History

This survey course focuses on the political dynamics of populism in contemporary European countries. The course begins by examining how social science researchers define and conceptualize populism, with a focus on identifying its boundaries - what is and is not considered populist.  Despite the widespread use of the term populism, disagreements over its definition and usage, as well as a general lack of clarity surrounding its meaning, hinder our understanding of populist politics and their causes and consequences. The course assesses competing academic definitions, explores subtypes of populism, and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of existing categorizations. The course addresses a number of key political dynamics and how they relate to populism, including attitudinal change, organizational formation, voting patterns, electoral performance, and protest and riot behavior.  We explore theorized causes such as economic downturns, political competition, migration, inter-cultural group tensions, global trends, and international relations.  In addition to examining its causes, the course studies the effects of populism, including its impact on democratic institutions, inter-group relations, and international relations. 

This survey course covers the ever-changing historical characteristics of Western civilization by examining various cities from ancient Athens to modern New York. Students critically analyze the urban spaces we live in from a historical perspective. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that civilizations were born in cities. The history of cities vividly portrays how broad historical transformations were experienced in the daily lives of ordinary people. Closely paralleling social, economic, cultural, and political changes in Western civilization, cities have taken a wide variety of forms, emerging and disappearing over time. By looking at the historical dynamics involved in the development and decline of the major cities of each era, we can discern the driving forces of civilization and history.  

The aim of this course is to introduce students to modern British history, focusing on the continuously improvisational nature of the UK state, the interconnectedness of the UK and the British Empire, and its rise and decline through war. A secondary objective is to introduce students to major historiographical debates about modern British history.

Over the course of the 19th century, North Americans in the United States and its territories experienced overwhelming social, political, technological, and economic change. At the same time, they faced significant health challenges from epidemic disease to unfamiliar environmental ills, to feuding physicians. This course addresses such changes in context and introduces students to the debates surrounding the American public's health.

From his emergence on the international stage with the Italian and Egyptian campaigns of the late 1790s to his death in 1821 and beyond, Napoleon Bonaparte’s career, first as all-conquering general, then as Emperor and finally as exile inspired an unprecedented explosion of visual imagery throughout Europe. From epic canvases of the enlightened hero on horseback and caustic caricatures of a demented ‘little Boney’ to physical mementos of the Emperor and booty plundered during the wars he waged, these images and objects offer important insights into how contemporaries understood and expressed their experience of revolution and regime change, of conquest and colonisation, of victory and defeat. Surveying the history of the Napoleonic period and its aftermath through its visual and material culture, this course draws upon local and international research collections to explore the interaction between image-making and empire-building in the early 19th century and to interrogate the relationship between art and politics in the making of modernity. In so doing, it also asks how historians can bring visual culture to bear upon their study of the past.

This introductory course provides a survey of Western history from the ancient period through the nineteenth century. It is designed for students who wish to pursue more specialized topics in Western history in the future and/or who plan to major in history.  Students are introduced to key historical figures and events, while the course also emphasizes how perceptions and expectations of both individuals and collectives (such as nation and religion) have evolved over time.  

Lectures proceed chronologically and are complemented by in-class activities that center on a variety of primary sources. Through these materials, the course uncovers the historical complexity of important concepts that are often simplified or taken for granted, such as liberty, equality, progress, and truth.  Ultimately, the course invites students to consider how they, as historical actors, wish to engage with knowledge and the world around them. 

This course looks at historical approaches to political trials in the twentieth century with a focus on the Scottsboro Trial, a major civil rights case in the Depression-era United States. Which historical sources can we use to understand the history of political trials, justice, and law? What makes a trial 'political'? The course examines a diverse range of sources including the contemporary press, poetry, theater, legal documents, speeches, and literature from the period, as well as the memory of the case through the Cold War and beyond. The course places the case in an international perspective and uses it to examine the controversial and contested intersection between contemporary law, race, and politics.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students are aware of the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the European colonization of America and of its relationship with the early modern globalization. Students will be able to recognize the active role played by indigenous groups and individuals in the shaping of the emerging global world. At the end of the course, the student is able to contextualize the European conquest of America within a global historical and cultural framework, as well as to independently engage in the critical analysis of historical sources and early modern ethnographic records. The students are also able to deploy such analytical skills to professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical and anthropological knowledge. This course examines the cultural processes that unfolded during the European colonization of the Americas and their role in fostering Early Modern globalization. A special attention is devoted to the Mesoamerican cultural area.

Week 1 introduces the course and provides an overview of the European colonization of the Americas. Week 2 examines the impact of the conquest on early modern globalization, focusing on phenomena such as the Columbian Exchange, the international trade of American resources and the transatlantic slave trade. It also introduces Mesoamerica as a cultural area and, more specifically, the Late Postclassic Nahua world. Week 3 describes the Conquest of Mesoamerica and the political and economic structures of New Spain. One session this week is dedicated to a collective discussion of selected articles and book chapters provided by the instructor. Week 4 addresses the so‑called "spiritual conquest", the emergence of mestizaje across social and cultural domains, and the epistemological dimensions of colonialism, which at the same time extracts and downplays local indigenous knowledge. Week 5 considers the role of missionary‑ethnographers like Bernardino de Sahagún, the colonial origins of anthropological practices, and early modern conceptions of human difference as a formative stage in the development of racism and coloniality. 

This course examines Thailand through the perspective of its military experience from past to present. It introduces students to various aspects of Thailand within the realm of conflict from its military history to its strategic culture. As such, the course adopts a multidisciplinary approach, encouraging students to look at Thailand from a range of disciplines whether it is history, politics, or international relations. Though it may be helpful, no prior knowledge or experience will be assumed. Students are expected to develop the ability to manage and analyze potentially complex and challenging issues through the use of evidence and theories, and be able to communicate them in both oral and literary manner.

This course provides an overview of some of the major developments in American culture since 1840. It introduces the basic methods of cultural history and teaches them how to place cultural developments within broader economic, political, and social contexts. Some of the themes discussed in the module include: the way culture has shaped racial, gender, and class conflicts and identities; the role of popular music in American life; the growth of advertising and consumer culture; the role of culture in debates over immigration and multiculturalism; and how the conquest of the American West was registered in American culture.