History

This course has been specifically designed for students in the Department of Korean Language and Literature AND the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP). It surveys modern Korean history through close readings of selected major literary works. Rather than offering a mere narrative of the peninsula’s history, it focuses on particular episodes, events, influences, and historical ruptures that have shaped how Korean writers have interpreted and understood their past. The course looks at the use of a form of writing (“the novel”) as a historical source. It examines the development of the long story form, the formalistic aspects of narrative, and its cultural impact. Major themes include the country’s opening to the West, its colonial experience and subsequent fratricidal war, and the divergent post-colonial paths of the two separate Koreas. Throughout, we address the tensions of Korean nationalism, authoritarianism, and industrialization in conjunction with the politics of gender and class. The latter half of the semester will focus primarily on the diaspora and migrant workers in South Korea.

This course offers a study of the history and politics of the United States. The course is divided into two parts. Part one discusses US history from the Revolutionary War to the beginning of the 21st century. Part two discusses contemporary US politics including: electoral behavior and party politics; US foreign policy since the Cold War; the evolution of the modern presidency; the influence of interest groups in contemporary US politics; race, ethnicity, and immigration; economic and social inequality; judicial politics and the Supreme Court.

This course examines natural history. It covers human history and past landscapes; Earth history; some soils; how plants work; material conserved in collections; the history of natural history collecting; herbaria, museums, arboretums, and national parks; indigenous knowledge; agricultural history; ocean systems; and dealing with natural history in a designed, built, and managed future.

This course examines the spread of capitalism across the world in the late 19th – early 20th century, and the variety of responses to this phenomenon. Topics to be covered include the golden age of globalization in the early years of the century, the gold standard, the economic crises of 1914-1945, the divisions of the Cold War world, and the rise of the Bretton Woods system, and, ultimately, the turn toward global integration at the end of the twentieth century. The students will trace the patterns of change in the international markets, investments, and global trade and try to highlight the changes brought about by social movements, political ideologies, and shifts in the economic balance of power.

This course aims to introduce students to the reading of both primary and secondary historical materials in Medieval Japanese history, thus deepening their knowledge of historical issues in this period. Topics of the classes and the related readings are different every year.

The course involves careful reading of various sources in English and Japanese (both primary and secondary sources, depending on the requests and ability of the participants), and discussions of their content in historical context. For each session students are expected to read the materials in advance and summarize the content of the text(s) in the form of a detailed handout (approx. 2-3 pages). All participants will be required to ask two questions or comment on the presentation of others.

This course explores the connection between popular culture and social, cultural, political, and economic developments in Western societies from 1945 to 1991. Topics include: adolescence, music, and subcultures-- from beatniks and mods to punks and rappers; from atomic fears to the glorification of violence-- horror and science fiction; gender, sexual diversity, race, and pop culture-- discourses and counter-discourses; fear and social control-- from the witch hunt to the moral panic.

As a neighbor, China is geographically close but politically distant. At a glance, Chinese society seems similar to Japanese society; however, China has a large territory and various ethnic groups and thus cannot be understood easily as a “nation of the same race and same script.”

This course offers lectures on the Historical Change of Chinese society in the 17-19th centuries, in South China (Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi provinces and Taiwan). It focuses on migration, ethnic minorities, unification of society, and secret sects.  The course explores the following three problems: the migration that kept the population explosion in China; the relationships and conflicts between ethnic minorities and Han Chinese as the result of exploitation in the frontier area, and the unification of society that resulted as a process of migrant settlement.

This course examines historical, political, social, cultural, literary and artistic development in Spain from 1931-2000. For the critical periods that includes the Second Republic, Spanish Civil War, Francoism, and final transition to democracy, the course focuses on such themes as ideology of National Catholicism; the roles of women and children; and censorship while examining films, texts, graphics, and pro- and anti-Franco songs. Trips to local cultural monuments (Picasso's GUERNICA, ''Valley of the Fallen,'' Franco's tomb, etc.) are incorporated into the course. Special attention is given to Madrid and the Movida Madrileña--the explosion of art, counter-culture, and creativity that ended the repression. NOTE: Course is the same as HIST104 E, but taught in Spanish.

This course examines representations of the Australia's sporting past through the lenses of memorials, museums, film and the internet. As part of this approach, there is a focus on Australian sporting icons including Les Darcy, Dawn Fraser, Eddie Gilbert, Peter Norman and Michael O'Loughlin as well as the Australian Sport Museum (Melbourne), the Ration Shed Museum (Cherbourg) and the Australian Paralympic Movement.

This course examines the historical realities of the Treaty, enabling an understanding of the modern colonial nation state and its processes with respect to Indigenous peoples. It covers Maori responses, engagement with, and resistance to the colonial project leading to a critical understanding of colonialism.