Elementary German

Continuation of the elementary German course; practice in speaking, reading, and writing German. Cultural and literary readings together with frequent use of online resources dealing with everyday situations and experiences in the German-speaking countries sensitize students to the cultural context in which the language is used. Weekly conversation sessions with a German language assistant supplement class work.

History of Shopping

This seminar surveys the history of shopping from the seventeenth to early-twentieth century. From its origin as a term for wastefulness, consumption is now understood as an essential feature of prosperity in modern society. How did shopping change over this period to occupy such an important place in our world? Using primary, secondary and material sources, students will examine the commodities, shopping habits, business strategies, consumer politics, marketplaces, and identities that shaped and sustained the rise of retail.

Turtle Island Stories&Thought

Using interdisciplinary and Indigenous methodologies, this course explores Native American (hi)stories, philosophies, and thought. This course explores the benefits of using Indigenous stories to gain a better understanding of the histories and futures of Turtle Island. We will use specific case studies to take a close look at various stories, historical methodologies, and wisdom found in a variety of Nations and communities across Turtle Island (Native North America).

Cities in Modern East Asia

This course asks: what are cities in the history of modern East Asia? Cities were cosmopolitan, centers of commerce, and sites of social movements in late imperial China, Tokugawa Japan, and late Chosǔn Korea. How did the roles of cities change in the nineteenth century when East Asia became more integrated into the global system? How was urban life affected in the first half of the twentieth century when the central states dealt with domestic turmoil and external pressures? How did the state work to redefine cities and urban culture in the postwar era?

Mountains and Modernity

From the Himalayas in South Asia to Mexico's Chiapas and from North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain to the Uluru in Australia's Northern Territory, mountains represent more than just a geographical feature. They have been long viewed as transcendental spaces, served as a canvas for epic struggles between humans and nature, shaped cultural attitudes and been at the heart of political struggles. This course traces the history of various political and cultural meanings attached to mountains.

Decentering Europe

Europe embodies crossroads of multiple cultures, memories, migrations, and political demarcati ons. What remains of the ancient and modern regimes? How have global movements, historica l upheavals, and shifting boundaries within and adjacent to European borders, from early empir es to contemporary global networks, affected the transformation of lives? How do ideological pr ojects such as democracy, pluralism and fascism interact within Europe and the global scale?

History of Energy

We live in an age of energy crises, in which the future of energy is questioned in countless headlines and Twitter feeds. These concerns often include other assumptions about energy's past, in particular the idea that social change invariably follows the discovery of new energy technologies. From food to fuel cells, this colloquium charts a more complicated and interesting history, a history in which people have continually shaped and made meaningful the energies that fuel the modern world.

Unsettlement to Reconstruction

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, how was America both settled and unsettled? How did Indigenous peoples and newcomers build and rebuild lives, communities, and possibilities for the future? We will consider themes of settlement, unsettlement, creation, violence, and rebuilding as we examine early contact between Indigenous and European peoples, trans-oceanic relationships, migration, slavery, the state, war, post-Civil War Reconstruction, and other topics students select.
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