History 450 - JYW Seminar in History

This seminar trains students in historical research techniques and the writing of history, and fulfills the University's Junior Writing requirement. See the History Department course description guide for various sectional sub-titles and descriptions.

Open to Seniors and Juniors in History, Middle East and Judaic majors only. Trials in Modern Europe. This writing seminar focuses on controversial trials in European history. Our case studies may range from sixteenth-century civil suits over identity theft to Victorian era poisonings to Oscar Wilde?s trials for libel and sodomy, and from the Dreyfus Affair, in which a French Jew was falsely accused of treason in the nineteenth century, to war crime trials after the Second World War. We will look not only at particular accusations of guilt or proclamations of innocence, but also at how historians can use such materials to explore changing ideas about identity and power, gender and sexuality, the role of media in shaping public perceptions of crime, and competing ideas of what constitutes justice. Regular short writing assignments with varying approaches and a substantial research paper