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Fall 2008 Columbia and Barnard History Department Undergraduate Seminar Descriptions
HISTW4001 The Eastern Mediterranean
in the Late Bronze Age. M. Van de Mieroop. Thursday 4:10-6:00.
A comparative study of the histories of Egypt, the Near East, Anatolia, and the Aegean World in the period from c. 1500-1100 BC, when several of the states provide a rich set of textual and archaeological data.
Distribution Group: A.
HIST W4024 Golden Age
of Athens. R.
Billows. Thursday 2:10-4:00.
The 5th century BCE, beginning with the Persian Wars, when the
Athenians fought off the might of the Persian Empire, and ending with
the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War in 404, is generally
considered the "Golden Age" of ancient Athens. This is the century when Athenian drama, both tragedy
and comedy, throve; when the Greeks began to develop philosophy at
Athens, centered around the so-called "Sophistic movement" and
Sokrates; when classical Greek art and architecture approached
perfection in the monuments and sculptures of the great Athenian
building programs on and around the Akropolis.
This seminar will cover the political, military, economic, social, and
cultural history of Athens' "Golden Age". Much of the course reading
will be drawn from the ancient Athenian writing themselves, in
translation. Everyone will be required to read enough to participate
in weekly discussions; and all students will prepare two oral reports
on topics to be determined. The course grade will be based on a ca.
20-25 page research paper to be written on an agreed upon topic.
Distribution Group: A.
HIST W4045 Rome: A Preindustrial Metropolis. M. Maiuro. Monday 11:00-12:50.
From the 1st century BCE until the beginning of the 5th Century AD, Ancient Rome had about one million inhabitants. This demographic density is an exceptional feature among all preindustrial societies, equalled by London only at the beginning of the nineteenth century. After a short theoretical introduction to the subject of urbanism in pre-industrial societies and in particular in the classical period, the seminar will focus on three issues: the demographic trend of the city, the grain and water supply and the actual organization of water and grain distribution, and the role of the imperial court and government in building activities, feeding the people and assuring basic administrative services. Special attention will be paid to quantitative aspects of the social and economic history of the city. A wide range of sources will be examined: literary and juridical texts, inscriptions, archaeological and topographic evidence.
Distribution Group: A.
HIST W4083 Medieval
Crime. N. Senocak. Tuesday 11:00-12:50.
This course sets out to explore the nature
of crime, particularly those involving violence, and the practices advanced to control
and restrict it in the wide geographical area of Europe, with an emphasis on
France, England and Italy. The course material will be studied thematically. Themes
will include the violent crimes, political violence, the development of courts,
the development of criminal law, investigations of specific types of crime such
as murder, theft, crimes against women, the mentality and methods of punishment,
prisons, torture, and the methods of inquisition.
Distribution Group: A.
HIST W4127 Enlightenment and its Critics: Vico’s New Science.
M. Lilla. Tuesday 11:00-12:50.
This course offers the opportunity to study and critically
examine debates over the idea of “enlightenment” that have taken place in
different historical periods.This
semester the course focuses on the work of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), one
of the first critics of the modern Enlightenment.By examining the development of Vico’s
thought up to the final version of his New
Science (1744), we hope to understand Vico’s critique of his early-modern
adversaries, and also understand what social, philosophical, and pedagogical
alternatives to modern Enlightenment he envisaged.
Distribution Group: A, B.
HIST BC4360 London:
From Great Wen to World
City. D. Valenze.Wednesday 2:10-4:00.
A social and cultural history of London from the Great Fire of 1666 to the
1960s. An examination of changing experience of urban identity through the
commercial life, public spaces, and diverse inhabitants of London. Topics include seventeenth-century
rebuilding, immigrants and emigrants, epidemics, suburbs, literary culture,
war, and redevelopment.
Distribution Group: A, B.
HIST W4365 The Cold War in the Mediterranean.
V. de Grazia.Wednesday 11:00-12:50.
The Cold War was a global war. It was fought on a multitude
of regional fronts, shaped by legacies of European colonialism, the competing interests
of the new superpowers, US and USSR, andlocal conflicts. This seminar focuses on the history of the Cold War in the Mediterranean
area. It covers the period from the close
of World War II to the collapse of the
USSR, but focuses mainly on the period 1940s-1970s. Drawing on new perspectives from the Mediterranean area designed
to reconnect the shores of the region, as well as on fresh documents and
historical writing published since the end of the Cold War, this class intends to bridges
areas of study—Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East—normally analyzed separately. Its
perspective is to highlight the imprint
left on the region as the two
Superpowers stepped into European imperial shoes andstruggled with one another to mark out their
own areas of hegemony, playing on local national, religious, and political
conflicts.
Distribution Group: B, C.
HIST W4382 The French Revolution. I. Woloch.Tuesday 2:10-4:00.
The French Revolution remains one of the world's great
historical events, frequently cited as the turning point to the modern
world.Known for its sheer drama and
violence, and studied for its political legacy, the Revolution presented an ambitious
agenda of civil equality, public
liberties, universal citizenship, and modern nationhood.In this course, we will both study the events
of the French Revolution and grapple with the major traditions of
interpretation, from the late eighteenth century to the present.
Distribution Group: B.
HISTW4378 European Revolutions of
1848. Nancy Collins. Tuesday 11:00-12:50.
European Revolutions of 1848 is a seminar dedicated to studying the
violent and widespread upheavals of mid-century Europe. From the Swiss
Civil War of 1847 to the coup of Louis Napoleon in 1851, this course
connects the era's rapid changes to the economic, military, industrial,
and political issues throughout the continent, including but not
limited to Austria, France, Hungary, Prussia, Poland, and Sicily.
Distribution Group: B.
HIST W4387 Postwar Germany in the “American Century”:
The Cultural Encounter in Its European and Transatlantic Context. V.
Berghahn and G. Lenz.
Tuesday 4:10-6:00.
This course discusses of the efforts to conceptualize 20th-century
German-American interactions in a European context as “Americanization”,
“Americanism”, “Westernization”, “modernization”, or “globalization”. It will
also include an examination of how communist East Germany and its rulers dealt
with American cultural imports that swept across the Iron Curtain, reaching
especially the younger generation;
the rise of consumerism will be another important focus. The course will
conclude by returning to the initial larger context of the American presence in
postwar Europe as a whole and conclude with a
discussion ofthe “Europeanization” of Europe and American culture and society as well as of
European resistance to American culture and the related problem of the power of
big business in the trans-Atlantic relationship.
Distribution Groups: B, D.
HISTW4548 American Social Policy from the Progressives to
the Present. A.
Kessler-Harris Monday 4:10-6.
An exploration of the
intellectual,
political, and social sources and consequences of some key social
policies with
special attention to the roles played by gender, race and religion in
their
configuration. This fall, the course is likely to include such issues
as
Mothers’ pensions; protective labor legislation; health care; social
security; unemployment insurance; equal employment opportunity; birth
control
and abortion; welfare; and affirmative action. A substantial research
paper
will be required.
Distribution Group: D.
HISTW4495 The U.S. In Depression and War: The Age of Franklin Roosevelt. E. Cornog. Wednesday 4:10-6:00.
When Franklin Roosevelt put Alfred E. Smith’s
name in nomination at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, the U.S.
was a nation proud of its isolation from the rest of the world, eager
to increase that isolation (through the harsh immigration restrictions
that became law that year), with a small federal establishment and a
military that was swiftly resuming the amateur status that had
characterized it in the decades preceding the First World War. By 1945,
the U.S. was a global atomic superpower, and was starting to face the
question of racial inequality and other social-justice issues that it
had tried hard to ignore for several decades. This course traces the
changes that took place, the reasons for those changes, and the
differing interpretations that historical actors, journalists, and
historians have offered. The course is conducted as a seminar (limited
to 15 students, with a preference given to senior history majors), with
heavy emphasis on class discussion of the readings.Two
short critical essays on the reading (approx. 3 pages each) and one
term paper (20-25 pages) involving original research will be required.
HISTBC4542 Education
in American History. N. Woloch. Tuesday 11:00-12:50
The role that has been played by educational institutions,
educational ideas, and educators in American life.
Distribution Group: D.
HISTW4584 History of
African-American Health and Health Movements. S. Roberts. Monday 4:10-6:00.
Students will gain a solid knowledge and understanding of
the health issues facing African Americans since the turn of the twentieth
century. Topics to be examined will include, but will not be limited to, black
women's heath organization and care; medical abuses and the legacy of Tuskegee; tuberculosis
control; sickle cell anemia; and substance abuse. Previous coursework in
African-American history or social science; United States social history; or
sociomedical sciences required.
Distribution Group: D.
HISTW4643 Women in Jewish Mystical Movements. A. Rapoport-Albert. Tuesday 2:10-4:00.
The
absence of women from the extant record of the Jewish mystical tradition has
been contrasted with the well attested presence of numerous women in the
mystical traditions of both Christianity and Islam. The course endeavors to
explain this peculiarity while at the same time re-examining the current
definitions of Jewish mystical spirituality, considering the possibility of
extending its scope to include the experiences of female pietists, martyrs, and
visionaries, dating from the Middle Ages through the early modern to the modern
era. Special attention will be paid to the exceptional prominence of women in
the 17th century mystical-messianic heresy of Sabbateanism and its
offshoots, as well as to the position of women in the revivalist movement of
Hasidism, from its inception in mid 18th century Poland to the
present.
Distribution Group: A, B.
HIST BC4672 Perspectives on Power in 20th C Latin America. N. Milanich. Wednesday 11-12:50.
Explores theories of power as applied in Latin American context.
Topics include the relationship between popular culture and the state;
structure and agency; the role of the law; hegemony and resistance; the
power of words and symbols; and the intersections of gender and power.
Sophomore standing; at least one prior course in Latin American topics.
Distribution Group: D.
HISTBC4791 Lagos: The City Is... A. George. Thursday 4:10-6:00.
Examines the many Lagoses that have existed over time, in space, and in
the imagination from its origins to the 21st century. This is a reading,
writing, viewing, and listening intensive course. We read scholarly,
policy-oriented, and popular sources on Lagos as well as screening films
and audio recordings that feature Lagos in order to learn about the
social, cultural, and intellectual history of this West African mega-city.
Distribution Group: C.
HISTW4779 Africa and France. G. Mann. Thursday 2:10-4:00.
This course endeavors to understand the
development of the peculiar and historically conflictual relationship
that exists between France, the nation-states that are its former
African colonies, and other contemporary African states. It covers the
period from the 19th century colonial expansion through the
current ‘memory wars’ in French politics and debates over migration and
colonial history in Africa. Historical episodes include French
participation in and eventual withdrawal from the Atlantic Slave Trade,
emancipation in the French possessions, colonial conquest, African
participation in the world wars, the wars of decolonization, and
French-African relations in the contexts of immigration and the
construction of the European Union. Readings will be drawn extensively
from primary accounts by African and French intellectuals, dissidents,
and colonial administrators.However, the course offers neither a collective biography of the compelling intellectuals who have emerged from this relationship nor a survey of French-African literary or cultural production nor
a course in international relations. Indeed, the course avoids the
common emphasis in francophone studies on literary production and the
experiences of elites and the common focus of international relations
on states and bureaucrats. The focus throughout is on the historical
development of fields of political possibility and the emphasis is on
sub-Saharan Africa.
Note: Reading knowledge of French is highly encouraged.
Distribution Group: B, C.
HIST BC 4861 Body Histories: Footbinding. D. Ko. Thursday 2:10-4:00.
The deceptively small subject of footbinding provides a
window into the larger family dynamics and sexual politics in Chinese history
and society. Explores the multiple representations of footbinding in
European travelogues, ethnographic interviews, Chinese erotic novels and
prints, and the polemics of modern and feminist critiques.
Distribution Group: C.
HISTW4911 Medicine and Western Civilization. D. Rothman. Monday 2:10-4:00.
This seminar seeks to analyze the ways by which medicine and
culture combine to shape our values and traditions.To this end, it will examine notable
literary, medical, and social texts from classical antiquity to the present.
Distribution Group: A, B, D.
HIST W4914 The Future
as History. M. Connelly.Wednesday 4:10-6:00.
An introduction to the historical origins of forecasting,
projections, long-range planning, and future scenarios. Topics include
apocalyptic ideas and movements, utopias and dystopias, and changing
conceptions of time, progress, and decline. A key theme is how relations of
power, including understandings of history, have been shaped by expectations of
the future.
Distribution Groups: B, C, D.
HISTW4928 Comparative Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic
World. N. Lightfoot. Thursday 2:10-4:00.
This
seminar investigates the experiences of slavery and freedom among
African-descended people living and laboring in the various parts of the
Atlantic World. The course will trace critical aspects of these two major,
interconnected historical phenomena with an eye to how specific cases either
manifested or troubled broader trends across various slaveholding societies.
The first half of the course addresses the history of slavery and the second
half pertains to experiences in emancipation. However, since the abolition of
slavery occurs at different moments in various areas of the Atlantic World, the
course will adhere to a thematic rather than a chronological structure, in its
examination of the multiple avenues to freedom available in various regions. Weekly
units will approach major themes relevant to both slavery and emancipation,
such as racial epistemologies among slaveowners/employers, labor regimes in
slave and free societies, cultural innovations among slave and freed
communities, gendered discourses and sexual relations within slave and free
communities, and slaves’ and freepeople’s resistance to domination. The goal of
this course is to broaden students’ comprehension of the history of slavery and
freedom, and to promote an understanding of the transition from slavery to
freedom in the Americas as creating both continuities and ruptures in the
structure and practices of the various societies concerned.
Distribution Group: A,B,C,D.
HIST W 4976 Symbolic Geography: East and West in Modern European Political Thought. A. Pok. Monday 2:10-4:00.
This seminar discusses how frequent changes in European political borders during the 19th and 20th centuries have been reflected in the political thought of the continent. It focuses on 20th century Eastern and Central European interpretations of the regions.
Distribution Group: B.
CPLSG4180 Crime: Practices and Representations. P. Piccato and F. Negrón-Muntaner. Wednesday 9:00-10:50.
NOTE: This course is offered through the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society; half of the spots will be reserved for History majors and concentrators.
This seminar studies crime from
historical and cultural perspectives. We will focus on the history of crime
(historical trends; transgression, punishment and identities; class and
enforcement, gendered violence) and the cultural representations of crime
(movies and literature). The premise is that representations and practices of
crime are mutually constitutive.
Distribution Group: ABCD.
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