History 491EM - S-Emotions, Violence, Memory

This seminar for graduate students and advanced undergraduates (instructors? permission only) explores the relations among three key topics in recent historical writing: how the notions of emotions, violence, and memory have been used by historians in terms of method, theory, and interpretation in order to gain access to people in the past, and, especially, in what way their commingling opens up new possibilities of historical writing. Our focus is on the notions of memory and emotions, while our reading will be mostly depicting violent historical cases?from witch hunt in Baroque Germany, to modern wars, civil wars, and genocides--where historians applied these notions. We shall analyze a broad range of topics, across continents and periods.

Open to Seniors, Juniors & Sophomores only.