The year 1492 was pivotal in the history of the world. It precipitated huge population movements within the Americas and across the Atlantic - a majority of them involuntary as in the case of indigenous and African people who were kidnapped and enslaved. It led to cataclysmic cultural upheavals, including the formation of new cultures in spaces inhabited by people of African, European and indigenous descent. This course explores the processes of destruction and creation in the region known today as Latin America in the period 1400 - 1800. Class readings are primary sources and provide opportunities to learn methods of source analysis in contexts marked by radically asymmetrical power relationships.

How can art and literature open a window on Russian lives lived over the course of the tumultuous twentieth century? this course adopts a unique approach to questions cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organize around a medium-length film, text, or set of texts by some of the most important cultural figures of the era (novella, play, memoir, film, short stories) which opens up a single scene of social history: work, village, avant-garde, war, Gulag, and so on. Each cultural work is accompanied by a set of supplementary materials: historical readings, paintings, cultural-analyical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. We will read social history through culture and culture through history. Prerequisite: All readings and lectures in English.

This course traces the formation of European society, politics and culture from its earliest days through the era of the Reformation, ca. 1000-1600 CE. Major themes will include: politics and power; law and the state; economics and trade; religion; learning and the rise of universities; social organization; everyday life. The reading and analysis of primary sources from each era will be important in understanding Europe's key features and development.

See primary department (ANCH) for a complete course description.

See primary department (ANCH) for a complete course description.