(Offered as HIST-389 [ME/TC/TE] and ASLC 389) The Ottoman Empire underwent a process of intense reform in the nineteenth century. Reformers were determined to strengthen their countries’ sovereignty vis-à-vis increasingly aggressive European imperial powers and embarked on a series of measures designed to improve their economies, political institutions and militaries. Reformers were also concerned to generate a new public, and develop modern citizens imbued with new civic, political, literary and artistic sensibilities.

(Offered as HIST 368 [AS/TE/TC] and ASLC 368.) This seminar examines the role of various frontier regions and borderlands in the long span of Chinese history. Ever since ancient times, the development of agricultural communities, dynastic states, and Sinitic cultures in China was deeply intertwined with the fate of the societies on its borders, such as Mongolia, Manchuria, Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, and the mountainous southwestern regions.

[US/TR/TS] This course will introduce students to major philosophical roots, historical developments, and contemporary debates in human rights politics. The course will begin by examining the global historical evolution of human rights, exploring how philosophical developments and historical events influenced modern concepts. It will then examine the growth of international laws, institutions, and policies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, the course will explore human rights issues in contemporary politics.

This course offers an opportunity for history majors and students intrigued by the past to reflect upon the practice of history. How do we claim to know anything about the past at all? How do historians construct the stories they tell about the past from the fragmentary remnants of former times? What is the connection between the past as it was lived and the narratives that historians write? How do we judge the truth and value of these histories and memories? The course explores questions such as these through readings and case studies drawn from a variety of places and times.

(Offered as HIST-205 [EU/TC/TS] and EUST-129. For Academic Year 2024-25, this course may replace EUST-122 for EUST major requirements.) Intellectual history concerns itself with the study of social and political ideas. These ideas are known by big words, such as Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism.

(Offered as HIST 181 [AF/TE/TR/TS] and BLST 121 [A])  This course focuses on the long twentieth century in Africa, from the onset of colonial rule in the 1880s to the present moment of global engagement. We have three major questions that we will be pursuing throughout the semester. The first concerns various images of Africa and Africans, conceived in the West and then exported back into African societies. Can we distinguish the image from the reality, the myth from the reportage?

(Offered as HIST 175 [AS/TC/TE/P] and ASLC 175.) Contrary to images of a uniform and stable culture, the Japanese archipelago possesses a history marked by fragmentation, violent conflict, and dynamic cultural change. This course traces that history from the beginnings of human history on the archipelago to the establishment of one of the most stable and peaceful regimes in human history, the Tokugawa shogunate. Our survey will be organized around a central riddle: why was it so difficult to produce a stable, unified polity on the Japanese archipelago?

(Offered as HIST 171 [AS/TC/TE/P] and ASLC 171.)

(Offered as HIST 112 [AS/EU/P], ASLC 112, EUST 112 and RUSS 130) In the course of five hundred years, the Russian empire in Eurasia evolved as the largest territorial polity in the world. In this course, we will explore the medieval foundations of the imperial state and look at its predecessors and models (Kievan Rus’ and the empire of the Mongols), discuss ways in which cooperation and resistance shaped the imperial state and society, and study cultural and political entanglements among different ethnic, linguistic and confessional groups in Eurasia.

Fall semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Intensive reading, writing, translation