This page allows you to search a particular semester's course offerings in History and filter them by Major/Minor requirement. We also invite you to explore Penn History courses on the Pathways App. This fun, game-like platform allows you to see connections between History courses, so that you can better sequence them. It also encourages you to ask “how can History help us answer big questions?” Give it a try!

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Major Concentrations Major/Minor Requirements Fulfilled
HIST 0012-301 First-Year Seminar: Why College? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Jonathan L Zimmerman BENN 139 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will explore controversies and dilemmas surrounding American colleges, from their birth into the present. What is the purpose of “college”? How have these goals and objectives changed, across time and space? What should college do, and for whom? And how can colleges be reformed to meet their diverse purposes and constituencies? Topics of discussion will include affirmative action, “political correctness,” fraternities and sororities, sexual assault and safety, online education, and the recent trend towards “college for all.” For first-year students only. History & Tradition Sector American US
HIST 0061-401 First-Year Seminar: Of Horses, Bows and Fermented Milk: The Silk Roads in 10 Objects Oscar Aguirre Mandujano BENN 323 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM The empires of the Turkic and Turkish peoples have stretched across much of Eurasia since before the Common Era until the twentieth century. We first hear of them in Chinese chroniclers’ tales of a powerful people in the wilderness. Greek historians, Byzantine writers, and Arab polymaths write about the empires of the steppes. Centuries later, the heirs of the heroes of these empires move south and west, establishing empires and tribal confederations beyond the steppe, in Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Middle East. The Turkic empires seem to appear in the periphery of many civilizations, challenging, and, one could say, enriching their borders. But looking at a map, is really more than a half of Eurasia a periphery? If we flip the map, could we say these historians were writing from the margins of the Turkish empires? This course introduces the student to the history of empire by following the various histories of Turkic and Turkish people through 15 objects. It discusses the questions of periphery, borders, and the divide between agrarian, pastoral, and nomadic societies. The student will learn to derive historical questions and hypothesis through the intensive study of material culture, literature, and historical writing tracing the long and diverse history of the bow, the saddle, dumplings, and fermented milk (among others) across Eurasia. NELC0460401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		Africa/Middle East, East/South Asia
HIST 0108-001 American Origins Emma Hart COHN 402 MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM The United States was not inevitable. With that assumption as its starting point, this course surveys North American history from about 1500 to about 1850, with the continent's many peoples and cultures in view. The unpredictable emergence of the U.S. as a nation is a focus, but always in the context of wider developments: global struggles among European empires; conflicts between indigenous peoples and settler-colonists; exploitation of enslaved African labor; evolution of distinctive colonial societies; and, finally, independence movements inspired by a transatlantic revolutionary age. Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
History & Tradition Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0108001 American pre-1800, US
HIST 0200-001 The Emergence of Modern Europe Joshua Teplitsky
Benjamin Alexander Wightman 		ANNS 110 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course examines the period in European history from the Black Death until the French Revolution (roughly 1348 to 1789). During this period of Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, early modern Europe experienced a series of crises in authority that ushered in the modern world. The course will explore how new discoveries (both geographical and intellectual) challenged existing worldviews; movements of religious reform challenged the authority of the Church and the unity of Europe; and new political doctrines, accompanied by a series of striking rebellions, challenged the foundations of traditional rule.
Our aim will be to excavate the changing social, political, intellectual, and cultural experiences of men and women during this time of renaissance, reformation, enlightenment, and revolution. We will follow the encounter between Europeans and the peoples of the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as the “discovery” of new ways to read old books, the “discovery” of new technologies in communications and combat, and the “discovery” of new sciences, arts, and philosophies as they impacted the way Europeans related to the wider world and their place within it. 		History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0200001 European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 0205-001 Europe: From Fall of Rome to Age of Exploration Ada M Kuskowski EDUC 202 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course offers a broad introduction to the history of Europe from around the fourth to sixteenth century CE. We begin with Roman civilization facing a series of crises that led to its eventual fall in the West and the great migrations that resulted in ‘barbarian’ kingdoms. We then explore European history as it developed afterwards through key questions that capture its essence: what was ‘barbarian’ about these kingdoms and what exactly were the ‘dark ages’? How did political power transform throughout the period to produce nascent nation states in the end? What did it mean to be a medieval knight? In what ways were women powerless or powerful? What was city life like as these began to be rebuilt? What roles did faith and knowledge play in this world? What were the first universities like? How did European culture in this period handle difference, and how is this similar or different to modern approaches? How do we even know this history from centuries to over a millennium ago? Students will discover a Europe that is fascinating in its contradictions: both dark and bright, both closed and open, both strikingly different and yet often surprisingly familiar. History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0205001 European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 0290-601 The Soviet Century, 1917-1991 CANCELED Out of an obscure, backward empire, the Soviet Union emerged to become the great political laboratory of the twentieth century. This course will trace the roots of the world's first socialist society and its attempts to recast human relations and human nature itself. Topics include the origins of the Revolution of 1917, the role of ideology in state policy and everyday life, the Soviet Union as the center of world communism, the challenge of ethnic diversity, and the reasons for the USSR's sudden implosion at the end of the century.Focusing on politics, society, culture, and their interaction, we will examine the rulers (from Lenin to Gorbachev) as well as the ruled (peasants, workers, and intellectuals; Russians and non-Russians). The course will feature discussions of selected texts, including primary sources in translation. REES0311601 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
HIST 0300-401 Africa Before 1800 Cheikh Ante Mbacke Babou
Mohamud Awil Mohamed 		MCNB 286-7 TR 9:00 AM-9:59 AM Survey of major themes and issues in African history before 1800. Topics include: early civilizations, African kingdoms and empires, population movements, the spread of Islam, and the slave trade. Also, emphasis on how historians use archaeology, linguistics, and oral traditions to reconstruct Africa's early history. AFRC0300401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0300401 World Africa/Middle East, pre-1800
HIST 0310-401 Warriors, Concubines & Converts: the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East & Europe Oscar Aguirre Mandujano
Javier R. Ardila 		ANNS 111 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM For almost six hundred years, the Ottomans ruled most of the Balkans and the Middle East. From their bases in Anatolia, Ottoman armies advanced into the Balkans, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, constantly challenging the borders of neighboring European and Islamicate empires. By the end of the seventeenth century, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, Baghdad, Sarajevo, Budapest, and nearly Vienna came under Ottoman rule. As the empire expanded into Europe and the Middle East, the balance of imperial power shifted from warriors to converts, concubines, and intellectuals. This course examines the expansion of the Ottoman sultanate from a local principality into a sprawling empire with a sophisticated bureaucracy; it also investigates the social, cultural, and intellectual developments that accompanied the long arc of the empire's rise and fall. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and discuss major currents of change in the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. The student will have a better understanding of the roles of power, ideology, diplomacy, and gender in the construction of empire and a refined appreciation for diverse techniques of historical analysis. NELC0450401 Cross Cultural Analysis
History & Tradition Sector 		Diplomatic, European, World Africa/Middle East, Europe, pre-1800
HIST 0360-401 History of the Middle East Since 1800 Secil Yilmaz WILL 205 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM A survey of the modern Middle East with special emphasis on the experiences of ordinary men and women as articulated in biographies, novels, and regional case studies. Issues covered include the collapse of empires and the rise of a new state system following WWI, and the roots and consequences of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Iranian revolution and the U.S.-Iraq War. Themes include: the colonial encounter with Europe and the emergence of nationalist movements, the relationship between state and society, economic development and international relations, and religion and cultural identity. NELC0650401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0360401 World Africa/Middle East
HIST 0400-401 Colonial Latin America CANCELED 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. AFRC0400401, LALS0400401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		World Latin America/Caribbean, pre-1800
HIST 0720-401 Ancient Greece Gwyneth Marion Fletcher
Lantian Jing
Jeremy James Mcinerney
Daniel Qin 		COLL 200 MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM The Greeks enjoy a special place in the construction of western culture and identity, and yet many of us have only the vaguest notion of what their culture was like. A few Greek myths at bedtime when we are kids, maybe a Greek tragedy like Sophokles' Oidipous when we are at school: these are often the only contact we have with the world of the ancient Mediterranean. The story of the Greeks, however, deserves a wider audience, because so much of what we esteem in our own culture derives from them: democracy, epic poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, history writing, philosophy, aesthetic taste, all of these and many other features of cultural life enter the West from Greece. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi had inscribed over the temple, "Know Thyself." For us, that also means knowing the Greeks. We will cover the period from the Late Bronze Age, c. 1500 BC, down to the time of Alexander the Great, concentrating on the two hundred year interval from 600-400 BC. ANCH0101401, CLST0101401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0720401
HIST 0730-401 Introduction to the Ancient Near East Theresa M Tiliakos MEYH B4 TR 3:30 PM-4:29 PM The great pyramids and mysterious mummies of Egypt, the fabled Tower of Babel, and the laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi are some of the things that might come to mind when you think of the ancient Near East. Yet these are only a very few of the many fascinating -- and at time perplexing -- aspects of the civilizations that flourished there c. 3300-300 BCE. This is where writing first developed, where people thought that the gods wrote down what would happen in the future on the lungs and livers of sacrificed sheep, and where people knew how to determine the length of hypotenuse a thousand years before the Greek Pythagoras was born. During this course, we will learn more about these other matters and discover their place in the cultures and civilizations of that area. This is an interdisciplinary survey of the history, society and culture of the ancient Near East, in particular Egypt and Mesopotamia, utilizing extensive readings from ancient texts in translation (including the Epic of Gilgamesh, "one of the great masterpieces of world literature"), but also making use of archaeological and art historical materials. The goal of the course is to gain an appreciation of the various societies of the time, to understand some of their great achievements, to become acquainted with some of the fascinating individuals of the time (such as Hatshepsut, "the women pharaoh," and Akhenaten, "the heretic king"), and to appreciate the rich heritage that they have left us. ANCH0100401, NELC0001401, NELC6020401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
HIST 0811-401 Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn Ira Harkavy
Theresa E Simmonds 		This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week. AFRC1780401, URBS1780401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
HIST 0812-401 Perspectives on Urban Poverty Robert P Fairbanks MCNB 286-7 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to 20th century urban poverty, and 20th century urban poverty knowledge. In addition to providing an historical overview of American poverty, the course is primarily concerned with the ways in which historical, cultural, political, racial, social, spatial/geographical, and economic forces have either shaped or been left out of contemporary debates on urban poverty. Of great importance, the course will evaluate competing analytic trends in the social sciences and their respective implications in terms of the question of what can be known about urban poverty in the contexts of social policy and practice, academic research, and the broader social imaginary. We will critically analyze a wide body of literature that theorizes and explains urban poverty. Course readings span the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, urban studies, history, and social welfare. Primacy will be granted to critical analysis and deconstruction of course texts, particularly with regard to the ways in which poverty knowledge creates, sustains, and constricts meaningful channels of action in urban poverty policy and practice interventions. SOCI2944401, URBS4200401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
HIST 0816-401 Undergraduate Research Seminar: The 1963 March on Washington Marcia Chatelain WLNT 330A M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM In this course, students will examine the origins of the March on Washington movement in the 1940s, biographies of the March organizers, and the ways the March has been memorialized over the past six decades. By exploring the dynamics that contributed to the demonstrations, students will delve into primary source documents, read secondary literature, and write their own article-length research papers based on the course material. The course will also examine the ways documentary film footage, photography, music, and media coverage of the March has contributed to understandings and misreadings of this moment in Civil Rights history. AFRC3455401
HIST 0818-401 Sex, Love, and Race in African American Life and History Marcia Chatelain BENN 201 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course discusses the political and social implications of sex, race and personal relationships in U.S. political and social history. In this class, we examine how so-called ‘emotional,’ human experiences such as falling in love, engaging in a sexual relationship, marriage, coming out of the closet, and other deeply personal events over the course of a lifetime are shaped by political, legal and historical forces. This course will examine the history of marriage rights, claims to ethnic and racial identity, activism among multiracial people in the United States, sex education in public schools, and debates about marriage and family rights in the 20th and 21st centuries. AFRC2545401, GSWS2545401
HIST 0819-401 Queer Life in U.S. History Beans Velocci BENN 344 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Queerness has held a variety of meanings and queer life has looked different over the past several centuries of United States history, but it certainly isn’t new. This course traces queer existence—in terms of both gender and sexuality—from the seventeenth century through the present, and foregrounds lived experience, identity formation, community development, and political consciousness. We will attend closely to how race, class, immigration status, and ability shape and are shaped by queer life, and engage with current topics of concern in the field of queer history, like the rural/urban divide, capitalism and neoliberalism, and queer memory. GSWS2320401
HIST 0824-401 Russia and the West Siarhei Biareishyk COHN 337 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will explore the representations of the West in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century Russian literature and philosophy. We will consider the Russian visions of various events and aspects of Western political and social life Revolutions, educational system, public executions, resorts, etc. within the context of Russian intellectual history. We will examine how images of the West reflect Russia's own cultural concerns, anticipations, and biases, as well as aesthetic preoccupations and interests of Russian writers. The discussion will include literary works by Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Tolstoy, as well as non-fictional documents, such as travelers' letters, diaries, and historiosophical treatises of Russian Freemasons, Romantic and Positivist thinkers, and Russian social philosophers of the late Nineteenth century. A basic knowledge of nineteenth-century European history is desirable. The class will consist of lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, and two in-class tests. COML2020401, REES0190401 Humanties & Social Science Sector
HIST 0825-401 Portraits of Soviet Society: Literature, Film, Drama Kevin M F Platt WILL 27 TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM 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 of cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organized 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-analytical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. We will read social history through culture and culture through history. REES0130401 Humanties & Social Science Sector
HIST 0850-401 Introduction to Modern India Ramya Sreenivasan LLAB 109 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This introductory course will provide an outline of major events and themes in Indian history, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the re-emergence of India as a global player in the 21st century. The course will discuss the following themes: society and economy in Mughal India; global trade between India and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the English East India Company's control over Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; its emergence and transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements in the 19th century; the emergence of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; independence and the partition of the subcontinent; the emergence of the world's largest democracy; the making of an Indian middle class; and the nuclearization of South Asia. SAST0001401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0850401 World East/South Asia
HIST 0851-401 India: Culture and Society Akhil Puthiyadath Veetil MEYH B5 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM What makes India INDIA? Religion and Philosophy? Architectural splendor? Kingdoms? Caste? The position of women? This course will introduce students to India by studying a range of social and cultural institutions that have historically assumed to be definitive India. Through primary texts, novels and historical sociological analysis, we will ask how these institutions have been reproduced and transformed, and assess their significance for contemporary Indian society. RELS0008401, SAST0008401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Humanties & Social Science Sector
HIST 0870-401 Introduction to Digital Humanities Cassandra Hradil
Whitney A Trettien 		BENN 201 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course provides an introduction to foundational skills common in digital humanities (DH). It covers a range of new technologies and methods and will empower scholars in literary studies and across humanities disciplines to take advantage of established and emerging digital research tools. Students will learn basic coding techniques that will enable them to work with a range data including literary texts and utilize techniques such as text mining, network analysis, and other computational approaches. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. COML1650401, ENGL1650401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0870401
HIST 0876-401 Medicine in History Amy S Lutz COHN 402 TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM This course surveys the history of medical knowledge and practice from antiquity to the present. No prior background in the history of science or medicine is required. The course has two principal goals: (1)to give students a practical introduction to the fundamental questions and methods of the history of medicine, and (2)to foster a nuanced, critical understanding of medicine's complex role in contemporary society. The couse takes a broadly chronological approach, blending the perspectives of the patient,the physician,and society as a whole--recognizing that medicine has always aspired to "treat" healthy people as well as the sick and infirm. Rather than history "from the top down"or "from the bottom up,"this course sets its sights on history from the inside out. This means, first, that medical knowledge and practice is understood through the personal experiences of patients and caregivers. It also means that lectures and discussions will take the long-discredited knowledge and treatments of the past seriously,on their own terms, rather than judging them by todays's standards. Required readings consist largely of primary sources, from elite medical texts to patient diaries. Short research assignments will encourge students to adopt the perspectives of a range of actors in various historical eras. HSOC0400401, STSC0400401 History & Tradition Sector
HIST 1119-401 History of American Law to 1877 Sarah L H Gronningsater ANNS 110 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course is designed to explore major themes and events in early American legal history. Because of the richness of the subject matter and the wealth of sources available, we will be selective in our focus. The course will emphasize several core areas of legal development that run throughout colonial and early national history: 1) the state: including topics such as war and other military or police action, insurrection, revolution, regulation, courts, economic policy, and public health; 2) labor: including race and racially-based slavery, varied forms of servitude and labor coercion, household labor, industrialization, unionization, and market development; 3) property: including property in persons, land, and business, and the role of lawyers in promoting the creation of wealth; 4) private spaces: including family, individual rights, sexuality, gender, and private relations of authority; 5) constitutionalism: various methods of setting norms (rules, principles, values) that create, structure, and define the limits of government power and authority in colonial/imperial, state, and national contexts; 6) democracy and belonging: including questions of citizenship, voting rights, and participation in public life. By placing primary sources within historical context, the course will expose students to the ways that legal change has affected the course of American history and contemporary life. The course will be conducted primarily in lecture format, but I invite student questions and participation. In the end, the central aim of this course is to acquaint students with a keen sense of the ways that law has operated to liberate, constrain, and organize Americans. Ideally, students will come away with sharper critical thinking and reading skills, as well. *This course is a core requirement for the Legal Studies and History Minor (LSHM).* AFRC1119401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1119401 American, Intellectual pre-1800, US
HIST 1122-401 Witches, Rebels, and Prophets: People on the Margins in Early America Julia Marie Bouwkamp
Kathleen M Brown 		STIT 263 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course explores the lost worlds of witches, sexual offenders, rebellious enslaved people, rebellious colonists, and Native American leaders from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Using the life stories of unusual individuals from the past, we try to make sense of their contentious relationships with their societies. By following the careers of the troublemakers, the criminals, the rebels, and other non-conformists, we also learn about the foundations of social order and the impulse to reform that rocked American society during the nineteenth century. The lives of these unique “movers and shakers” help us to understand the issues that Americans debated in the years leading up to the Civil War. AFRC1122401, GSWS1122401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1122401 American, Gender pre-1800, US
HIST 1153-401 Transformations of Urban America: Making the Unequal Metropolis, 1945 to Today Nicole M Adrian
Randall B Cebul
Andres Villatoro 		MCNB 150 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM The course traces the economic, social, and political history of American cities after World War II. It focuses on how the economic problems of the industrial city were compounded by the racial conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s and the fiscal crises of the 1970s. The last part of the course examines the forces that have led to the revitalization and stark inequality of cities in recent years. URBS1153401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Society Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1153401 American, Economic US
HIST 1155-401 Introduction to Asian American History Eiichiro Azuma
Nainika Dinesh 		MCNB 286-7 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will provide an introduction to the history of Asian Pacific Americans, focusing on the wide diversity of migrant experiences, as well as the continuing legacies of Orientalism on American-born APA's. Issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality will also be examined. ASAM0102401 History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. 		American, World US
HIST 1179-001 Precious Lord, Take My Hand: America in the Sixties William Sturkey FAGN 110 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM The Sixties are mythologized in American memory. From social movements to hippies, the Sixties are often portrayed as a decade of unfettered idealism, chaos, and revolution. The Sixties were indeed a dramatic era of conflict and change, but the experiences of Americans who lived during the Sixties were also remarkably diverse and complex in ways that transcend stereotypes of the decade. More than merely a series of conflicts between activists and racists or hawks and doves, the Sixties represented a turning point in American life. The society that emerged in the wake of this profound decade was completely different than anything that had ever existed before. Through a variety of themes—especially gender, race, foreign policy, and consumer culture—this class will move beyond generic Sixties narratives to offer a multi-faceted examination of American life during the Sixties and explore how the decade has shaped the contemporary United States. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1179001 American US
HIST 1190-001 American Diplomatic History Since 1776 Walter A Mcdougall
Kaleb Bloxham Nygaard 		ANNS 111 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Survey course tracing the origins and evolution of the great traditions of U.S. foreign policy, including Exceptionalism, Unilateralism, Manifest Destiny, Wilsonianism, etc., by which Americans have tried to define their place in the world. Three hours of lecture per week, extensive reading, no recitations. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1190001 American, Diplomatic US
HIST 1200-401 Foundations of European Thought: from Rome to the Renaissance Ann Elizabeth Moyer PCPE 100 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course offers an introduction to the world of thought and learning at the heart of European culture, from the Romans through the Renaissance. We begin with the ancient Mediterranean and the formation of Christianity and trace its transformation into European society. Along the way we will examine the rise of universities and institutions for learning, and follow the humanist movement in rediscovering and redefining the ancients in the modern world. COML1201401 Cross Cultural Analysis
History & Tradition Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1200401 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800
HIST 1270-001 World War I Peter I Holquist STIT 263 MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM This survey course examines the outbreak, conduct, and aftermath of the First World War. The First World War put an end to the world of the 19th century and laid the foundations of the 20th century, the age of destruction and devastation. This course will examine the war in three components: the long-term and immediate causes of the First World War; the war's catastrophic conduct, on the battlefield and on the home front; and the war's devastating aftermath. While we will discuss military operations and certain battles, this course is not a military history of the war; it covers the social, economic, political and diplomatic aspects that contributed to the war's outbreak and made possible its execution over four devastating years. No preliminary knowledge or coursework is required. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1270001 Diplomatic, European Europe, Global Issues
HIST 1280-401 Origins of Nazism: From Democracy to Race War and Genocide Anne K Berg FAGN 216 MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Where did the Nazis come from? Was the Weimar Republic bound to fail? Did the Treaty of Versailles or the Great Depression catapult the Nazis into power? What was the role of racism, of Anti-Semitism? How did the regime consolidate itself? What was the role of ordinary people? How do we explain the Holocaust and what kind of a war was the Second World War? Grappling with these and more questions, the first half of the course focuses on Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic and its vibrant political culture. In the second half, we study on the Nazi regime, how it consolidated its power and remade society based on the concepts of race and struggle. Discussions of race and race-making are crucial throughout the course. In the name of the "racial purity," the Nazi state moved ruthlessly against Germany's Jewish population and cleansed German society of all "undesirable" elements. These ideas and practices didn't originate with the Nazis and they didn't operate in a geopolitical vacuum. Thinking about Nazi racism and genocide in both its particular specifics and in a larger global historical context is the main goal of this course. GRMN1306401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1280401 European Europe
HIST 1358-401 Histories of Egypt Eve M Troutt Powell CANCELED This course will explore Egypt’s impact on the world in several historical eras – the ancient past and its unparalleled legacy; the nineteenth century and nationalism; the twentieth century’s wars, peace and music and the twenty-first centuries lessons in revolution. We will examine European Egyptomania and Orientalism in the 19th century, Afrocentrism’s ambitions for Egypt, and Egypt’s centrality to pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism. And we will explore the history as Egypt’s writers, filmmakers, musicians and poets have imagined it from the nineteenth century to the present. AFRC1358401, CIMS1358401
HIST 1361-401 Sex Matters: Politics of Sex in the Modern Middle East Secil Yilmaz BENN 140 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM The course concentrates on the history of sexuality as it informed and shaped political and social change in the Middle East, and vice versa, in an engagement with global historical contexts. What does sexuality have to do with power, political rule, and mass movements in the modern Middle East? What can the study of sexuality and body politics teach us about colonialism and state formation over centuries of imperial rules and colonial regimes, as well as in the contemporary context of neoliberal capitalism? What is the relationship between studying LGBTQIA+ movements alongside with feminism and the use of sex and sexuality as an analytical category? This course will investigate selected themes such as modernity, nationalism, and colonization and connect them to harem lives, politics of veiling/unveiling, reproductive rights, race, polygamy, masculinity, and early modern concepts of same-sex desire in connection with modern queer thought and activism to ask questions about the preconceived notions about "Middle Eastern sexualities." The course focuses on discussing on some of the many roles that sex and gender politics have played in social and political change in the Middle East, while thinking about gender, history, and society comparatively and transnationally. GSWS1361401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1361401 Gender, World Africa/Middle East
HIST 1362-402 The Making of Modern Israel and Palestine Ian Steven Lustick
Benjamin Nathans 		MCNB 285 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course analyzes the making of a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel/Palestine and the role of Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, and global politics in that process. Beginning in 19th-century Europe and the Middle East, we will study the ideas, movements, and people that shaped what has come to be known as the Arab-Israeli conflict. Students will explore the impact of international factors on the struggles that resulted from the Zionist project in Israel/Palestine and Arab reactions to it across three periods: imperialism and world wars (1860s-1940s), cold war (late 1940s-1990), and multi-polarity (1990s-present). JWST1362402, PSCI1141402 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1362402
HIST 1382-001 Modern Iran Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet CANCELED “Iran” acquired its current appellation through a process of national and international negotiation. To understand its modern history requires a retrospective analysis of international processes, which have guided Iran’s political and cultural transformations in the contemporary period. Iran’s engagement with its neighbors and with other transnational communities, from the nineteenth to the 21st century, has remained a source of conflict and cultural flux, especially along its volatile boundaries. Its past has become embedded in the broad histories of the Middle East and thus cannot be studied in isolation. This course will traverse the history of Iran from the monarchic era to the Islamic Republic. It will offer readings of primary accounts, historical newspapers, archival documents, and unpublished manuscript sources to show the breadth of the Persianate world and the significance of Iran’s involvement in the contemporary Middle East, from social issues to arms build-up. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1382001 World Africa/Middle East
HIST 1388-401 From Oil Fields to Soccer Fields: The Middle East in the 20th Century Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet COLL 200 TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM How did the Middle East become modern? Life changed in spectacular ways for the people of the Middle East in the span of a century. Oil -- once considered a scarce natural commodity -- was discovered in many countries and exported in substantial quantities that altered the economic landscape of the world. Movie theaters, sewage systems, and public housing projects changed the urban backdrop of Middle Eastern cities and towns. Soccer, swimming, and volleyball became some of the new-fangled sports embraced by Middle Eastern communities. This course will traverse these fascinating and fraught cultural transformations of the Middle East in the twentieth century. Although inclusive of the military battles and conflicts that have affected the region, this class will move beyond the cliches of war to show the range of issues and ideas with which intellectuals and communities grappled. The cultural politics and economic value of oil as well as the formation of a vibrant cultural life will be among the topics covered. By considering illustrative moments that shed light on the political history of the period, this course will develop a nuanced framework to approach the history of the U.S. involvement in the region, the Iran-Iraq war, the Arab/Israeli conflict, and the current crises in the Persian Gulf. Students are required to participate in every lecture and/or recitation, as on Thursdays, part of the class time will be devoted to discussing select documents provided by the instructor. Please keep in mind that lectures do not duplicate readings, but rather supplement them. We will also watch video clips during some lectures. In addition, students are expected to complete each week's readings before class. Course requirements include satisfactory performance on a Powerpoint presentation related to the weekly readings, 2 short factual quizzes, and 7-page paper. The paper can be on a topic of contemporary interest that is placed in the proper historical context. NELC0690401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1388401 World Africa/Middle East
HIST 1475-401 History of Brazil: Slavery, Inequality, Development Melissa Teixeira COHN 392 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM In the past decade, Brazil has emerged a leading global power. As the world's fifth-largest country, by size and population, and the ninth-largest by GDP, Brazil exerts tremendous influence on international politics and the global economy, seen in its position as an emerging BRIC nation and a regional heavyweight in South America. Brazil is often in the news for its strides in social welfare, leading investments in the Global South, as host of the World Cup and Olympics, and, most recently, for its political instability. It is also a nation of deep contradictions, in which myth of racial democracy -- the longstanding creed that Brazilian society has escaped racial discrimination -- functions alongside pervasive social inequality, state violence, political corruption, and an unforgiving penal system. This course examines six centuries of Brazilian history. It highlights the interplay between global events -- colonialism, slavery and emancipation, capitalism, and democratization -- and the local geographies, popular cultures, and social movements that have shaped this multi-ethnic and expansive nation. In particular, the readings will highlight Brazil's place in Latin America and the Lusophone World, as well as the ways in which Brazil stands as a counterpoint to the United States, especially in terms of the legacy of slavery and race relation. In this lecture, we will also follow the current political and economic crises unfolding in Brazil, at a moment when it has become all the more important to evaluate just how South America's largest nation has shaped and been shaped by global events. AFRC1475401, LALS1475401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1475401 Economic, World Latin America/Caribbean
HIST 1550-401 East Asian Diplomacy Frederick R Dickinson BENN 419 MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements. EALC1711401, EALC5711401, HIST5550401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1550401 Diplomatic, World East/South Asia
HIST 1593-401 20th Century China: Democracy, Constitutions, and States Arthur Waldron CANCELED Since 1900 four types of states have ruled China: dynastic, elective parliamentary, authoritarian nationalist, and communist. We will trace each from its intellectual origins to conclusion. By doing so we will present a solid and wide-ranging narrative of China's past century, introducing newly discovered material, some controversial. Above all we will dig into the issues raised by the century's mixture of regimes. Right now China is a dictatorship but once it was an imperfect democracy. Does this prove that Chinese are somehow incapable of creating democracy? That sadly it is just not in their DNA? Or only that the task is very difficult in a country nearly forty times the size of England and developing rapidly? That without dictatorship the Chinese almost inevitably collapse into chaos? Or only that blood and iron have been used regularly with harsh effectiveness? You will be given a solid grounding in events, and also in how they are interpreted, right up to the present. Readings will be mostly by Chinese authors (translated), everything from primary sources to narrative to fiction. We will also use wartime documentary films. Two lectures per week, regular mid-term and final exams, and a paper on a topic of your own choice. No prerequisites. EALC1731401 World East/South Asia
HIST 1600-401 Jews and Judaism in Antiquity Simcha Gross MCNB 285 TR 8:30 AM-9:59 AM A broad introduction to the history of Jewish civilization from its Biblical beginnings to the Middle Ages, with the main focus on the formative period of classical rabbinic Judaism and on the symbiotic relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. JWST1600401, NELC0350401, RELS1600401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1600401
HIST 1625-401 Era of Revolutions in the Atlantic World Roquinaldo Ferreira COHN 203 MW 5:15 PM-6:44 PM This class examines the global ramifications of the era of Atlantic revolutions from the 1770s through the 1820s. With a particular focus on French Saint Domingue and Latin America, it provides an overview of key events and individuals from the period. Along the way, it assesses the impact of the American and French revolutions on the breakdown of colonial regimes across the Americas. Students will learn how to think critically about citizenship, constitutional power, and independence movements throughout the Atlantic world. Slavery and the transatlantic slave trade were seriously challenged in places such as Haiti, and the class investigates the appropriation and circulation of revolutionary ideas by enslaved people and other subaltern groups. AFRC1625401, LALS1625401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1625401 Diplomatic, World Latin America/Caribbean, pre-1800
HIST 1733-001 Free Speech and Censorship Edward M Chappell
Sophia A Rosenfeld 		BENN 231 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will explore the idea of free speech - its justification, its relationship to various forms of censorship, and its proper limits - as a historical, philosophical, legal, and ultimately, political question. In the first half of the course, we will explore the long history across the West of the regulation of various kinds of ideas and their expression, from malicious gossip to heresies, and read classic arguments for and against censorship, copyright protections, and standards of taste and decency and of truth. In the second part of the seminar, after looking at how the idea of freedom of speech came to seem an existential prerequisite for democracy as well as individual liberty, we will take up the historical and philosophical questions posed by such recent dilemmas as whether or not hate speech deserves the protection of the First Amendment, the distinction between art and pornography from the perspective of freedom of expression, speech during wartime, and the transformative effects of the internet on the circulation and regulation of ideas. We will end the semester by thinking about the globalization of the idea of free speech as a human right and its implications, both positive and negative. Readings will range from Robert Darnton's The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, to D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, to documents concerning the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and law review articles about Citizens United v. FEC. We will also make considerable use of local resources, from museums to the library. Humanties & Social Science Sector American, European, Intellectual Global Issues, pre-1800, US
HIST 1740-401 Capitalism, Socialism, and Crisis in the 20th Century Americas Zoe Fallon
Amy C Offner 		MCNB 150 TR 10:15 AM-11:14 AM From the crisis of the Great Depression through the 1970s, the United States and Latin America produced remarkable efforts to remake society and political economy. This course analyzes the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions, as well as social movements that transformed the United States: the black freedom movement, the labor movement, and changing forms of Latinx politics. In all three countries, Americans looked for ways to reform capitalism or build socialism; address entrenched patterns of racism; define and realize democracy; and achieve national independence. They conceived of these challenges in dramatically different ways. Together, we’ll compare national histories and analyze the relationships between national upheavals. LALS1740401 Cross Cultural Analysis
History & Tradition Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1740401 Diplomatic, Economic, World Latin America/Caribbean, US
HIST 2104-401 American Books/Books in America James N Green
John Pollack 		VANP 605 R 12:00 PM-2:59 PM This course investigates book histories and the worlds of readers, printers, publishers, and libraries in the Americas, from the colonial period through the nineteenth century. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ENGL2604401 American pre-1800, Seminar, US
HIST 2154-301 The State of the Union is not Good: The US in Crisis in the 1970s Randall B Cebul BENN 25 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Vietnam. Watergate. Deindustrialization. Inflation. Disco. These events and forces only begin to scratch the surface of the social, cultural, political, and economic transformations that remade American life in the 1970s and which, by 1975, forced President Gerald Ford to concede “that the state of the union is not good.” Beyond these familiar topics, this reading seminar will explore a range of developments that are crucial for understanding why the 1970s was perhaps the pivotal decade in making modern American politics, economics, and culture. Topics will include the fate of the Civil Rights movement and the war on crime; the rise and impact of second wave feminism; the rise of the modern conservative coalition (e.g., its religious, economic, and white working-class components); the emergence of the finance economy; the reorientation of organized labor and the remaking of the Democratic Party; the explosion of “therapeutic” cultures of self-help, individualism, and entrepreneurialism; and the rise of the Sunbelt as the nation’s dominant cultural, political, and economic region. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2154301 American Seminar, US
HIST 2159-401 The History of Family Separation Hardeep Dhillon COHN 204 R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This course examines the socio-legal history of family separation in the United States. From the period of slavery to the present-day, the United States has a long history of separating and remaking families. Black, Indigenous, poor, disabled, and immigrant communities have navigated the precarious nature of family separation and the legal regime of local, state, and federal law that substantiated it. In this course, we will trace how families have navigated domains of family separation and the reasoning that compelled such separation in the first place. Through an intersectional focus that embraces race, class, disability, and gender, we will underline who has endured family separation and how such separation has remade the very definition of family in the United States. ASAM2159401, GSWS2159401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2159401 American, Gender Seminar, US
HIST 2160-401 Remembering the Good Old Days: Slavery, the Civil War, and the Creation of an American Fantasy Derek Litvak VANP 305 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM As the Civil War came to an end a concerted campaign formed to re-imagine and revise the origins and reasons for the war. Within just a couple of decades, former enslavers, their sympathizers, everyday southerners, and many northerners had joined forces to rewrite history. All the while, formerly enslaved people and new generations of free Black people pushed back against the rising tide of collective, and voluntary, historical amnesia in the country. From 1865 to the present day, Americans have continued to wage battles in the Civil War. This course examines American history through a variety of mediums, including newspapers, textbooks, court cases, movies, monuments, and holidays to understand for formation of historical memory. We will examine the national memory of slavery and the Civil War, what they did, could, and would mean, and how this process has been integral to creating an American historical and national identity. AFRC2160401 American Seminar, US
HIST 2201-401 The City of Rome: From Constantine to the Borgias Ann Elizabeth Moyer WILL 306 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM The great city of Rome outlived its empire and its emperors. What happened to the Eternal City after “the fall of the Roman Empire in the West?” In this course, we will follow the story of this great city, its people, its buildings old and new, and its legacy across Italy, Europe, and beyond. Rome rebuilt and reshaped itself through the Middle Ages: home for popes, destination for pilgrims, power broker for Italy. It became a great Renaissance and early modern city, a center of art and architecture, of religion, and of politics. We will be reading a mix of primary sources and modern scholarship. All required texts are in English, though students who take this course for Italian Studies credit may choose to read some works in Italian. ITAL2201401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2201401 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 2206-401 Neighbors and Strangers: Jews and Christians in Premodern Europe Joshua Teplitsky MCES 105 R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM The history of Christians and Jews—and of Judaism and Christianity—is an entangled one. From antiquity the two groups gained understandings of themselves in relation to the other, and that story defined much of the lives of each throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern period. At times this relationship was a hostile one, but it was also a force for creativity and a basic fact of life. This course approaches the history of relations between Christians and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (ca. 1000-1800), exploring both the bases of hatred and the possibilities of coexistence. We will look at episodes of crusader violence, mass expulsion, and religious polemic alongside exchanges in taverns, shared child-rearing, and sexual encounters. We will examine sources from both Christians and Jews, recovering voices from across this seeming divide, encountering both the ideals imagined by elites and intellectuals, and the messy—and more interesting!—realities of living side-by-side for centuries. Class meetings will involve dedicated discussion of a combination of primary and secondary sources, and assessment will be based on writing assignments. JWST2206401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2206401 European, Jewish Europe, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 2256-401 The Russian Revolutions, 1905-1924: Brave New World? Peter I Holquist BENN 139 M 12:00 PM-2:59 PM Many believe that the 1917 Russian Revolution was the most significant event in the twentieth century, both as a rupture from the past and as a precursor of much that was to come in the twentieth century. The February Revolution of 1917 made the Russian Republic—at one stroke, in the midst of the world war—the world’s most democratic state. The October Revolution of 1917, following it, was the world’s first socialist revolution, and it established the world’s first socialist state—the Soviet Union. Throughout the twentieth century and beyond, people have looked to it with either fear or with hope. It generated great dreams of equality and liberation—and great misery.
This course will examine the causes, course and consequences of this crucial period, for the peoples of the Soviet Union and for the world. In some ways, the term “Russian Revolution” is in fact not entirely correct. First, there was not one Russian Revolution--were a series of overlapping revolutions in this period—labor, rural, nationalist, liberationist. And second, it was a revolution that was not limited to European Russia, but encompassed the entire space of Russian empire (the Caucasus, the Baltics, Poland, Central Asia), and had worldwide and global significance. How do programs for liberation produce both new possibilities and great misery? 		REES2770401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2256401 European Europe, Seminar
HIST 2355-401 Classic Icons, Cinematic Images: Popular Culture in the Middle East Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet CANCELED The meaning of culture can sometimes best be understood through a look at its popular traditions and the routines of everyday life. This course will grapple with issues of ethnicity, political conflict, and identity in the Middle East by analyzing the culture produced for and consumed by a wide spectrum of the general public in different countries. Political cartoons, photography, novels, film, music, dance, and other modes of cultural expression will be used to explore the historical roots of the political anxieties and social conventions common to many modern Middle Eastern communities. In this way, we will recast studies of politics through an understanding of identity and culture. CIMS2355401 World Africa/Middle East, Seminar
HIST 2401-401 Indians, Pirates, Rebels and Runaways: Unofficial Histories of the Colonial Caribbean Yvonne E Fabella CANCELED This seminar considers the early history of the colonial Caribbean, not from the perspective of European colonizing powers but rather from “below.” Beginning with European-indigenous contact in the fifteenth century, and ending with the massive slave revolt that became the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), we will focus on the different ways in which indigenous, African, European and creole men and women experienced European colonization in the Caribbean, as agents, victims and resistors of imperial projects. Each week or so, we will examine the experiences of a different social group and their treatment by historians, as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and novelists. Along the way, we will pay special attention to the question of primary sources: how can we recover the perspectives of people who rarely left their own accounts? How can we use documents and material objects—many of which were produced by colonial officials and elites—to access the experiences of the indigenous, the enslaved, and the poor? We will have some help approaching these questions from the knowledgeable staff at the Penn Museum, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Van Pelt Library. AFRC2401401, GSWS2401401, LALS2401401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2401401 Diplomatic, World Latin America/Caribbean, pre-1800
HIST 2708-301 War and the Arts Arthur Waldron CANCELED War, it is often forgotten, is powerfully reflected in the arts. This highly flexible student-driven seminar will examine the phenomenon. Each student will choose a topic and materials for us all to examine and then discuss after an interval of 1-2 weeks. With benefit of discussion they will write a paper 10pp maximum, summing up topic and reactions, as we seek broader understanding.
The material is very rich. Goya (1746-1829) Picasso ( 1881-1973) both dealt with war in ways that scholars have examined, as did John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) whose immense canvas “gassed” (1919) not yet received monographic treatment. Of musicians, Shostakovich (1906-1975) is very promising; sculptor and artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) is of an inexpressible profundity that takes us to issues of mourning. Novels of Zola (1840-1902) and Proust (1871-1922) are great literature that deals in places with military issues. Students are of course strongly encouraged to choose their own topics.
We will begin with several weeks on Vietnam, our understanding of which has been completely transformed by the pivotally important work of Lien-Hang Thuy Nguyen, Penn Grad and Professor at Columbia, who may join us. For the first two classes we should read a short play, “The Columnist” by David Auburn, about Joseph Alsop (1910-1989) a highly influential writer of the Vietnam era, and relative of the professor. That should get things started. Then dig into “The Centurions” (1960) by Jean Laterguy (1920-2011) an absorbing novel.
HIST 3150-401 The Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans Eiichiro Azuma PWH 108 T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This research seminar will consist of a review of representative studies on the Japanese American internment, and a discussion of how social scientists and historians have attempted to explain its complex backgrounds and causes. Through the careful reading of academic works, primary source materials, and visualized narratives (film productions), students will learn the basic historiography of internment studies, research methodologies, and the politics of interpretation pertaining to this particular historical subject. Students will also examine how Japanese Americans and others have attempted to reclaim a history of the wartime internment from the realm of “detached” academia in the interest of their lives in the “real” world, and for a goal of “social justice” in general. The class will critically probe the political use of history and memories of selected pasts in both Asian American community and contemporary American society through the controversial issue of the Japanese American internment. ASAM2100401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. American, Diplomatic Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3158-401 ¡Huelga! The Farmworker Movement in the United States Amy C Offner JAFF 104 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This intensive research seminar invites students to explore the history of farmworkers in the United States during the twentieth century. Research will primarily but not necessarily exclusively focus on the west coast, a region in which many archival sources have been digitized. Students may explore a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to: farmworker unions; the relationship between farmworker mobilizations and other movements in the US and abroad; the experiences of workers from the Philippines and Latin America and the role of US imperial and immigration policies in the lives of farmworkers; farmworkers' confrontations with and participation in systems of racism; the Great Depression in rural communities; the history of gender and family in farmworker communities; the history of environment and health; struggles over citizenship and social rights; counter-mobilizations of growers and the right; religion in farmworker communities; legislative and legal strategies to obtain rights denied agricultural workers in federal law; artistic, musical, and cultural production; or the relationship between consumers and the workers who produced their food. LALS3158401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3158401 American, Economic Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3173-401 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar Kathleen M Brown CANCELED This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial orientation to archival research, students will plunge in to doing actual research at the Kislak Center, the University Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company, and various online sources. During the final month of the semester, students will begin drafting research reports and preparing for a public presentation of the work. During the semester, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a certified genealogist, a data management and website expert, a consultant on public programming, and a Penn graduate whose research has been integral to the Penn Slavery Project. AFRC3173401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3173401 American Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3202-301 Medieval Justice Ada M Kuskowski MCES 105 T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM What exactly is justice? What is its relationship to law? To what extent is it culturally contingent? How do ideas about justice change over time? This course will examine different theories and representation of justice in European Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500).
We will begin by looking at aspects of dispute resolution in the early middle ages, when there was little centralized government. This was the heyday of feud, ordeal, and the law of talion, when law was largely unwritten and disputes were resolved informally by the community. We will then look at how law professionalized and how ideas of justice changed as formal legal institutions and centralized governments developed. Readings will be drawn from a variety of sources, including the so-called barbarian codes, stories of feud, accounts of crime, charters of rights, lawbooks, and trial records. 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3202301 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Research, Seminar
HIST 3350-401 Religion and Colonial Rule in Africa Cheikh Ante Mbacke Babou MCES 105 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course is designed to introduce students to the religious experiences of Africans and to the politics of culture. We will examine how traditional African religious ideas and practices interacted with Christianity and Islam. We will look specifically at religious expressions among the Yoruba, Southern African independent churches and millenarist movements, and the variety of Muslim organizations that developed during the colonial era. The purpose of this course is threefold. First, to develop in students an awareness of the wide range of meanings of conversion and people's motives in creating and adhering to religious institutions; Second, to examine the political, cultural, and psychological dimensions in the expansion of religious social movements; And third, to investigate the role of religion as counterculture and instrument of resistance to European hegemony. Topics include: Mau Mau and Maji Maji movements in Kenya and Tanzania, Chimurenga in Mozambique, Watchtower churches in Southern Africa, anti-colonial Jihads in Sudan and Somalia and mystical Muslim orders in Senegal. AFRC3350401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3350401 Diplomatic, World Africa/Middle East, Research, Seminar
HIST 3700-401 Abolitionism: A Global History Roquinaldo Ferreira CANCELED This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.* AFRC3700401, LALS3700401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3700401 World Global Issues, Research, Seminar
HIST 3703-001 Taking Off: How Some Economies Get Rich Melissa Teixeira WILL 215 M 3:30 PM-6:29 PM What makes an economy grow? This question has been asked – and answered – many times over in the modern era. From Adam Smith’s classic Wealth of Nations (1776) to today’s political leaders, many have debated the ingredients necessary for a nation to prosper, or policies to promote growth. Some point to the need for fiscal responsibility, others an educated labor force, or to tariffs, natural resources, and the right laws. This seminar explores the deep history of this problem of economic growth. Students will read works by economists, social scientists, and historians that present different theories for why some nations develop faster than others. With case studies from across the globe, we will tackle topics like why Europe industrialized first, or the paradox of why the abundance of natural resources does not necessarily contribute to long-lasting economic development. This course also asks students to think critically about the metrics used to measure “success” and “failure” across nations, as well as how such comparisons between societies have been mobilized to legitimize imperial expansion, human exploitation, environmental destruction, or political repression. By discussing how governments, corporate interests, and individual actors have implemented strategies to increase national wealth, students will also be asked to grapple with some of the consequences of economic growth for the environment, human welfare, and social inequality. *Students may fulfill one geographic requirement for the History major or minor with this course. The specific requirement fulfilled will be determined by the topic of the research paper. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3703001 Economic, World Global Issues, Research, Seminar
HIST 3910-401 Immigration and the Making of US Law Hardeep Dhillon BENN 231 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course examines the legal history of the United States to illuminate one of the most urgent issues of our time: immigration. From the late nineteenth century, immigration to the United States changed the legal landscape of the country by challenging the bounds of national citizenship, “separate but equal,” Congressional powers, home ownership, and an array of other topics. In this course, we will trace how immigrants challenged existing orders of their time through major state and federal supreme court cases, and the subsequent aftermaths of their trials. In addition to considering the key legal issues at stake in these cases, this course compels us to consider the dynamics of race, disability, gender, and labor that define the construction of US law in the context of immigration. ASAM3110401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3910401 American US
HIST 3922-401 European Thought and Culture in the Age of Revolution Warren G Breckman FAGN 110 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM Starting with the dual challenges of Enlightenment and Revolution at the close of the eighteenth century, this course examines the emergence of modern European thought and culture in the century from Kant to Nietzsche. Themes to be considered include Romanticism, Utopian Socialism, early Feminism, Marxism, Liberalism, and Aestheticism. Readings include Kant, Hegel, Burke, Marx, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Darwin, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. COML3922401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3922401 European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 4998-301 Senior Honors in History Benjamin Nathans VANP 625 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Open to senior honors candidates in history who will write their honors thesis during this seminar. Perm Needed From Department https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST4998301 Seminar
HIST 5550-401 East Asian Diplomacy Frederick R Dickinson BENN 419 MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements. EALC1711401, EALC5711401, HIST1550401
HIST 6110-301 Readings in North American History to 1865 Kathleen M Brown JAFF 104 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Early American history.
HIST 6230-301 European Thought and Culture from the French Revolution to World War One Warren G Breckman MCES 105 W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM Reading and Discussion course on selected topics in Modern European History. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST6230301
HIST 6600-301 Latin Amer Hist, 1750-2000 Ann C Farnsworth BENN 24 T 3:30 PM-6:29 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Latin American and Caribbean history
HIST 6700-301 How to teach World History Anne K Berg COHN 493 M 3:30 PM-6:29 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History
HIST 6750-301 Global History in the Age of Slavery Roquinaldo Ferreira BENN 323 R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in History of Transregional Race and Slavery
HIST 7000-301 Proseminar in History Eve M Troutt Powell PWH 108 R 12:00 PM-2:59 PM Weekly readings, discussions, and writing assignments to develop a global perspective within which to study human events in various regional/cultural milieus, c. 1400 to the present. This course is required for all PhD students, and is taken in the first year of study.
HIST 7100-301 Research in American and Afro-American Hist Mia E Bay CANCELED Research seminar on selected topics in US history. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST7100301