History

This course explores banquet culture in the Mediterranean, investigating the traditions of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. Our journey will take us to museums and archaeological sites in and around Rome, as well as Tuscany, Lazio, and Campania. In particular, we study the material remains from the Etruscan town of Tarquinia, the Villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga, the Greek city of Paestum, and the luxury villas of the Bay of Naples. As we explore these ancient aristocratic villas, we also explore the pastimes of the elite related to banquets, such as raising fish, birds, and flora, by studying their gardens, fisheries, and wine and olive presses, as well as the entertainment accompanying these feasts. Key ancient texts, such as the ancient Roman cookbook by Apicius, invite us into the Roman kitchen with original recipes and menus. Through the investigation of the ritual of feasting, this course assesses how the Roman banquet has shaped our ideas of culture, leisure, and status today.

The Napoleonic Empire was crucial in the formation of modern Europe. Much of Europe was covered by the Napoleonic Empire and its impact was felt across large parts of the non-European world. The influence of the emperor and his policies was most obvious in relation to the European international system, particularly through his military campaigns and his territorial reorganization of Europe in the wake of his successes. However, the Napoleonic era also saw major developments in the legal, constitutional, social, and economic order of many states, whether allied or opposed to the Napoleonic project. Likewise, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, much attention is paid to the impact of the Napoleonic era on the relationship between Church and State and the rise of national consciousness, whether in political or cultural terms. By studying how Napoleon's empire was created, challenged, and ultimately defeated, the course focuses on the nature of power and legitimacy in this era. An attempt is made to place the Napoleonic empire in a broader context, in part by comparing it to other contemporary, rival states, including Russia, Austria, and the United Kingdom. Finally, the course begins and ends with an assessment of the Napoleonic myth, both in terms of his contemporaries and for subsequent generations of historians.

The course consists of an integrated historical and a philosophical part. In the historical part, the period ca. 1900 until the present and concentrate on the development of biology as a separate scientific discipline, characterized by research programs that took shape over time is covered. In this section the following topics are reviewed Kant’s Critic of Judgment and the emergence of the teleological understanding of living beings; The Cuvier-Geoffroy debate and its influence in the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution; Darwin's theory of evolution; The rise of experimentalism in the nineteenth-century biology; The eclipse of Darwinism and discussion of neo-Lamarckism in early twentieth century; The emergence of the synthetic theory of evolution; The foundations of genetics and molecular biology; and The postgenomic turn in 21th century. The historical part ties in with several of the themes covered in the philosophical part. Some of the philosophical debates discussed in the class are Philosophy of biology and its relation to biology; The central concepts of Darwin’s theory of evolution; Adaptationist debate; Species, genes, race, classification, and taxonomies; Causality and explanation in biology; and Experimental biology and epistemic objects. The course includes lectures and tutorials. Participants are expected to have carefully read the required material and have completed the weekly assignment in advance of the meeting. The weekly assignment is a reading report or a critical question depending on the week. Entrance requirements included enrollment in a degree programme of the Faculty of Science.

This course examines cultural (textual and visual) productions about minority identities in Paris. The city has always attracted immigrants and refugees who, in turn, influence its cultural and political landscape. After a brief historical survey, the course focuses on the contemporary period with special emphasis on the legacy of World War II, colonialism, and postcolonial immigration. It explores tensions between marginalization and integration, French universalism and multiculturalism, and competing memories of traumatic histories. Through films, literature, art works, media, weekly site visits, and critical essays, students reflect on what it means to be “the other” in Paris. Through the class, students gain awareness of local and global perspectives, by enhancing their intercultural understanding of languages, cultures, and histories of local societies and the global issues to which these relate. Students also develop an aesthetic inquiry and creative expression by engaging with artistic or creative objects in different media and from different of cultural traditions. Finally, this class allows students to explore and engage with difference by thinking critically about cultural and social difference; students identify and understand power structures that determine hierarchies and inequalities that can relate to race, ethnicity, gender, nationhood, religion, or class.
 

This course examines the fate of the later Roman empire from the fall of Rome through the establishment of the barbarian kingdoms in the west and the rise of Constantinople in the East to the eve of the Arab conquests (AD400-700), interrogating models of decline, catastrophe, and transformation through the most recent archaeology. There is, however, much more to the study of the late antique world than the problem of how and why the Roman empire collapsed. The course explores key themes such as decline and fall, barbarians and ethnicity, urbanism, rural settlement, Christianization, the army and the economy and compare the different trajectories of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean in this period.

This course examines the rich and complex history of Catalonia, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Students explore the formation and evolution of Catalonia, beginning with its medieval origins and the development of a distinct Catalan identity. Key historical milestones, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, the rise of Catalan nationalism, and the impact of the Spanish Civil War, are analyzed to understand their enduring influence on contemporary Catalan society and politics. 

Additional topics include the relationship between Catalonia and the broader Spanish state, significant political movements and cultural developments, including the Renaixença (Catalan Renaissance), the establishment of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), and the recent push for independence. Through a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating history, political science, and cultural studies, students gain a comprehensive understanding of Catalonia's socio-political landscape. The course also addresses contemporary issues such as language policy, regional autonomy, and the economic challenges facing Catalonia within the European Union.

This course examines post-war French politics and society through the study of objects. It explores issues such as race, class, gender, and sexuality in the context of modernization and urbanization, colonization and globalization, social movements and revolt. The course assesses the rebuilding of France in the aftermath of collaboration and occupation, looking at the expansion of the French state, the emergence of new social groups and categories, and the way in which conflicts emerge over social, political, and cultural questions. It charts these processes by focusing on the study of objects, drawing on a range of perspectives developed by historians, sociologists, and critical theorists.

This course covers 1000-1500 in premodern Spain. Through a selection of poems, chronicles, and legal works, students examine the ideological and social development of the peninsula through the eyes of those who witnessed it. The aim of this approach is to better grasp the interplay between ideas and writing from multiple perspectives. The selected texts demonstrate the depiction and role of women, Muslims, Jews, conversos (recent Jewish converts to Christianity), nobles, knights, and kings during the time period, giving a better insight into the way written media shaped the views and ideals of those who lived then, as well as the current understanding of the era. Themes include heroes and villains; the description of women; marginalized groups (e.g., Muslims); and the power of entertainment as a moral, persuasive, and educational tool. Through these thematic axes, students understand the development of history and ideas, as well as the diversity of perspectives and people from the Middle Ages.

Few chapters in all of history are as dramatic—both tragic and spectacular--as modern Jewish history. The apparent success of Jewish emancipation was challenged by popular and religious non-Jewish opposition, and efforts among Jews to control or turn back such changes. No matter what, Judaism and Jews did not stand still. Antisemitism gained traction as reactionary utopia, along with the persistence of traditional prejudice and discrimination. Against this background there arose a variety of Jewish ideologies, including: Modern Orthodoxy, Reform Judaism, Zionism, Territorialism, Variants of socialism, "Ultra" orthodoxies, and National extremism. 

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Jewish life changed radically, and European Jewry came close to being totally wiped out in the Holocaust. Since the late eighteenth century, Jews had sought new ways to think about and live in the modern world. Numerous individuals of Jewish origin took the lead in attempting to understand the changes wrought by modernity—including: Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Bertha Pappenheimer, Emma Goldman, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, and Philip Roth. 

This course is about India from the 15th to the mid-18th centuries. This was a period of sometimes slow or subtle, occasionally cataclysmic, but often palpable transformation, and students examine the ways in which what people believed, where and how they lived, their relationship to the state and its power, and how they expressed themselves was changing. Although the course focuses first and foremost on India, by placing its history in its global context throughout this course, the class scrutinizes the emerging notion of a "global early modernity."