History

HIST UN1002 Ancient History of the Middle East. 4.00 points.

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the ancient histories of the region in western Asia that is today called the Middle East. There we find the earliest cultures in world history documented with an abundance of sources, including numerous written texts, which allows us to study the first attestations of many elements of life we take for granted, such as writing, cities, laws, empires, and much more. The course aims to provide you with a knowledge of the most important empirical data about these histories and to confront you the impact some of the developments made on human life as well as the difficulties we confront trying to study them

HIST UN1010 ANCIENT GREEK HIST, 800-146 BC. 4.00 points.

A review of the history of the Greek world from the beginnings of Greek archaic culture around 800 B.C. through the classical and hellenistic periods to the definitive Roman conquest in 146 B.C. with concentration on political history, but attention also to social and cultural developments.Field(s): ANC

HIST UN1071 History of Christianity from the Origins to the Reformation. 4.00 points.

Christianity is a one-semester introduction to the history of classical forms of Christianity, The Church and society in western Europe from its origins to the 16th century Reformation, with emphasis on Western developments (early Christianity, persecutions, heresies, monasticism, Crusades, popular piety, cults of saints, mendicants, universities, civic religion, mysticism, papal authority, Pre-reformation and Reformation), including its interactive dimensions with Islam, Judaism, distant Eastern worlds, and Global contexts

HIST BC1401 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1865. 4.00 points.

Themes include Native and colonial cultures and politics, the evolution of American political and economic institutions, relationships between religious and social movements, and connecting ideologies of race and gender with larger processes such as enslavement, dispossession, and industrialization

HIST UN1786 History of the City in Latin America. 4.00 points.

This course covers the historical development of cities in Latin America. Readings, lectures, and discussion sections will examine the concentration of people in commercial and political centers from the beginnings of European colonization in the fifteenth century to the present day and will introduce contrasting approaches to the study of urban culture, politics, society, and the built environment. Central themes include the reciprocal relationships between growing urban areas and the countryside; changing power dynamics in modern Latin America, especially as they impacted the lives of cities’ nonelite majority populations; the legalities and politics of urban space; planned versus unplanned cities and the rise of informal economies; the way changing legal and political rights regimes have affected urban life; and the constant tension between tradition and progress through which urban society was formed. There are no prerequisites for this course. Attendance at weekly Discussion Sections required

HIST UN2305 WAR IN GERMANY 1618-2018. 4.00 points.

For much of modern history Germany was Europe’s battlefield. Its soldiers wrote themselves into the annals of military history. But it was also a place where war was discussed, conceptualized and criticized with unparalleled vigor. Nowhere did the extreme violence of the seventeenth century and the early twentieth century leave a deeper mark than on Germany. Today, as we enter the twenty-first century, Germany is the nation that has perhaps come closest to drawing a final, concluding line under its military history. This course will chart the rise and fall of modern militarism in Germany. For those interested in military history per se, this course will not hold back from discussing battles, soldiers and weapons. But it will also offer an introduction to German history more generally. And through the German example we will address questions in political philosophy that haunted modern European history and continue to haunt America today. How is state violence justified? How can it be regulated and controlled? What is its future?

HIST BC2321 COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS. 3.00 points.

Examines the shaping of European cultural identity through encounters with non-European cultures from 1500 to the post-colonial era. Novels, paintings, and films will be among the sources used to examine such topics as exoticism in the Enlightenment, slavery and European capitalism, Orientalism in art, ethnographic writings on the primitive, and tourism

HIST BC2413 UNITED STATES 1940-1975. 3.00 points.

Emphasis on foreign policies as they pertain to the Second World War, the atomic bomb, containment, the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam. Also considers major social and intellectual trends, including the Civil Rights movement, the counterculture, feminism, Watergate, and the recession of the 1970s

HIST BC2385 Global Environmental History. 3.00 points.

This class introduces students to the field of environmental history from a global perspective. Environmental history is the study of the relationship between nature and society over time. It deals with the material environment, cultural and scientific understandings of nature, and the politics of socio-economic use of natural resources. The class combines the study of classic texts that were foundational to the field with modern case studies from all over the world. It addresses questions of global relevance, such as: how did the environment shape human history? How did humans shape the natural environment? How are power relations of class, race and gender embedded in the environment we live in? The class welcomes students from the natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities. The goal of the course is to understand how the relationship between environment and society in history led to the current climate crisis

HIST UN2432 U.S. ERA OF CIVIL WAR ＆ RECON. 4.00 points.

It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the American Civil War as an event in the making of the modern United States and, indeed, of the western world. Indeed the American Civil War and Reconstruction introduced a whole series of dilemmas that are still with us. What is the legacy of slavery in U.S. history and contemporary life? What is the proper balance of power between the states and the central government? Who is entitled to citizenship in the United States? What do freedom and equality mean in concrete terms? This course surveys the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction in all of its aspects. It focuses on the causes of the war in the divergent development of northern and southern states; the prosecution of the war and all that it involved, including the process of slave emancipation; and the contentious process of reconstructing the re-united states in the aftermath of Union victory. The course includes the military history of the conflict, but ranges far beyond it to take the measure of the social and political changes the war unleashed. It focuses on the Confederacy as well as the Union, on women as well as men, and on enslaved black people as well as free white people. It takes the measure of large scale historical change while trying to grasp the experience of those human beings who lived through it

HIST BC2440 INTRO AFRICAN-AMERCN HISTORY. 3.00 points.

Major themes in African-American History: slave trade, slavery, resistance, segregation, the New Negro, Civil Rights, Black Power, challenges and manifestations of the contemporary Color Line.General Education Requirement: Historical Studies (HIS)

HIST UN2523 HEALTH INEQUALITY: MODERN US. 4.00 points.

Through assigned readings and a group research project, students will gain familiarity with a range of historical and social science problems at the intersection of ethnic/racial/sexual formations, technological networks, and health politics since the turn of the twentieth century. Topics to be examined will include, but will not be limited to, black women's health organization and care; HIV/AIDS politics, policy, and community response; benign neglect; urban renewal and gentrification; medical abuses and the legacy of Tuskegee; tuberculosis control; and environmental justice. There are no required qualifications for enrollment, although students will find the material more accessible if they have had previous coursework experience in United States history, pre-health professional (pre-med, pre-nursing, or pre-public health), African-American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, or American Studies

HIST UN2535 HIST OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 4.00 points.

HIST UN2587 SPORT＆SOCIETY IN THE AMERICAS. 4.00 points.

This course explores the ways organized sport constitutes and disrupts dominant understandings of nation, race, gender, and sexuality throughout the Americas. Working from the notion that sport is “more than a game,” the class will examine the social, cultural and political impact of sports in a variety of hemispheric American contexts from the 19th century until the present. While our primary geographic focus will be the United States, Brazil, and the Caribbean, the thrust of the course encourages students to consider sports in local, national, and transnational contexts. The guiding questions of the course are: What is the relationship between sport and society? How does sport inform political transformations within and across national borders? How does sport reinforce and/or challenge social hierarchies? Can sport provide alternative visions of the self and community? Throughout the semester we will examine such topics as: the continuing political struggles surrounding the staging of mega-events such as the Olympics and World Cup, the role of professional baseball in the rise and fall of Jim Crow segregation, the impact of football on the evolution of masculine identities in the U.S., the impact of tennis on the Second-Wave feminist movement, and the role of sports in the growth of modern American cities. Course materials include works by historians, sociologists, social theorists, and journalists who have also been key contributors to the burgeoning field of sports studies. Thus, the course has three objectives: 1) To deepen our understanding of the relationship between sport and society 2) To encourage students to examine the sporting world beyond the frame of the nation-state 3) To consider the promises and challenges of sport as a site of social theory and knowledge production

HIST UN2611 JEWS ＆ JUDAISM IN ANTIQUITY. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: Students must also enroll in required discussion section.

  Field(s): ANC

HIST UN2618 The Modern Caribbean. 4 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This lecture course examines the social, cultural, and political history of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and the coastal regions of Central and South America that collectively form the Caribbean region, from Amerindian settlement, through the era of European imperialism and African enslavement, to the period of socialist revolution and independence. The course will examine historical trajectories of colonialism, slavery, and labor regimes; post-emancipation experiences and migration; radical insurgencies and anti-colonial movements; and intersections of race, culture, and neocolonialism. It will also investigate the production of national, creole, and transborder indentities. Formerly listed as "The Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries". Field(s): LAC 

HIST UN2660 LATIN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION I. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course aims to give a portrait of the development of Latin America from the first contact with the Europeans to the creation of independent states. We will focus on society and interaction among the various ethnic and socio-economic groups at the level of daily life. For each class, students will have to read sections of a core text as well as a primary source, or document, from the period; before the end of every class there will be 15 minutes to discuss the document together. In addition, students will enroll in discussion sections held by TAs

HIST UN2719 HISTORY OF THE MOD MIDDLE EAST. 4.00 points.

This course will cover the history of the Middle East from the 18th century until the present, examining the region ranging from Morocco to Iran and including the Ottoman Empire. It will focus on transformations in the states of the region, external intervention, and the emergence of modern nation-states, as well as aspects of social, economic, cultural and intellectual history of the region. Field(s): ME

HSWM UN2761 GENDER ＆ SEXUALITY IN AFRICA. 4.00 points.

This course examines the history of gender, sexuality and ways of identifying along these lines in Africa from early times through the twentieth century. It asks how gender and sexuality have shaped key historical developments, from African kingdoms and empires to postcolonial states, from colonial conquest to movements for independence, from indigenous healing practices to biomedicine, from slavery to the modern forms of work. It will also explore the history of different sexualities and gender identities on the continent. A key objective is to extend the historical study of gender and sexual identity in Africa beyond ‘women’s history’ to understand gender as encompassing all people in society and their relationships, whether domestic or public.

HSME UN2810 HISTORY OF SOUTH ASIA I. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement
Graduate students must register for HIST G6998 version of this course.

This survey lecture course will provide students with a broad overview of the history of South Asia as a region - focusing on key political, cultural and social developments over more than two millennia. The readings include both primary sources (in translation) and secondary works. Our key concerns will be the political, cultural and theological encounters of varied communities, the growth of cities and urban spaces, networks of trade and migrations and the development of both local and cosmopolitan cultures across Southern Asia. The survey will begin with early dynasties of the classical period and then turn to the subsequent formation of various Perso-Turkic polities, including the development and growth of hybrid political cultures such as those of Vijayanagar and the Mughals. The course also touches on Indic spiritual and literary traditions such as Sufi and Bhakti movements. Near the end of our course, we will look forward towards the establishment of European trading companies and accompanying colonial powers

HIST UN2972 Unsettling Science. 4.00 points.

Unsettling Science invites students to do exactly that: ask big questions about science and interrupt preconceived ideas about what science is and who does it. This course is an introductory dive into the interplay between science, technology, health, environment, and society. By offering deep historical and contemporary perspectives, this course equips students with skills essential to critically exploring not only longstanding questions about the world but also urgent issues of our time. Unsettling Science will provide students with the critical and methodological tools to think creatively about local and global challenges and develop interventions. To do so, the course focuses on a series of fundamental questions that underpin the study of science and society from a variety of perspectives

HIST UN2978 Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI. 4.00 points.

During the 2020 US presidential election and the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, science and “scientific truths” were fiercely contested. This course provides a historical perspective on the issues at stake. The course begins with an historical account of how areas of natural knowledge, such as astrology, alchemy, and “natural magic,” which were central components of an educated person’s view of the world in early modern Europe, became marginalized, while a new philosophy of nature (what we would now call empirical science) came to dominate the discourse of rationality. Historical developments examined in this course out of which this new understanding of nature emerged include the rise of the centralized state, religious reform, and European expansion. The course uses this historical account to show how science and pseudoscience developed in tandem in the period from 1400 to 1800. This historical account equips students to examine contemporary issues of expertise, the social construction of science, pluralism in science, certainty and uncertainty in science, as well as critical engagement with contemporary technologies

HIST UN3009 Cities and Slavery in the Atlantic World. 4 points.

Although African slavery in the Americas is most often associated with rural life and agricultural production, cities were crucial sites in the history of slavery. This undergraduate seminar explores the intertwined histories of urbanization and slavery in the Atlantic world from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Readings and discussions will touch on slavery’s impact on such European centers as Nantes, Liverpool, London, and Seville and on African cities but will concentrate on the “New World,” eventually coming to focus on the places where slavery lasted long enough to intersect with the beginnings of urban modernity and industrialization: Cuba and especially Brazil. We will end the semester reading and reflecting on the lasting legacies of African slavery in the cities of the Atlantic world after abolition, considering both slavery’s memorialization on and erasure from the urban landscape.

HIST UN3023 Mobility and Identity in the Roman World. 4.00 points.

This course considers how identity increased, limited, controlled, or otherwise shaped the mobility of individuals and groups in the Roman world, including women, slaves, freedpeople, and diaspora communities. We will identify the structures that produced differences in mobility and consider how such groups understood and represented themselves in a variety of media as possessing a specific, shared identity and community. The course will draw on a range of primary sources, including inscriptions and literary texts (both poetry and prose), and cover the period from the second century BCE to the third century CE

HIST UN3030 IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP IN AMER HIST. 4.00 points.

This course explores the meaning of American citizenship in connection with the country’s immigration history. Topics include historic pathways to citizenship for migrants; barriers to citizenship including wealth, race, gender, beliefs and documentation; and critical issues such as colonialism, statelessness, dual nationality, and birthright citizenship. We will ask how have people become citizens and under what authority has that citizenship been granted? What are the historic barriers to citizenship and how have they shifted over time? What major questions remain unanswered by Congress and the Supreme Court regarding the rights of migrants to attain and retain American citizenship?

HIST BC3327 CONSUMER CULTURE IN MOD EUROPE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15. Preregistration required.
The development of the modern culture of consumption, with particular attention to the formation of the woman consumer. Topics include commerce and the urban landscape, changing attitudes toward shopping and spending, feminine fashion and conspicuous consumption, and the birth of advertising. Examination of novels, fashion magazines, and advertising images

HIST BC3379 Water Histories: Society, Environment, and Power in Global History. 4.00 points.

This class explores the relationship between water and society in history. How did water shape human and environmental histories around the globe? On one hand, oceans and rivers affected the characteristics and resources of different civilizations. Throughout history, every community depended on access to water resources, developed local practices of water management, and produced cultural and scientific understandings of “water.” On the other hand, human attempts at regulating water flows aimed at controlling life itself, as water is essential for life. Hydro-power, before being a renewable source energy, required exerting political power over humans and nature alike. Grounded in the interdisciplinary approach of the environmental humanities, this class will explore the politics of water management thanks to a wide range of case studies. Starting with the first environmental history of the Mediterranean in the early modern period, we will focus on the last two centuries to examine the roots of the current environmental crisis. By following the politics of water flows, the class will introduce students to key themes in global environmental history, such as the role of geography, climate, race, energy, labor, technology, cities, animals, diseases, and empires in the transformation of human societies. Finally, the class provides foundational historical knowledge to understand the importance of water in contemporary debates about environmental justice and climate change

HIST UN3418 The Carceral United States. 4.00 points.

Examination of the development of U.S. carceral systems and logics from the late 18th century through the present. Through course readings and class discussion, students will explore the changes and continuities in technologies of punishment and captivity over time, interrogating how the purpose and political economy of captivity and policing shifted over time, and analyzing the relationship between carceral institutions and constructions of race, gender, and sexuality

HIST UN3571 Left and Right in American History. 4.00 points.

This course examines 20th-century American political movements of the Left and Right. We will cover Socialism and the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century; the Communist Party and right-wing populists of the 1930s; the civil rights movement, black power, and white resistance, 1950s-1960s; the rise of the New Left and the New Right in the 1960s; the Women's liberation movement and the Christian right of the 1970s; and finally, free-market conservatism, neoliberalism, white nationalism and the Trump era. We will explore the organizational, ideological and social history of these political mobilizations. The class explores grass-roots social movements and their relationship to “mainstream” and electoral politics. We will pay special attention to the ways that ideas and mobilizations that are sometimes deemed extreme have in fact helped to shape the broader political spectrum. Throughout the semester, we will reflect on the present political dilemmas of our country in light of the history that we study

HIST UN3712 African Climate and History. 4.00 points.

This course examines how Africa’s climate has changed in the past and with what consequences for the people living on the continent. It looks at the scope, duration and intensity of past climate events and their impacts, while using these historical climate events to teach fundamental climate concepts. Central to the course is the human experience of these events and the diversity of their responses. The major question underpinning this course is, therefore, how have people responded to past climate events, whether short-term, decadal or longer in scope? This question is predicated on the complexity of human society and moves away from the binary of collapse vs. resilience that dominates much thinking about the impact of climate changes on past societies. This framing recognizes the significance of climate for food production and collection, as well as trade and cosmologies. It does not take climate to be the determining factor in history. Rather it foregrounds the myriad ways people acted in the face of, for example, multi-decadal below average rainfall or long periods of more reliable precipitation

HIST GU4218 The Black Sea in History. 4 points.

      We are used to thinking of history in national terms, or at least in reference to major civilizations (“Western civilization,”  “Near Eastern civilization,” etc.). In  “real life,” however, interactions among people, linguistic communities, and cultures frequently cut across political divisions. Water – rivers, streams, seas – is often an invitation to settlement, commerce, and conquest. This course offers a look (inspired in part by Fernand Braudel's Mediterranean) at a body of water – the Black Sea – and the lands around it, in sweeping historical perspective. Focus is on those moments when the various civilizations and empires that originated and flourished around the Black Sea met and intersected in friendship or in enmity. We will look at ancient civilizations, Greek colonization, Byzantine-Slav interactions, the period of Ottoman dominance, Russian-Turkish rivalry, and decolonization and wars in the 19th and 20th centuries. We hope that we will be able to pay particular attention to questions of ecology, language, religion, and cultural interaction throughout.

HIST GU4363 Pascal and the Modern Self. 4.00 points.

This seminar will focus particularly on Pascal’s humanistic case for religious faith as a response to Montaigne’s skeptical portrayal of the self. The aim is to understand all the implications of this encounter for the history of Western thought about human psychology, religion, and politics

HIST GU4389 Stalinism. 4.00 points.

The quarter century during which Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union witnessed some of the twentieth century's most dramatic events: history's fastest plunge into modernity, an apocalyptic world war, and the emergence of a socialist state as a competitive world power. This tutorial will offer students a deep dive not only into the historical depths of the Stalin era but into the gloriously complex historiographical debates that surround it. Some of the questions that will animate the readings, writings, and discussions that students will engage in are as follows: Did Stalin depart from or represent a continuation of the policies introduced by his predecessor Vladimir Lenin? Did he rule in a totalitarian fashion or in ways comparable to other twentieth century regimes? Were his policies destructive or possibly productive? And perhaps most boggling of all: why did no one resist Stalinist rule?

HIST GU4518 Research Seminar: Columbia and Slavery. 4 points.

In this course, students will write original, independent papers of around 25 pages, based on research in both primary and secondary sources, on an aspect of the relationship between Columbia College and its colonial predecessor King's College, with the institution of slavery.

HIST GU4681 The Nahuas Through Their Sources. 4.00 points.

This seminar aims to give a basic knowledge of the history, society, and culture of the Nahuas, one of the main Indigenous groups of Mexico, during the early period, 16th-18th centuries. The Nahuas left a vast and varied corpus of documents written in Nahuatl, a language still in use today. In each class, we will be reading a different set of documents available both in Nahuatl and in English translation and analyze them together to get an understanding of the Nahua world from within. To help us in this analysis, we will be reading also academic works by experts in the field of Indigenous history of early Latin America. Thanks to a collaboration with Eduardo de la Cruz, director of IDIEZ (Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas) and a native-speaker instructor of Nahuatl, we will have the possibility to learn how Nahuatl is spoken today and how Indigenous people read their own primary sources from the past. The course will have at least one activity with professor de la Cruz built in the class time and accessible via Zoom

HIST GU4721 Archaeology and Heritage in the Ottoman Lands in the Long 19th Century. 4.00 points.

“Archaeology and Heritage in the Ottoman Lands” is an undergraduate/graduate seminar focusing on archaeology, museology, and the notion of heritage throughout the lands under Ottoman rule during the ‘long’ nineteenth century. The objective is to critically reassess the nature of Western antiquarian and archaeological endeavors, and to focus on the local dimension of the question to fill numerous gaps and inconsistencies in the ‘grand narrative’ of Near Eastern archaeology and heritage

HIST GU4736 Ottoman Westernization and Orientalism in the Long 19th Century. 4.00 points.

“Ottoman Westernization and Orientalism in the Long 19th Century” is an undergraduate/graduate seminar focusing on the intricate relationship between Westernization and Orientalism in the context of the Ottoman Empire. Based on the assumption that these two concepts cannot be dissociated from one another, it sets out to explore Western/Orientalist perceptions of the empire, Ottoman efforts to Westernize, the emergence of Ottoman Orientalism, and other local reactions such as Occidentalism and anti-Westernism

HIST GU4743 MANUSCRIPTS OF THE MUSLIM WORLD. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of a relevant research language (Arabic, Persian, or Ottoman Turkish) is required to be able to work on a particular manuscript to be chosen by the student. Students who lack the necessary skills of any of these languages but are interested in pre-modern book culture are still encouraged to contact the course instructor.
This course is designed to provide the foundations for exploring the rich and fascinating history of Islamic manuscripts from the 9th through the 19th century. Its structure is shaped mainly by thematic considerations in a notable chronological fashion. The meetings amount to a series of “cuts” through the topic and cover themes such as the paper revolution, authorship, scribal culture, technologies of book production, readers and their notes, libraries and book collections, or textual as well as extra-textual components of manuscripts. Over the semester, we will study key material, textual, and visual elements of Islamic book culture spanning many centuries and continents, and visit major historiographical questions on the millennium-long history of Islamic manuscript tradition before the widespread adoption of print technology

HIST GU4962 Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History. 4.00 points.

This course introduces undergraduate and graduate students to the materials, techniques, contexts, and meanings of skilled craft and artistic practices in early modern Europe (1350-1750), in order to reflect upon a series of topics, including craft knowledge and artisanal epistemology; the intersections between craft and science; and questions of historical methodology in reconstructing the material world of the past. The course will be run as a “Laboratory Seminar,” with discussions of primary and secondary materials, as well as hands-on work in a laboratory. The first semester long course to use the published Edition of Fr. 640 as its focus, it will test the use of the Edition in a higher education classroom to inform the development of the Companion. This course is associated with the Making and Knowing Project of the Center for Science and Society at Columbia University.The first semester-long course to use the published Edition of Fr. 640 as its focus, it will test the use of the Edition in a higher education classroom to inform the development of Phase II of the Making and Knowing Project - a Research and Teaching Companion. Students’ final projects (exploratory and experimental work in the form of digital/textual analysis of Ms. Fr. 640, reconstruction insight reports, videos for the Companion, or a combination) will be published as part of the Companion or the Sandbox depending on content and long-term maintenance considerations

HIST GU4984 HACKING THE ARCHIVE: LAB FOR COMP. HIST. 4.00 points.

This is a hands-on, project-driven, Laboratory Seminar that explores the frontiers of historical analysis in the information age. It harnesses the exponential growth in information resulting from the digitization of older materials and the explosion of “born digital” electronic records. Machine learning and natural language processing make it possible to answer traditional research questions with greater rigor, and tackle new kinds of projects that would once have been deemed impracticable. At the same time, scholars now have many more ways to communicate with one another and the broader public, and it is becoming both easier – and more necessary – to collaborate across disciplines. This course will create a laboratory organized around a common group of databases in 20th century international history. Students will begin by learning about earlier methodological transformations in literary, cultural, and historical analysis, and consider whether and how the “digital turn” might turn out differently. They will then explore new tools and techniques, including named-entity recognition, text classification, topic modeling, geographic information systems, social and citation network analysis, and data visualization. As we turn to specific projects, you will be able to either write a traditional history paper or try an alternative project, either working alone or as part of a team. Papers will entail applying one or more of the digital tools to a specific historical literature/debate or a novel historical topic. Projects might include assembling and “cleaning” a large dataset of documents, prototyping a new tool, launching a web-based exhibit, or drafting a grant application. You will be encouraged to seek out additional training as necessary, conduct experiments, and design ambitious projects that might extend beyond the life of the course. The seminar will meet every week, and start with a discussion of the readings. The second hour will be devoted to training in new tools for historical research, as well as individual and small group work. Students will also be encouraged to attend weekly lab meetings, and that will be a requirement of those undertaking alternative projects. The course is open to students with no training in statistics or computer programming, and no knowledge of international history. But all participants should be open to learning both historical and computational research skills, such as the critical reading of primary source documents and oral history interviewing on the one hand, and scraping websites, querying databases, and using data visualization tools on the other

AFRS BC2004 INTRODUCTN TO AFRICAN STUDIES. 3.00 points.

Interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the study of Africa, moving from pre-colonial through colonial and post-colonial periods to contemporary Africa. Focus will be on its history, societal relations, politics and the arts. The objective is to provide a critical survey of the history as well as the continuing debates in African Studies

CSER UN3928 COLONIZATION/DECOLONIZATION. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement
Enrollment limited to 22.

Prerequisites: Open to CSER majors/concentrators only. Others may be allowed to register with the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: Open to CSER majors/concentrators only. Others may be allowed to register with the instructors permission. This course explores the centrality of colonialism in the making of the modern world, emphasizing cross-cultural and social contact, exchange, and relations of power; dynamics of conquest and resistance; and discourses of civilization, empire, freedom, nationalism, and human rights, from 1500 to 2000. Topics include pre-modern empires; European exploration, contact, and conquest in the new world; Atlantic-world slavery and emancipation; and European and Japanese colonialism in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The course ends with a section on decolonization and post-colonialism in the period after World War II. Intensive reading and discussion of primary documents

AMST UN3930 Topics in American Studies. 4 points.

Please refer to the Center for American Studies website for course descriptions for each section. americanstudies.columbia.edu

AMST UN3931 Topics in American Studies. 4 points.

Please refer to the Center for American Studies for section descriptions

EAAS UN3990 APPROACHES TO E ASIAN STUDIES. 4.00 points.

Enrollment is limited to EALAC and AMEC majors and concentrators only.

This course is intended to provide a focal point for undergraduate majors in East Asian Studies. It introduces students to the analysis of particular objects of East Asian historical, literary, and cultural studies from various disciplinary perspectives. The syllabus is composed of a series of modules, each centered around an object, accompanied by readings that introduce different ways of understanding its meaning

HSEA GU4720 20TH CENTURY TIBETAN HISTORY. 4.00 points.

    This course is designed for students interested in gaining a broad view of Tibetan history in the 20th century. We will cover the institutional history of major Tibetan state institutions and their rivals in the Tibetan borderlands, as well as the relations with China, Britain, and America. Discussion sessions throughout the semester will focus on important historical issues. Group(s): C

HSEA GU4860 SOC OF CHOSON KOREA 1392-1910. 4.00 points.

Major cultural, political, social, economic and literary issues in the history of this 500-year long period. Reading and discussion of primary texts (in translation) and major scholarly works. All readings will be in English

HIST UN1020 The Romans and Their World. 4 points.

This course examines the history of the Roman Empire from the formation of the Roman monarchy in 753 BCE to the collapse of the Western Empire in 476 CE. At the heart of the class is a single question: how did the Roman Empire come to be, and why did it last for so long? We will trace the rise and fall of the Republic, the extension of its power beyond Italy, and the spread of Christianity. Epic poetry, annalistic accounts, coins, papyri, inscriptions, and sculpture will illuminate major figures like Cleopatra, and features of daily life like Roman law and religion. The destructive mechanics by which Rome sustained itself--war, slavery, and environmental degradation--will receive attention, too, with the aim of producing a holistic understanding this empire.  Discussion Section Required.

HIST BC1302 EUROPEAN HISTORY SINCE 1789. 4.00 points.

Emergence of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary mass political movements; European industrialization, nationalism, and imperialism; 20th-century world wars, the Great Depression, and Fascism

HIST UN1512 The Battle for North America: An Indigenous History of the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. 4.00 points.

This course will explore the struggle to control the continent of North America from an Indigenous perspective. After a century of European colonization Native peoples east of the Mississippi River Valley formed a political confederation aimed at preserving Native sovereignty. This Native confederacy emerged as a dominant force during the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. At times Native political interests aligned with the French and British Empires, but remained in opposition to the expansion of Anglo-American colonial settlements into Indian country. This course is designed to engage literature and epistemology surrounding these New World conflicts as a means of the colonial and post-colonial past in North America. We will explore the emergence of intersecting indigenous and European national identities tied to the social construction of space and race. In this course I will ask you to re-think American history by situating North America as a Native space, a place that was occupied and controlled by indigenous peoples. You will be asked to imagine a North America that was indigenous and adaptive, and not necessarily destined to be absorbed by European settler colonies. Accordingly, this course we will explore the intersections of European colonial settlement and Euro-American national expansion, alongside of the emergence of indigenous social formations that dominated the western interior until the middle of the 19th century. This course is intended to be a broad history of Indigenous North America during a tumultuous period, but close attention will be given to use and analysis of primary source evidence. Similarly, we will explore the necessity of using multiple genres of textual evidence – archival documents, oral history, material artifacts, etc., -- when studying indigenous history

HIST BC1760 INTRO AFRICAN HIST:1700-PRESNT. 4.00 points.

Survey of African history from the 18th century to the contemporary period. We will explore six major themes in African History: Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World, Colonialism in Africa, the 1940s, Nationalism and Independence Movements, Post-Colonialism in Africa, and Issues in the Making of Contemporary Africa

HIST UN1942 The Year 1000: A World History. 4.00 points.

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of premodern history, with a substantive focus on the variety of cultures flourishing across the globe 1000 years ago. Methodologically, the course will emphasize the variety of primary sources historians use to reconstruct those cultures, the various approaches taken by the discipline of history (and neighboring disciplines) in analyzing those sources, and the particular challenges and pleasures of studying a generally “source poor” period. The course queries the concepts of “global history” and “world history” as applied to the “middle millennium” (corresponding to Europe’s “medieval history”), by exploring approaches that privilege connection, comparison, combination, correlation, or coverage

HIST UN2004 The Mediterranean World After Alexander the Great. 4 points.

The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Greek Civilization all around the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This course will examine the Hellenised (greek-based) urban society of the empires of the Hellenistic era (ca. 330-30BCE).

HIST BC2101 HISTORY OF CAPITALISM. 3.00 points.

The aim of this course is to provide students with analytical tools to think critically and historically about the concept of capitalism. By studying how philosophers, economists, and political theorists have defined and described the concept of capitalism throughout its history, students will be provided with a set of terminologies and analytical frameworks that enable them to interrogate the various dimensions of capitalism

HIST UN2222 NATURE ＆ POWER: ENV HIST NORTH AMERICA. 4.00 points.

Environmental history seeks to expand the customary framework of historical inquiry, challenging students to construct narratives of the past that incorporate not only human beings but also the natural world with which human life is intimately intertwined. As a result, environmental history places at center stage a wide range of previously overlooked historical actors such as plants, animals, and diseases. Moreover, by locating nature within human history, environmental history encourages its practitioners to rethink some of the fundamental categories through which our understanding of the natural world is expressed: wilderness and civilization, wild and tame, natural and artificial. For those interested in the study of ethnicity, environmental history casts into particularly sharp relief the ways in which the natural world can serve both to undermine and to reinforce the divisions within human societies. Although all human beings share profound biological similarities, they have nonetheless enjoyed unequal access to natural resources and to healthy environments—differences that have all-too-frequently been justified by depicting such conditions as “natural.”

HIST UN2305 WAR IN GERMANY 1618-2018. 4.00 points.

For much of modern history Germany was Europe’s battlefield. Its soldiers wrote themselves into the annals of military history. But it was also a place where war was discussed, conceptualized and criticized with unparalleled vigor. Nowhere did the extreme violence of the seventeenth century and the early twentieth century leave a deeper mark than on Germany. Today, as we enter the twenty-first century, Germany is the nation that has perhaps come closest to drawing a final, concluding line under its military history. This course will chart the rise and fall of modern militarism in Germany. For those interested in military history per se, this course will not hold back from discussing battles, soldiers and weapons. But it will also offer an introduction to German history more generally. And through the German example we will address questions in political philosophy that haunted modern European history and continue to haunt America today. How is state violence justified? How can it be regulated and controlled? What is its future?

HIST UN2342 Britain, Ireland and Empire, 1789-1901. 4.00 points.

Nineteenth-century Britain has traditionally been portrayed as the dominant power in the world of its time: one that forged a path towards various kinds of ‘modernity’ at home, while ruthlessly subjugating and exploiting the peoples subject to its colonial empire. In this course, we will take a sceptical look at these claims. How coherent a political entity was ‘Britain’—a monarchy composed of at least four distinct and fractious nations, presiding over a scattered empire of trade, conquest and settlement? Who in Britain really benefited from the prosperity made possible by the dramatic industrial and imperial expansion that characterised the period? What forms of freedom, and what kinds of social control, were made possible by Victorian ideologies of ‘liberal’ government and laissez-faire economics? Why were British elites so often uncertain and divided when it came to questions of imperial rule—especially in Ireland, the oldest and nearest dependency of the empire? In the course of asking these questions, we will of course be learning about the history of Britain itself, alongside the parts of the world it interacted with during the nineteenth century: something that, thanks to a wealth of primary sources (many of them now online) and a strong tradition of sophisticated historiography, will be a highly rewarding intellectual experience. We will also, however, be learning and thinking about other things—the histories of capitalism, religion, gender, empire, fossil fuels, migration, agriculture, slavery and political ideology, among others—that are of a much more general, and contemporary relevance. We do not have to buy into simplistic narratives of nineteenth-century Britain’s importance or distinctiveness to recognize it as an interesting place for thinking through some of the central problems of global history and modern politics

HIST BC2380 HISTORY OF FOOD IN EUROPE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Previous course in history strongly recommended.
Prerequisites: Previous course in history strongly recommended. Course enables students to focus on remote past and its relationship to social context and political and economic structures; students will be asked to evaluate evidence drawn from documents of the past, including tracts on diet, health, and food safety, accounts of food riots, first-hand testimonials about diet and food availability. A variety of perspectives will be explored, including those promoted by science, medicine, business, and government

HIST UN2398 The Politics of Terror: The French Revolution. 4 points.

 This course examines the political culture of eighteenth-century France, from the final decades of the Bourbon monarchy to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Among our primary aims will be to explore the origins of the Terror and its relationship to the Revolution as a whole. Other topics we will address include the erosion of the king's authority in the years leading up to 1789, the fall of the Bastille, the Constitutions of 1791 and 1793, civil war in the Vendée, the militarization of the Revolution, the dechristianization movement, attempts to establish a new Revolutionary calendar and civil religion, and the sweeping plans for moral regeneration led by Robespierre and his colleagues in 1793-1794.

HIST BC2405 Spatial History of 19th-C NYC. 4.50 points.

Spatial history of New York City in the 19th century. Students explore key topics in New York City spatial history in lectures, and learn historical-GIS skills in a co-requisite lab (instead of a discussion section). They will use newly constructed GIS data from the Mapping Historical New York project, and conduct spatial history assignments

HIST BC2413 UNITED STATES 1940-1975. 3.00 points.

Emphasis on foreign policies as they pertain to the Second World War, the atomic bomb, containment, the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam. Also considers major social and intellectual trends, including the Civil Rights movement, the counterculture, feminism, Watergate, and the recession of the 1970s

HIST BC2425 Spatial History of 19th-C NYC Lab. 0.00 points.

This is the co-requisite lab for HIST BC2405 Spatial history of New York City in the 19th century. Students explore key topics in New York City spatial history in lectures, and learn historical-GIS skills in this lab. They will use newly constructed GIS data from the Mapping Historical New York project, and conduct spatial history assignments

HIST BC2477 RACE, CLASS, AND POLITICS IN NEW YORK CITY. 3.00 points.

The objectives of this course are: to gain familiarity with the major themes of New York History since 1898, to learn to think historically, and to learn to think and write critically about arguments that underlie historical interpretation. We will also examine and analyze the systems and structures--of race and class--that have shaped life in New York, while seeking to understand how social groups have pursued change inside and outside of such structures

HIST UN2478 US INTELLECTUAL HIST 1865-PRES. 4.00 points.

This course examines major themes in U.S. intellectual history since the Civil War. Among other topics, we will examine the public role of intellectuals; the modern liberal-progressive tradition and its radical and conservative critics; the uneasy status of religion ina secular culture; cultural radicalism and feminism; critiques of corporate capitalism and consumer culture; the response of intellectuals to hot and cold wars, the Great Depression, and the upheavals of the 1960s. Fields(s): US

HIST BC2549 EARLY AMERICA TO 1763. 3.00 points.

This course examines the three critical centuries from 1492 to 1763 that transformed North America from a diverse landscape teeming with hundreds of farming and hunting societies into a partly-colonized land where just three systems empires held sway. Major themes include contrasting faiths, power relationships, and cultural exchanges among various Native, European, and African peoples.This course examines the three critical centuries from 1492 to 1763 that transformed North America from a diverse landscape teeming with hundreds of farming and hunting societies into a partly-colonized land where just three systems empires held sway. Major themes include contrasting faiths, power relationships, and cultural exchanges among various Native, European, and African peoples

HIST UN2565 American History at the Movies. 4.00 points.

This lecture explores major topics in modern American history through an examination of the American film industry and some of its most popular films and stars. It begins with the emergence of “Hollywood” as an industry and a place in the wake of WWI and ends with the rise of the so-called ‘New Hollywood’ in the 1970s and its treatment of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. For much of this period, Hollywood’s films were not protected free speech, making movies and stars peculiarly reflective of, and vulnerable to, changes in broader cultural and political dynamics. Students will become familiar with Hollywood’s institutional history over this half-century in order to understand the forces, both internal and external, that have shaped the presentation of what Americans do and don’t see on screens and to become skilled interpreters of American history at the movies

HIST UN2661 LATIN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION II. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course explores major themes in Latin American history from the independence period (ca 1810) to the present. We will hone in on Latin Americas “chronic” problems of social inequality, political polarization, authoritarianism, incomplete democratization, and troubled memory politics. The course covers economic, social, and cultural histories, and gives special weight to the transnational aspects of Latin American ideological struggles – from its dependency on Western capital to its ideological “inner Cold War” – and the way they influenced the subaltern strata of society. The section discussions are a crucial component of the course, and will focus on assigned historiography. While the lecture centers on constructing a cogent meta-narrative for Latin America’s modern era, in the section we will explore not only the historical “facts,” but will instead ask: how do historians know what they know about the past? What sources and analytic methods do they use to write history? And what ethical dilemmas do they confront when narrating politically-sensitive topics?

HIST UN2679 Atlantic Slave Trade. 4.00-4.50 points.

The history of human trafficking in the Atlantic world from the first European slaving expeditions in the late fifteenth century down to the final forced crossings in the era of the U.S. Civil War. Themes include captive taking in West Africa and its impact on West African societies, the commercial organization of the Atlantic slave trade in Europe and the Americas, and the experience of capture, exile, commodification, and survival of those shipped to the Americas

HIST BC2681 WOMEN AND GENDER IN LATIN AMERICA. 3.00 points.

Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

Examines the gendered roles of women and men in Latin American society from the colonial period to the present. Explores a number of themes, including the intersection of social class, race, ethnicity, and gender; the nature of patriarchy; masculinity; gender and the state; and the gendered nature of political mobilization

HIST UN2701 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course will cover the seven-century long history of the Ottoman Empire, which spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa as well as the medieval, early modern, and modern period. The many levels of continuity and change will be the focus, as will issues of identities and mentalities, confessional diversity, cultural and linguistic pluralism, and imperial governance and political belonging of the empire within larger regional and global perspectives over the centuries. The course also seeks to cultivate appreciation of the human experience through the multifarious experiences culled from the Ottoman past

HIST BC2865 GENDER AND POWER IN CHINA. 3.00 points.

HSPB UN2950 Social History of U.S. Public Health. 4.00 points.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an historical understanding of the role public health has played in American history. The underlying assumptions are that disease, and the ways we define disease, are simultaneously reflections of social and cultural values, as well as important factors in shaping those values. Also, it is maintained that the environments that we build determine the ways we live and die. The dread infectious and acute diseases in the nineteenth century, the chronic, degenerative conditions of the twentieth and the new, vaguely understood conditions rooted in a changing chemical and human-made environment are emblematic of the societies we created. Among the questions that will be addressed are: How does the health status of Americans reflect and shape our history? How do ideas about health reflect broader attitudes and values in American history and culture? How does the American experience with pain, disability, and disease affect our actions and lives? What are the responsibilities of the state and of the individual in preserving health? How have American institutions--from hospitals to unions to insurance companies--been shaped by changing longevity, experience with disability and death?

HIST UN2987 Technology and US Politics. 4 points.

The course investigates the relation between politics and technology in the Unites States during the twentieth century. Following the telegraph, radio, the mainframe computer, the internet, and online platforms, the course asks how have Americans conceptualized the relation between technological developments and democratic ideals starting in the late nineteenth century? Are new technologies forms of control or of liberation? Do they enhance or curtail free speech? Has the public sphere been strengthened or weakened by new communication technologies? What has been the rule of government regulation in the adoption of these technologies? Students will be introduced to basic ideas and methodologies in the history of technology, while focusing on the relation between politics of technology. 

HIST UN3120 Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Early Modern Europe. 4 points.

In this course we will examine theoretical and historical developments that framed the notions of censorship and free expression in early modern Europe. In the last two decades, the role of censorship has become one of the significant elements in discussions of early modern culture. The history of printing and of the book, of the rise national-political cultures and their projections of control, religious wars and denominational schisms are some of the factors that intensified debate over the free circulation of ideas and speech. Indexes, Inquisition, Star Chamber, book burnings and beheadings have been the subjects of an ever growing body of scholarship. Field(s): EME

HIST UN3241 Global Urban History of Housing Justice. 4.00 points.

Shelter is one of our most basic human needs. Yet housing, and its legal, social and political meanings and struggles around its distribution, possession and safety, is a concept that can only be fully understood as a historical phenomenon. In the industrializing and urbanizing world, the concept of “housing” emerged at the intersection of questions of property rights, the study of urban problems, and the legal and cultural distinctions between public and private spheres. Throughout the world, the provision of shelter for urban populations has been at the center of urban crises and conflicts, as well as their solutions. This course will examine the deep history of urban segregation, fights for healthy and safe housing, and scholarly and policy debates about the “planet of slums.” The course’s geographic scope is global, using both comparative and transnational approaches, and we will explore the connections between local and global movements and historical processes. Through a historically-oriented but interdisciplinary set of readings, students in this class will become familiar with the terms of debates about the right to shelter as a social, political and legal problem in the modern (nineteenth- and twentieth-century) world. We will explore how history provides a unique view on how the question of housing is a social justice issue connected to other ones like mass incarceration and the destruction wrought by wars, famines, and intergenerational racial, ethnic and class inequalities. There are no pre- or co-requisites for this class

HIST UN3264 East Central Europe in the Twentieth Century. An Intellectual and Cultural History. 4.00 points.

This course analyses the intellectual and cultural history of East Central Europe in the ‘long twentieth century.’ Approaching East Central Europe as a ‘suburb of Europe’ (Jerzy Jedlicki) where some of the most contested questions of modern and contemporary times have been repeatedly raised with great urgency, the course places special emphases on political thinking and history writing while also drawing on examples from literary and visual cultures. Dissecting key achievements in these areas from across the twentieth century, we shall explore intellectual and cultural contributions from East Central Europe to discussions of wider relevance. We shall also consider how the specific forms of creativity in this diverse region may be connected to and embedded in broader European and global trends

HIST UN3268 The Critique of Curiosity. 4 points.

“All persons desire to know,” Aristotle declared in his Metaphysics.  But given that not all desires are good ones, the question naturally arises whether curiosity is.  In the era of modern science and education, we tend to take this for granted.  But for centuries – also well before Aristotle – people have concluded just the opposite. Their reasons have been various: religious, psychological, philosophical, pragmatic.  In this junior seminar we will examine select thinkers in the stream of Western thought that has questioned the value of curiosity and, more fundamentally, of knowledge itself.

HIST UN3274 Collapse: The Fall and Afterlife of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev to Putin. 4.00 points.

On Christmas Day 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev ended two things: his tenure as President of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union itself. The following day, Boris Yeltsin entered office as the first president of the Russian Federation, and without delay, began to institute radical economic and social reforms. Under his watch, the country privatized national industry, cut the state budget, and courted foreign multinational businesses. The world most commonly used to describe Russia in the early 1990s is “disappear”: money, jobs, food, and people. The very things that Soviet-style socialism had committed itself to providing for started to vanish as a result of invisible and market forces. At the same time as they were being told to welcome the approaching era of capitalist abundance, ordinary Russians were scrambling to cope with and recover from all that appeared to be suddenly and permanently missing from their pay stubs, kitchen tables, and family photographs. This course will explore what emerged in the spaces left empty after Soviet-style socialism’s demise. The course will be divided into three parts. The first part of the semester will examine the origins of the Soviet Union’s collapse and its breakup into fifteen successor states. Who was Mikhail Gorbachev, and why did the reforms instituted as part of glasnost and perestroika fail to revitalize the Soviet system? How did citizens - elites and average people alike - from Russia, the Soviet republics, and satellite states witness the collapse, and how did they manage the immediate transition to capitalism? The second part of the semester will survey the political, economic, and social processes that followed the collapse. How did former Soviet citizens reintegrate themselves in the new economies, political movements, and social structures that emerged in the Russian Federation under Yeltsin? In what ways did privatization and the arrival of foreign capital shape labor practices, consumer habits, the natural and built environment, and forms of cultural expression? What forms did nationalist movements in the former republics and and Warsaw Pact countries take? Finally, the third part of the course will focus on Putin’s ascendancy to the presidency and its consequences for Russian citizens at home and Russia’s image abroad. We will consider the role that memory and myth play in the formation of a “United Russian” consciousness, the costs and benefits of life in Putin’s Russia, and the transformation of the international system under Vladimir Vladimirovich. By semester’s end, students will have acquired the content and analytical literacy to place present-day Russia in its specific historical context and identify multiple sources of causation that may help explain Russia’s transition from socialism to capitalism to Putinism during the past quarter century

HIST UN3437 CORP BEHAVIOR ＆ PUBLIC HEALTH. 4.00 points.

Priority given to majors and concentrators, seniors, and juniors.

In the decades since the publication of Silent Spring and the rise of the environmental movement, public awareness of the impact of industrial products on human health has grown enormously. There is growing concern over BPA, lead, PCBs, asbestos, and synthetic materials that make up the world around us. This course will focus on environmental history, industrial and labor history as well as on how twentieth century consumer culture shapes popular and professional understanding of disease. Throughout the term the class will trace the historical transformation of the origins of disease through primary sources such as documents gathered in lawsuits, and medical and public health literature. Students will be asked to evaluate historical debates about the causes of modern epidemics of cancer, heart disease, lead poisoning, asbestos-related illnesses and other chronic conditions. They will also consider where responsibility for these new concerns lies, particularly as they have emerged in law suits. Together, we will explore the rise of modern environmental movement in the last 75 years

HIST UN3501 Indians and Empires in North America. 4.00 points.

In this course you will be asked to re-think American history. That is, we will approach the history of America as a continental history. This will require that we think of North America as a New World space, a place that was inhabited and occupied by indigenous peoples, and then remade by the arrival and settlement of Europeans. You will be asked to imagine a North America that was indigenous and adaptive, as well as colonial and Euro-American. This approach to the study of North American history is designed to challenge the epistemology and literature of the history of colonization and American expansion, which displaces Native peoples from the central narrative of American history by placing them at the physical margins of colonial and national development. Instead we will explore the intersection and integration of indigenous and Euro-American national identity and national space in North America and trace their co-evolution from first contact through the early nineteenth century

HIST UN3517 The Historical Imagination in Caribbean Literature. 4.00 points.

Caribbean literature offers complicated and vivid portrayals of the Caribbean’s past, and grapples with difficult histories lived by its people that compromised colonial archives can only partially capture. Literary works far exceed the limited narratives of Caribbean history by imagining entire worlds that official documents could never contain, rich selves, cultures and communities built by many generations of Caribbean people. This course is aimed at bringing forth a broader understanding of Caribbean history by examining a body of creative works by feminist and womanist writers that continuously remain attuned to the complexities of the past, which are either underrepresented or absent in the record. Chosen literary texts will also be paired with historical works that will illuminate and contextualize the multiple themes with which these Caribbean authors frequently engage, including slavery, and colonialism, racism and colorism, migration and immigration, gender and sexuality, poverty and globalization. From these pairings, students will explore both the divergences and alignments in how writers and historians approach the work of retelling the past, and will acquire reading and writing skills that will foster thoughtful critical analysis of the ever-changing contours of the Caribbean’s history

HIST UN3564 Dancing New York City in the 20th Century. 4.00 points.

The 20th century saw New York City emerge as an artistic and economic capital on the world stage. Although these trends are often considered separately, the history of dance in NYC demonstrates their interrelations. This seminar will interweave the history of New York City with the history of dance across the twentieth century. It will use the work of dancers, choreographers, and critics to illuminate social, political, and cultural trends in New York’s urban life. Topics include dance in working-class leisure, dance as cultural activism during the Popular Front and Black Arts eras, immigration and assimilation in NYC, and the impact of urban renewal on communities and the performing arts. No prior experience with dance is necessary; this course welcomes all students interested in cultural history, urban history, and intellectual history. Through reading and viewing assignments, class discussion and activities, and written assessments, students in this course will learn to analyze movement, write clearly and vividly about dance performance, conduct primary source research, and assess the role of the performing arts within the New York cityscape

HIST BC3598 Black Left Feminism and Anti-Colonial Liberation Move. 4.00 points.

This course examines the theory and practice of transnational Black feminism in a context of radical anti-colonial movements. It examines the US Black Power movement, struggles for independence in the Caribbean, the British Black women’s movement, the anti apartheid movement, Black women’s migrant labor, and Black women’s struggle for independence in the Pacific, to consider how revolutionary moments nurtured feminist organizing and how Black feminists articulated and put into practice anti-colonialism, national independence, and radical transformation. We will examine the relationship between Black feminism, Marxism, grassroots organizing, and movement building, nationally and transnationally, from the 1940s-1980s

HIST UN3604 Jews and the City. 4 points.

Priority given to majors and concentrators, seniors, and juniors.

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, millions of Jews uprooted themselves from their places of birth and moved to cities scattered throughout the world.  This mass urbanization not only created new demographic centers of world Jewry, but also fundamentally transformed Jewish political and cultural life.  In this course, we shall analyze primary source material, literary accounts as well as secondary sources as we examine the Jewish encounter with the city, and see how Jewish culture was shaped by and helped to shape urban culture.  We shall compare Jewish life in six cities spanning from Eastern Europe to the United States and consider how Jews’ concerns molded the urban economy, urban politics, and cosmopolitan culture.  We shall also consider the ways in which urbanization changed everyday Jewish life.  What impact did it have on Jewish economic and religious life?  What role did gender and class play in molding the experiences of Jews in different cities scattered throughout the world?

HIST UN3726 The Crucible of Nations: Race, Migration, and the Modern Mediterranean. 4.00 points.

This course is an historical introduction to the study of race and migration in the modern Mediterranean with a particular focus on histories from Africa and the Middle East. We will explore the fundamental migration events that have shaped Mediterranean history, including global settler movements, enslavement and forced migration, partitions and population transfers, and contemporary refugee crises. Building on Mediterranean history, we will discuss how race and migration shaped successive border regimes and competing world orders from 19th century to the present. Analyzing a diverse array of primary sources from legal texts, government reports, and maps to film, poetry, and visual arts, we will pursue answers to questions such as: What are the legal, social, and political structures which govern international migration? What laws, ideas, and affects construct political borders? What happens to those who breach them? How do the legacies of racial slavery, settler colonialism, and ethno-nationalism unsettle the borders of contemporary Mediterranean?

HIST UN3741 American Commercial and Business Interests in Turkey Until the 1960s. 4.00 points.

This course provides a comprehensive exploration of the American commercial and business interests in the Ottoman Empire and its successor, Turkey, from the beginning of the relations in the early 19th century until the 1960s. Through a multidisciplinary approach, students will also examine the diplomatic, economic, and cultural factors that shaped the relationship between the United States and Turkey during this period. In addition to the state-level relations, personal accounts of the Americans settled in Turkey will be highly consulted. The course begins by delving into the historical context of American-Ottoman relations, highlighting key events and developments that generally influenced commercial and business interactions. Students will gain insights into the diplomatic efforts, trade agreements, private initiatives, and cultural exchanges that fostered economic ties between the two countries in changing periods. Throughout the course, students will critically analyze primary and secondary sources, engage in discussions, and prepare a research paper to deepen their understanding of the topic

HIST BC3770 African Communities in New York, 1900 to the Present. 4.00 points.

This class explores the history of voluntary migrations from Africa to the United States over the course of the 20th century. This course is designed as a historical research seminar that is open to students with prior coursework in African Studies, Africana Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, or History. Thematically the course dwells at a point of intersection between African history, Black History, and Immigration History. As part of the Barnard Engages curriculum, this class is collaboratively designed with the Harlem-based non-profit organization, African Communities Together. The aim of this course is to support the mission of ACT by producing a historically grounded digital advocacy project. The mission of ACT is to empower immigrants from Africa and their families to integrate socially, advance economically, and engage civically. To advance this mission, ACT must confront the reality that in the current political moment new legal, political, and social barriers are being erected to the integration, advancement, and engagement of African immigrants on a daily basis. As immigrants, as Black people, as Africans, and often as women, low-income people, LGBT people, and Muslims, African immigrants experience multiple intersecting forms of marginalization. Now more than ever, it is critical that African immigrants be empowered to tell their own stories—not just of persecution and suffering, but of resilience and resistance

HIST UN3798 Fighting Inequality: Struggles for Economic Justice in the Global South. 4.00 points.

This seminar explores the history of economic justice in the “Global South,” with a particular focus on African movements for anti-colonialism and economic redistribution. It interrogates the concept of the “Global South” and analyzes the ways activists, political figures and thinkers fought for economic justice. The class starts with a focus on economic theories of redistribution. It then analyzes how slavery and emancipation, as well as capitalism and colonialism shaped 19th century hierarchies and struggles for economic and political rights. The second half of the course focuses on colonial exploitation and anticolonial struggles for economic sovereignty in the 20th century. The course ends with a study of postcolonial and early 21st century movements for economic sovereignty and demands for reparations and redistribution

HIST BC3823 RACE/RACISM/ANTIRACISM: STUDIES IN GLOBAL THOUGHT. 4.00 points.

RACE/RACISM/ANTIRACISM: STUDIES IN GLOBAL THOUGHT Recent protests against racial violence erupting across the United States have demanded that the United States address systemic injustice entrenched in its national history. The Black Lives Matter movement has extended still further, inciting communities across the globe to raise their voices against discrimination and inequality. Rather than viewing the United States— and the north Atlantic, more generally— through an exceptionalist lens, this seminar draws on the strong transnational resonance of the Black Lives Matter movement and the compelling responses of global communities across distinct demographics and colonial histories to decenter the historical origins of race thinking and provincialize its conceptual centrality as a first step in understanding its reach and relevance as a global signifier of “difference” today. How might we develop critical studies of race and racism that are truly global and extend beyond the historical experience of the North Atlantic, and North America in particular? Might we consider the concept history of race, commonly associated with the Atlantic World and plantation slavery as a form of historical difference proximate to other practices of social hierarchy and distinction across the modern world? How can scholarship that addresses questions of black vitality, fugitivity and Afropessimism engage productively and rigorously with questions of colonial servitude and postcolonial sovereignty that emanates from anticaste thought, ideas of Islamic universality, Pan-Africanism, or heterodox Marxisms? An exercise in comparative thinking, this seminar will function as an interstitial home for intellectual engagements in both the Global South and North, excavating linkages between injustices perpetrated through divisions of race, caste, and minority status, as well as the conceptual innovations born from struggles against them. We are explicitly focused on the relationship between worldmaking and concept formation. Questions of historical comparison and conceptual convergence are important. So, too the forms of sociopolitical solidarity and political utopias that have arisen as a consequence of struggles against enslavement and imperialism. Every seminar session will open with a twenty-minute discussion about political and social historical contexts. However, this is a course focused on the close and careful reading of ideas and concepts in a manner similar to courses in the history of ideas and/or political thought

HIST UN3839 SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR. 4.00 points.

A year-long course for outstanding senior majors who want to conduct research in primary sources on a topic of their choice in any aspect of history, and to write a senior thesis possibly leading toward departmental honors. Field(s): ALL

HIST UN3866 WARS OF INDOCHINA. 4.00 points.

This course will analyze the wars for Vietnam in the Cold War era from a multitude of perspectives, vantage points, and mediums. Using the award-winning documentary, The Vietnam War, as the basis of the seminar, students will explore this violent period in Indochinese history that witnessed decolonization movements, revolutionary struggles, state and nation-building, superpower interventions, and devastating warfare. At the same time, the battles that unfolded in mainland Southeast Asia posed geostrategic challenges to former imperial powers and the superpowers of the Cold War era. The class will not only familiarize students with Vietnam's tumultuous history, it introduces the latest debates, newest research, and most recent documentary films on this oft-studied topic

HIST GU4231 EASTERN EUROPE'S COLD WAR. 4.00 points.

This seminar explores the Cold Wars impact on Eastern Europe (1940s-1980s) and Eastern Europes Cold War-era engagements with the wider world. We will address the methodologies used by historians to answer questions like these: What was the Cold War? What did it mean, and for whom? We will also look at the Cold War as something more than a series of events; we will consider its value, uses, and limits as a device for framing the second half of the twentieth century

HIST GU4253 UKRAINE IN NEW YORK. 4.00 points.

Ukraine in New York is a multidisciplinary exploration of the Ukrainian-American community in New York City from its beginning in the late 19th century to the present. The course focuses on the history, demographics, economics, politics, religion, education, and culture of the community, devoting particular attention to the impact thereon of the New York setting, shifting attitudes towards American politics and culture and homeland politics and culture, the tensions encountered in navigating between American, Soviet Ukraine, and independent Ukraine

HIST GU4282 The Legacies of Division. East-West Entanglements in Contemporary European History. 4.00 points.

Through exploring how the asymmetrical relationship between Eastern and Western Europe has transformed since the 1970s, this course aims to decenter and reconsider contemporary European history. We shall focus primarily on political-institutional change, socioeconomic matters, and questions of political culture. We will pay special attention to key themes – such as the end of empire and Europeanization, the contemporary meanings of democracy, changing gender regimes, patterns of migration, and ongoing contestations of how Europeans remember – through which this complex relationship can be grasped

HIST GU4346 Black Sea Virtual Textbook: A Digital Research Seminar. 4.00 points.

This course is a continuation of History 4218, The Black Sea in History. It is open to all alumni of that class, from Fall 2023 or earlier. The goal of this research seminar is to craft a “virtual textbook” that gathers materials for each session of The Black Sea in History and posts them to a student-designed site. The primary “pull” of this class is that upper-level undergraduates, MA students, and PhD students will write (at least) one research article that will be published on the site. The site will serve as a textbook for future iterations of The Black Sea in History, and, while we will have a complete version by the end of the semester, future students will also be able to contribute. BSVT will be publicly accessible, so not limited to classroom use

HIST GU4356 Montaigne and the Modern Self. 4.00 points.

This seminar, which focuses on Montaigne’s Essays, is one of a series on the history of the modern self. The series has included seminars on figures like Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, and will continue to expand

HIST GU4373 Empire and Environment in Eurasia, 1700-2024. 4.00 points.

The Soviet Union, like the Russian Empire before it, straddled one-sixth of the planet’s landmass. Both powers drew on this territory’s vast resources—organic, mineral, animal, and human—to dominate their neighbors and exert power on the world stage. In the process, they dramatically reconfigured local ecosystems, from Central Asian deserts to Pacific islands. This seminar traces the interaction between empire and environment across three eras: Tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet. Its approach is comparative, framing developments in Russia alongside those elsewhere—in China, Europe, and the US. The course asks: How have modern polities transformed Eurasia’s land, water, and air? In turn, how has the natural world shaped the trajectories of diverse imperial projects? And what legacies have these encounters left for today? Topics include settler colonialism, energy transitions, “natural” disasters, warfare, environmentalism, scientific diplomacy, ecocide, climate change, and the comparative footprints of capitalism and communism. While the approach is historical, students will engage materials from across disciplines (alongside films, novellas, and other primary sources) with an eye towards today’s political and ecological dilemmas. The seminar is designed for upper-division and graduate students with an interest in environmental history methods. Previous exposure to Russian and Eurasian Studies is helpful, but not required

HIST GU4393 Trials for history: How should Nazi crimes be judged? The Second World War and its legacy in Europe (1945-2024). 4.00 points.

Nearly 80 years have passed since the Second World War: a majority of Europeans no longer have an autobiographical memory of the war. Yet the legacy of the Second World War is all the more present because the “heroic” myths that many European nations adopted after 1945 have now been replaced by negative memories. Europe no longer celebrates the Resistance fighter who died for a cause, but now recognizes European Jews as victims. To explore the way in which the Second World War remains present in post-war European societies that it helped to shape, the seminar will take as its starting point the Nuremberg trials of 1945-1948 and continue throughout the last trials of Nazi criminals in Germany. It will also look at the responses of the judicial, political and social actors. The seminar highlights the extent to which the complex relationship between justice, history and memory surrounding the Second World War is still relevant today. Through various case studies, we will examine the political, memorial and legal issues and debates raised by this difficult history through a comparative analysis of trials in France and Germany, thereby situating these processes in a European context. The seminar questions the place of witnesses and the administration of evidence in these collective crimes and invites reflection on the types of sources that public policies of the past can mobilize to mediate these trials for the "devoir de mémoire” (obligation of remembrance). A variety of sources will be used including, news clips, photographs and legal documents, in addition to the preparatory readings for each session

HIST GU4394 Britain and the end of empire in Southeast Asia, 1941-68. 4.00 points.

This course examines the contraction of British imperial power in Southeast Asia from the opening of the Pacific War in 1941/42 to the decisions of the Labour Government in 1967/68 to withdraw from ‘East of Suez’. As well as analysing the explanations offered for the retreat from formal colonial rule, the course explores how attempts were made to preserve influence and control the pace of change. The interactions between metropolitan weakness and local nationalisms will be emphasised, as will be the effects of the Cold War. Attention will also be paid to Anglo-American relations and the wars in Indochina

HIST GU4509 PROBLEMS IN INT'L HISTORY. 4.00 points.

The 1970s were a pivotal decade for the United States, both as a society and a superpower. Runaway spending and an energy crisis brought on the worst recession since the 1930s, revealing the tenuous basis of American prosperity and ending the spectacular “postwar boom.” The Vietnam War’s conclusion and revelations of CIA perfidies prompted soul-searching and eventually human rights as a new justification for U.S. foreign policy, yet those rights—and who deserved them—remained unclear. A radical “New Left” and “New Right” challenged the political center, each with lasting (though disproportionate) impacts on American politics. This course will explore these and other major changes in American society and foreign relations in the 20th century through the lens of the 1970s. Familiarity with the contours of post-1945 American and/or international history is useful, but there are no requirements beyond an interest in the readings, topics, and current affairs

HIST GU4588 RACE, DRUGS, AND INEQUALITY. 4.00 points.

Priority given to majors and concentrators, seniors, and juniors.

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.
Note: Admission to this course is by application only. Please use the form found in the SSOL course message. Through a series of secondary- and primary-source readings, digital archive research, and writing assignments, we will explore the history of harm reduction from its origins in syringe exchange, health education, and condom distribution, to the current moment of decriminalization, safe consumption politics, and medically assisted treatment (MAT). At the same time, we will think about how harm reduction perspectives challenge us to rethink the histories and historiography of substance use, sexuality, health, and research science. Along with harm reduction theory and philosophy, relevant concepts and themes include syndemic and other epidemiological concepts theory; structural inequities (structural violence, structural racism); medicalization; biomedicalization; racialization; gender theory and queer theory; mass incarceration, hyperpolicing, and the carceral state; the “housing first” approach; political and other subjectivities; and historical constructions of “addiction”/“addicts”, rehabilitation/recovery, what are “drugs,” and the “(brain) disease model”/NIDA paradigm of addiction. Readings are multidisciplinary and include works in history, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines, and the syllabus will include at least one field trip to a harm reduction organization. Students will complete a short research project. There are no official prerequisites. However, students should have some academic or professional background in public health, African-American/ethnic studies history or social science, and/or some other work related to the course material. Admission to this course is by application only. Please use the form found in the SSOL course message. Students may not enroll in this course on a pass/fail basis or as an auditor without instructor permission. Student assessment will be based on various criteria: Class discussion participation - 35％ Presentation of the readings - 15％ Writing assignments - 50％

HIST GU4682 Histories of the Public Sphere in Latin America: History, Justice, and Memory. 4.00 points.

The history of the recent history of dictatorship, justice, memory and democracy in Latin America is examined in this seminar through the lens of the theory of the public sphere. We will also look at the paradigmatic cases of the processes that followed crimes against humanities in other regions in order to identify the specificity of the Latin American experience

HIST GU4699 Medieval Franciscans and their World. 4.00 points.

This course will offer an examination of the birth and development of the Franciscan Order between 1200-1350. The topics will include Francis of Assisi, the foundation of the three orders of Franciscans, education, poverty, preaching, theology internal strife, antifraternalism, and relations with secular governments and papacy

HIST GU4723 Politics of Archaeology. 4.00 points.

“Who owns antiquities?” “Who owns culture?” These questions that appear frequently today in both popular and scholarly discourse are deeply embedded in political issues and have a long history, going back to the nineteenth century. The seminar will investigate the origins of the battles over antiquities and their links empire building, colonialism, Orientalism, modernity, power, identity construction, racial hierarchies, and money. The chronological frame is from the 1850s to1914 and the geographical focus in the Ottoman Middle East, which was the major theater of contestations. We will look closely into two areas: archaeological excavations and museums. If objects were unearthed (“discovered”) in the first, they were displayed in the second; the Middle East was crowded with the first, while the major museums were in the West, with the exception of the Museum of Antiquities in Istanbul. We will also consider the vast and complex human landscape around the antiquities. In addition to archaeologists, this community included emperors, sultans, diplomats, spies, artists, inspectors, bureaucrats, technocrats, and workers, hence a cohort of individuals from many nationalities, economic strata, ethnic groups, and religions

HIST GU4729 Sources and Methods in Islamic History. 4.00 points.

This course trains students in approaching sources in Arabic and Persian from the premodern period. Depending on interest and experience, the course will expand to include Turkic and Hindvi/Urdu as well too. Students will gain a solid understanding of the wide range of historical writings in these languages, the conceptual and methodological problems involved in working with each, and how this source base changed over the centuries all the while reading exemplary historical studies that creatively and proficiently engaged with these materials. Students will gain proficiency in archival research while also reading a wide swathe of primary texts in the target languages (or in translation if students lack the proper language training). Upper intermediate Arabic and/or Persian preferred

HIST GU4779 AFRICAN FRANCE, FRENCH AFRICA. 4.00 points.

This seminar explores a tradition of historical writing (historiography) that constructs “Africa and France,” or “France and Africa,” or “FrançAfrique” as an historical object and as an object of knowledge. That body of writing accounts in various and sometimes contadictory ways for the peculiar, intense, and historically conflictual relationship that exists between France and the sub-Saharan nation-states that are its former African colonies

HIST GU4811 Encounters with Nature: The History and Politics of Environment, Health and Development in South Asia and Beyond. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course offers an understanding of the interdisciplinary field of environmental, health and population history and will discuss historical and policy debates with a cross cutting, comparative relevance: such as the making and subjugation of colonized peoples and natural and disease landscapes under British colonial rule; modernizing states and their interest in development and knowledge and technology building, the movement and migration of populations, and changing place of public health and healing in south Asia. The key aim of the course will be to introduce students to reading and analyzing a range of historical scholarship, and interdisciplinary research on environment, health, medicine and populations in South Asia and to introduce them to an exploration of primary sources for research; and also to probe the challenges posed by archives and sources in these fields. Some of the overarching questions that shape this course are as follows: How have environmental pasts and medical histories been interpreted, debated and what is their contemporary resonance? What have been the encounters (political, intellectual, legal, social and cultural) between the environment, its changing landscapes and state? How have citizens, indigenous communities, and vernacular healers mediated and shaped these encounters and inserted their claims for sustainability, subsistence or survival? How have these changing landscapes shaped norms about bodies, care and beliefs? The course focuses on South Asia but also urges students to think and make linkages beyond regional geographies in examining interconnected ideas and practices in histories of the environment, medicine and health. Topics will therefore include (and students are invited to add to these perspectives and suggest additional discussion themes): colonial and globalized circuits of medical knowledge, with comparative case studies from Africa and East Asia; and the travel and translation of environmental ideas and of medical practices through growing global networks

HIST GU4842 The City ＆ the Archive. 4.00 points.

How to write the city? What is an archive for writing the city? What liminal and marginal perspectives are available for thinking about writing the city? What is the place of the city in the global south in our historical imagination? Our attempt in this seminar is to look at the global south city from the historical and analytical perspectives of those dispossessed and marginal. Instead of ‘grand’ summations about “the Islamic City” or “Global City,” we will work meticulously to observe annotations on power that constructs cities, archives and their afterlives. The emphasis is on the city in South Asia as a particular referent though we will learn to see Cairo, New York, and Istanbul

HIST GU4871 History of Asian Communism. 4.00 points.

From the hereditary rule of a single family in Pyongyang to the eighteen different Communist Parties contesting democratic elections in Nepal; from the brave women warriors of the Filipino and Malayan Communist Parties to the fiercely independent Global South leaders who charted unique courses for their Communist Parties and countries; this course invites students to take a deep dive into the many adaptations and evolutions of communist thought and practice in Asia. Students will familiarize themselves with the works of key Asian communist figures in the historical and political contexts in which they lived and struggled. By showcasing the incredible diversity of communist theories, systems, experiences, and personalities, while providing analytical tools and documentary resources, History of Asian Communism will help students grow as critical readers and knowledge producers through facilitating lively and informed debate and praxis of communist thought and history

HIST GU4904 WRITING LIVES: A SURVEY OF HISTORICAL APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES. 4 points.

Ranging from ancient chronicles and saints’ lives to the emergence of modern subjectivity, the rise of the diary, the novel and the bureaucratic questionnaire, this course explores how historians across the ages have written about people’s lives. It asks what has happened to the notion of a life as a moral example, the changing value of ‘experience’ and the ‘ordinary person’, and charts how democracy altered the sense of what was worth recording and commemorating. It draws for its sources on a very wide range of cultures and epochs and concludes by asking the student to conduct their own life history research.

HIST GU4933 American Radicalism in the Archives. 4.00 points.

“American Radicalism in the Archives” is a research seminar examining the multiple ways that radicals and their social movements have left traces in the historical record. Straddling the disciplines of social movement history, public humanities, and critical information studies, the seminar will use the archival collections at Columbia University’s Rare Book ＆ Manuscript Library to trace the history of social movements and to consider the intersections of radical theory and practice with the creation and preservation of archives

HIST GU4954 Visualizing History: Photography in conflicts and crisis. 4.00 points.

Photographs capture history as it happens, before events becomes history in the conventional sense, and these same photographs provide a visual archive of the past available to later historians. This course explores the relationship between photography and history in selected conflicts and crises across the world in modern times, from the Crimean War to the war in Ukraine, from a Portuguese fascist internment camp for political prisoners to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the Arab Spring, and the current refugee crisis. In each case we use a combination of text and visual materials, with the focus on the latter, in order to trace the role of photography in history as well as the impact of changing photographic media, from large format cameras to cell phones. Course requirements center on projects rather than papers and emphasize the analysis of visual materials as well as words

HIST GU4963 Nations and Nationalisms. 4.00 points.

This seminar offers a critical overview of recent literature on the historical emergence of national identities and the creation of national states. We will examine a series of books that present new ways of problematizing the nation and its construction and consolidation. These works take novel approaches foregrounding gender, temporality, memory, religion, economic development, local affinities, networks, and empire, among other frameworks. Building on classic literature on the nation and its origins from history, anthropology, political science, and political economy, the texts covered in this course nevertheless suggest new conclusions about the foundations, conditions of emergence, and persistence of national states and national identities. What is a nation? How are nations formed? What could the nation have been, what other forms could it have taken, and what other types of political organization could have provided the basis for group identification or the structure of global order? To what extent did regional identities, on one hand, and imperial or supranational identities, on the other hand, affect the development of specific nations and of the nation-state in general? Why does every national group implicitly deserve or possess a state? Why are those nation-states territorial? How do nation-states generate and maintain the allegiance of their citizens and instill or ascribe membership in a national group? How do nations police or depend upon the gender, racial, and class identities of their subjects? This seminar also seeks to raise a set of other questions about historical method and craft. How do we write and think about nationalism today? With histories of the nation rightly challenged by transnational approaches, does the nation still constitute a meaningful unit of historical analysis, and if so, in what ways? How do we take account of the nation as a historical fact while acknowledging the nation as a construction? With more virulent forms of right-wing nationalism and nationalist populism on the rise around the world, on the other hand, how should national histories and mythologies be questioned, reframed, and undermined? Drawing on this recent literature, this seminar will seek to propose provisional answers to these questions and others about the nation and nationalism. Texts examined will cover both classic works on the nation and new works that revise or supplement them, as well as works that take novel approaches. Part of the course will historicize earlier theories of nationalism. New approaches will be situated within these traditions and in terms of how they depart from them and offer new avenues for research or theorization. Geographical areas covered will include Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Upper-level undergraduate students will learn not only about the nation, nationalism, and foundational historical interpretations of their development, but also about new trends in historical scholarship and new ways of writing national histories. The seminar will emphasize how national identity intersects with other forms of identity and other interests. Students will engage with related literature on Marxism, modernity, anti-colonialism, and the history of social thought

ASCE UN1361 INTRO EAST ASIAN CIV: JPN. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Prerequisites: NOTE: Students must register for a discussion section ASCE UN1371
Prerequisites: NOTE: Students must register for a discussion section ASCE UN1371 A survey of important events and individuals, prominent literary and artistic works, and recurring themes in the history of Japan, from prehistory to the 20th century

HSME UN2811 South Asia: Empire and Its Aftermath. 4 points.

Prerequisites: None.

(No prerequisite.) We begin with the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire, and examine why and how the East India Company came to rule India in the eighteenth century. As the term progresses, we will investigate the objectives of British colonial rule in India and we will explore the nature of colonial modernity. The course then turns to a discussion of anti-colonial sentiment, both in the form of outright revolt, and critiques by early nationalists. This is followed by a discussion of Gandhi, his thought and his leadership of the nationalist movement. Finally, the course explores the partition of British India in 1947, examining the long-term consequences of the process of partition for the states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We will focus in particular on the flowing themes: non-Western state formation; debates about whether British rule impoverished India; the structure and ideology of anti-colonial thought; identity formation and its connection to political, economic and cultural structures. The class relies extensively on primary texts, and aims to expose students to multiple historiographical perspectives for understanding South Asia's past.

HSAF UN3504 COLUMBIA 1968. 4.00 points.

This undergraduate seminar examines the social, political, and cultural transformations of the 1960s through the lens of local history. The course is centered on the student and community protests that took place at Columbia University and in Morningside Heights in 1968. Scholarly and popular histories have underscored the ways 1968 was a watershed moment in the history of the 20th century. Although the protest is one of the touchstone events from the year and the decade, reliable historical treatment is still lacking. This class encourages students to examine and craft histories of the university and the surrounding community in this period. Designed to work in tandem with the “Columbia and Slavery” course, this course is a public-facing seminar designed to empower students to open up a discussion of all the issues connected with the protests, its global, national, and local context, and its aftermath. The course aims to raise questions, elicit curiosity, and encourage students and those interested in Columbia and Morningside Heights history to investigate one of the most important events to take place in the university’s history. The recent 50th anniversary of those events, and the availability of new sources ＆ publications on the protests, have presented opportunities to prompt fresh answers to old questions: What were the factors that led to the protests? How did student and community mobilization shape, and were shaped by, national and international forces? What are the local, national, and international legacies of Columbia 1968? The recent graduate student strike is a very tangible legacy of the protests. This seminar is part of an on-going, multiyear effort to grapple with such questions and to share our findings with the Columbia community and beyond. Working independently, students will define and pursue individual research projects. Working together, the class will create digital visualizationsof these projects. Course Objectives: 1. To explore, document, and contextualize the Columbia/Morningside Heights protests of 1968. 2. To practice the “historian’s craft” by conducting research, analyzing primary material, and making coherent arguments based on an interrogation of evidence. 3. To analyze, engage in, and reflect on the relationship between archival research and the production of historical research in the digital realm as a point of interaction with a broader public

WMST BC3514 HIST APPROACHES FEMINIST QUES. 4.00 points.

Comparative study of gender, race, and sexuality through specific historical, socio-cultural contexts in which these systems of power have operated. With a focus on social contexts of slavery, colonialism, and modern capitalism for the elaboration of sex-gender categories and systems across historical time

HSME GU4154 PAN AFRICANISM. 4.00 points.

“Pan Africanist” ideologies were very diverse from Garveyism, Negritude to the various African America, Caribbean and African discourses of “neo-pharaohnism” and “Ethiopianism.” This seminar explores how Black leaders, intellectuals, and artists chose to imagine Black (Africans and people of African descent) as a global community from the late 19th century to the present. It examines their attempts to chart a course of race, modernity, and emancipation in unstable and changing geographies of empire, nation, and state. Particular attention will be given to manifestations identified as their common history and destiny and how such a distinctive historical experience has created a unique body of reflections on and cultural productions about modernity, religion, class, gender, and sexuality, in a context of domination and oppression

FRHS GU4917 French Empires: History and Historiography. 4.00 points.

At the beginning of the 21st Century, forty years after its last colonial war, France, which had primarily seen itself as a “nation” in the previous two hundred years, discovered that it had been an “empire” for most of its history. The questions of slavery, colonial violence, racism, exclusion, and exploitation became prevalent in public debates with the conviction that colonial legacies continued to shape France’s present. This new interest in the imperial trajectory of France both informed and was shaped by the publication of many historical works. This class will explore this 'imperial turn' and examine its specificity vis-à-vis the historiographies of other European empires. We will examine the questions that have been at the center of the historian's agenda: what kind of historical processes is revealed (or masked) by the imperial perspective? How do we think historically about the relationships between nation, Republic and empire? How has the 'imperial turn' shaped the categories and writing practices of historians? How have new repertoires of questions about citizenship, gender and sexuality, racism, capitalism, and the environment emerged in the study of imperialism? What are the contributions of historians to the understanding of postcolonialism?