focuses on discussing the changes in the "daily life experiences" of ordinary people within the People's Republic of China and the corresponding historical development and writing strategies. The focus is on re-examining the historical development of the People's Republic of China from the perspective of "ordinary people".

This course introduces some of the main aspects of Britain from the First World War to the present day. The lecture begins from the eve of the war to post-Brexit Britain, and highlights the main social and political developments during this period. Some of the questions addressed include: What were the main changes which took place? In particular what were the effects of the two World Wars on Britain, and of Britain's membership of the EC/EU between 1973 and 2020? How did British society evolve during this period? In what ways has the UK become an increasingly divided country? What, particularly, were the main changes in the composition of the British population and the way the British state was governed? What has been the impact of the different nationalist movements across the UK and of devolution? The tutorial section studies contemporary documents and, by analyzing and interpreting these, attempts to better understand how modern Britain functions, how it sees itself, and how others see it.