History 561R: Race & Ethnicity in Latin America (Same as ANT 585/ILA 790)

Lesser; MAX:6

Content: This course will examine the manufacturing of racial, ethnic and national identities in 19th and 20th century Latin America in comparison with other national experiences in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. We will analyze the history of racial and ethnic discourses and their sociopolitical uses in the formation of modern nations and empires.  We will examine postcolonial societies and their constant tension with the legacies of colonialism, slavery and immigration.  This, in turn, will suggest the connections with class and gender in the region.  This comparative approach will help us to identify general trends in the social construction of race and ethnicity, and provide grounds to establish the importance of the regional and national context. The course will focus on how concepts of race and ethnicity were constructed in moments of national flux and how racial/ethnic discourses shaped popular and elite cultures.  An important goal of the course is to examine questions, themes and methods which in turn can be linked to each student’s own research project.

Texts: Christina Civantos, Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine Orientalism, Arab Immigrants, and the Writing of Identity; Sarah Gualtieri, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora; Samuel L. Baily, Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York, 1870-1914;  John M. MacKenzie, The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Race, 1772-1914; Jürgen Buchenau, Tools of progress: a German merchant family in Mexico City, 1865-present; Ruben Oliven, Tradition Matters: Modern Gaucho Identity in Brazil; Micol Seigel, Uneven Encounters: Making Race and Nation in Brazil and the United States; Robert Stam, Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture; Ruth Barton (ed), Screening Irish-America: Representing Irish-America in Film and Television; Jerry Davila, Diploma of Whiteness Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945; Anna Pegler-Gordon, In Sight of America: Photography and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy.

Particulars: In addition to short weekly writing, the major project for the class will be a grant proposal based on the student’s own research interests.

History 562P: Themes/Approaches in Latin American History: New Paradigms, Old Trends

Lesser/Yannakais; MAX:12

Paper-writing section taken after History 562 – Written permission of instructor required.

History 583P: Introduction to Advanced Historical Study

Adamson/Ravina; MAX:12

Paper-writing section taken after History 583 – Written permission of instructor required.

History 585-000: Special Topics in History: American Revolution in the Atlantic World

Desrochers; MAX:12

Content: This seminar in comparative and Atlantic history considers the origins and outcomes of the American Revolution from the dual perspective of American national and British imperial history, and challenges students to examine historical claims for and against its social and political significance alongside other “Atlantic Revolutions” of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in France, Haiti, and Latin America.  Themes and topics of exploration include: race and slavery; colonialism and empire; nationalism, popular politics, and ideology; and political cultures of democracy, republicanism, and freedom.

Texts:  To be determined.

Particulars:  Active engagement in weekly discussions of common readings constitutes the major course requirement.  Additionally, participants will be expected to make oral presentations in class, and to complete a 15-20 page historiographical essay.

History 585-001: Special Topics in History: Modern Jewish History: Integration, Acculturation, Assimilation

Goldstein; MAX:12

Content: This course examines the integration of Jews into the societies of Europe and the United States from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. We will explore the range of ways in which Jews were admitted to citizenship, how they integrated socially and culturally into non-Jewish society, what the expectations regarding Jewish transformation were on the part of both Jews and non-Jews, and how Jewish identity was reshaped and in some cases radically altered as a result of these processes. Special attention will be given to comparing the experiences of Jews in the United States, western and central Europe, and Eastern Europe.

Particulars: Readings will include several monographs (including both classic works in the field and new, innovative studies) as well as articles and chapters placed on electronic reserve. Course requirements will include two papers (one 5-7 pages and one 10-15 pages) and two oral presentations based on those papers, which will be related to the week’s reading. In addition, students will twice give short responses/comments to the oral presentations/papers of others.

History 585-002: Special Topics in History: Raace, Nation & Citizenship in U.S. Women's History (Same as WS 585)

Odem; MAX:8

Content:  This course explores the history of women and gender in the United States with a focus on the theme of race, citizenship and nation.  We will explore racial and gendered constructions of citizenship in different historical periods from the American Revolution to the modern Civil Rights era.  We will also examine how different groups of women and men have contested and accommodated dominant notions of nationhood & belonging during periods of anti-slavery activism, Civil War & Reconstruction, 20th century immigration and imperialism, and feminist and racial justice movements. 

Possible Texts: Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary backlash: women and politics in the early American Republic; Nell Irvin Painter; Sojourner Truth : a life, a symbol; LeeAnn Whites, Gender matters : Civil War, Reconstruction, and the making of the new South; Laura Briggs, Reproducing empire : race, sex, science, and U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rico; Mae M. Ngai, Impossible subjects : illegal aliens and the making of modern America; Catherine Sue Ramírez, The woman in the zoot suit : gender, nationalism, and the cultural politics of memory; Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black freedom movement: a radical democratic vision

Particulars: Weekly written responses to readings; 2 critical essays (6-8 pages); 1 class presentation

History 585-003: Special Topics in History: The Palestine Mandate

Stein; MAX 5

Content:  Singular focus is on the thirty-year history prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. We shall try to answer this question: why and how did the Zionists succeed in building a national home?  We shall review social, economic, and political issues which influenced the development of Zionism, affected the creation of Israel, saw the emergence of Palestinian national identity, and the layering of the cold war over the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Students will concentrate on understanding the internal workings of Arab, British, and Zionist communities and their inter-relationships. In classroom exchanges in composition of the research paper students will use a variety of historical sources,  including archival and documentary material, unpublished dissertations, period newspapers, memoirs, monographs,  biographies, and novels of the era.

Required Texts: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace; Anita Shapira,  Land and Power; Kenneth W. Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939; Zev Sternhell,  The Founding Myths of Israel; Compilation of Documentary Resources on the Palestine Mandate, (to be purchased from the instructor)

Recommended Texts: Eliyahu Elath, Zionism and the UN; David Horowitz, State in the Making; Hurewitz, JC, Struggle for Palestine; Radosh, Allis and Ronald,  A Save Haven Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel; Shareff, Zev, Three Days; Christopher Sykes, Crossroads to Israel; Vital, David, Zionism; Weizmann, Chaim, Trial and Error; Zerubavel, Yael,  Recovered Roots Collective Memory and the Making of Modern Israel.

Grading:   There will be a one hour examination and a final examination. Students are expected to write a research paper of no more than 35 pages, using primarily library and archival sources. All students will be expected to engage in regular class discussions, and meet with the professor regularly.  Additional readings will be provided on library reserve (blackboard or e-reserve)

History 585-005: Special Topics in History: Writing History/Fighting History: Controversies in German Historiography after 1945

Eckert; MAX:12

Content: This seminar investigates key controversies within the German historical profession from the end of the Second World War until the present. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with central questions in German history while exploring issues and approaches in historical method. Beyond an examination of the specific historiographical questions at stake in these debates and a reconsideration of the texts that ignited the controversies, the seminar will provide students with a broad framework to trace and analyze the shifting place of National Socialism and the Holocaust within German historiography. Because many of these debates – particularly the Fischer Controversy, the debate about the German Sonderweg, and the Goldhagen controversy – involved historians from outside Germany, the course will also highlight the complex positionality of writing and thinking about German history from abroad.

Texts: May include Stefan Berger, The Search for Normality. National Identity and Historical Consciousness in Germany since 1800 (Providence, RI: Berghahn, 2nd edition 2004); Konrad Jarausch and Martin Geyer: Shattered Past. Reconstructing German History (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003); David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley (eds.): The Peculiarities of German History. Bourgeois Society and Politics in Ninetheenth-Century Germany (Oxford UP, 1984).

Particulars: The class is open to honors students upon permission of the instructor. Writing assignments include book reviews and a historiographical essay.

History 585-009: Special Topics in History: Reformation Theology & Historiography (Same as RLHT 736K)

Strom; MAX:5

Content: The seminar will examine issues of Reformation theology and historiography in the context of religion and culture in the early modern period. Topics include the significance of the Reformation for the modern era, historiography, the place of religion and theology in early modern history, popular culture and piety, research methods, and bibliographical resources. The seminar will focus primarily on Central Europe, but students interested in the Reformation in other geographic areas may wish, in consultation with the instructor, to substitute appropriate works for the readings on the syllabus.  The seminar assumes a familiarity with the basic themes of Reformation history.  A reading knowledge of German, French, and Latin is helpful.

Texts: Theological texts by Luther, Calvin, Canons of Trent, and Müntzer; classic interpretations by Troeltsch; contemporary accounts by Hsia, Oberman, Ozment, Ginzburg, Gregory, Roper, Muir, and von Greyerz

Grading:  2 short papers and a term paper.

History 585P-00P:  Seminar Papers

Faculty

Paper-writing section taken after History 585 – Written permission of instructor required.

History 596R-00P: Special Studies

Faculty

Written Permission of Instructor Required

Content: Attendance in an undergraduate course with satisfactory completion of those course requirements as well as additional graduate-level assignments as required by instructor.

History 597R-00P: Directed Reading

Faculty

Written Permission of Instructor Required

History 599R-00P: Research

Faculty

MUST BE TAKEN S/U

Content: Variable credit.  For M.A.-level students.

History 786B: Introduction to College Teaching

Faculty

Written permission of instructor required; MUST BE TAKEN S/U

Content: The student works with a member of the department in conducting a course, including giving an occasional lecture or leading a discussion group. This course must be taken S/U.

History 799R: Advanced Research

Faculty

MUST BE TAKEN S/U

Content: Variable credit (1 to 12 hours).  Designed to give doctoral students opportunity for individual research on their dissertation subjects.  Credit for this course will normally be given only after completion of 32 hours of work in 500-level courses in the doctoral program.