HIST Courses for Spring 2024
Please click on the course title for more information.
|
HIST 116Y 01 - First-Year Seminar: Vladimir Putin: Personage, President, Potentate
Course: |
HIST 116Y - 01 |
Title: |
First-Year Seminar: Vladimir Putin: Personage, President, Potentate |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
As President Vladimir Putin continues to threaten the annihilation of Ukraine’s statehood and the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe’s first territorial war since World War II, now is the time to plunge into a study of that authoritarian leader of the world’s largest country, and of Russia now and in the recent past. What are the causes of the catastrophic Russo-Ukrainian War? How did Putin accumulate so much power? What have been his goals, values and operating principles? A product of Leningrad’s “mean streets,” the young Putin sought glory in the KGB, and after the demise of the Soviet Union—a collapse he rues to this day—moved into the heights of power. We will explore Vladimir Putin’s life path, political maneuvers and policies, ideas about Russia’s identity and place in the world. We will also study Russian society, and state-society relations. Assignments will include biographical and autobiographical writings, speeches, videos and a plethora of images of this enigmatic, potent, and murderous leader. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. Open to First-Years only. |
Notes: |
Mandatory Credit/Non Credit |
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Nina Tumarkin |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 305 Seminar Room - W 1:30 PM - 4:10 PM |
|
HIST 204 01 - The United States History since 1865
Course: |
HIST 204 - 01 |
Title: |
The United States History since 1865 |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
The United States' past is one of making and remaking the nation—as a government, a place, and a concept. This course surveys that dynamic process from the Reconstruction period through 9/11. Examining the people, practices, and politics behind U.S. nation building, we will consider questions of how different groups have defined and adopted "American" identities, and how definitions of the nation and citizenship shifted in relation to domestic and global happenings. This will include considering how ideas of gender, race, ethnicity, and citizenship intersected within projects of nation building. We will cover topics that include domestic race relations, U.S. imperialism, mass consumption, globalization, and terrorism, and developments such as legalized segregation, the Depression, World Wars I and II, and modern social progressive and conservative movements. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Brenna Greer |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 102 Classroom - TF 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
|
HIST 205 01 - The Making of the Modern World Order
Course: |
HIST 205 - 01 |
Title: |
The Making of the Modern World Order |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This foundational course in international history explores the evolution of trade, competition, and cultural interaction among the world's diverse communities, from the Mongol conquests of the late thirteenth century through the end of the twentieth century. Themes include: the centrality of Asia to the earliest global networks of trade and interaction; the rise of European wealth and power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; empires; imperialism and its impact; the evolution of the nation-state; scientific and industrial revolutions; and "modernization" and the new patterns of globalization during the late twentieth century. Attention to agents of global integration, including trade, technology, migration, dissemination of ideas, conquest, war, and disease. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Pat Giersch |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 207 Classroom - MR 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM |
|
HIST 214 01 - Medieval Italy
Course: |
HIST 214 - 01 |
Title: |
Medieval Italy |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course provides an overview of Italian history from the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the fifth century through the rise of urban communes in the thirteenth century. Topics of discussion include the birth and development of the Catholic Church and the volatile relationship between popes and emperors, the history of monasticism and various other forms of popular piety as well as the role of heresy and dissent, the diverging histories of the north and the south and the emergence of a multicultural society in southern Italy, and the development and transformation of cities and commerce that made Italy one of the most economically advanced states in Europe in the later medieval period. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Valerie Ramseyer |
Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Art Center 372 Classroom - TF 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
|
HIST 221 01 - The Renaissance
Course: |
HIST 221 - 01 |
Title: |
The Renaissance |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This interdisciplinary survey of Europe between 1300 and 1600 focuses on aspects of politics, literature, philosophy, religion, economics, and the arts that have prompted scholars for the past seven hundred years to regard it as an age of cultural rebirth. These include the revival of classical learning; new fashions in painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and prose; the politics of the Italian city-states and Europe’s “new monarchies”; religious reform; literacy and printing; the emerging public theater; new modes of representing selfhood; and the contentious history of Renaissance as a concept. Authors include Petrarch, Vasari, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Castiglione, Rabelais, Montaigne, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare. Lectures and discussions will be enriched by guest speakers and visits to Wellesley’s art and rare book collections. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies
Language and Literature |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ENG 221 01 - The Renaissance
|
Instructors: |
Sarah Wall-Randell
Simon Grote |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 239 Amphitheater Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
|
HIST 244 01 - History of the American West: Manifest Destiny to Pacific Imperialism
Course: |
HIST 244 - 01 |
Title: |
History of the American West: Manifest Destiny to Pacific Imperialism |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
With its sweeping landscapes, grand myths, and oversized egos, the American West has loomed large within U.S. history. Since the nation's birth, Americans looked toward the horizon and imagined their destinies, a gaze, since copied by historians, novelists, and filmmakers. Nevertheless, the history of this vast region is much more fractured and complex. This course explores the West-as an idea and place-from the early nineteenth century through World War I. While we will engage the ways that Americans conjured and conquered the region, we will also look beyond their gaze toward the varied empires, peoples, and forces that created the West. Topics covered include: Northern New Spain and Mexico; American Indians and U.S. expansionism; transcontinental and trans-Pacific trade and (im)migration; race, gender, and identity. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Ryan Quintana |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 120 Lecture Hall - MR 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
|
HIST 246 01 - Vikings, Icons, Mongols, and Tsars
Course: |
HIST 246 - 01 |
Title: |
Vikings, Icons, Mongols, and Tsars |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
A multicultural journey through the turbulent waters of medieval and early modern Russia, from the Viking incursions of the ninth century and the entrance of the East Slavs into the splendid and mighty Byzantine world, to the Mongol overlordship of Russia, the rise of Moscow, and the legendary reign of Ivan the Terrible. We move eastward as the Muscovite state conquers the immense reaches of Siberia by the end of the turbulent seventeenth century, when the young and restless Tsar Peter the Great travels to Western Europe to change Russia forever. We will focus on khans, princes, tsars, nobles, peasants, and monks; social norms and gender roles; icons and church architecture; and a host of Russian saints and sinners. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Nina Tumarkin |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 102 Classroom - TF 2:10 PM - 3:25 PM |
|
HIST 251 01 - Roads to Power: The Transformation of Space in 19th Century North America
Course: |
HIST 251 - 01 |
Title: |
Roads to Power: The Transformation of Space in 19th Century North America |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
19th Century North American History revolves around the radical, and often violent transformation of space. It is, in other words, the story of infrastructures—roads, canals, and railroads--imagined and built; of borders, between and within nations, mapped and brutally maintained; of urban and rural spaces, conceived and constructed; and, of indigenous lands expropriated and altered into a species of property through violence and the law. This course examines that transformation of space, closely interrogating: the various means by which governments and individuals asserted differential claims to territory; the evolving technologies of property, cartography, construction, and transportation that were deployed to assert and maintain claims to space; and, the various ways that seemingly marginalized peoples participated in, and challenged these spatial claims. The course covers the era between the American Revolution and World War I. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Ryan Quintana |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 120 Lecture Hall - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM |
|
HIST 255 01 - Black Lives Matter in Print
Course: |
HIST 255 - 01 |
Title: |
Black Lives Matter in Print |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
"The history of black liberation movements in the United States could be characterized as a struggle over images,” claimed activist and scholar bell hooks. In this course, students study how, throughout U.S. history, Black people – and their allies – have produced images of Black people and Black experiences as part of their liberation and survival campaigns. Inherent to this exercise is the analysis of print materials in which these pictures circulated. Therefore, in addition to learning how to analyze pictures as both images and historical sources, students will draw on book studies practices, which treat books as objects, the physicality of which holds clues to the past. The “books” – or material objects – of this course include newspapers, slave narratives, pamphlets, magazines, photographs, and even iPhone videos. Whenever possible, we will do hands-on analysis, using materials in Wellesley’s special collections and from the instructor’s personal archive. Students will learn to read visuals and print objects for evidence of Black people’s circumstances and resources, and for how existing materials and technologies enabled and limited Black freedom demands. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Brenna Greer |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 102 Classroom - TF 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
|
HIST 262 01 - The Life and Political World of Alexander Hamilton
Course: |
HIST 262 - 01 |
Title: |
The Life and Political World of Alexander Hamilton |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
A tour of early American politics and political culture, through the life of Alexander Hamilton. Using Hamilton as our guide, we will study electoral politics, campaigning and electioneering, the politics of finance, social movements and rebellion, federalism, and the rise of the party system. Beginning in the Caribbean, where Hamilton was born, and visiting revolutionary New York and early national Philadelphia, among other places, we will consider how Hamilton’s generation defined an American politics. Special attention to the presidencies of Washington and Adams. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Kate Alysia Grandjean |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 225 Classroom - TF 12:45 PM - 2:00 PM |
|
HIST 265 01 - History of Modern Africa
Course: |
HIST 265 - 01 |
Title: |
History of Modern Africa |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Many of Africa's current characteristics are the legacy of colonial domination. We will therefore first study different kinds of colonies, from those settled by White settlers to the "Cinderellas" in which colonial economic intervention was (by comparison) minimal and the struggle for independence less bloody. For the post-independence period, we will focus on the historical roots of such major themes as neocolonialism, economic underdevelopment, ethnic conflict and genocide, HIV/AIDS, and the problems of the African state. However, Africa's enormous natural and human resources, its resilient and youthful population, and its vibrant popular culture-a strong antidote against Afro-pessimism-will help us reflect on the future of this vast continent. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Lidwien E. Kapteijns |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 307 Classroom - M 6:30 PM - 9:10 PM |
|
HIST 279 01 - Heresy and Popular Religion in the Middle Ages
Course: |
HIST 279 - 01 |
Title: |
Heresy and Popular Religion in the Middle Ages |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course looks at popular religious beliefs and practices in medieval Europe, including martyrdom and asceticism, saints and relics, shrines, miracles, and pilgrimage. It seeks to understand popular religion both on its own terms, as well as in relationship to the church hierarchy. It also examines the varied and changing roles of women in Christianity, Christian ideas regarding gender and asexuality, passionate same sex relations in monastic culture, and saints associated with LGBTQ communities. It ends by examining the growth of religious dissent in the 11th and 12th centuries, which led to religious repression and the emergence of what some historians refer to as a persecuting society in 13th-century Europe. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. Not open to students who have taken HIST 379. |
Notes: |
This course is also offered at the 300-level as HIST 379 with additional assignments. |
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Valerie Ramseyer |
Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Art Center 372 Classroom - TF 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
|
HIST 280 01 - Topics in Chinese Commerce and Business
Course: |
HIST 280 - 01 |
Title: |
Topics in Chinese Commerce and Business |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
China's stunning economic growth and the increasing visibility of transnational businesses run by entrepreneurs of Chinese descent have produced many efforts to explain the successes of “Chinese capitalism” and the “Chinese model.” Central to many arguments are debatable approaches to culture and history. Is there a uniquely Chinese way of doing business? Has mainland China developed a revolutionary new path of economic development? This course engages these debates through influential works on Chinese business and economic history, from the nineteenth century through the reform period (1978 to the present). Topics include corporate governance and the financing of firms; the role of kinship and networking (guanxi); changing political contexts of development; competition with foreign firms; the impact of globalization; and debates over China's remarkable economic rise. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Pat Giersch |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 207 Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
|
HIST 284 01 - The Middle East in Modern History
Course: |
HIST 284 - 01 |
Title: |
The Middle East in Modern History |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course provides a survey of Middle Eastern history from c.1900 to the present, with an emphasis on the Arab Middle East. It will focus on the historical developments of the period: the demise of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I; the Armenian genocide; the establishment of European "mandates" in most of the Arab world and the nationalist struggles for independence that ensued; the establishment of Israel and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948; the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990; the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the rise of Islamist political movements elsewhere; the regime of Saddam Hussein; the occupation of Kuwait and the Gulf War of 1990-1991; the failure of the Oslo peace process, Israeli settlements, and the increasing political power of HAMAS and Hizbullah; the war in Iraq; the challenge of a potentially nuclear Iran, and the impact of the war in Syria. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Lidwien E. Kapteijns |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 207 Classroom - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM |
|
HIST 320 01 - Seminar: The Hand that Feeds: A History of American Food
Course: |
HIST 320 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: The Hand that Feeds: A History of American Food |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This seminar investigates the place of food in American history and culture, from reputed cannibalism in the American colonies to the rise of fast food in the twentieth century. Through selected episodes and commodities, we will explore the role of taste, competition for food, and capitalism in recasting American lives and identities. Topics include: colonial hunger and violence; the development of taste and "refined" eating; the role of food in defining race, class, and regional culture; the rise of mass production and its environmental effects and the reshaping of American bodies. In following the evolution of American food ways, we will visit eighteenth-century coffeehouses, antebellum slave quarters, campfires of the American West, the slaughterhouses of the Chicago meat market, and, of course, McDonald's. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Normally open to juniors and seniors who have taken a 200-level unit in history and/or a 200-level unit in a relevant area/subject. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Kate Alysia Grandjean |
Meeting Time(s): |
Green Hall 136A Seminar Classroom - W 1:30 PM - 4:10 PM |
|
HIST 354 01 - Seminar: King-Killers in Early Modern Britain and France
Course: |
HIST 354 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: King-Killers in Early Modern Britain and France |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Popular fascination with kings and queens is alive and well, but European monarchs once enjoyed a mystical, superhuman prestige far beyond mere celebrity. Why did they lose it? To find an answer, this seminar investigates their enigmatic killers: perpetrators of cosmic cataclysm in the name of liberation from tyranny. After examining the medieval legal foundations and ceremonial glamor of sacred kingship, we will analyze the most sensational modern cases of king-killing: Charles I in the English Civil War and Louis XVI in the French Revolution. Our analyses will encompass political maneuverings by individuals; bitter conflicts of class, religion, and party; the subversive power of satirical literature; utopian yearnings for a more egalitarian society; and the philosophical battles that produced modern concepts of the state. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Normally open to juniors and seniors who have taken a 200-level unit in history and/or a 200-level unit in a relevant area/subject. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Instructors: |
Simon Grote |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 151 Seminar Room - W 12:30 PM - 3:10 PM |
|
HIST 379 01 - Heresy and Popular Religion in the Middle Ages
Course: |
HIST 379 - 01 |
Title: |
Heresy and Popular Religion in the Middle Ages |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course looks at popular religious beliefs and practices in medieval Europe, including martyrdom and asceticism, saints and relics, shrines, miracles, and pilgrimage. It seeks to understand popular religion both on its own terms, as well as in relationship to the church hierarchy. It also examines the varied and changing roles of women in Christianity, Christian ideas regarding gender and asexuality, passionate same sex relations in monastic culture, and saints associated with LGBTQ communities. It ends by examining the growth of religious dissent in the 11th and 12th centuries, which led to religious repression and the emergence of what some historians refer to as a persecuting society in 13th-century Europe. This course may be taken as HIST 279 or, with additional assignments, as HIST 379. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Normally open to Juniors or Seniors who have taken a 200-level unit in history and/or a 200-level unit in a relevant area/subject. Not open to students who have taken HIST 279. |
Notes: |
This course is also offered at the 200-level as HIST 279. |
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Valerie Ramseyer |
Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Art Center 372 Classroom - TF 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
|
HIST 383 01 - Seminar: 1947: Partition in History and Memory in South Asia
Course: |
HIST 383 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: 1947: Partition in History and Memory in South Asia |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
In the years leading to 1947, nationalist activism against the British and tensions between Hindus and Muslims escalated in the Indian subcontinent. This culminated in Partition and the emergence of the nations of India and Pakistan. Independence was marred, however, by the bloodshed accompanying the mass movements of Muslims into Pakistan and Hindus into India. What were the factors leading to this juxtaposition of triumphal Independence with shameful Partition? How have memories of Partition continued to affect powerfully politics and culture in the subcontinent? This seminar investigates such questions using a wide variety of materials, including novels, such as Bapsi Sidhwa's Cracking India; feature films, such as Deepa Mehta's 1947; and documentary films, such as Sabiha Sumar's Silent Waters. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Normally open to juniors and seniors who have taken a 200-level unit in history and/or a 200-level unit in a relevant area/subject. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies |
Instructors: |
Nikhil Rao |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 349 Seminar Room - W 2:30 PM - 5:10 PM |
|