RESULTS:College of Arts & Sciences, Advent Semester 2026

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History

A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain and Ireland from pre-history to the Revolution of 1688.
A survey of European history from 1400 to 1750. Topics include rural and urban communities, the Renaissance, humanism, education and literacy, women and gender, the Protestant and Counter Reformations, confessional violence, absolutism, witch-hunts, poverty and deviance, colonialism, science and empire, nationalism, religious pluralism and Enlightenment.
This course encompasses both the established history of the southern African region c. 1500-2004 and recent historiographical developments. As a result of this dual focus, the course highlights the production of southern African history, considering how, for whom, and why that history has been written. Topics include: the environment in history; the creation and interactions of racial groups; the mineral revolution and capitalist development; white domination, segregation, and apartheid; and political and popular resistance to these oppressive racial regimes. The course ends with the transition to majority rule, the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the democratic future of South Africa.
A study of the mixture of Indian and Spanish civilizations. Concentration on sixteenth-century culture of Aztecs and Incas, the evolution of Spanish colonial empire, the historical background to strongman government, the art and architecture of the colonies, and the Independence Period 1810-25.
This course examines why and how Protestantisms of differing type replaced Roman Catholicism as the official church in England, Scotland, and Ireland; how people throughout each society sought to encourage or oppose these changes; and how religious developments in these three nations from 1500 to 1750 diverged so sharply, yet remained so closely intertwined.
This course explores the social, political, and cultural history of the French Revolution from its origins in the eighteenth century to the fall of Napoleon's Empire. It highlights revolutionary debates over how to constitutionally and practically realize the Enlightenment principles of human rights, individual liberty, and social equality in the context of France and the French Empire. Topics include radical republicanism, popular violence and the Terror, the Haitian Revolution, women's revolutionary roles, gender and the reconfigured family, counterrevolution and the Church, the citizens' army, and the Napoleonic Empire. Not open for credit to students who have received credit for HIST 308.
In 1791, enslaved Africans in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue rose up in a coordinated attack against their colonial masters. In so doing, they directly challenged the plantation regime and the system of racial hierarchy that prevailed throughout the Atlantic world. By 1804, the Haitians declared their independence from France and constructed the first “Black Republic” in world history. Exploring primary sources ranging from the Code Noir to slave narratives, accounts by revolutionary black leaders, and worldwide reactions to the insurrection, the course examines some of the major themes and debates surrounding the Haitian Revolution and its immediate aftermath.
Hip-hop emerged from the local scenes of New York City to become the most popular and lucrative art form in the world. This course offers a historical analysis of Hip-Hop and an exploration of its regional contributions, social and political implications, musicality, and presence on social media platforms, namely Instagram and Tik-Tok. This course will also examine Hip-Hop themes related to race, gender, and class. Overall, this course will help explain how an obscure art form emerged from urban communities to become the global musical language for the seemingly dispossessed—and now a staple of mainstream pop culture.
This course introduces students to the experience of thinking historically and doing historical work. Students will learn about historiographical debates, lenses or approaches to history, how to locate and to interpret primary sources such as letters, journals, images, and maps. They will also have opportunities to engage with historical sites, monuments, special collections materials and to work with digital tools. Students examine how historians formulate questions or lines of inquiry, how to conduct library and archival research and practice organizing and presenting research in oral and written form. Required of all history majors and minors.
An examination of the events, people, movements, and themes of the region's past, from earliest known human habitation to the present. The course explores contrasting ways of life expressed by native and European peoples; implications of incorporating the area into the United States; the agricultural, industrial, and transportation revolutions of the nineteenth century; popular culture within and about Appalachia; contemporary issues of regional development and preservation; and ways the unique environment of these mountains has shaped and frustrated notions of regional identity.
This first offering in a two-course sequence introduces students to the history of the Middle East. Surveying the region's history prior to the eighteenth century, it considers the emergence of the world's earliest civilizations; the rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the spread of Arab, Turkish, and Persian Empires. Emphasis is placed on the Middles East's place in global trade networks and imperial conflicts.
Selected topics in the history of western Europe during the Middle Ages. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion.
This course examines the military, economic, political, and social upheaval of mid-nineteenth century America. We will consider the failure of antebellum political mechanisms, the growth of sectionalism, justifications for and against secession, the methods and implications of war, competing constitutional systems during the conflict, efforts to eradicate Southern separatism, and the lingering cultural implications of the nation's fratricidal dispute. Students will employ the America's Civil War web site, as well as other media, in preparing for discussions, tests, and research papers.
History majors engage in primary and secondary research on a topic of interest, culminating in a significant analytical paper. The semester concludes with an oral presentation of each student's research.

Humanities

This course explores how utopian, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic discourse imaginatively engages--and has engaged--cultural and historical challenges. Using approaches related to history, philosophy, literature, political theory, and the visual arts--especially film--this class seeks to ground utopian and dystopian speculation in the historical and cultural circumstances engendering it. Possible texts include works by Rousseau, More, Plato, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, Leibniz, Voltaire, Huxley, Orwell, Zamyatin, McCarthy, Burgess, Atwood, Ishiguro, Lovecraft, Fritz Lang, and Ridley Scott.

International & Global Studies

Using gender as a lens for examining works of art in the Japanese tradition from the thirteenth through twentieth centuries, this course examines a wide variety of formats and mediums, including corpse paintings, cross-dressing performers, and prints of the modern girl. Participants will identify and analyze varying interpretations of gender through time and across culture and address issues associated with applying contemporary gender theory to pre-modern works. Topics to be covered include: Buddhist ideas of the feminine, voyeurism in early modern woodblock prints, and the role of gender in contemporary art.
This advanced lecture course explores how the visual language known as the “Renaissance” was expressed in art in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas from approximately 1400 to 1600. The course considers how the ideals and values of Renaissance visual culture expanded and transformed as they reached different parts of the world through trade and colonization. How did the meanings and narratives associated with the Renaissance shift when they were imposed outside of Europe and navigated through the hands of both willing and unwilling contributors? While consistently exploring this question, students will also interrogate how art historians define and identify Renaissance art to ensure an inclusive and critical understanding of its visual entanglements.
How do film and literature inform our understanding of the evolving concepts of art, ideology and material conditions in modern China? How have literary and cinematic representations changed over the last century to accommodate and facilitate social transformations? What are the characteristics of the cultural productions from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? This course helps students develop a critical sense and appreciation for Chinese cinema and literature. Taught in English.
The course examines the principles and concepts of development and focuses on major development problems and policies, both domestic and international. Topics of analysis include theories of economic growth and development, poverty and income distribution, population, human capital, agricultural and rural development, and international trade.
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