History (HIST-SHU)

This course provides an introduction to a range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies that have influenced the academic study of history, including microhistory, global history, histories of gender and race, and subaltern/post-colonial historical studies. We will interrogate the key categories of historical temporality and geography by questioning how historians impose temporal and spatial boundaries around their research, as well as ways to expand or dissolve those boundaries. We will also examine how historians construct historiographical debates around particular research themes, such as the changing meaning of national histories. The aim is to acquire knowledge of a variety of historical approaches at work when reading both historical scholarship and historical source materials. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Foundations/Introductory Courses (18-19 Critical Concepts Core Course).

This course introduces a range of theories that have influenced art history, which here refers to both the purported narratives of the history of art and the practice of re/writing such narratives. We will analyze biography as a mode of art history; connoisseurship, iconography, formalism, and post-structuralist theory; Marxist and feminist approaches; and queer and trans* methods. Recognizing the Eurocentrism in the texts considered foundational to the discipline of Art History, we will examine the ways that art history was conceptualized in East Asia. The aim is to acquire knowledge of key art historical approaches; to apply that knowledge to assess works of art and art historical texts; and to analyze the impact of the historically specific relationship between the visual text and the viewer/historian on our knowledge of art. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Foundations or Introductory Course.

This course seeks to spark and develop curiosity in historical research with easy to practice and accessible primary sources collected from oral history interviews. Students will receive comprehensive training on: 1) What is oral history; 2) How did this research methodology develop in the English and Chinese academy; 3) What are the differences and similarities between oral history, social science survey questionnaires, anthropological field work, and journalism; 4) How to prepare for the interview; 5) Important issues to be aware of during the interview; 6) Post-interview preservation of photos and memorabilia, audio and video files; audio transcript and video footage editing; and 7) How to use the data collected from oral history interviews for publication. Prerequiste: GPS Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory Course.

This survey of U.S. History since the Civil War examines the development of American Culture and its expansion into the global economy. Topics include: urbanization; industrialization; immigration; reform movements (populism, progressivism, the New Deal, and the War on Poverty); and foreign policy. Beginning with the post-Civil War expansion of the U.S. into the American West, the course traces the U.S.’s increasing global influence through the early 21st Century. Using film, TV, literature and popular culture, the course emphasizes broad themes and changes in U.S. culture, politics, and society. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey/topic).

The Mongol conquest was a major turning point in world history. Not only did it remake the map of much of Eurasia and the Middle East, but it transformed the economic foundations of pre-existing societies, their political systems and cultural traditions. At the same time, the world (as it was then known) became more interconnected, and commercial networks were developed. Beginning with an examination of the reasons behind the rise of the Mongols, and proceeding to an analysis of their conquest, the course will focus on several thematic issues, such as the Mongol political culture, their military system, their territorial expansion, and their government and administration in all the constitutive parts of their empire (China, Central, Asia, Iran, and Russia). Moreover, special attention will be paid to relations between the Mongols and Europe, and to the development of commercial routes. Original sources in translation, in particular diplomatic documents, chronicles and reports will be included in the readings. The course will be complemented by visual materials to illustrate how the Mongols have been represented in movies and popular culture. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Students will be asked to prepare a class presentation on a theme of their choice. The Mid-Term and Final exams will consist of a choice of short essays based on the class materials and readings. The final grade will consist of: Class presentation (20%); Mid-Term exam (30%); Final Exam (50%). Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: 18-19: Humanities survey course.

This course examines the emergence of world societies and the interactions between them from prehistoric times to about 1450CE. A comprehensive study of specific periods and regions will be followed by an in-depth analysis of primary sources and cross-regional contacts. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

This course offers a general overview of some of the main themes in world history from c.1200 to 1800. No single, all encompassing historical narrative can capture the complexity of the economic, political, and cultural interactions that took place among the various regions of the world during this period. Instead, we will explore discreet moments of cross-cultural exchange, conflict, and contact in order to develop a broader understanding of the relationship between the local and the global. This course conceptualizes world history as a dynamic set of local historical events that set in motion interactions between geographically distinct regions of the world. Even a complex, systemic phenomenon such as the global economy takes place through discrete, local interactions among individuals and groups located in port cities and market places, in frontier zones and in colonies, and even on the high seas. The historical scale of this course will thus zoom in and out, in order to understand both micro- and macro-historical processes through which different geographic regions came into a denser web of contacts and interactions. Pre-requisites: None (prior enrollment in World History: Part I is not required). Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

This course utilizes multidisciplinary sources of evidence to address Arab-Islamic knowledge and culture, the influences that they had on medieval and early modern Europe, and that they continue to have today, while questioning why many Western scholars have minimized Arab-Islamic contributions in favor of “Western Exceptionalism” narratives. By exploring cross-cultural transmissions of knowledge, students are encouraged to think critically about how ideas and technologies evolve as they are adopted by individuals and groups in order to suit their personal and cultural needs. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Survey Courses).

This is an introductory-level course on the social and cultural history of clothing and the body in twentieth-century East Asia with a special focus on China and Japan, as well as Korea. We will trace how sartorial markers and understandings of the body transformed with the onset of modernity. We will explore themes such as the politics of hair, foot binding, the role of clothing in defining class, gender and nationhood. We will also evaluate the effects of globalization on fashion in the region. We will read secondary literature that explores the significance of clothing and the body, as well as a selection of primary sources. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course.

The goal of this course is to examine Chinese society and culture through the lens of the consumption of food and to elucidate the central role played at different times by food in Chinese culture and its representations. We examine the role of food in Chinese social, cultural, economic, and political history, with an emphasis on the pre-modern period. Topics may include the relationship of health and diet; food in religious and ritual practice; gastronomy; consumption and the material culture of food, including food as gift; regional cuisines; restaurants and catering; vegetarianism; famine and cannibalism; imperial dining practices; food identity; and global notions about Chinese food. Prerequisite: Not open to first-semester students. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/HPC or CORE IPC; GCS Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Major Advanced course (18-19 Topic Courses).

This course is a survey course of modern Chinese history from the late 19 th  century to the present. In studying China in multiple dimensions and in its relation to the global context of the time, students will be introduced to and will gain 1) a sense of how China and the world have interacted and shaped each other in the modern period; 2) a broader historical understanding of empire and imperialism, colonialism, nationalism,revolution, Maoism and a post-socialist state; 3) a sensitivity of the issues of gender, labor and uneven development under the local and global circumstances. Students are expected to learn through attendance at and attention in lectures, careful reading, engaged discussion through writing/testing assignments designed to allow students to analyze primary materials through secondary literature and present ideas in essay format. This course welcomes all students interested in histories of the Islamic world and China. No special background is required, though of course some knowledge of the history of China and/or the Islamic world will be a plus. Although it is a seminar course (we meet once weekly), a fifteen-minute mini-lecture in each class will provide students with basic background knowledge and set the context for the following week. We will then devote ourselves to discussion of the assigned readings. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC; Humanities 18-19 topic course.

This course examines China's modern history from around the 16th century to the present. It will go through the social, political, economic and cultural, as well as international developments China has experienced during the past four hundred years, with an emphasis placed upon the late 19th and 20th centuries. While this course will provide a chronological depiction of main historical events and historical figures, it will also emphasize a series of important themes crucial for comprehending the dynamics and trajectory of China’s modern era. Its purpose is not just to impart information; it also aims to cultivate a basic understanding of the significance of the Chinese experience in the age of worldwide modernization. This course will also expose students to different scholarly or other interpretations of China’s recent past, so that, hopefully, they will occupy an academically/intellectually informed position to critically embrace or discard all kinds of narratives of “China” and its modern history that they encounter. The format of the course combines lectures, critical discussions, and interactive selected texts reading. It is expected that all students will be prepared for the course outside class and will be actively engaged in all parts of the class. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

This course examines modern Chinese history from the perspective of everyday life, which will introduce a distinguished methodology to analyze history not from leaders and elites’ points of view, but from ordinary people. We study how people live in China: people’s daily routines and activities that have been practiced since the ancient time; how people’s lives have been changed since the beginning of the 20 th century; and how people have experienced the macro-transformations of nation-state, war, and global capitalism in China and the elsewhere. Our approach is rigorously historical and broadly comparative. The goal is to cast a new light on political, cultural, social issues of nation-state, nationalism, revolution, mass/popular culture, social movements, modernization, labor, and ideologies—communism, anarchism, socialism, fascism, and feminism that are central to modern Chinese history in the 20 th and 21 st century.  In so doing, we highlight the contributions of ordinary people in their everyday life as history-makers instead of mere ethnographic informants. In order to enrich our knowledge of how people’s everyday life reflected historical trajectories across the globe at the turn of the 20 th and 21 st centuries, students are encouraged to share in class their own knowledge and experiences of everyday life in any world region or historical period so as to generate comparative questions and global thinking. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC; Humanities 18-19 survey.

This course provides an overview of Chinese American history and its relevance for contemporary issues in the China and the United States. There are over 50 million people of Chinese heritage outside of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and those in the United States have helped shape the course of Chinese history over the last hundred and fifty years. For the China side, this course covers major factors driving Chinese migration during the Qing, Republic of China, and People’s Republic of China periods, and the different impact Chinese migrants had on the economy, culture, and political structures of China. For the U.S. side, this course covers the first wave of Chinese immigration in the 19th century, the rise of anti-Chinese movements, Chinese Exclusion, and the experiences of Chinese Americans during WWII. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: topic).

Covers the impact of World War II, the postwar division of Europe, the onset of the Cold War, the economic recovery and transformation of Western Europe, Stalinism in Eastern Europe, the 1960s and events of 1968, the origins and development of the European community, and the cultural and intellectual life of European nations in this period. Ends with a discussion of the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 and their significance, together with the reunification of Germany, for the future of the continent. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Survey Courses).

This unique interdisciplinary course interrogates the persistent notion that mathematics is fundamentally Western, by exploring the invention and evolution of foundational mathematical concepts within their historical and cultural contexts throughout the world. Using hands-on activities to explore historical mathematical challenges, students develop their problem-solving skills, and apply them to practical and theoretical situations. By engaging with secondary and primary sources, students simultaneously analyze how diverse scholars interpret the available evidence, as well as the evidence itself. An underlying theme is that numbers, mathematics, and computational methods do not simply exist, but are highly related to the cultures in which they were produced, and the accompanying historical circumstances. We will conclude the course by considering the global future of mathematics, and whether it is capable of becoming increasingly diverse.\ Prerequisite: None.

The term avant-garde frequently appears in artistic contexts, referring to practices and practitioners against conventions and established institutions. How did avant-garde, a military term for vanguard in French, come to be associated with radical artistic experiments? Who were (and are) able to become avant-garde, and how? This course addresses these questions through a survey of European art and design from the 1860s to the 1970s, with a particular focus on Paris. We will discuss the “Impressionist” exhibitions, japonisme, abstract art and the dreams of revolutions and utopia, the invention of the ready-made, the death of art according to Dada artists, and more. This roughly chronological survey will be punctuated by examinations of the ways that social categories of identity, including race, gender, class, and sexuality, shaped membership to the avant-garde. Prerequisite: Writing as Inquiry

This course will explore China’s troubled relationship with the ‘west’ from the Opium Wars to the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949, a period Chairman Mao once dubbed a “century of national humiliation”. Students will use primary sources and secondary readings focusing on important events and trends across the period to consider the nature of the foreign presence in China. Across the course they will also consider the politics of the use of historical memory by contemporary political actors. A series of questions will be considered across the course: Was the period from 1842-1949 a century of humiliation and who benefits from this characterization? Does the period still influence how China relates to Europe and America? How far were foreigners agents of ‘modernity’ in China? Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC.

This course situates changes in China since the 1800s in a world and global context. Through reading primary texts and secondary studies, students will explore how the process of empire-making, global capitalist expansion and anti-capitalist revolutions, and liberalization shaped the social, cultural and political changes in modern China since the 1800s. This course is also designed to help develop skills including identification of primary and secondary sources and critical analysis and evaluation of primary and secondary sources. This is a writing and reading intensive course. Students are expected to learn through careful reading, engaged discussion, and writing/testing assignments. All the readings are in English, and the course presumes no previous knowledge of China. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC.

Topic Title: Aliens Since 1897 Whether intelligent life exists outside the confinements of planet Earth is an old question to which an abundance of new answers has been given over the course of the twentieth century, from philosophy, religion and science fiction to anthropology, communication studies and astrophysics. Located at the intersection of European and American cultural history, the history of science and technology, literary studies and film, this class charts the manifold figurations of the alien since its modern invention in 1897. Individual sessions will be devoted to invasions from Mars and Venus, H. G. Wells and Liu Cixin, UFO sightings and alien encounters, but also to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence known as SETI, NASA’s Voyager missions, the making of astrobiology into a scholarly discipline, the so-called Plurality of Worlds, Ancient Astronauts and Rare Earth controversies and many other aspects of modern extraterrestrialism. Ultimately, humankind’s self-understanding as a species is defined, tested and exposed when confronted with radical alterity, be it real or imagined. Prerequisite: any HUMN-SHU OR any HIST-SHU course OR POH. Fulfillment: Aliens Since 1897: Humanities Interdisciplinary course or Advanced course (18-19: topic).

This course covers the history of medicine in Europe and North America from the eighteenth century to the present. We will explore how perceptions of illness and health changed over time in relation to transformations in politics, society, science, and technology. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, you will learn how to place medical texts, techniques, and artifacts within their epistemic, historical, and socio-political contexts. Topics will include: the historical development and organization of medical knowledge and its branches; corresponding shifts in explanations of disease; the role of modern institutions and technologies in the study and control of diseased individuals and infected populations; the rise of the hospital; the relationship between medicine, science, and industry; the shifting doctor-patient relationship; the social meanings of illness; and the changing burden of disease. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Other Introductory course; Social Science Focus Global Health 200 level.

This course provides a broad introduction to the economic, political, social and cultural history of Europe since 1900. Following the most violent conflict in human history during the first half of the twentieth century, Europe’s postwar reconstruction was based on a principle of peace through prosperity and the political ideal of an ‘ever closer union.’ In recent years, however, the combined economic and migrant crises have put this postwar consensus to a test. Analyzing a wide array of primary materials including autobiographical writings, newspaper articles, statistics, images, film and sound, the seminar will familiarize students with key themes and problems of modern European history and historiography. Individual sessions examine fin-de-siècle culture and modernity; imperialism and colonialism; the causes, experiences and effects of the First and Second World Wars; the Holocaust; the so-called Europeanization of Europe and its role in the Global Cold War; the crisis-ridden 1970s; the revolution of 1989 in Eastern Europe; and the crucial question of whether a distinctive European identity and sense of community have developed since the post-war period that can withstand the entangled crises of the early twenty-first century. The class includes field trips to selected sites in Shanghai entwined with European history. Prerequisites: None. Previous knowledge or experience is welcome but not required Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

The study of “witchcraft” and the witchhunts of early modern Europe has brought enormous insight to our historical understanding of popular culture, gender, social conflict, religion, and law. This course examines European ideas about witchcraft in the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries and how the European model of witchcraft became exported to other parts of the Atlantic world (Africa, North America, South America) during the early- modern period of European economic and colonial expansion. In addition, we will explore how non-European concepts of the supernatural, magical, and divine differed from or intersected with European beliefs and assumptions at the moment of cross-cultural encounter. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19: survey).

This class will examine the changing nature of death, dying and grief since the late 19th century by focusing on modern wars as instruments of change. As both the number of mortalities and the manner of death changed, so too did private and public ways of dealing with death. Societies around the world modified their understandings of death and created new ways of dealing with the dead, in body and in spirit, as wars became deadlier and dying assumed an increasingly unfamiliar shape. Some of the questions we will consider in this class include: -how is death represented in social memory during and after war? -the changing ways of dying – what is a “good” death and what is a “bad” death on the battlefield and at home? -how has the act of killing changed and how does it influence our understanding of death? -how mourning practices change, both in the private and public sphere, as a consequence of war -how do national commemorative practices interact with our private understandings of death and dying? -in what kinds of spaces do the living and the dead interact? -what elements of modern war foster these changes? Do all wars shape death and dying in the same way? What common features exist and what elements are culturally specific? Pre-requisites: Not open to first-year students. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic Course.

This advanced, research seminar course provides an overview of Chinese American history and its relevance for contemporary issues in the China and the United States. There are over 50 million people of Chinese heritage outside of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and those in the United States have helped shape the course of Chinese history over the last hundred and fifty years. For the China side, this course covers major factors driving Chinese migration during the Qing, Republic of China, and People’s Republic of China periods, and the different impact Chinese migrants had on the economy, culture, and political structures of China. For the U.S. side, this course covers the first wave of Chinese immigration in the 19th century, the rise of anti-Chinese movements, Chinese Exclusion, and the experiences of Chinese Americans during WWII. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19:Topics).

This course focuses on the intersections of race, sex, and gender in various military contexts over the course of the twentieth century. We will examine these intersections at moments of conflict, as well as moments of relative ‘peace’, and our geographic scope will allow us to contrast and compare these connections in various global settings. We will use race, sex, and gender as categories of analysis to better understand how war, and military contexts more broadly, both influenced and were influenced by these concepts. An important element of the course, however, will also be an examination of how the practice of military history has been changed by developments in other historical fields. Prerequisite: GPS Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19: topic).

Over the course of the twentieth century the infinite void that surrounds planet Earth stimulated the human imagination as never before. For several decades, anticipation of human spaceflight was intimately bound with futuristic visions of technoscientific progress, while space exploration became key to societal self-images. This course charts the rise and fall of the Age of Space from a global perspective. Individual sessions will be devoted to the ‘rocket fad’ of the Weimar Republic, Nazi ‘wonder weapons,’ the so-called Sputnik shock and the American moon landings, UFOs and alleged alien encounters, as well as providing an introduction to the historical origins of techno-nationalism, from the Cold War to today’s Space Race in Asia. This is an advanced undergraduate seminar open to juniors and seniors. Participants should have taken at least one history class and have written a research paper with bibliographical references. Prerequisite: POH OR any HIST-SHU OR any HUMN-SHU course Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Advanced course (18-19: Digital Approaches or Topic)

Nowadays, the notion that China looks back on 5,000 years of history seems to be common knowledge. At first one might wonder: what is so special about that? There have been many advanced civilizations in ancient antiquity: Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, the Roman and Aztec empires are but a few examples that immediately spring to mind. On closer inspection, though, it is quite obvious that all of these civilizations have one thing in common: they no longer exist! China and Chinese culture, on the other hand, is still alive and kicking. It is the only civilization on the planet that claims to have developed for five millennia without interruption. But, is this really true? And, more importantly, where exactly does such an assertion come from? These are but two question this course is going to address. Some readers might dismiss them as quixotic musings of an early China specialist. They would be utterly wrong, however, to assume that these issues have no relevance for modern-day China. Precisely because Chinese culture survived for such a long time many contemporary habits are firmly rooted in ancient traditions, whether we are aware of it or not. Since most of us are largely ignorant of the actual repercussions of China’s enduring history, this course ultimately aims at disclosing them. This means that we are going to analyze historiographical records and compare them with archeological evidence. In order to get a sense how history was perceived at various historical stages, we are also going to spend some time with commentators of early Chinese texts. Finally, we will, of course, try to figure out how the practice of historiography and archeology influences the China we all live in – for the moment at least – today. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC; GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities 18-19 Topic.

The success of movies like Inglourious Basterds, The King’s Speech, and Pearl Harbor or television shows like Band of Brothers and Nazi Hunters has demonstrated that fascination with the era of the Second World War does not stop with scholars. The origins, nature, and effects of this conflict have continued to capture the imagination of the general public and historians. Both the barbarity and the heroism of this ‘total war’ have retained a central place in our historical consciousness, though in vastly different ways. This course will examine the Second World War from a multi-faceted perspective. We will look at the social, cultural, military, and political contexts of the war from many national perspectives. An overarching goal of this course is to allow you to engage with some of the important historiographical debates that have emerged in past fifty years. Moreover, we will examine how these debates and the controversies that have ensued have shaped the way individuals and nations represent their wartime experiences. Pre-requisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic.

This course will provide a broad introduction to the history of Europe since the French Revolution. Organized around eight exemplary ‘moments of Europe’ spanning two centuries, it will familiarize students with some of the principal themes and methods involved in the writing of Modern European History. Structured chronologically, individual sessions will be devoted to the revolutions of the early nineteenth century, processes of nationbuilding, fin-de-siècle culture, the causes, experiences and effects of the First and Second World Wars, the transeuropean protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to the crucial question of whether a distinctive European identity has developed over time. Materials used include political treatises, fiction, images and film. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19: Critical Concepts).

Examines key themes in the social history of New York City: the pattern of its physical and population growth, its social structure and class relations, ethnic and racial groups, municipal government and politics, family and work life, and institutions of social welfare and public order. Pre-requisites: None Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Advanced course (18-19: Digital Approaches or Topic).

This course explores the history of the Soviet Union from its birth as a utopian experiment in October 1917 to its final collapse in December 1991. Through the extensive use of original documents, literary and artistic works, and artifacts of popular culture, the course examines the major political, cultural, and social events that contributed to the rise and fall of the Soviet Empire. While emphasis will be given to the fundamental issue of the nature and evolution of Soviet political culture, the course will also explore essential social, scientific, and artistic transformations that helped to shape the domestic Soviet experience and its international repercussions. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic.

China at the Center? An Exploration of Chinese Foreign Relations from Pre-imperial to Late Imperial Times The main title of this course is an allusion to a book authored by Mark Mancall in 1984. However, there are some crucial differences between his approach to Chinese foreign relations and the subject of this course. Mancall has claimed – as have so many scholars before and after him – that Chinese interactions with the outside world were dictated by an ideology that saw China’s culture as superior to the surrounding ‘barbarians.’ This concept is now widely known as the so-called ‘tributary system.’ We are going to explore whether such assertions indeed have any merit. One little hint: things might not have been as easy as they appear at first glance. Over the course of the semester we will be tracing Chinese foreign relations from roughly the 6th century BCE (was there even a ‘China’ that could set itself apart from the ‘other’?) through the 19th century CE, that is to say the period when the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to interact with western powers such as the British Empire. Even today when there seems to be an abundance of media coverage, the meanings of bilateral or multilateral exchanges take quite some effort to deduce; too many details remain hidden from the public eye. The (ancient) past, of course, is even less generous with data. Nevertheless, there is plenty of information to be had; we just have to look for it. Thus, participants in this course will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in various kinds of sources: historiographical records, material culture, or personal diaries to name but a few. In doing so, our main objective will be that we develop a critical, analytical attitude toward said sources that will ultimately lead us to a more nuanced understanding of Chinese dealings with the outside world. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities 18-19 Topic.

The Second World War was a thoroughly cinematic conflict. During the war itself, cinema was an essential part of the propaganda efforts of each combatant nation, as important events were either shot on site or recreated in studios before being disseminated to screens across the world in an effort to shape the way people perceived the conflict that would last until 1945.The fascination with the war did not end with its official conclusion, however. Successive generations of filmmakers re-interpreted the war through their own lenses, leaving us with a varied, and sometimes contradictory, record of the war’s meaning. This class will examine Second World War films (including those created during the war) to analyze how popular perceptions of the war have changed over time and the role that cinema has played in shaping those perceptions. These inquiries will also help us to better understand the context within which the films were made and we will explore what these films tell us about the societies that produced them. Prerequisite: GPS Fulfillment: Humanities Interdisciplinary/Advanced course (18-19: topics).

Prereq: None Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19: topic).

This course provides a brief introduction to the emergence of the modern Middle East and North Africa from 1699 to the end of WWI. Its geographic scope comprises the central provinces and territories of the former Ottoman and Safavid empires: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Levant, and North Africa. The syllabus emphasizes four analytical themes: first, the historical evolution of ""Middle Eastern"" polities from dynastic and religious empires in the 18th century to modern ""nation-states"" in the 20th; second, the impact of industrial capitalism and European imperial expansion on local societies and their modes of production; third, local conceptions of modernity and measures of modernization in responses to European colonial expansion; Islamic and secular reform movements; nationalism and revolution; fourth, the ideological and socio-cultural dimensions of these large-scale transformations, specifically the rise of mass ideologies of liberation and development and the emergence of new issues in the areas of gender, identity, and popular culture. Major historical events include two world wars, creation of “new orders,” (constitutional republics, Islamic regimes or authoritarian states), projects and challenges of postcolonial state-building. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course (18-19: topic)

World War Two represents a transformational event for the twentieth century world. The dramatic stories of the war and its aftermath include the momentary triumph of fascism as a global movement and its military defeat; the redrawing of geopolitical maps as hot wars resolved themselves into cold wars; the rise and fall of empires; decolonization and the emergence of a “third world” of new nations. In what ways did World War Two and its aftermath reshape Asia? This course explores this question by looking at the case of Japan. How do the stories of Japan’s defeat, the process of decolonization in Asia, the US occupation, and the creation of regional cold war order complicate our understandings of the twentieth century world? Prerequisite: Global Perspectives on Society (GPS). Fulfillment: Humanities Major: Advanced Course

This course explores the political, economic, and cultural transformations on the Korean peninsula from late colonial times to the contemporary situation of two Korean nation-states. We will pay close attention to ideological, socio-economic, and cultural differences as well as similarities between both Koreas. We will also consider the ways in which postcolonial competition between the two states affected the lived realities of their peoples in transnational historical contexts. Most audiovisual sources and literary texts are in English, and no previous knowledge of Korean is required. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: Humanities Advanced course.

While global citizens have long been concerned about conserving and rationing our use of fossil fuels, the same cannot be said for an even more precious resource – water. Only in the last few years have government agencies, NGOs, and the market begun to tackle the problem of dwindling water resources. The current statistics and projections are dire. If we do not come up with new technologies to conserve water and use it more efficiently, more people will be without clean water or enough food. The United Nations estimates that by 2030 as many as 4 billion people will not have access to enough water for their basic needs. During the course of this semester we will read about both contemporary issues that affect us as well as look at the historical context in which these problems developed. We will use case studies as a method for discussing these issues. Case Studies will include: the United States, in particular the American West and New York City; Early Modern Venice and Egypt, and modern day African and China. Reading loads will be moderate to heavy, but engaging. You can plan on reading about 100 pages a week divided between the two classes. A portion of your grade will be based on class discussion. Each student will be asked to also write 4 shorter (2-3) papers based on the readings throughout the term. Each student will also write a small research/topics paper (10-12 pages) on the topic of their choice. You will be asked to look at a current problem with water scarcity or contamination and find its historical precedents. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Critical Concepts Core Course/ Topic Courses); Social Science Major Focus Courses Environmental Studies - 200 level course.

In this seminar, students will consider the idea that “noise” has a history, and that its history dates long before the industrial revolution’s ratcheting up of noise levels due to heavy machinery and the reproduction and amplification of sound through electronic technologies. Some noises pierce our ears and disrupt both our hearing and our thinking. In contrast, background noises may be loud, persistent, and even harmful to our ears, but they suffuse our everyday lives so fully that we can ignore them. Despite our daily subjective encounters with noise, can noise have a political meaning as well, one that transcends our individual experiences with din and discord, cacophony and clamor? This course explores noise’s relationship to history and politics. By spending the semester reading, talking, and writing about noise, we will seek to comprehend it rather than contain it. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Interdisciplinary/Advanced course (18-19: Critical Concept/Topic)

This course will survey the applications of scientific naturalism to the human realm in nineteen-century Europe and America, with a focus on the development of hereditarianism across the social and psychological discourses of the Victorian era (1838-1901). The course will introduce you to the history of what we today call the pseudo-sciences (such as phrenology, Social Darwinism, and eugenics) and explore how naturalistic explanations of crime and degeneracy were articulated and disseminated in the service of racist policies and imperial/colonial agendas. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, you will learn how to evaluate these long-discredited knowledges of the past seriously on their own terms and develop a critical understanding of their epistemic, cultural, and socio-political contexts. Prerequisite: Perspectives on Humanities or any HIST-SHU course OR any HUMN-SHU course OR any PHIL-SHU course OR any LIT-SHU Fulfillment: Core STS; Humanities Advanced course.

This course will survey the rise of the “psy” disciplines (such as psychiatry, psychology, and psychobiology) in the Western world from the 1800s to the 1960s, with a focus on their development in America and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, you will learn how to place the psychological texts and techniques of the period within their epistemic, historical, and socio-political contexts. You will thus develop a critical understanding of the complex role that the “psy” disciplines play in modern society and examine the way they have enabled new understandings of social life, selfhood, and subjectivity. Prerequisite: Perspectives on Humanities or any HIST-SHU course OR any HUMN-SHU course OR any PHIL-SHU course OR any LIT-SHU Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Advanced course; Social Science Focus Psychology 200 level.

The course focuses on the cross-currents of China’s encounters with the world, from the late 16th to the early 21st century. It proceeds from two assumptions: first, that China has long been engaged with the rest of the world rather than ever having been “closed”, as some would have it; and second, that impact and influence flow in multiple directions: into, through, and out of China, whether intentionally or involuntarily. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and student research projects we will explore China’s encounters with the world chronologically and thematically, covering such broad topics as religion and philosophy; diplomacy; law; trade; war; revolution; political systems, and “soft power”. Pre-requisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

The course, combining question-oriented lectures, seminar-style discussions, and interactive reading, examines China’s “prolonged rise” by putting it into the larger context of its 20th-century “going global” experience characterized by crises, wars, revolutions and, finally, unprecedented reforms. The course will highlight the tortuous trajectory of the most important bilateral relations of our age—Chinese-American relations—and how and why it has been profoundly related to China’s going global experience. It will also explore what driving forces and dynamics has generated China’s rise, why it has to be looked upon as a complicated and prolonged process, and what opportunities and challenges it has presented to both China and the 21st-century world, and how they might be dealt with. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Advanced course (18-19:topic); Social Science Focus Political Science 200 level course.

This course explores Chinese American women, gender and sexuality from the mid-19th century to the present. It engages with themes and topics such as migration, exclusion, labor, marriage, family, intimacy, representations of the body and feminist struggles. It seeks to destabilize the sexualized and racialized images of Chinese women and men in U.S. popular discourse by centering their marginalized voices and by interrogating colonialism, imperialism and orientalism. This course will introduce students the diversity of historical experiences of Chinese American women and men from a trans-Pacific perspective. It will guide students to inquire critically into the ways in which gender and sexuality has profoundly shaped experiences of migration, law-making processes, family structures, community building and institutional transformations regarding Chinese Americans. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Advanced course (18-19: topic).

This is a reading and research seminar with an emphasis on the “new “Cold War history—a scholarly phenomenon emerging in the 1990s, along with the end of the global Cold War and the new opportunities to conduct multiarchival and mutli-source research for scholars of international history. Students in this class will be exposed to various new interpretations, new methods of research, and new ways of thinking associated with the new Cold War history studies. Readings in this class will be focused on the scholarship that has appeared since the early and mid-1990s. Students are required to write several books reviews and a comprehensive review essay, as well as to present and critique the comprehensive review essay in class. The ultimate purpose of the course is to help students take the Cold War as a useful reference to pursue a better understanding of the challenges facing the human race in the 21st century. Prereq: None. Fulfillment: 18-19 Humanities Major Topic Courses; Social Science Focus 300 level International Relations.

The present is only one possible outcome of the many ways in which it has been imagined in the past. While historians usually do not aim to predict the future, they have become increasingly interested in how societies and cultures projected their development in the past. While such scenarios are often fascinating in themselves, they are of particular historical interest as gauges and indicators of how societies understood themselves and evaluated their then present conditions. Largely chronologically organized, this course explores the future’s multifaceted history in twentieth-century Europe and the United States, from the emergence of ‘scientifiction' in the 1920s to the ‘end of utopia’ during the crisis-ridden 1970s. Particular attention will be paid to ‘enhancements’ of the human body, futuristic technologies (flying cars, time machines, computers) and human habitats (the classless city of tomorrow, underwater settlements, space colonies). Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic course.

In this history seminar, we will explore some of the quintessential concepts of the scientific revolution, the multivalent ways in which these ideas were disseminated, contemporary reactions, as well as the interrelationship between popular culture and scientific processes. Rather than analyzing scientific happenings as though they occurred in a vacuum, there will be a strong emphasis on situating competing ways of knowing within the contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural contexts. While developing their abilities to analyze primary sources and critically engage with scholarship—both orally and in writing—students will question overly simplified linear narratives of scientific and mathematical change, as well as the notion that scientific “advancements” were inevitable. Prerequisite: GPS. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Humanities Advanced Course (18-19: topic).

“The queen is suffering from a severe toothache; would sacrificing one hundred humans make it go away?” This is but one among many references to human sacrifices in Shang period oracle bone inscriptions (13th century BCE) that were found at the Anyang site in Henan province. That these were not empty rhetorical phrases is illustrated by hundreds of headless skeletons that came to light at the site. Yet, such seemingly senseless acts of violence were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Murder, theft, sexual misconduct were very much part of everyday life in early China. More importantly, though, crime and violence was by no means restricted to social outcasts but permeated all of Chinese society. Chinese emperors certainly were no less prone to atrocious behavior than petty criminals. Thus, in this class we are going to analyze various kinds of crime and violence in order to answer two main (and many other) questions: a) Why exactly were humans (and the early Chinese in particular) violent? b) How exactly did violent behavior affect early Chinese society as a whole? Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic course.

When we look at inanimate things, we might ask ourselves: What do objects do? Sure, a watch tells us the time and a car takes us from point A to B. But is that really all they accomplish? Don’t people also buy fancy things (and especially brand names) to make an impression on peers and passers-by? The hype surrounding the release of a new iPhone shows that we are well beyond the point that phones are just phones. For all their technical intricacies, high-end smartphones are just as much about “showing off” as anything else. But why the need to “show off” in the first place? And more interestingly, is this a recent phenomenon or did people in ancient societies resort to similar strategies? If so, how exactly did they go about it? These are the three major questions this course is going to address. In order to answer them, we are going to explore several theories related to material culture studies, how societies are structured, and how objects functioned in early Chinese society. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities 18-19 Topic.