Courses

Fall Semester information

100A: Historical Encounters: People on the Move

Why do people move from place to place? In this course, we will study the historical background behind the issues of migration and refugees in contemporary Europe. We will study the migrations within, out of, and into Europe over the past centuries up to today. We will consider a wide variety of primary and secondary sources including scholarly analyses, personal narratives, films, and statistics to develop an understanding of the historical dimension behind the contemporary crises. Along the way, students will get the opportunity to read and analyze texts, identify and develop their own theses, research specific topics, and develop empathy for the 'people on the move'.

100B: Historical Encounters: Life and Death in Early Modern China

This course is an exploration of seventeenth-century Jiangnan, the heart of the Chinese Ming empire, one of the largest empires of the early modern world and the center of the emerging global economy. Today, the region of Jiangnan is best-known for modern cities like Shanghai and the traditional gardens of Suzhou. The early modern period (ca. 1500-1800) was a transformative and turbulent time in world history and, by focusing on Jiangnan during this time, this course opens a window on the challenges, dramas, and fascination of people's lives and social change during this period. Through the best-selling fiction and historical sources of the seventeenth century, discover seeds of the modern world in the environmental issues, family relationships, economic growth, political conflict, and cross-cultural interactions of this time and place. This course provides an introduction and foundation for further work in Asian studies, history, and the humanities and social sciences.

100C: Historical Encounters: French Revolution

The French Revolution is best known for its most radical phase when the revolutionary government of France put the French king on trial, condemned him to death by guillotine, and then went on to behead thousands of its own citizens. This period, "The Reign of Terror," has gone down in infamy. How did a revolution fought in the name of "liberty, equality, and brotherhood" go so wrong? Who were the leading figures in this event? Who thought up the guillotine, and why was this instrument of terror considered an advanced, enlightened approach to the death penalty? Focusing on the period 1792-1795, the period of the revolutionary government known as The Convention, this course will seek to understand how, with the best of intentions, revolutionaries can become terrorists.

100D: Historical Encounters: Boxing in History, Literature and Film

In this course we will analyze the history of organized boxing, the so-called "Sweet Science" or what Joyce Carol Oates described as "America's tragic theater", through its representations in histories, literature and film. From the implementation of the Broughton Rules in the 1740s to the present, we will analyze the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, social class and capitalism in a boxing context. With a particular emphasis on the 20th century and African-American boxers in the heavyweight division (Johnson, Louis, Ali and Tyson), the course traces boxing's rise to mass popularity and its precipitous decline. You will read the commentaries of literary figures like Joyce Carol Oates, Leonard Gardner, Richard Wright and scholars like Gerald Early and Kasia Boddy. You will critically assess films like Raging Bull, Rocky, Creed, Girl Fight and boxing documentaries.

Spring Semester information

100A: Historical Encounters: Birth Control and Reproductive Justice

This course explores the global history of birth control and the rise of the notion of reproductive justice. From Colonial Mexico to Postwar Japan, we will discuss how doctors, governments, religious groups, politicians, feminists, intellectuals, and scientists have always had something to say about who should have children, who should not, and what means to prevent pregnancies are acceptable. We will examine the racial and economic imaginaries behind population control policies and how they have impacted women's reproductive lives. We will scrutinize why scientists and policymakers have deemed some people "unfit" for reproduction while encouraging high fertility rates among other groups at specific historical conjunctures. We will address how the appeal to control fertility had techno-material results, such as the development of new contraceptive technologies like the pill or the IUD in the second half of the 20th century, bringing new urgency to the discussions on women's health and bodily autonomy.

At the end of this course, you will have acquired a refined ability to analyze the intersection of political, medical, social, religious, and ethical factors associated with the contentious topics of reproduction, contraception, and abortion.

100B: Historical Encounters: Declarations of Independence

The Declaration of Independence transformed history. As we approach the 250th anniversary of this singular yet often imitated document, taking stock of the Declaration's origins, impact, and legacy remains deeply relevant. From July 4, 1776 onward, people have celebrated the Declaration's ideals and sought to resolve its contradictions. Reformers, revolutionaries, and citizens of all kinds have flocked to its banner. A brutal Civil War was fought in its name. Directly and indirectly, its principles have encouraged people throughout the world to challenge their oppressors and establish new nations. Writers and artists evoke the Declaration's impulse to throw off the bonds of the past and embrace independence. This course will probe the Declaration's revolutionary context and investigate the Declaration's legacy in US and global history.

100C: Historical Encounters: Sex & Society in Modern America

Everything has a history, including sex. In investigating the history of sex in the United States, this course introduces the changing social circumstances that affected the meanings of sexuality as well as how sex has been regulated over time. We will study the whole of U.S. history but will focus on the 20th century.

100D: Historical Encounters: The Olympics

This class will focus upon the "modern games" developed by Baron Coubertin and first staged in Athens in 1896. Fundamental questions posed by the class include the following: What is "Olympism" and how have its values shifted? How did an event with deep political implications in its origins come to be regarded as "above politics"? In what ways do social class, race and gender and ableism intersect with questions of who competes, when and how? How do the Olympics illuminate politico-historical contexts such as those surrounding nationalism, the rise of Fascism, Cold War divisions, decolonization, etc.? What is the role of the International Olympic Committee and how has it deliberated over sportsmanship, cheating scandals, athlete protests and the tensions between amateurism and professionalism? What has been the impact of print, broadcast and more recently, social media on the conduct of the games and their meanings? How can we define the games as a megaevent"? What are the roles and meanings of Olympic symbols and spectacle? This course coincides with the Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina in February 2026. We will be following and analyzing the Games as part of our class.

100E: Historical Encounters: Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali has been described as "the spirit of the 20th century". A man who proclaimed himself "The Greatest" from the earliest stages of his professional boxing career, Ali achieved an unprecedented level of global sporting fame. Accurately or not, the 1980 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records named him "the most written about" man in history. Yet, despite all the words and images we are left with a deceptively complicated question following his death in 2016: Who was Muhammad Ali? As sports journalist Bryant Gumbel asked at Ali's funeral: "What does it say of a man, any man, that he can go from being viewed as one of this country's most polarizing figures to arguably the most beloved?" To extend Gumbel's question we must also ask: What role did Ali play in shaping his own image? In what contexts was Ali's reputation forged and how did different communities respond? Did Muhammad Ali change? Did we change? This course engages those questions and others while analyzing Ali's complex life and boxing career in the historic contexts of race and anti-Blackness (Black Power and white supremacy), religion (Nation of Islam), political activism (Vietnam War and freedom struggles), sport, masculinity, celebrity and memory. The course will focus heavily on representations of Ali, including commentaries by scholars, journalists and writers, film footage of Ali's boxing matches, documentaries, photographs, songs, etc.

100F: Historical Encounters: History of Happiness

Americans are committed to happiness as one of the core values on which our nation rests--as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, we hold as inalienable rights "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." But what is happiness? In what does a happy life consist? This course will look at how conceptions of happiness and a happy life have changed over time from the ancient Greeks to the present day. We will discuss the problems of trying to study an emotion historically, the contradictions in the philosophical conceptions of happiness, and the breakthroughs in our psychological understandings of this transient emotion.

100G: Historical Encounters: God and Sex: Religion and Culture in Africa

Societies across the world attach different values, taboos, sacredness, and interpretations of sex, sexuality, and sexual relationships. In Africa, although societies saw sex as a normal exercise that every "adult" aspired to engage in, the act, however, intersected with religion, culture, ritual, belief systems, and customs. The course investigates the historical, cultural, and social contexts of sexual diversity, identity, discrimination, and sexual violence in 20th and 21st -century Africa while paying close attention to the influence of cultural norms and religion. We will organize our inquiries around the themes of sexuality and sexual relations, religion, culture, family, and courtship. Some of the questions we will raise include: What counted as sex? What types of sex were considered socially acceptable in different societies in Africa? Who was allowed to engage in them? How did taboos, values, customs, and rituals on sexual relationships change over time and across histories and geographies? Also, the course covers ongoing issues such as HIV-AIDS and the current struggles for the rights of the LGBTQIA communities in Africa.