History

This course is designed to introduce incoming exchange students to the history of Denmark from the Viking Age to the present day. The course introduces some of the main events and central themes in Danish history. The focus is on political history, but the course also includes important developments in economic, social, and cultural history. The course equips students to engage in discussions of questions such as: what is "Denmark" and what is "Danish" about Danish history? What are the boundaries of Denmark and how have these changed over time? How is Danish history periodized and what have been the key turning points? How should we understand the impact of events and developments such as the Black Death, the Reformation, absolutism, agriculture or the welfare state? The course also considers Danish history in its different transnational (Scandinavian, European, and global) contexts, with reference to themes such as trade, war, colonialism, European integration, and globalization.

This course provides a better understanding of France, its population, their characteristics, and the country’s political life. The curriculum focuses on current French society and its evolution in relation to the weight of history, its territorial dynamics, and cultural and political ideals.

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.