The American past is crowded with ghosts. In this seminar, we will trace the evolution of supernatural belief in America and analyze some of its most famous ghost stories. What about the nation’s history makes it such fertile terrain for ghosts? What happens when the dead refuse to stay in the past, relegated to history? Why, in short, is the American historical imagination so haunted? We’ll dig deeply into selected hauntings, drawn from across historical North America, and encounter the spirits of French Detroit, the Gettysburg battlefield, and colonial Jamaica, among others.

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.

This course examines Mediterranean history from the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries through the Latin Crusades of the Holy Land in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with a focus on the religious, political, and cultural diversity of the medieval Mediterranean and the relationship between Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities. Topics of discussion include warfare and empire, the emergence and development of Christianity and Islam, asceticism and the relationship between religion and philosophy, Christian and Muslim concepts of holy war, conversion and the status of religious minorities, and the crusades from both a Christian and Muslim perspective.

Films such as Gladiator, The Passion of the Christ, and 300, documentaries such as The Last Stand of the 300, and Internet courses such as Alexander Online perhaps influence how the majority of people now understand antiquity. But are these visual media historically reliable representations of the past? Or do they rather primarily reflect changing artistic and societal concerns? How have the use of digital backlots, blue screens, and other technical innovations affected how the past is being represented and understood? In this course we will examine the representation of the ancient world in films, documentaries, and online media from the "Sword and Sandal" classics of the past such as Ben-Hur to the present, within the scholarly frameworks of ancient history and modern historiography.

Investigates the origins and aftermath of one of the most improbable events in American history: the American Revolution. What pushed colonists to rebel, rather suddenly, against Britain? And what social struggles followed in the war's wake? We will explore the experiences of ordinary Americans, including women and slaves; examine the material culture of Revolutionary America; trace the intellectual histories of the founders; and witness the creation of a national identity and constitution. Those who lived through the rebellion left behind plenty of material: letters; pamphlets; teapots; runaway slave advertisements; diaries. We will consider these and more. Visits to Boston historic sites will take you back in time and space to the besieged, volatile city that led the colonies into war.

A survey of China's economic, cultural, and political interactions with the United States from 1784 to present with a focus on developments since 1940. Principal themes include: post-imperial China's pursuit of wealth and power, changing international conditions, military strategy, the influence of domestic politics and ideology, and the basic misunderstandings and prejudices that have long plagued this critical relationship. Topics include: trade throughout the centuries; American treatment of Chinese immigrants; World War II and the Chinese Revolution; the Cold War; Taiwan; and the ongoing instability of relations since 1979. Sources include the ever-increasing number of declassified U.S. documents as well as critical materials translated from the Chinese.

Intertwined with the political history of the modern Middle East are the dramatic cultural and social changes that have shaped how many Middle Easterners live their lives and imagine their futures. This course explores the historical contexts of the changing constructions of femininity and masculinity in different Middle Eastern settings from World War I to the present. Such contexts include nationalist and Islamist movements; economic, ecological, and demographic change; changing conceptions of modernity and tradition, individual and family, and public and private space; and state violence and civil war. Primary sources will focus on the self-representations of Middle Eastern men and women as they engaged with what they considered the major issues of their times.

This seminar explores the many ways that victors and vanquished, victims and perpetrators, governments, political groups, and individuals have remembered, celebrated, commemorated, idealized, condemned, condoned, forgotten, ignored, and grappled with the vastly complex history and legacy of World War II in the eight decades since the war's end. Our primary focus is the war in Europe, including Poland and Russia, although we will also consider the United States and Japan. We will investigate the construction of individual and collective memories about World War II and the creation and subsequent transformation of set myths about the war experience. In addition to books and articles, sources will include memoirs, primary documents, and films. We will also study the impact of war memories on international relations and analyze the "monumental politics" of war memorials.

This course examines the history of interaction of Africans, Arabs, Persians, and South Asians in the coastal regions of East Africa, the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and India, which together enclose the western Indian Ocean. In the period under study (1500 to the present), European imperial expansion and a globalizing economy played an increasingly transformative role. We will read about the port cities connecting these shores; the movements and networks of people; the objects and patterns of trade; the intensifying slave trade; shared environmental and health hazards, and the exchange of legal and commercial practices, and religious and political ideas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.