DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY COURSE OFFERINGS
Spring 2025
HSTY 113 Introduction to Modern World History. 3 Units. T/R 1-2:15
The history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in global context. Emphasis on the forces that have created or shaped the modern world: industrialization and technological change; political ideas and movements such as nationalism; European imperialism and decolonization; and the interplay of cultural values. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.
HSTY 157. Women’s Histories in South Asia. 3 Units. M/W 12:45-2pm
This course traces the history of women in South Asia from pre-colonial times to the present. Themes explored in the course will include (but not be limited to): the historical transformations of institutions shaping women’s lives such as state, family, religious and legal traditions; the impact of colonialism, nationalism, and decolonization on women, as well as the history of women’s movements in various parts of South Asia. Offered as HSTY 157 and WGST 257. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.
HSTY 202 Science in Western Thought. T/R 10-11:15
Science is a powerful symbol and a source of authority in the modern world. It is also an important and demanding practice, one that has shaped our lives and transformed our knowledge. But the meaning of science, as well as its scope and its uses, has changed a great deal in the past 300 years. Likewise, just as science has altered our social and material lives, change has worked in the opposite direction as well: social priorities and political agendas have shaped the development of scientific knowledge and practice. This class will allow us to explore the dynamic relationship between science and society in the modern world by considering key episodes and themes in the history of science from the eighteenth century to the present. Throughout the course, we will reflect on some of the very different ways that men and women have tried to organize, extend, and represent their knowledge of nature, and we will consider to what purposes and with what effects they have done so. Offered as HPSC 202 and HSTY 202. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.
HSTY 215 Europe in the 20th Century. T/R 10-11:15
The twentieth century has seen massive transformations in European politics, economics, society, and culture and in Europe’s place in the world. This course traces Europe’s transition from the tumultuous aftermath of the First World War through the political and economic uncertainty, social transformations, and cultural innovations of the interwar years; the decline of democracy and the rise of fascism; the destruction and genocide of the Second World War; division during the Cold War; and the drive for European unity countervailed by renewed national and ethnic chauvinism. Important themes include the clash of ideologies, political economy, changing social and gender relations, decolonization, and contested Americanization of Europe. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
HSTY 217 The Secret History of Corporate America. 3 Units. T/R 11:30-12:45
The corporation is the most powerful economic institution of our time. How did it come to reign, and how does its power affect us economically, politically, and socially? This course will chart the history and impact of corporate capitalism. Topics will include the corporation’s impact on democracy, consumer culture, the environment, and even the university itself. If you have ever wondered why products are purposely designed to wear out (planned obsolescence), why unions are so powerless in America, why the military is as powerful as it is, why it takes special technology from the Diebold corporation to run a simple election, why broadcasting companies are allowed to profit by using the public airwaves for free, why it looks like there are a million publishers of books when in truth giant companies dominate 80 percent of the book market, why the perfect lawn is a marketing ploy to get consumers to buy a lot of chemical inputs, why universities, which are supposed to be bastions of independent thought, are now dominated by an army of administrators who run around talking about return on investment instead of figuring out how to create a culture where students can learn, then this is the course for you. The corporation has been harshly criticized as an amoral institution, indeed, as pathological in its pursuit of power and profit. The corporate form, however, did not start out that way. Students will be able to apply their own sense of moral reason to the dominant economic institution in the world today while also learning to express themselves better in written and oral mediums. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.
HSTY 236 World War I: Crucible of the 20th Century. 3 Units. MWF 10:35-11:25
World War I changed everything about Europe and ushered in a changed century of tumult, war, and division. The European experience of the regimentation of the economy and daily life, the impact of new technology on warfare, and the very personal suffering of separation and loss changed how those on that continent viewed their countries and their world. The war affected everything from gender relations to class relations to religious and ethnic relations and laid the foundation for even more disruption ahead. Its legacy reaches our day and colors our own views of what is normal and what is possible. This course will explore those multiple and manifold legacies of this founding experience of modernity. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
HSTY 245 History of Capitalism. 3 Units. T 4:00-6:30pm
This course will explore the history of capitalism, from its origins to its recent past, from different angles. Themes under discussion will include, but not be limited to, industrialization, slavery, corporate capitalism, and neoliberalism. We will also study capitalism’s impact on gender, race, environment, education, and time. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.
HSTY 251 Religion and Medicine in Medieval Europe. 3 Units. MWF 4:25-5:15
In the medieval period, both religion and medicine experienced significant changes. Christianity and Islam, as ‘new religions,’ took shape against the background of the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of the Barbarian kingdoms, and the increased contact among peoples in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. As these religions continually evolved, so did their notions about the body, physical and spiritual health, and medicine. In this course, we shall explore the principles and practices of medicine, and the changes it underwent, as conceived by the two ascending religions of the time.
HSTY 254 The Holocaust. 3 Units. T/R 11:30-12:45
This class seeks to answer fundamental questions about the Holocaust, the German-led organized mass murder of nearly six million Jews and millions of other ethnic and religious minorities. It will investigate the origins and development of racism in modern European society, the manifestations of that racism, and responses to persecution. An additional focus of the course will be comparisons between different groups, different countries, and different phases during the Nazi era. The class concludes with an examination of the memory of the Holocaust. Offered as ETHS 254, HSTY 254, JWST 254 and RLGN 254. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
HSTY 259 Intro to Latina/o Studies. 3 Units. M/W 3:20-4:35
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basis for a Latina/o ethnicity through an exploration of commonalities and differences in the peoples of Latin American and Caribbean origin within the continental United States. Topics include methodological and theoretical formulations central to the field (e.g., racial, gender, and sexual formations, modes and relations of production and class, nation and transnation), history and contemporary issues of identity, family, community, immigration, and the potential for a pan-ethnic identity. Discussions will focus on major demographic, social, economic and political trends: historical roots of Latinas/os in the U.S.; the evolution of Latina/o ethnicity and identity; immigration and the formation of Latina/o communities; schooling and language usage; tendencies and determinants of socioeconomic and labor force status; discrimination, segregation and bias in contemporary America; racial and gender relations; and political behavior among Latinas/os. Offered as: ETHS 252B and HSTY 259. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.
HSTY 263 African-American History in and Through Film. 3 Units. W 2:15-4:45
This course focuses on the history of black representation in film and television in the United States. In this course, students will be introduced to some of the earliest representations of Black folks on the silver screen as well as learn about emergence of Black cinema (black films made for, by and about Black people) in the 20th century. Through this exploration, students will become acquainted with some of the most significant films, actors, and directors in African American history. This course will also teach students how to critically analyze how African American history has been depicted in modern and popular “historical” films. Students will be encouraged to employ the analysis skills and particularly critical theories of race, gender, and class to examine how filmmakers have presented, and too often distorted, historical events related to the Black experience in the United States. Finally, throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think about the ways in which films and television, both in the past and present, have contributed to the constructions of race and racial stereotypes in the United States. Films and documentaries will serve as some of the major “texts” of this course. Students will be screenings films both at home and in class. Offered as AFST 263 and ETHS 263 and HSTY 263. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.
HSTY 268 American Rebellion. 3 Units. M/W 4:50-6:05
This course will address the Perspective: Human Diversity and Commonality through an examination of rebellions in American history. We will assess slave revolts, mass strikes, and urban uprisings in relation to several theories of race, class, gender and social movements. Through our readings and my lectures, we will seek to understand the relationship between oppression and rebellion. We will investigate why some uprisings succeed and others fail and explain what violent acts of dissent and disobedience teach us about the political culture of the United States.
HSTY 282 Modern Native American History. 3 Units. T/R 10-11:15
This course is the second half of the two-semester survey of Native American history. This course will introduce students to the modern American systems of inequality and racism and how Tribal nations and Native peoples have combated against or engaged with them. We will examine Federal assimilation and termination policies, Native responses to World Wars I & II, the Red Power Movement, Indigenous legal battles and lobbying, and the modern revitalization of Indian Country. This course will encourage students to think about the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class regarding Indigenous resistance, survivance, and persistence.
HSTY 301 Identity Theft? 1500-1800. 3 Units. M/W 12:45-2
Religious persecution during the early modern period (16th-18th centuries) compelled Jews to attend Mass, Muslims to baptize their children and Protestants to count Hail Marys on a rosary. European exploration of Asia, Africa and the Americas inspired an Englishman to pass himself off as Taiwanese and an African to present himself as a European. The choice between marriage and a convent led one woman to cut off her hair, sew her skirt into britches and make herself into a conquistador in Peru. In pursuit of social mobility, courtiers remade themselves to suit the conventions of the court. Posing, passing and pretending, these Europeans crossed lines of religion, gender, race and class. Today we might call some of these figures impostors but praise others as self-made men and women. What was the difference between lying and self-fashioning in sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe? What forces and phenomena compelled people to remake themselves? Was the early modern period the age of identity theft?
HSTY 311 Seminar: Modern U.S. Historiography. 3 Units. T 5:30-8
This seminar examines the approaches that professional historians of the United States have taken to the writing of American history in the past fifty years, with emphasis on changes in historical concerns, master debates among historians, and contemporary interests. Topics covered include national politics and government, economic development, social history, the history of ethnicity, race, and gender, and foreign policy and international relations. Each student will read widely and will prepare a series of reports on selected books and authors. Offered as HSTY 311 and HSTY 411.
HSTY 325 Anarchism. 3 Units. T 7-9:30
Anarchism is an idea and movement that grew up alongside rivals like capitalism, Liberalism, nationalism, Marxism, and others, especially in the 1800s. Yet anarchism is probably the least understood of those. It shares key aspects with them; it’s supposed to be based on the best understanding of human nature, for example. And, like Marxism, it’s a reaction against capital and property. Yet it’s unlike the others because it doesn’t tend to promise an eventual “promised land” of prosperity or productivity or a “workers’ paradise.” Anarchism is unique in arguing that the state itself is not just unnecessary for human well being, but sustains race supremacy, gender and sexuality inequality, and environmental harm. In sum, this seminar describes the deep roots and considers the prospects of anarchism.
HSTY 332 European International Relations 1789-1945. 3 Units. M/W 12:45-2
Presents a broad interpretation of the development of the international system in Europe between the French Revolution of 1789 and the end of the European era in 1945. It explains why and how the closed European state system at the beginning of the nineteenth century evolved into an international transcontinental system by the early twentieth century. It illuminates ethical questions of war and peace, race and gender; it views the world as a global unit; and it explores European relations with peoples outside of Europe in the era of racist imperialism and aggressive nationalism. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
HSTY 350. Indigenous Ohio and the Great Lakes. 3 Units. T/R 2:30-3:45
This course will introduce students to the history of Native peoples across the Great Lakes region, including Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, among others. We will look at Indigenous and settler-colonial perspectives of pre-contact Great Lakes history, early Native and European interactions, the removal of Native communities from Ohio and the surrounding regions by the United States, and its impact on Native peoples. This course will encourage the students to think about Native resistance, persistence, and survivance over the last several centuries.
HSTY 354 Women in American History II. 3 Units. T/R 11:30-12:45
With HSTY 353, forms a two-semester introduction to women’s studies. The politics of suffrage and the modern woman’s efforts to balance marriage, motherhood, and career. (HSTY 353 not a prerequisite.) Offered as HSTY 354, WGST 354, and HSTY 454. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.
HSTY 411 Seminar: Modern U.S. Historiography. 3 Units. T 5:30-8
This seminar examines the approaches that professional historians of the United States have taken to the writing of American history in the past fifty years, with emphasis on changes in historical concerns, master debates among historians, and contemporary interests. Topics covered include national politics and government, economic development, social history, the history of ethnicity, race, and gender, and foreign policy and international relations. Each student will read widely and will prepare a series of reports on selected books and authors. Offered as HSTY 311 and HSTY 411.
HSTY 454 Women in American History II. 3 Units. T/R 11:30-12:45
With HSTY 353, forms a two-semester introduction to women’s studies. The politics of suffrage and the modern woman’s efforts to balance marriage, motherhood, and career. (HSTY 353 not a prerequisite.) Offered as HSTY 354, WGST 354, and HSTY 454. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Prereq: Graduate student standing.
HSTY 479. Historical Research and Writing. 3 Units. M 2:15-4:30
Research seminar for graduate students. Intensive focus on processes of historical research and writing. Students produce a conference paper and a research paper based on primary sources on a topic of their own choosing. Prereq: Graduate standing or instructor permission.