History

This course provides an overview of general and specific concepts concerning popular perceptions of Viking Age and medieval Nordic history and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. By reviewing of a wide variety of primary sources, medieval and modern - including sagas, chronicles, myths, folklore, video games, TV, and film - the course provides students with a basic knowledge of both practical aspects and mental attitudes related to the spread of Nordic cultural ideals to a worldwide audience: in particular, the medieval origins of ideas of Nordic culture and how they were transplanted into mainstream popular entertainment. Students explore misconceptions and stereotypes about Viking Age lifestyle and culture, including daily life, food, identity, Romanticism, Nationalism, and ethnic and spatial borders, with particular focus on medieval Iceland and Scandinavia.

This course is an introductory study of contemporary Sino-Japanese relations, covering the historical period from 1972 to the present day. It examines the prominent issue in the bilateral relations and explores several major factors that shape the change and continuity of the relationship from the perspective of international relations theory (IRT) in the discipline of political science. It aims at training students to understand Sino-Japanese relations with both basic historical knowledge and analytical capability.

This course mainly teaches the history of China's struggle for national independence, people's liberation and the realization of national prosperity and happiness since modern times. It helps students to understand the history of the Party, national history and national conditions, and deeply understand the history and the inevitability of the people's choice of Marxism, the Communist Party of China, the socialist road and the reform and opening up.

This course explores the major themes of Black British history between 1948 and 1990, such as protest, anti-racism, and migration as well as the everyday life of Black communities and neighborhoods from around the UK. Built into the course are three trips to archives based in the North West and Midlands, where students delve into the history of Black communities through the words and perspectives of historical actors. Through recovering, exploring, and being led by the Black voices of the neighborhoods that we encounter, the class build up histories of these communities according to the views of the people who lived in them. In this way, students acquire a rich and multi-faceted understanding of the fabric of Black British history.

This course offers a whirlwind survey of European history from the French Revolution to the present - it considers the political, economic, social, and cultural transformation of the continent during this 250-year period of dramatic change. At the beginning of the course, most Europeans were illiterate, impoverished farm laborers; by the end of the course, most had become well-educated, prosperous democratic citizens. The overarching theme for the course is the “revolutions ”－political, economic, and intellectual and their attendant ideologies. This includes the various “isms” that shaped Europe in this period: liberalism, nationalism, imperialism, communism, fascism, and feminism. Furthermore, the course addresses tensions between liberalism vs. Illiberalism; universality vs. particularity, and modernity vs. tradition. The course concludes with a reflection on the challenges that Europe faces today and in the future.

This course addresses various issues that constitute citizenship and non-citizenship in the process of transmigration, settlement, and creation of communities (or nation), as well as identity formation, cultural hybridization, and cultural/knowledge productions ‒ all of which are informed by race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, language, and others.

The course aims to:

1) Familiarize students with some fundamental concepts of reconciliation, peace, and coexistence in a range of historical contexts;
2) Analyze and interpret historical theories and case studies in the local and global context of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea(s), and Taiwan) to ensure a transnational perspective;
3) Help students develop an in-depth understanding of national, regional, and global dimensions in the makings of modern East Asia and interactions by illuminating human agency, nongovernmental organizations, and local dynamics in East Asia to think critically about historical narratives;
4)  Explain the concepts as nationalism, citizenship, identity and belonging;

5) Explain historical and contemporary issues faced by various displaced people categorized as “immigrants,” “refugees,” and “adoptees” in their process of transmigration, settlement, and creation of diasporic communities;
6) Analyze various data sources including policies, legislations, historical facts, popular cultural production, and personal narratives; and
7) Use intersectionality as a lens of analysis to discuss issues pertaining to identity formation.

Recent years have seen a debate about the waning of war, though for millions of people around the world, wars and violence are part of their everyday lives - with implications far beyond the war-torn states’ borders. This course introduces students to major trends in warfare (types of wars, the actors engaged in wars, targets in wars, funding of warfare, technology of warfare), theories explaining these trends, the relationship between warfare and state-building, and ethical questions concerning how wars are fought. The course first looks at major concepts and theories, and then moves on to examine contemporary debates and issue areas such as international law, international institutions such as the UN Security Council and NATO, civil wars and peacekeeping, climate-conflict nexus, weapons of mass destruction, cyber warfare, new technology, future weapons, and killer robots.  

Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles" had long been the heartpiece of imperial aspirations. One of the last Spanish colonies after the revolutions in South and Central America, it played a defining role in Spanish imperial identity. Meanwhile in the US, intellectuals had argued all throughout the 19th century that the island was a natural extension to the Nation, and should be conquered as a logical conclusion to the Monroe Doctrine. When after the war of 1898 the island came into American hands, Spain fell into a deep crisis of identity. The United States though took its first steps into the arena of colonial world politics, in turn becoming an empire. All the while, the Cuban’s desire for independence became a mere footnote in the aftermath. The colonial and imperial struggles had another dimension to them: Gender. A common propaganda theme in the US depicted the Spaniards as raping Cuba. While Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" came to define the ideal American masculinity after the war, Spaniards questioned if they were still manly enough to belong to the club of civilized European nations. This seminar will follow three objectives: First, understanding the importance of Cuba to Spain and the United States before the war of 1898, as well as the events leading up to the war. Second, comparing the ascent of the American Empire with the decline of the Spanish Empire. Third, introducing the analytical category of gender as a tool to understanding geopolitical conflicts in the age of colonialism.

Since the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, no era has witnessed so much environmental change as the past five hundred years, merely a moment in the history of our planet. Industrialization, capitalism, and the insatiable need for more and more "things" has unleashed uncontrollable destructive forces. This course focuses on a number of key developments to consider two related questions. First, how have humans altered the Earth's systems - climate, atmosphere, ecosystems, oceans, and landscape? Second, what are the implications of these changes for human society and the relationship between humans and the other species that inhabit this planet? The coverage begins in the late 15th century with the Columbian Exchange of diseases, crops, ideas, animals, and people between the Old World and the New World in 1492. It then investigates a number of critical issues relating to land use and the production of food, the exploitative relationships between humans and other species and the impact of industrial capitalism, urbanization and the use of fossil fuels as the main source of energy. The final section of the course focuses on the post-1945 world, exploring consumer capitalism, the development of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and concludes with an assessment of the current climate crisis.

This course covers the role of revolutions in shaping history. From the Cold War, to the “new world order” following the end of the Cold War, to the present day, the course considers how and why revolutions happen, what constitutes a revolution, and how revolutions achieve (or fail to achieve) social and political reform.