Courses

AS.100.102.  The Medieval World.  3 Credits.  

This course explores selected topics in the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of Western Europe in the wider world in the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the fourteenth century. Special emphasis will be given to understanding the ways in which medieval society functioned as it reorganized itself after the almost total collapse of the ancient world. Topics include: religious plurality, sovereignty and subjecthood, flourishing of learning, chivalric culture, crusading, and the plague and its effects. We will follow the interplay between material and cultural forces in the processes of social organization.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.104.  Modern Europe in a global context, 1789-Present.  3 Credits.  

Modern Europe familiarizes students with key moments, ideas, communities, individuals, and movements which have defined European experiences in global encounters since the Revolutionary era. We will particularly focus on European imperial expansion, the formation of the modern nation-state, the history of political ideas and their global ramifications, and popular culture and social change.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.113.  Making America: Race, Radicalism, and Reform.  3 Credits.  

This course examines race and social movements in America from the Revolution to 1921.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.115.  Modern Latin America.  3 Credits.  

A class combining Latin American history since independence and digital humanities (revised with 2021 student feedback). Students will build guided research projects while thinking about questions of republicanism, freedom and unfreedom, migration, and development.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.118.  Introduction to the Middle East.  3 Credits.  

This introductory course aims to introduce students who have no prior knowledge of the Middle East to the region. Emphasis will be placed on the history, geography, languages, religions, and culture of the pre-modern and modern Middle East. Students will also be exposed to different methods and approaches to the academic study of the region.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.122.  Introduction to History of Africa (since 1880).  3 Credits.  

An introduction to modern African history, with emphasis on colonialism and decolonization.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.123.  Introduction to African History: Diversity, Mobility, Innovation.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to three major themes in African history, from the precolonial era to the present.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.127.  Transatlantic Histories of Illicit Pleasure.  3 Credits.  

Through issues of illicit pleasure (sexuality, hallucination, play, etc.) in Black, Indigenous, queer, and women's history circa 1500-1850, we will investigate the politics of morality. Assessment will be based on "Un-Essay" projects instead of written exams.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.128.  Approaches to Jewish History.  3 Credits.  

The course will provide an introduction to the study of Jewish History.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.129.  Introduction to Modern Jewish History.  3 Credits.  

Jewish history 1750-present in Europe, the Near East, the US, Israel; the challenges of modernity and new forms of Jewish life and conflict from Enlightenment and emancipation, Hasidism, Reform and Orthodox Judaism to capitalism and socialism; empire, nationalism and Zionism; the Holocaust. Extensive attention to US Jewry and State of Israel.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.165.  Japan in the World.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction to Japan’s history from 1800 to the present with emphasis on the influences of an increasing global circulation of ideas and people. Topics include the emperor system, family and gender, imperialism, World War II, the postwar economy, and global J-pop.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.170.  Chinese Cultural Revolution.  3 Credits.  

The Cultural Revolution was Mao Zedong's last attempt to transform Chinese society spiritually and structurally. The events of this period were marked by social upheaval, personal vendettas, violence, massive youth movements, and extreme ideological pressure. This course will explore the Cultural Revolution from a variety of perspectives, focusing on the relationship between events in China from 1966-1976, and their interpretation in China and the West during the Cultural Revolution decade and since. (Previously offered as AS.100.219 and AS.100.236. )

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.190.  Modern African American History, 1896 – present.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces students to the defining social, political, and cultural moments that reflect the experience of African Americans in the United States, 1896 – present. Topics include the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Freedom Struggle, African American politics, urban rebellion, mass incarceration, Hip Hop culture, the current movement for Black Lives, and more.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.210.  The 1619 Project: History and Public Debate.  3 Credits.  

We will discuss Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 Project, the scholarship supporting each of the essays, and the public debates that ensued. Students will learn how authors build historical arguments and develop critical reading and fact-checking skills. The class will balance a deep investigation of the Project’s essays with an analysis of how those essays have influenced political discourse. This is a reading-intensive, discussion-based class. There will be two small writing assignments, including a final project which can take the form of a podcast, blog post, video, or other multi-media format beyond a traditional essay. The goal is for students to be able to communicate their expertise to people outside the classroom.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.216.  Reformation and Counter Reformation Europe.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the series of religious and political conflicts that make up what are known now as the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.218.  Paris Noire: Black American Women in the City of Lights.  3 Credits.  

This class explores the construction and articulation of Black womanhood between the anglophone and francophone worlds in the 19th and 20th century. Through a study of secondary and primary sources, we will follow African American women across the Atlantic and analyze their experiences with France and the French language.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.221.  From Mass Conversion to Mass Incarceration: The History of the Uyghurs from the 10th Century to the Present Day.  3 Credits.  

This course offers an overview of the history of the Uyghur people from their conversion to Islam in the tenth century to the present-day human rights crisis in Xinjiang, China.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.228.  Changing the World: Philanthropy in the Twentieth Century.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces students to significant ideas and debates on the appropriate role of private individuals, institutions, and wealth in leading social change from the Gilded Age through Silicon Valley.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.230.  Bones, Blood, and Ecstasy: Religious Culture in Western Christendom, 1100-1700.  3 Credits.  

Explores religious culture in medieval and early modern Europe, with an emphasis on spiritual beliefs and practices, relics, miracles, pilgrimage, and saint-making. Emphasis on reading and discussing written sources and visual culture.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.231.  Worlds of Hip Hop.  3 Credits.  

Worlds of Hip-Hop explores hip-hop as an arts movement whose forms, conventions, and standards responded to the specific political and social conditions to address questions of freedom and community.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.233.  History of Modern Germany.  3 Credits.  

There is more to Germany than beer, BMWs, and Bayern Munich. We explore politics, culture, economics and society to understand Germany and its role in Europe and the world from the 18th century to the 2015 ‘Refugee Crisis’, climate change, EU and NATO politics today.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.238.  Expansion and the Early U.S. Republic.  3 Credits.  

This course will introduce students to some major issues and problems in the history of the Early U.S. Republic, c. 1750 to 1815, by focusing on the theme of “expansion.”

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.240.  American Cultural Criticism.  3 Credits.  

This course explores 20th century U.S. history through the works of writers and artists. We will ask how essays, novels, performance, and art can function as cultural and social criticism.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.241.  American Revolution.  3 Credits.  

This course provides an intensive introduction to the causes, character, and consequences of the American Revolution, the colonial rebellion that produced the first republic in the Americas, and set in motion an age of democratic revolutions in the Atlantic world. A remarkable epoch in world history, the revolutionary era was of momentous significance.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.243.  China: Neolithic to Song.  3 Credits.  

This class offers a broad overview of changes in China from Neolithic times through the Song dynasty (roughly from 5000 BCE through the 13th century CE!). It features discussion of art, material culture, philosophical texts, religious ideas, and literary works as well as providing a broad overview of politics and society. Close readings of primary sources in discussion sections and extensive use of visual material in lectures will allow students to consider the relationship between what (sources) we have—and what we can know about the past.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.245.  Islam East of the Middle East: The Interconnected Histories of Islam in Asia.  3 Credits.  

Challenging the conception that Islam is synonymous with the Middle East, this course considers Muslim populations across Asia and interrogates how Islam and these regions have shaped one another.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.250.  The American Revolution in Unexpected Places.  3 Credits.  

This course considers the American Revolution from the perspective of locations beyond the thirteen rebelling colonies. Covering a range of global hotspots, the focus is on events from 1763 to 1788.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.251.  West African History.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the rich history of West Africa and its place in the broader world. Topics include the environmental history of the Sahara desert, West African empires, and the rise of Nollywood and contemporary culture.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.252.  Sex and the American City.  3 Credits.  

Why are cities associated with sex and vice? Are cities a natural refuge for LGBT people? This course explores the role of American cities in the history of sexuality.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.256.  History of Kabbalah.  3 Credits.  

This course is a survey of the history of Jewish magic, mysticism, and secret tradition from the Middle Ages till the 19th century. We shall explore the concept of the sod (mystery) and its historical variants. We shall read excerpts from the most important texts of Jewish esotericism, such as Sefer Yetzirah, the Bahir, and the Zohar. We shall also discuss “practical Kabbalah”, i.e. the preparation and use of amulets and charms, as well as demonic (and angelic) possession.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.262.  Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the medieval Middle East.  3 Credits.  

The course examines religious difference in the medieval Middle East, including everyday encounters and relations between members of different communities; the policies of some Islamic states towards non-Muslims; conversion to Islam and the Islamization of society and space.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.265.  A History of Health, Healing, (Bio)Medicine, and Power in Africa.  3 Credits.  

This course explores how historical events and processes, such as colonialism and globalization, have shaped ideas of health, healing, medicine, and power in specific African societies since the 19th century. 100-level course in African History recommended.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.270.  Europe since 1945.  3 Credits.  

This class focuses on Europe from the end of World War II until today. We will discuss such topics as the Cold War, social democracy, the welfare state, the relationship to the US and the Soviet Union, decolonization, migration, 1989, European integration, neoliberalism, and the EU. We will discuss and analyze academic literature, movies, documentary films, textual and visual primary sources.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.273.  A Comparative History of Jewish and Christian Mysticism.  3 Credits.  

This course will trace the historical development of Jewish and Christian mysticism between the 11th and the 19th centuries.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.275.  Passing in American Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course explores passing narratives – stories that feature people who cross race, class, ethnic, or gender boundaries. We will consider what passing narratives can teach us about power and identity, especially as power is presumed to reside in the self and race is presumed to no longer matter.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.282.  Race & Power in Modern South Africa.  3 Credits.  

Overview of modern South African history, with a focus on the origins of the racial state and the development of black liberation movements.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.283.  Making and Unmaking Queer Histories, 1800-Present.  3 Credits.  

Making and Unmaking Queer Histories introduces students to the major themes and historical developments which shape contemporary understandings of LGBTQ+-identified subjects and communities in the US and Western Europe.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.291.  Medicine in an Age of Empires, 1500-1800.  3 Credits.  

How did medicine emerge as a distinctive body of knowledge and a profession in the early modern period? The answers lie in the histories of disease, empire, and global commerce.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.293.  Historical Methods, Archives and Interpretations.  3 Credits.  

This course will survey the main methods of and approaches to history since the Ancient times till the present. We shall begin by asking “What is history?” and explicate the basic concepts such as “fact”, “event”, “source”, narrative”, “evidence”, etc. We shall inquire if history can teach lessons for the future, or, for that matter, any lessons at all. We shall explore the interactions of history and collective memory and discuss various social, political, and psychological uses and abuses of historical writing.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.294.  Undergraduate Seminar in History.  3 Credits.  

The second semester of the two-semester sequence required for majors, this course further introduces students to the theory and practice of history. Students write an essay based on original research.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.295.  American Thought since the Civil War.  3 Credits.  

A survey of major developments in American philosophy, literature, law, economics, and political theory since 1865. Among other subjects, readings will explore modernism and anti-modernism, belief and uncertainty, science and tradition, uniformity and diversity, scarcity and surfeit, and individualism and concern for the social good.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.301.  America after the Civil Rights Movement.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history of late twentieth-century America by examining the social, economic, and political legacies of 1960s civil rights protest for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

AS.100.302.  History of the French-Algerian War, 1954-1962.  3 Credits.  

The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) successfully challenged French claims that Algeria was part of France and led to an independent Algerian Republic. This struggle is often seen as the touchstone anti-colonial struggle as well as the matrix for modern forms of terrorism and state-sponsored torture. We will explore its history.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.303.  Old Regime and Revolutionary France.  3 Credits.  

Examines the history of France from the reign of Louis XIV to the French Revolution, focusing on early modern society, popular culture, absolutism, the Enlightenment, overseas empire, and the French and Haitian Revolutions.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.304.  Ecstasy: Mystical, Visionary, and Holy Women and their Writings in Medieval Europe, ca. 1000-1400.  3 Credits.  

This course uses the writings of medieval women to explore their social and religious worlds and orients visionary writing within the broader narrative of religious movements from the 12th-14th centuries.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.305.  Peter to Putin: Survey.  3 Credits.  

Seminar on modern Russia. No midterm and no final. 6 short weekly journals, two short papers, and two small quizzes.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.306.  Cultural History of the USSR.  3 Credits.  

This class explores the history of the USSR through its varied cultural domains. It will consider music, literature, film, painting, and sculpture in both “high” and “low” registers, as well as aesthetics, power, and control over the entire Soviet period, at both the center and, especially, the periphery.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.310.  The French Revolution.  3 Credits.  

Political, social and cultural history of a turning-point in European history that witnessed the birth and death of democracy.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.314.  The Enlightenment.  3 Credits.  

Examines the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that swept Europe in the eighteenth century to shape the modern world. Topics include science and religion; print culture; gender and sociability; political economy; and race, slavery, and colonialism.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.319.  History of American Reproductive Politics.  3 Credits.  

This course examines reproductive politics in the United States from the colonial era to the present. Topics include contraception, abortion, and sterilization, emphasizing the impact of gender, class, and race.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.321.  Political Thought and Social Transformation in the Haitian Revolution and Early Independent Mexico, c. 1789-1850.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine both the Haitian Revolution and the early period of Mexican independence by engaging with the ideas of actors within these events in international contexts.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.324.  American Origins, ca. 1619-ca. 1776.  3 Credits.  

This discussion-based seminar focuses on Colonial American history, using maps, objects, and other primary sources to examine such topics as colonialism, slavery, war, disease, trade, empire, and cultural encounters.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.325.  Mercenaries, Ice, and Dark Magic.  3 Credits.  

What’s the worst that can happen? We examine the seventeenth century as a warning, traversing the lives of soldiers, captives, and philosophers during one of the world’s most difficult moments.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.327.  The Islamic Age of Empires: The Ottomans, the Mughals, and the Safavids.  3 Credits.  

“In the sixteenth century of our era”, wrote the eminent historian of Muslim societies Marshall Hodgson, “a visitor from Mars might well have supposed that the human world was on the verge of becoming Muslim”. They would have based this assertion, continues Hodgson, on the political, cultural, and economic vitality of the empires of the Ottomans, the Mughals, and the Safavids. This survey course will introduce students to the history, culture, institutions, and socio-religious makeup of these three early modern polities that ranged from the Balkans to Bengal, paying particular attention on issues of dynastic and religious law, cultural, religious, and military-diplomatic exchanges with the world and with each another, and their impact on the social, religious, and ethnic makeup of modern Europe and Asia.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.333.  Making Money in the Atlantic World.  3 Credits.  

The history of money is a history of power exercised by states, institutions, and individuals. It is also a history of the structural possibilities and constraints faced by people in the past. We will address making, using, and conceptualizing money in the early modern Atlantic World, a time and a place of expanding empires, extractive enterprises, and changing categories of difference like race, gender, and class.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.335.  The American West.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the expansion and creation of an American West—and its inhabitants—from the Constitution to the end of the nineteenth century.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.336.  The United Kingdom? A Cultural History of Four Nations, 1707-Present.  3 Credits.  

This course delves into the variegated, often divergent national politics, social landscapes, and cultural shifts in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland since Britain’s Acts of Union in 1707.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.338.  Islam and Dune.  3 Credits.  

In this course we will explore how religion in general and Islam in particular informs the world of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune, laying particular emphasis on how the messianic and mystical tradition within Islam pervades the first novel. We will also watch excerpts from the film adaption by Denis Villeneuve, and the forthcoming second part in its entirety together in a local theater. As we do so, we will also discuss questions of Orientalism, representation, adaption, and appropriation in both the books and the films.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.340.  Asian American Art and Activism: Third World, Feminist, and Queer Solidarities.  3 Credits.  

This interdisciplinary course surveys critical themes related to Asian American art and activism including perspectives from history, art and visual culture, literature and gender and sexuality studies.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.343.  The Annales School.  3 Credits.  

This is not a typical history course but one on historical theory and modern historiographical thought. How did historians in the past generations attempt to analyze the past? To what extent is history connected to other disciplines? What was the French contribution to contemporary historiography? What is "new history"? In this seminar, we are going to examine the scholarship of the French Annales, arguably the most influential and revolutionary “school” of historiography in the twentieth century. Students will read selected works of the Annales historians and discuss concepts such as economic history, serial history, longue durée, conjuncture, total history, mentalité, historical psychology, and historical anthropology.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.346.  Soviet-American Cold War.  3 Credits.  

The focus will be on Soviet-American interactions, Cold-War Cultures, and the impact on both societies.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.347.  Early Modern China.  3 Credits.  

The history of China from the 16th to the late 19th centuries.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.348.  20th-Century China.  3 Credits.  

History of China since ca. 1900.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.349.  Entertaining America: Popular Culture from Blackface to Broadcast.  3 Credits.  

"Entertaining America” will trace the history of popular culture in the United States, starting inthe 1830s, when blackface minstrelsy initiated a new wave of commercial performance, andending in the 1920s, when records, films, and radio ushered in the era of mass culture.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.354.  Playing in the White: Black Writers, the Literary Colorline and Writing Whiteness.  3 Credits.  

This course will turn to known and not-so-known black writers during the early to mid-twentieth century who defied literary expectation and wrote stories that featured or focused on whiteness. We will consider what whiteness offered black writers and the political work that their literary experimentations did for a white American publishing industry.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.355.  Sex and Society in Early Modern Europe.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine how early modern views on the body, gender, and sexuality shaped beliefs about the abilities and rights of women and men.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.360.  The Modern British World: Imperial Encounters, Regimes, and Resistance, from the American Revolution to the present.  3 Credits.  

The Modern British World introduces some of the major events, themes, and controversies that led to Britain’s global dominance and ultimate decline as an imperial power. This course focuses on varying forms of imperial governance, the interrelationships between metropole and colony, and the formation of British and colonial national identities.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.361.  Age of Tolstoy.  3 Credits.  

Tolstoy and his era, 1820s to 1910s. Topics include state and politics, empire, the Russian identity, and forms of cultural expression. Students consider "War and Peace" and other masterworks.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.365.  Culture & Society in the High Middle Ages.  3 Credits.  

This course will cover the period commonly known as the High Middle Ages, that is, the civilization of Western Europe in the period roughly from 1050 to 1350. . It is a period of exceptional creativity in the history of Western Europe and in medieval history specifically, a time when many of the most characteristic institutions of Europe came into being.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.368.  European Socialist Thought.  3 Credits.  

A survey of European socialist theories, including Marxism, anarchism, Social Democracy, feminism, and anti-imperialism. Authors include Proudhon, Marx, Engels, Bakunin, Bernstein, Lenin, Luxemburg, Kollontai, Césaire, and Fanon.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.369.  Themes and Concepts in Jewish History.  3 Credits.  

The course will introduce the student to the main themes and debates in Jewish historiography from the 19th century to the present.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.371.  Modernity, Catastrophe, and Power in Jewish History: 1881 to the Present.  3 Credits.  

Jewish history, politics, and culture across a century of enormous transformations and transformative enormities in Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Topics include: impacts on Jewish life of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the post-imperial reordering of the Eastern Europe and the Middle East; Zionism and other modes of Jewish contestatory politics; the consolidation of American Jewry; Nazism and the Holocaust in Europe; formation and development of the State of Israel; the global reordering of Jewish life amid cross-currents of the Cold War, conflict in the Middle East, and success in the US. Substantial attention to recent and contemporary history including the dramatic changes in Israeli society and polity over the past forty years and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.372.  African Cities: Environment, Gender, and Economic Life.  3 Credits.  

This class explores the geographic, economic and cultural issues resulting from Africa’s urban growth from precolonial times to the present.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.373.  Crime, Punishment, Felony and Freedom: Law and Society in Pre-Modern England.  3 Credits.  

Using legal texts as a window into English society, we will address the changing nature of royal power, trial by jury, treason, felony, and the freedoms enshrined in the Magna Carta.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.374.  Conquest, Conversion, and Language Change in the Middle Ages.  3 Credits.  

Examines case-studies of imperial conquests (Islamic, Mongol, reconquista, early colonialism) and attendant changes in religion (Christianization; Islamization) and in language (Arabization; transition from Latin to European vernaculars) across medieval Eurasia.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.375.  Histories of Women and the Vote.  3 Credits.  

The year 2020 will mark 100 years since the 19th Amendment guaranteed American women the right to vote. Or did it? This course will examine the long history of women’s voting rights in the United States, including the story that extends from a convention at Seneca Falls, NY to a constitutional amendment. It will also examine alternative stories, especially those of women of color whose campaigns for the vote did not end in 1920 – and continue until today.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.377.  The Age of Reason on the Silver Screen: Cinematic Representations of the Enlightenment.  3 Credits.  

This course will discuss the problem of historical representation on the basis of an analysis of movies depicting the Age of the Enlightenment.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.379.  Brazil History and Cultures: A Glance from Baltimore.  3 Credits.  

Using textual and visual documents (including books from Peabody Library), we will examine the contrasts of Brazilian history and culture, and its connections with 19th and 20th century Baltimore.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.383.  Conversion and Apostasy in the Middle Ages.  3 Credits.  

Compares religious transformation in medieval Europe and the Middle East (ca. 600-1500), including conquest and conversion; conversion narratives; apostasy, martyrdom and other encounters between medieval Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Pre-requisite for enrollment: Students must have taken one history course.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.386.  The Cold War as Sports History.  3 Credits.  

This class reassesses the history of the Cold War through sports. We will investigate how the Cold War has shaped sports, the Olympic movement, the role of athletes at home and abroad. We will discuss how sports were used in domestic and foreign policy, and how Cold War sports reinforced or challenged notions of race, gender, and class.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.387.  Everyday Life in the Medieval Middle East.  3 Credits.  

Explores the daily lives of non-elites in the medieval Middle East—including food; housing; clothes; marriage and divorce; poverty and charity; urban festivals. Half of our meetings devoted to close readings of primary documents (e.g. private letters, court records).

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.388.  Practicing Historical Research.  3 Credits.  

Students work on producing an individual research project. In certain cases, advisors may allow this requirement to be substituted with a History Research Lab course.

Prerequisite(s): AS.100.293

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.392.  The Art of Lying: Lie, Dissimulation, and the "Fake News" in Pre-modern Europe.  3 Credits.  

We live in an age that values authenticity, sincerity, and open and transparent communication. Yet this was not always the case. This course will examine the attitudes to lie, falsity, and dissimulation in pre-modern European society. We shall begin by exploring the concepts of lie and discussions of permissibility of lying in the canonical texts of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. We shall then focus on the texts composed between the 16th and the 18th centuries and explore questions posed by theologians (“Is lying always a sin?”, “Should one lie to protect lives?”, “Can God lie?”), philosophers and politicians (“Is the morality of the rulers different than that the ruled?”, “Are politicians bound to lie?”), and courtiers (“Is not telling the truth a necessary part of being polite?”, “Is all civility based on falsehood?”). We shall then move beyond the question of lying and probe the questions of dissimulation, imposture, and false or invented identities. We shall end with a discussion of the early romantic “cult of sincerity”.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.393.  Think Globally, Research Locally: Early Maryland and the World.  3 Credits.  

A research-intensive seminar, this course uses the rich history of Maryland to approach broader themes in early modern American and global history including colonialism, slavery, revolution, race, gender, and sex.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.394.  Brazilian Paradoxes: Slavery, Race, and Inequality in Brazil (from a Portuguese Colony to the World’s 8th Largest Economy).  3 Credits.  

Place of contrasts, Brazil has a multi-ethnic cultural heritage challenged by social and racial inequalities. Its political life remains chaotic. We will examine these problems through Brazilian history and culture (literature, cinema).

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.396.  The Gender Binary and American Empire.  3 Credits.  

This seminar explores how the sex and gender binary was produced through US colonialism since the nineteenth century. Topics include domestic settler colonialism, as well as Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.397.  The Trouble with "Diversity".  3 Credits.  

Through archival, literary, and other cultural texts, this course considers the history of “diversity” as both a practice and concept, beginning with the arrival of “colorblindness” in the 1890s and moving through recent approaches to institutionalized multiculturalism.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.404.  John Locke.  3 Credits.  

Seminar style course in which John Locke’s major works will be read intensively, together with some of his contemporaries’ works, and select scholarly interpretations.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.408.  Theorizing the Age of Enormity: Social Theory and the History of the 20th Century.  3 Credits.  

We will read and analyze key works of social and critical theory produced in relation to 20th and 21st century problems of state and society, nationalism, empire, totalitarianism, genocide, capitalism, political order, gender, race, sexuality, secularism, religion, environmental catastrophe. Possible readings include Weber, Du Bois, Adorno, Arendt, Foucault, Balibar, Beckamong others.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.409.  Israel and Palestine from 1967 to the Present: a Current and Entangled History.  3 Credits.  

Through intensive and extensive reading, we will explore contemporary Israeli society, politics, and culture, contemporary Palestinian society, politics, and culture under occupation, and the historical processes that have shaped both societies and their ongoing entanglement.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.410.  Decolonizing The Museum: Case Studies.  3 Credits.  

How do museums represent the world? The course will focus on the colonial legacy of museums and complicate discourses of decolonization by looking at a range of case studies. We will study the world’s fairs, artworks, artifacts, collections, curatorial practices, exhibition histories, repatriation requests, and exhibitionary modes of display, in order to analyze their relationship to histories of decolonization, temporality, translation, untranslatability, spectatorship, provenance, and the life of objects.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.413.  London 1580-1830: The History of Britain's capital city.  3 Credits.  

Seminar-style class analyzing the social, cultural, gender, religious, economic, and political history of London from Shakespeare's time through revolutions, plague, fire, and commercial, colonial, and industrial expansion.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.415.  The Holocaust in Jewish History and in Global Culture.  3 Credits.  

Key works on the history of Nazi Germany’s murder of European Jewry during the Second World War; Jewish responses; the recasting of Jewish and global thought in relation to this signal event; genocide and ‘ethnic cleansing’ since the Holocaust.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.416.  History through Things: Objects, Circulation, and Encounters in the Medieval World.  3 Credits.  

Objects from the past offer a powerful window into a set of experiences not recorded in texts. We will follow objects and things as they appear in lists, letters, and descriptions, as they travel surprising routes, and bring to life the medieval world before 1400.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.422.  Society & Social Change in 18th Century China.  3 Credits.  

What did Chinese local society look like under the Qing Empire, and how did it change over the early modern era?

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.424.  Women & Modern Chinese History.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the experience of Chinese women, and also how writers, scholars, and politicians (often male, sometimes foreign) have represented women’s experiences for their own political and social agendas.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.426.  Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe.  3 Credits.  

Witchcraft, magic, carnivals, riots, folk tales, gender roles; fertility cults and violence especially in Britain, Germany, France, and Italy.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.428.  Saints, Saviors, and Sovereigns in the Early Modern World.  3 Credits.  

This reading intensive seminar will explore the myriad ways in which questions of sovereignty and the sacred were joined together across the early modern world. Emphasis will be placed on sacred and universal modes of kingship, saintly cults, and messianic movements amongst the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.433.  Free Speech and Censorship in the United States.  3 Credits.  

This undergraduate research seminar examines censorship laws, practices, and debates over the past century; topics include political radicalism, indecency, pornography, and racist hate speech. In addition to discussing common readings, each student will choose a censorship case or issue to research and present to the class.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.438.  The City Victorious: Medieval Cairo.  3 Credits.  

What was medieval Cairo like? Students explore urban life in this imperial capital (969-1517), including food and market habits; relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims; patronage; plague, drought, and famine.Pre-requisite for enrollment: Students must have taken two history courses.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.442.  The Intellectual History of Capitalism, 1900 to present.  3 Credits.  

This course examines shifting understandings of the philosophical foundations, political implications, and social effects of the market economy since the early twentieth century.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.444.  Migrants and Refugees in Africa.  3 Credits.  

A history of forced and voluntary migration and displacement in Africa, its causes and consequences, with a focus on refugees and labor migrants since 1960.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.445.  Revolution, Anti-Slavery, and Empire 1773-1792: British and American Political Thought from Paine, Smith, and the Declaration of Independence to Cugoano, Wollstonecraft, and the Bill of Rights.  3 Credits.  

This seminar-style course will focus on discussing British and American political thought from the "Age of Revolutions", a period also of many critiques of Empire and of many works of Antislavery. Readings include Paine's Common Sense and Rights of Man, the Declaration of Rights, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers; works by Smith, Burke, and Wollstonecraft; and antislavery works by Cugoano, Equiano, Rush, Wesley, and Wilberforce.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.446.  Making Medieval History in 'Modern' America.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the emergence and practice of medieval history as a field of history in the US beginning in the nineteenth-century. We will address what the medieval past meant for the formation of the discipline of history in the US and how an imagined medieval past came to inform scholarly discourse, research approaches, methodologies, ideas about race and gender, legal and constitutional history, and the contours of nation states. The narrative of the medieval origins of states will also be addressed and questioned as it developed over the course of the 20th century. Students will do archival research in the JHU archives and in other published and unpublished source sets.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.450.  History Research Lab.  3 Credits.  

In this course, students participate in a research “laboratory,” engaging in direct research on an area of faculty’s research, leading to the development of a collective, digital humanities project.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.482.  Historiography of Modern China.  3 Credits.  

How has the history of modern China been told by Chinese, Western, and Japanese historians and social thinkers, and how did this affect popular attitudes and government policies toward China?

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.490.  Writing Power, or Dueling in Print with Light Sabers: An RIC Seminar on Scholarly Composition.  3 Credits.  

A first-of-its kind seminar hosted by the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship, this course explores the practice of composition for professional writers. It considers the “light” and “dark” sides of clear, direct scholarly writing and intentional, academic obfuscation, respectively. Attendees will also learn strategies and potential hazards that accompany the written description of power in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.494.  Senior Honors Seminar.  1 Credit.  

A two-semester coordinating seminar for history majors writing senior honors theses. Admission is granted by instructor only after the student has selected a faculty thesis advisor. AS.100.494 is to be taken concurrently with AS.100.507 Senior Thesis.

Prerequisite(s): AS.100.494 is to be taken concurrently with AS.100.507 Senior Thesis.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.495.  Senior Honors Seminar.  1 Credit.  

The Senior Honors Seminar is a coordinating seminar for senior history majors who are writing senior honors theses and wish to graduate with departmental honors. To be taken concurrently with AS.100.508, Senior Thesis.

Corequisite(s): AS.100.508

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.497.  1968: Rebels, Revolutions & the Right-Wing Backlash.  3 Credits.  

The sixties were a polarizing decade of unrest, revolutions, and fundamental change across Europe and the US. We will discuss 1968 through the lens of national case studies, the Cold War, and the history of Baltimore. This is a community-engaged class!

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.507.  Senior Honors Thesis.  3 Credits.  

The Senior Honors Seminar is a coordinating seminar for senior history majors who are writing senior honors theses and wish to graduate with departmental honors. We will discuss the organization of your historical research projects and help you prepare for writing your senior thesis based on that research. This is an interactive class that helps make the most of your senior thesis experience!

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

Writing Intensive

AS.100.508.  Senior Honors Thesis.  3 Credits.  

This seminar is required for senior history majors who are writing senior honors theses and wish to graduate with departmental honors.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.;AS.100.507

Writing Intensive

AS.100.535.  Independent Study.  1 - 3 Credits.  

Undergraduate independent research under a faculty mentor.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS.100.536.  Independent Study.  1 - 3 Credits.  

Undergraduate independent research under a faculty mentor.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS.100.601.  Decolonizing The Museum: Case Studies.  3 Credits.  

How do museums represent the world? The course will focus on the colonial legacy of museums and complicate discourses of decolonization by looking at a range of case studies. We will study the world’s fairs, artworks, artifacts, collections, curatorial practices, exhibition histories, repatriation requests, and exhibitionary modes of display, in order to analyze their relationship to histories of decolonization, temporality, translation, untranslatability, spectatorship, provenance, and the life of objects.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.602.  The French Revolution.  3 Credits.  

This course will engage the rich historiography of the French Revolution. We will focus on recent scholarship to examine such themes as: the nature of revolution and popular activism; violence & trauma; constitutionalism; citizenship, democracy, and social rights; the revolution after Thermidor and why the republic collapsed.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.603.  Readings in the Early U.S. Republic.  3 Credits.  

Small intensive group reading: the course is primarily intended for students working on their graduate field lists. Other formats are possible with permission of the instructor.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.605.  Modern Britain & the British Empire.  3 Credits.  

Modern Britain and the British World is a graduate seminar which familiarizes students with major themes and historiographic debates in Modern British and Modern British Imperial History.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.607.  Consumer Revolution in Global Perspective.  3 Credits.  

First semester of year-long seminar examining transformations in European consumption from 1650 to 1800. Topics include cultural theory; fashion, gender, and social identity; capitalism, retail, and credit; Enlightenment and the public sphere; political economy; overseas empire; globalization; and the Atlantic revolutions.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.608.  The Consumer Revolution in Global Perspective.  3 Credits.  

Second semester of year-long seminar examining transformations in European consumption from 1650 to 1800. Topics include capitalism and consumption; political economy; fashion, gender, and identity; Enlightenment and the public sphere; globalization; empire and colonization; and the Atlantic revolutions.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.609.  "Baroque" as a Historical Category.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will discuss the use of the concept of the "Baroque", as developed in the history of art, architecture, and music, as a category of historical periodization.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.610.  Readings in Medieval Islamic Cultural History.  3 Credits.  

The seminar examines central questions in medieval Islamic cultural history including the formation of the Islamic scholarly tradition; the history of reading and education; institutions (e.g. madrasas and Sufi khanqahs); patronage and urban development, and overlaps between religious scholars and state bureaucrats.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.613.  Modern Japanese and Korean Histories.  3 Credits.  

A reading seminar on the interconnected histories and historiographies of Japan and Korea in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.615.  States, Scribes, and Archives: Medieval Arabic Documentary Cultures.  3 Credits.  

Historical survey of scribal and archiving practices of medieval Islamic states (in comparative perspective); includes close readings of primary documents, including legal deeds, petitions, edicts, fiscal receipts, and administrative reports.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.616.  Post-WWII French and Francophone Writing On History.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will focus on texts by post-1945 authors who wrote in French and engaged with what it means to write about the past and how to do so. Among those we will focus on are: Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Assia Djebbar, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Paul Ricoeur, Alain Corbin, Arlette Farge, François Hartog, Paul Ricoeur, Etienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière, Paul B. Preciado, Fernand Braudel.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.617.  Black Political History and Activism in Modern America.  3 Credits.  

This course focuses on the emergence and development of various strains of Black political thought and action within the modern US. Our course will explore themes of equality, citizenship, democracy, and freedom throughout the 20th Century, specifically as it pertains to the Black experience in America.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.618.  Historiography of Law and Empire.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to recent work on the history of law and empire, with a focus on critical legal history perspectives.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.619.  Early Modern France and the French Empire.  3 Credits.  

The second part of a two-semester sequence, this seminar examines the history of France and its empire from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. Topics include: political culture; political economy; the rise of commercial capitalism; the Enlightenment, gender, and sociability; print and popular culture; empire, race, and slavery; and the French and Haitian Revolutions.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.620.  Early Modern France and the French Empire.  3 Credits.  

Part of a two-semester sequence, this seminar examines the history of France and its empire from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. Topics include: state formation; political culture; political economy; commercial capitalism; the Enlightenment; popular culture; empire, race, and slavery; and the French and Haitian Revolutions.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.621.  Historiography of the Western European 1970s and 1980s.  3 Credits.  

How have historians grappled with the quite recent past? We will explore histories of the 1970s and 1980s, with a focus on France, Germany, and the UK, as well as transnational and post-decolonization approaches.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.623.  Telling Japanese Histories.  3 Credits.  

A graduate-level seminar on the political, social, and intellectual concerns that have both shaped and undermined dominant ways of telling Japanese history, especially in Japan and the U.S. since 1945.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.626.  Readings in African Popular Culture.  3 Credits.  

A reading seminar in African popular culture; the focus might be on Central and West Africa as well as the African Diaspora.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.628.  Advanced Reading in Modern African American Studies & History.  3 Credits.  

This course explores canonical and cutting-edge research and scholarship in the broad fields of African American Studies and History, 1865 – present. Students will move beyond a basic knowledge of the modern African American experience, while enhancing their critical research and analytical skills. Broad themes covered include questions of freedom, citizenship, agency, identity, and empowerment.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.631.  Readings in Medieval History.  3 Credits.  

Readings in Medieval History examines major historiographical and methodological developments in the history of the medieval world. Weekly readings and meetings will offer the opportunity to read comparatively and thematically often in preparation for a field in Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean World. Some major themes include: Heresy and holiness; gender and social relationships; franchise, manumission and serfdom; identity and difference; persecution and power; reform and the medieval church; materiality, movement and translation; law and sovereignty; learning and cultural production; and environmental and climate history.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.632.  Capetian France: Documents, Devotions and Sovereign Authority.  3 Credits.  

Through a careful study of texts and objects produced for and by the Capetian rulers during the thirteenth century we will interrogate the creation of the French state, the cultivation of royal ideology, and its practice of sovereign power.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.634.  The Haitian Revolution.  3 Credits.  

This seminar examines the origins, course, and legacies of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), the most radical movement of the Age of Revolutions. It explores the colonial background, the overthrow of slavery, the founding of an independent nation, and the aftermath of revolution in the nineteenth century.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.636.  Making Medieval History in 'Modern' America.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the emergence and practice of medieval history as a field of history in the US beginning in the nineteenth-century. We will address what the medieval past meant for the formation of the discipline of history in the US and how an imagined medieval past came to inform scholarly discourse, research approaches, methodologies, ideas about race and gender, legal and constitutional history, and the contours of nation states. The narrative of the medieval origins of states will also be addressed and questioned as it developed over the course of the 20th century. Students will do archival research in the JHU archives and in other published and unpublished source sets.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.638.  Reading Seminar in Early Modern History.  3 Credits.  

This is a graduate seminar devoted to close reading of crucial works in early modern history and historiography.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.640.  20th-Century European Imperial and Transnational Histories.  3 Credits.  

This course will look at recent historiography on extranational approaches to 20th-century European histories, with a focus on France, the United Kingdom, USSR/Russia, and Germany.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.641.  Global Catholicism in the Early Modern Period.  3 Credits.  

Explores religious culture in medieval and early modern Europe, with an emphasis on spiritual beliefs and practices, relics, miracles, pilgrimage, and saint-making. Emphasis on reading and discussing written sources and visual culture. Graduate students only.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.647.  Historical Methods.  3 Credits.  

This seminar introduces doctoral students to archival methods and other scholarly approaches critical to the development of History as an academic discipline over the past two centuries. More broadly, the course prepares students to analyze and to pose the kinds of far-reaching and complex questions that sit at the heart of any dissertation or monographic study.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.651.  Twentieth Century Urban History.  3 Credits.  

This graduate seminar explores some of the most innovative approaches to the study of the built environment. We will consider the evolution of what is commonly called “urban history” to examine broader developments in American economic, cultural, spatial, and political history.

AS.100.652.  European Socialist Thought.  3 Credits.  

A survey of European socialist theories, including Marxism, anarchism, Social Democracy, feminism, and anti-imperialism. Authors include Proudhon, Marx, Engels, Bakunin, Bernstein, Lenin, Luxemburg, Sorel, Kollontai, Gramsci, and Fanon.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.653.  Africa in the Twentieth Century.  3 Credits.  

Graduate reading seminar in Modern African history.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.655.  Reading Seminar in Black Women's History.  3 Credits.  

The second part of a two-semester sequence, this seminar examines a variety of historical traditions in the field of black women’s history.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

AS.100.659.  Black Radical Tradition and the Imaginary.  3 Credits.  

This course considers how black intellectuals have envisioned alternatives to imperialism, racial oppression, and coloniality. It considers the role of imagination in Black Radical thought and how it has shaped political, theoretical, and epistemological questions that animate the black world.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.661.  Racial Literacy in the Archives.  3 Credits.  

This course explores how to use race as a historical category of analysis, and teaches attendees how to locate how historical actors deploy race and racism to make claims, organize labor and identities, and imagine political possibility.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.664.  Heresy and the Holy: Religion and Society in Medieval Europe.  3 Credits.  

The course explores the rise of heresy and holiness as categories during the Middle Ages.It traces the advent of religious movements, the effects of religious reform, the centralization of ecclesiastical authority, the rise of vernacular spirituality and dissent, and analyzes the historiographical and methodological approaches to the study of medieval religion.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.680.  Reading Seminar in Early American History, c. 1500-1800.  3 Credits.  

Colonization and settlement in the Americas brought people from all kinds of places together. This course will explore those contacts, and how they shaped the American experience. The focus is on new books in early American history.

AS.100.681.  Research Seminar in Atlantic History, 1600-1800.  3 Credits.  

Writing workshop for graduate students at all stages presenting work in progress. Discussion of theories, methods, and challenges of graduate student writing.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.682.  Introductory Topics in Computation for Scholarship in the Humanities.  3 Credits.  

The first half of this seminar course consists of non-mathematical introductions to, and discussions of, the fundamental motivations, vocabulary, and methods behind computational techniques of particular use for humanistic research. The second half combines selected readings chosen to address specific questions raised by these discussions with hands-on application to students' research goals. Each participant will lead discussion for one of the selected readings relevant to their interests.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.700.  American Intellectual History.  3 Credits.  

Readings on the intellectual history of the United States in a transnational context since the late nineteenth century.

AS.100.706.  The Vernacular History of Gender.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will problematize the gradual advent of gender across the life sciences, clinic, anthropology, and state power by pairing them with competing Black, Indigenous, queer and trans vernacular theories of the same.

AS.100.707.  The Black World.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the practice of writing and reading the history of African Americans and the wider African Diaspora. Participants will share written work and do close readings of primary and secondary texts exploring the black experience in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.708.  The Black World II.  3 Credits.  

The Black World Seminar considers the making and meaning of blackness between the 14th and 20th centuries and Africans and people of African descent’s impact on the making of the modern world, from the slave trade to the present. We explore, too, the historical forces which created blackness as a marker on the body and as a political and cultural identity.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.710.  Reformation Europe.  3 Credits.  

A course discussing major recent works of historiography on Reformation Europe, examining Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anabaptism; iconoclasm, visual, and print culture; urban, social, and gender history; demonology and witchcraft; and martyrology, tolerance and intolerance.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.713.  Black Womanhood.  3 Credits.  

What does a usable history of black womanhood (black queer and trans womanhood inclusive) look like? How do we imagine, create, and narrate black women’s stories? Black women’s history across time and space.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.716.  Cultural Theory For Historians.  3 Credits.  

An examination of modern cultural theories, with emphasis on mass culture and consumerism. Authors include Simmel, Kracauer, Benjamin, Horkheimer, Adorno, Barthes, Debord, Bourdieu, and de Certeau.

AS.100.717.  Directed Readings in Early Modern European Intellectual History.  3 Credits.  

Directed Readings in Early Modern European Intellectual History.

AS.100.722.  The History of Trans Femininity.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will offer training in feminist, queer, transgender and postcolonial approaches to the history of sexuality by exploring what methods are adequate to writing the history of trans femininity as a specifically nineteenth and twentieth century phenomenon. Areas of emphasis will include histories of sexology, sex work, social movements, and trans feminism and its opponents. The primary geographic focus will be the US, but through a transnational lens that connects to Western Europe, South Asia, and Latin America.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.727.  Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history and historiography of early modern Spain, with a particular emphasis on its relationship with the Mediterranean - from religious, economic, social, diplomatic, and military perspectives. It will discuss piracy, the slave trade, the "morisco" question in Spain, the Jewish diaspora, and North Africa-Spanish relations, among other topics. These topics will be explored with an eye to discussions on conversion, gender, and race among other lenses.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.728.  Historical Writing in the Middle Ages.  3 Credits.  

This course investigates the basic techniques of writing history and the matters traditionally covered in medieval historical texts by reading a series of exemplary medieval historiographical works. This is preceded by a section on theoretical orientations to the study of history and historiography in order to provide the analytic tools for analyzing medieval texts.

AS.100.729.  Reading Seminar: British America and the Early United States in Atlantic Perspective.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the history and historiography on British North America and the United States.

AS.100.730.  Reading Seminar: British and French North America and the Early United States in Atlantic Perspective.  3 Credits.  

Continuation of AS.100.729 for students conducting field exams.

AS.100.733.  Reading Qing Documents.  3 Credits.  

Open also to advanced undergraduates with at least one semester of Classical Chinese. This course has several objectives. First and foremost, it is a hands-on document reading class designed to familiarize students with the skills, sources, and reference materials necessary to conduct research in Qing history. To that end, we will spend much of our time reading documents. At the same time, we will engage in problem solving exercises designed to develop and enhance basic research skills. Finally, we will consider important archive-based secondary works which demonstrate the ways in which historians have made use of Qing documents in their scholarship.

AS.100.735.  Early Modern Britain and the Early Modern British Empire.  3 Credits.  

The first part of a two-semester graduate seminar discussing major works on various aspects of early modern British history.

AS.100.736.  Early Modern Britain and the Early Modern British Empire.  3 Credits.  

The second part of a two-semester graduate seminar discussing major works on various aspects of early modern British history.

AS.100.738.  Women, Genders and Sexualities.  3 Credits.  

In May 2020, Johns Hopkins will host the meeting of the Berkshire Conference on Women, Gender and Sexualities, a gathering of 1200 scholars from across the world. Our seminar will use the Berkshire Conference program to organize a set of readings that will anticipate the panels, roundtables, performances, and plenaries that will be on campus between May 28 and 31, 2020. Attendance at the conference is not required, but it is recommended.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.744.  Twentieth Century France and the French Empire.  3 Credits.  

We will read and discuss recent monographs and historiographical essays that emerge from and inform French history, with particular attention transnational, imperial, Mediterranean, international, and colonial frames and questions.

AS.100.749.  Social Theory for Historians: Marx, Durkheim, Weber.  3 Credits.  

An examination of the works of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, as examples of the Hegelian, positivist, and hermeneutic traditions of social theory.

AS.100.753.  Modern American Seminar.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in 20th century history. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.755.  Modern American Seminar.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in 20th century history. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.757.  Cultural Histories of Late Imperial China.  3 Credits.  

This reading seminar will introduce graduate students and advanced undergraduates (by permission) to recent studies of Late Imperial and Republican China that can (by various standards) be classified as works of cultural history.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.759.  Arabic Historical Writing in the Middle Ages.  3 Credits.  

The course examines various genres of Arabic historical writing during the high and late Middle Ages (10th-15th c.). All primary readings are in English/French translation (no Arabic required).

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.761.  History of Capitalism.  3 Credits.  

Readings on the history of capitalism since the mid-nineteenth century, with an emphasis on the American context.

AS.100.762.  History and Historiography of 19th France in Europe and the World.  3 Credits.  

We will read and discuss recent work on nineteenth-century France, the French-dominated empire, and other “French” histories.

AS.100.769.  Gender History Workshop.  3 Credits.  

Workshop for presentation of works-in-progress on the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality, including drafts of dissertation chapters, research papers, talks, and proposals. Students in disciplines other than history are welcome.

AS.100.770.  Gender History Workshop.  3 Credits.  

Workshop for presentation of works-in-progress on the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality, including drafts of dissertation chapters, research papers, talks, and proposals. Students in disciplines other than history are welcome. Graduate students only.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.781.  The Seminar.  2 Credits.  

This course features presentations from invited speakers. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.782.  The Seminar.  2 Credits.  

This course features presentations from invited speakers. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.783.  Seminar: Medieval Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Medieval European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.784.  Seminar: Medieval Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Medieval European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.785.  Seminar: Early Modern Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Early Modern European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.786.  Seminar: Early Modern Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Early Modern European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.787.  Seminar: Modern Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Modern European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.788.  General Seminar: Modern Europe.  2 Credits.  

A graduate workshop in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Modern European History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.789.  Seminar: American.  2 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in American History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.790.  General Seminar: America.  2 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in American History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.791.  Seminar: Latin American.  2 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Latin American History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly

AS.100.792.  General Seminar: Latin America.  1.5 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Latin American History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.793.  Seminar: African.  2 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in African History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.794.  General Seminar: Africa.  1.5 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in African History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.795.  Seminar: Asian.  2 Credits.  

A seminar series in which graduate students, faculty, and invited speakers present their latest research results in Asian History. Q&A, with an emphasis on critical thinking, intellectual discussions, and written and oral presentations. Course may not meet weekly.

AS.100.797.  First Year Graduate Workshop.  2 Credits.  

The graduate workshop allows students, both the first-year cohort and all the graduate students in the department(s) as a group, to meet to discuss themes, topics, concerns, approaches, ideas, methods, and insights together and thus to build a sense of community, cohesiveness, and cooperation within the program and the department as a whole.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.798.  First Year Graduate Workshop.  1 Credit.  

The intention of the graduate workshop is to allow students, both the first-year cohort and all the graduate students in the department(s) as a group, to meet to discuss themes, topics, concerns, approaches, ideas, methods, and insights together and thus to build a sense of community, cohesiveness, and cooperation within the program and the department as a whole. In the spring semester it will also be focused on drafting and presenting the First Year Paper.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.100.801.  Dissertation Research.  10 - 20 Credits.  

Graduate dissertation research with their advisor.

AS.100.802.  Dissertation Research.  20 Credits.  

Graduate dissertation research with their advisor.

AS.100.803.  Independent Study.  3 - 9 Credits.  

Graduate independent research under a faculty advisor.

AS.100.804.  Independent Study.  3 - 9 Credits.  

Graduate independent research under a faculty advisor.

AS.100.805.  Fall History Teaching Assistant Practicum.  3 Credits.  

Fall practicum for History TA enrollment only (register under the faculty member’s section for which you will serve as a fall TA).

AS.100.806.  Spring History Teaching Assistant Practicum.  3 Credits.  

Spring practicum for History TA enrollment only (register under the faculty member’s section for which you will serve as a spring TA).

AS.100.890.  Independent Study.  9 Credits.  

Summer graduate independent research under a faculty advisor.