(Offered as HIST 283 [AF/TE/TS^P] and BLST 222 [A]) South African history is undergoing radical shifts in the way it is being written, read and interpreted, and this course will explore established and emerging themes in the history of this intriguing country. The time period covered will span the precolonial indigenous cultures and move on to study the initiation and expansion of white settlement and its early dependence on slave labor.

[LA] In this course, students will gain an understanding of major events and themes in the histories of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. As important, they will think and write critically about the contentious history of the region. For good reason, Central America is often considered as a whole, but despite many commonalities, each country's history is unique. How did the indigenous cultures of northern Central America compare to those of the south? Why did the once-united Federation of Central America fracture into five different states?

[US/TS] Is preserving collective security and individual rights inherently contradictory or can they be mutually reinforcing? Focusing on rights within the United States, this class will explore how the United States has sought to balance these competing concerns in the past, and the implications of this history for contemporary debates. We will examine the shifting meaning of "national security" and how it has changed at key moments in the nation’s history.

This course will explore the nature of the uprisings that began in 2010 in Tunisia and ultimately swept through Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, to Bahrain. We will ask why these events took place, when and where they did, why the outcomes have differed so widely, why monarchies emerged unscathed, and why authoritarian rule proved so durable. We will pay close attention to the voices of protest from this period as well as the role of social media as a mobilizing factor. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. John J. McCloy ’16 Visiting Professor Simon.

(Offered as AMST 255 and HIST 255 [US]) This course explores the history of higher education in the United States from the nation’s formation to the present.  Four themes are woven through a roughly chronological structure. First, readings outline the competing purposes Americans envisioned for colleges and universities. Students analyze debates between proponents of broad training in the liberal arts and supporters of more narrow occupational preparation as well as disagreements over the appropriate relationship between research and teaching.

For the past 2,000 years, both combat veterans and observers of the conflicts have captured the dynamic and often dark experience of war. This course will expose students to the twentieth and twenty-first century experience of American men and women at war. Using novels, memoirs, and poems, as well as documentary, docu-drama, and other films, students will consider the complicated nature of combat and how those dynamics transcend time. Students will compare the experience of different identity groups and their military service.

(Offered as HIST 226 [EU^P], ARHA 226, EUST 226, and SWAG 225) Although overlooked in military histories until recently, women have long been actively involved in warfare: as combatants, as victims, as workers, and as symbols. This course examines both the changing role of women, and the shifting constructions of “womanhood,” in four major European conflicts: the wars of Elizabeth I in sixteenth-century England, the wars and peace of Marie de Médicis in seventeenth-century France, the French Revolution, and the First World War.

[EU/TC^C] Disease has always been a part of human experience; doctoring is among our oldest professions. This course surveys the history of Western medicine from antiquity to the modern era.