HIST 1: Western Civilization I
Professor Luke Santoro
This course examines major developments in European history from classical antiquity through the medieval and early Renaissance periods. Topics include the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome, the rise of Christianity, the development of medieval institutions, and the cultural, religious, and political dynamics of feudal Europe. Students will explore key themes such as empire, identity, faith, and power through primary sources and scholarly interpretations. Special attention is given to the interactions between Europe and neighboring civilizations, the evolution of social structures, and the foundations of the Renaissance. The course provides essential context for understanding the roots of modern Europe.
HIST 2: Western Civilization II
Professor Luke Santoro
This course explores major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in Europe from the early modern period to the present. Beginning with the Renaissance and Reformation, students will examine the rise of nation-states, the impact of scientific and industrial revolutions, the spread of Enlightenment ideals, and the transformations brought by revolution, war, and empire. The course also addresses the challenges of modernity, including nationalism, totalitarianism, decolonization, and European integration. Students will gain a deeper understanding of how Europe's past continues to shape its present and global roles.
HIST 5: Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations
Dr. Jonathan Needham
This course provides an introduction to the history and cultural traditions of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. From the origins of cities and the invention of writing, it surveys the intellectual, artistic, and political traditions that laid the foundations for the later civilizations of Europe and western Asia. Students will acquire a historical framework for the ancient Mediterranean from the third millennium BCE through the end of antiquity in the first millennium CE. Within this framework cross-cultural relationships of time and ideas will be established among religious texts, epic literatures, and political and legal traditions. In the part of the world where the division between Asia and the East and Europe and the West was born, the course will examine the development of regional and ethnic identities along with the historical development of concepts of the universal nature of humanity.
HIST 20: American Civilization to 1877
Dr. Stephen Nepa
This course traces the historical roots of the United States of America. Our narrative begins in the pre-Columbian era, charts the development of colonial agriculture and urban life, the competition of various empires over land and peoples, the origins of the transatlantic slave trade, Civil War and Reconstruction, and the expansion of imperial ambition. By 1776, the United States formed under promises of liberty, equality, property rights, and tolerance. But who would benefit? Who should rule? Industrialization, the consolidation of slavery, agricultural specialization, and expansion to the west, along with demands for reform and democracy, made these questions ever more vexed and led to a Civil War and a flawed attempt to reconstitute the Union by the turn of the twentieth century. Through use of art, music, literature, film, and other media, students will gain an understanding of the complexities of the American past.
HIST 21: American Civilization since 1877
Dr. David Ruth
In this class we explore major developments in American history since the late 1800s: industrialization and labor strife; the rise of the U.S. as a world power; mass immigration and efforts to restrict it; struggles over rights for racial minorities, women, and many others; multiple wars; the creation of a stronger, more active federal government and conservative efforts to limit it; transformative changes in values, families, and daily life; and much more. To understand this complicated story, we focus on a single key question: How have Americans understood, experienced, and struggled over the meanings of freedom?
HIST 109: Introduction to U.S. Environmental History
Dr. Stephen Nepa
This course introduces environmental history not only as a field of study but also a multifaceted approach to understanding the American past. Beginning in the colonial period and extending through the post-WWII decades, we will examine topics such as cartography, wilderness preservation, industrialization and urbanization, armed conflicts, pollution, and the rise of the modern environmental movement. Through use of art, music, literature, film, and other media, students will gain an understanding of how the human and nonhuman worlds have shaped one another over nearly four centuries of American history.
HIST 112: Introduction to Public History
Professor Stephanie Walsh
How do we identify what is important in history? What can we do to make that information relevant to others? These are the types of questions public historians are tasked with asking. This introductory course will begin to define the field of public history by exploring the ways society has commemorated events and places in the past to modern approaches of storytelling. Through scholarship and discourse, along with class and self-guided activities, we will work to develop an understanding of this multi-faceted profession.
History 120N: History of Modern Europe since 1789
Dr. Andrew August
In this course, we will examine the development of European societies, economies, states, and cultures starting with the French Revolution. We will engage with ideas and texts generated by people in and impacted by Europe during this period, including Equiano, Mill, Marx, De Beauvoir, and Fanon. Major themes include the French and Russian Revolutions, Industrialization and Middle-Class Culture, the Rise of the Nation-State, World War I and II, Fascism and Nazism, Stalinism and the USSR, the Cold War, Welfare States, Empire and Decolonization, and the Post-Cold-War Order.
HIST 124: History of Western Medicine
Dr. Juliet Larkin-Gilmore
Are you “sick” if your doctor gives you a diagnosis but you feel fine? Are you “healthy” if you feel sick but your doctor says your lab results are normal? Who decides when we are “healthy” and when we are “sick”—and how has that changed over time?
In HIST124, we will answer these and other questions about the history of medical practice in Europe and the United States. We will trace how one way of seeing the body (through a microscope) came to dominate over others and focus on the themes of diagnosis (when is someone “sick” and why?), treatment (how do we know they are "cured"?), and justice (how race & ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality, class, and disability affect access to healthcare). We will also explore who has benefitted and who has suffered under Western medical practices and why it matters that we understand the past. Topics will include Ancient Greek medicine, bloodletting, epidemics, antibiotics and vaccination, medical experimentation, and health activism.
HIST 143N: History of Fascism and Nazism
Professor Luke Santoro
This course studies the developments of right-wing totalitarianism in the twentieth century with special emphasis on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, which provided the roots for fascist developments in the modern world. The course concerns itself with understanding the social, political, and economic contexts of fascism, its governing assumptions, ideals, and values, how it worked in practice, and its consequences and historical implications. Another focus will be on the question of why these illiberal, anti-democratic, and ultimately murderous regimes appear to have appealed to many groups during the 1930s and 1940s, not only within Italy and Germany, but also within broader European society.
HIST 179: Latin American History since 1820
Dr. Manuel Morales Fontanilla
HIST 179 - Latin American History since 1820 is a survey class covering Modern Latin American history from the early nineteenth century until the present. The course focuses on significant political, social, cultural, environmental, and economic changes experienced in the region from a multi-sited perspective. Integrating debates on race, class, and gender, the class will focus on significant cultural groups and their contributions to the region’s history. In this class, students will expose themselves to primary sources (texts, images, songs, material culture) and contemporary historical, sociological, and anthropological literature focused on the topics pertinent to the class. Students will also use active learning strategies to promote a diverse, tolerant, and collaborative class environment.
HIST 420: Recent European History
Dr. Andrew August
Welcome to HIST 420: Recent European History. In this course, we will examine the development of European societies, economies, states, and cultures since around 1900. Major themes include Imperialism, the Russian Revolution, the World Wars, Fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust, Stalinism and the USSR, the Cold War, Welfare States, European Unification, Immigration, Deindustrialization, and the Rise of the Far Right.
HIST 424: Comparative History of Sports and Politics
Dr. Manuel Morales Fontanilla
Sports are a tool that can help us answer important questions about the past and the present. They have been pivotal in shaping and undermining social structures, political mobilizations, collective identities, patterns of domination, and processes of resistance. Analyzing the political and historical importance of sport from a global and comparative perspective can provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of the human experience. In HIST 424, we will focus on the connections between sport and capitalism, industrialization, urbanization, colonialism, and imperialism from the 19th century until the present. We will also explore the relationship between sport, race, class, gender, and power using concrete examples from around the world. This approach aims to show sport’s centrality in contemporary popular culture and its importance for globalization processes. We will use primary sources (texts, images, songs, material culture) and interdisciplinary academic scholarship on the topics pertinent to the class.
HIST 446: Interwar America, 1918-1941
Dr. Keith Riley
Between 1918 and 1941, the United States changed massively in ways that continue to shape our present. The United States’ economy transformed into one based around mass consumerism. Women, African-Americans, immigrants, and the LGBT community experienced new freedoms and built communities in growing, industrial cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. While others resisted these changes, viewing them as threats to their social status. America experienced economic crisis. In response to the Great Depression, the U.S. government built a social-safety net designed to lift its citizens out of poverty and share more of the country’s wealth among its citizens. At the same time, America expanded its reach globally, inching towards becoming the international superpower that we know today. This class will focus on these monumental changes. Together, we will unpack the achievements and limitations of the Jazz Age, Great Depression, and New Deal eras. We will try to get a sense of what it was like for ordinary people to live through these periods of change—the roles they played in creating these changes, the extent to which they benefited, and how these changes occasionally pitted them against other communities.
HIST 455: The History of Epidemics
Dr. Juliet Larkin-Gilmore
Words like “pre-pandemic,” “early-COVID,” and “post-COVID” now define our lives and recent pasts. While we can all agree that COVID has changed life on Earth, exactly what has changed and how—and what it all means—are still hotly debated. This course aims to make sense of our lived experiences of a pandemic within global history. It asks how people before us dealt with a horrifying, deadly, and unknown sickness. Through case studies of five previous epidemics and pandemics we will ask: What did people think caused them? How did they deal with mass suffering and death? How did they make meaning out of their loss?
