Quick Links

History Courses Fall 2013 and Winter 2014

Note:  Please refer to Minerva - Class Schedule for the most up-to-date course information

[To see the Fall 2013 list of courses and available course outlines, scroll down below the Winter Term 2014 list of courses]

Winter Term 2014 History Courses

HIST 198 FYS:Nation Bldg&Nationalism 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Hellman
[Note: open only to students in their first year of study]

HIST 201 Modern African History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Erin Bell

HIST 203 Survey:Canada since 1867 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Suzanne Morton

HIST 215 Modern European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Section 001 - Prof. Anastassios Anastassiadis

HIST 215 Modern European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Section 002 - Prof. Jason Szabo

HIST 218 Modern East Asian History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Lorenz Lüthi

HIST 221 United States since 1865 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Shanon Fitzpatrick

HIST 223 Natives of the Americas 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Laurent Corbeil

HIST 300 Nationalisms in Canada 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Desmond Morton
Note: This course is cross-listed with CANS 304.

HIST 305 Ancient Mediterranean Warfare 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Serrati (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

HIST 306 East Central Europe, 1944-2004 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. James Krapfl

HIST 315 Themes in World History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  Prof. Subho Basu  (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

Topic: Gandhi and Gandhism (click for description)

The dominant figure in India’s nationalist movement for nearly thirty years, M. K. Gandhi has also been one of the twentieth century’s most influential peace activists and thinkers. He has been the source of inspiration for peace and civil rights movements throughout the twentieth century. This course charts Gandhi’s career against the background of events in London, South Africa and India. It examines the evolution and practical application of his ideas and techniques of non-violent resistance, and his attitudes toward the economy, society and state. Gandhi’s influence on Indian politics and society is critically assessed and his reputation as the ‘apostle of non-violent revolution’ examined in the light of developments since his death in 1948. Though helpful, a prior knowledge of Indian history is not required for this course.

HIST 321 European Thought&Culture 2 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Hellman

HIST 325 Renaissance-Reformation Europe 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Paula Clarke

HIST 326 Russia from 1905 to Present 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Katrin Bozeva-Abazi

HIST 327 Age of the American Revolution 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

 Instructor: Alexander DeGuise (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

HIST 338 Twentieth-Century China 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Zhiming Chen

HIST 345 Hist of Italian Renaissance 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Paula Clarke

HIST 347 History and Sexuality 2 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Brian Lewis

HIST 354 Women in Europe 1700-2000 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Judith Szapor

HIST 358 Medieval to Early Modern China 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen  ***CANCELLED*** offered in Fall 2013.

HIST 360 Latin America since 1825 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Catherine LeGrand

Description (click for description)

This course surveys the history of Latin America from Independence in 1825 to the present, focusing on major economic changes, political processes and social issues.  The course will provide insight into development problems and movements for social change in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking areas of the Americas.

 

HIST 366 Themes: Latin American Hist 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Geoffrey Wallace (change of instructor)

Topic: tba (click for description)

tba

HIST 367 Canada since 1945 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. David Wright

HIST 370 Cdn Party Politics 1867-2000 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Laura Madokoro

Themes in Canadian Political History (click for description)

This course explores the history of political activism in Canada in the twentieth century. Students will interrogate how notions of the "political" evolved after 1900 at the local, regional and national level. Case studies include organized party politics, nationalism, environmentalism, First Nations' movements, women's rights and civil rights.

HIST 373 Canadian Labour History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jarrett Rudy

HIST 375 Roman History: Early Empire 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Michael Fronda

Description (click for description)

This course offers an advanced survey of Roman history during the early and high imperial periods, from the death of Julius Caesar to death of Marcus Aurelius (around 50 BC to AD 200), tracing important political, cultural, economic, religious, and administrative themes.  Students will be exposed to a detailed narrative as well as some of the basic historical debates relevant to the period.  Finally, students will have the opportunity to examine important evidence–especially ancient texts–that scholars use to solve these debates.  The analysis of ancient evidence will comprise a significant component of the course. The first half of the course will focus mainly on political developments; the second half will introduce a number of topical discussions.

HIST 377 The United States, 1940-1965 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Leonard Moore

HIST 388 The Second World War 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Peter Hoffmann

HIST 399 History and Historical Methods 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Nancy Partner (required course for honours students)

HIST 399 History and Historical Methods 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Laura Madokoro (required course for honours students)  *
**SECOND SECTION HAS RECENTLY BEEN OPENED TO ACCOMMODATE HONOURS STUDENTS NEEDING TO TAKE THIS REQUIRED COURSE TO MEET HONOURS PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS***

HIST 401 Topics:Medieval Culture&Soc 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Faith Wallis

Course Outline:  hist401_winter2014_wallis.pdf

Topics: Alexander Neckam's On the Natures of Things: a Latin Encyclopedia of the 12th Century (click for description)

This course will introduce students to medieval Latin didactic and scientific writing, through the work of the 12th century English scholar Alexander Neckam.  Neckam (1157-1217), one of the most learned and versatile scholars of his age, wrote a widely diffused encyclopedia entitled On the natures of things (De rerum naturis). The first two books Alexander's treatise were edited for the Rolls Series in 1863 by Thomas Wright. Wright omitted the last three books, because they were a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes, and seemed irrelevant to the scientific theme of the first two books. In fact, these last three books are a seamless continuation of the first two.

On the natures of things is an encyclopedia of the natural world roughly organized according to the four elements. Reading the universe from top to bottom, these are (1) fire (God, angels and the material heavens), (2) air (birds), (3) water (fish) and (4) earth (plant life, geography, metals, animals and humans). It draws on Neckam's abundant reading in classical and medieval science and medicine, but also includes personal observations and anecdotes. What is striking, however, is the way in which this material is read to elicit ethical lessons. The study of nature is, in fact, a subtle but sustained denunciation of human intellectual and moral vice, which leads into the unedited books 3-5, the commentary on Ecclesiastes. The moral lessons of the commentary are tightly connected to Neckam's view of nature as God's creative action itself, not just its product. The "Preacher" whose voice resounds in the Biblical text is King Solomon, but also Mother Earth. Mother Earth speaks in the first person, urging sinful humanity to repent; she ascribes her degradation to the sinfulness of humanity, but also contrasts nature's lawfulness to man's disobedience: "I am your matter; I am your mother.... It is you who are unstable; I am stable. ... Because of your transgression I am diminished, but nonetheless I stand ever at the ready to obey the will of my Creator [Ego tui materia sum: ego mater. ... Tu tamen instabilis. ego stabilis. ... Ob tuam transgressionem minorata sit: sto tamen uoluntatis conditoris mei obsequi promptissima: Cambridge, Trinity College O 4 1, fol. 85va-b]." To study the created works of God was to learn his laws, and to repair the damage of the Fall. Neckam's intent was both to inspire pious admiration for the Creator, and to hold up creation as a model of justice and rectitude. In addition, he strove to refute heresy – especially Cathar dualism, that denied that God created the world, and denigrated matter. In defending the authority of created nature, the stakes were high.

The learning outcomes for this course are as follows:

•familiarity with the history of the evolution of the Latin language in the medieval period, how it syntax changed, how its vocabulary was changed by the Bible, by exposure to Arabic and Greek, and by the emerging European vernacular languages.

•ability to construe and translate medieval Latin texts, notably Neckam's encyclopedia, but also including from time to time other examples of medieval Latin writing.

•understanding  the genres of writing in medieval Latin, with particular attention to instructional and scientific literature as represented by Neckam.

•how to recognize and identify quotations and allusions in a medieval text.

•understanding how texts were composed and transmitted in the manuscript culture of medieval Europe.

•exposure to medieval manuscript books at McGill, to gain hands-on comprehension of the technology of manuscript production, and the ways in which scribes and readers interacted with the text on the page.

•introduction to medieval Latin palaeography (handwriting).

•introduction to text criticism and text editing as applied to medieval materials.


N.B. Students who wish to take this course must have intermediate Latin. We will be reading Neckam in Latin.

Note: This course is cross-listed with CLAS 419.

HIST 404 The History of Confucius 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

*****THIS IS A NEW COURSE*****

HIST 407 Topics in Ancient History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Michael Fronda (course now offered in the winter term - was cancelled in the fall term)
Topic: "The Second Punic War (Hannibal's War)" - HIST 205 or HIST 391 recommended but not prerequisites.

HIST 409 Themes: Latin American Hist 2 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Catherine LeGrand

Topic: "Transnational Approaches to Latin American Relations with the United State and Canada" (click for description)

This course will focus on the economic, cultural and political interactions of Latin America with other parts of the world (the U.S. and, to an extent Canada and Europe) during the 19th and 20th centuries.   Whereas earlier work dealt primarily with trade, investment, and formal state-to-state relations, newer studies are exploring the multi-faceted social, cultural and intellectual interactions between the global South and the North, taking a transnational approach.  This course will give students an understanding of the transnational perspective as employed by historians of the Americas in recent years and will explore various facets of North-South (and occasionally South-South) interactions that have had an important impact on Latin America since Independence.   Most of the course will concentrate on the period from 1898 to 2000.

 

HIST 413 Independent Research 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

various supervisors

HIST 418 Topics: Atlantic World 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Helen Dewar

Description (click for description)

This course examines in comparative perspective the formation of empires in the Atlantic World.  Through such topics as slavery, mercantile trading networks, and law, the course will explore in particular the diversity of individuals and groups – from natives, settlers, and slaves to chartered companies and states – whose interactions created new connections among Europe, Africa and the Americas.  How did existing native trade networks and land use shape European settlement in different regions?  What accounts for greater government involvement by the Spanish and Portuguese as compared to the English and Dutch?  Throughout the course, we’ll consider both the opportunities and limits of the Atlantic framework for studying empire building from a comparative angle.  Students will write a major primary-source based research paper and be responsible for leading weekly discussions of readings in class.

HIST 423 Topics: Migration & Ethnicity 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Zucchi

Topics: Diasporas, Religion, and Race in Canada (click for description)

The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to study the broader issues of ethnicity, race, religion, immigration, accommodation and multiculturalism in a secular society by focusing on the historical experiences of a number of diaspora groups.


HIST 424 Gender, Sexuality & Medicine 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Andrea Tone                                                                                                           

HIST 431 Topics in U.S. History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Shanon Fitzpatrick

Topics: American Youth Culture

This course presents an historical perspective on being young and growing-up in the United States during the twentieth century.  It traces the formation of various American youth sub-cultures, interrogates the changing social and cultural meanings of adolescence, and explores the historical factors that shaped individual and group experiences of being a teenager.  The course also stresses the importance of consumer practices to youth sub-cultures and considers how gender, race, class, and sexuality influenced articulations and representations of youth culture in America. 

 

HIST 436 Topics: European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. James Krapfl

Topic:  Europe since 1989 (click for description)

A generation has passed since the revolutionary events of 1989 marked the closing of one era of European history and the commencement of another.  With the global financial crisis of 2008, which has generated a new wave of restructuring and upheaval in Europe, it is possible to see some closure to historical processes that began in 1989.  However, while substantial historical literatures exist for earlier twenty-year periods (e.g. the interwar years), few historians have as yet turned their attention to this most contemporary of European epochs.  This course is an invitation to swell their ranks.

HIST 436 Topics: European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Charles Sharpe
[NOTE: Students who would like to register in both sections of HIST 436 may do so - please contact the department for information and instructions]

Topics: European History (click for description)

This reading and writing seminar will examine the European displaced persons crisis in the twentieth century. Topics will include the pogroms in Eastern Europe, the conundrum of statelessness, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, the refugee crisis at the end of the Second World War, the politicization of “the refugee” during the Cold War, and the establishment of norms, laws and institutions to manage these problems.

 

HIST 438 Topics in Cold War History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Charles Sharpe

Topics: Cold War History (click for description)

The Cold War has receded as the dominating factor in international relations, but what remains is a system of global governance managed, in large part, by the United States. The origins of this system, however, predate the Cold War. This course will therefore explore the “idea” and the “practice” of global governance as conceived in the West. Topics will include colonialism, imperialism, League of Nations and the United Nations. Readings will address issues of peace and security, but also the management of transnational problems: public health, displaced persons, and economic interdependence.

 

HIST 440 Fiction and History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Nancy Partner

HIST 441 Topics:Culture&Ritual in China 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen

HIST 499 Internship: History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: tba

Note: Department approval required


One-term (3-credit) Undergraduate/Graduate Seminars

HIST 526 Women and War 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Malek Abisaab

HIST 582 European Intellectual History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Brian Cowan

Topic: Britain’s Glorious Revolution, 1688-1715 (click for description)

Readings and research on the Glorious Revolution and its aftermath.  Emphasis will be on the political and intellectual history of religious, dynastic and constitutional conflicts in the the British kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland.  We will make extensive use of online databases and research tools for British history.

HIST 583 Conservatism in Canada 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Elsbeth Heaman (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

Topic: "The Making of Canadian Indian Policy" (click for description)

This course will draw upon primary and secondary sources to study interactions between indigenous peoples of Canada and the emergent Canadian state during the long century between the Royal Proclamation and the Northwest Rebellion. We will explore the meaning of tradition and progress as cultural and political frameworks for those interactions. The course considers the history of settler colonialism in Canada from the top down and from the bottom up, with particular attention to practical experiences and experiments in governance. Students will write a substantial research paper based on primary sources.

 

 

 

 


***FALL 2013 and Winter 2014 Full-year Undergraduate Honours (and Graduate)
Seminars

FALL 2013 and Winter 2014 Full-year Undergraduate Honours (and Graduate) Seminars [Note: open only to students registered in a history honours program, and graduate students for the 500-level seminars]

HIST 458 Modern Medicine: Seminar 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 459 Modern Medicine: Research 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. George Weisz

Topics: What is this thing called disease? (click for description)

Currently not avaiable.

HIST 461D1 Topics in Modern U.S. History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 461D2 Topics in Modern U.S. History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Leonard Moore

Topics: American Voting Rights History (click for description)

Currently not avaiable.

HIST 464D1 Topics: Latin American History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 464D2 Topics: Latin American History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

Description (click for description)

Indigenous peoples of Latin America from pre-Conquest to the present. A comparative view of the various historical trajectories taken by Native peoples of the continent during the "long five hundred years" from the Luso-Iberian Conquest to the renaissance of indigenous movements in the late twentieth century. Intensive reading (ca. 150-200 pgs/wk) and discussion of the historiography will take in a comparative perspective on Mesoamerican, Andean and Amazonian societies across a broad range of themes (inter alia: memory, colonialism, ecological relations and epistemologies, identities, gender, territoriality, and political agency). Over the course of the academic year participants will also craft a major research paper (ca. 8000 words) based on primary sources. Knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese or an indigenous language is clearly an asset but not required. Previous coursework in Latin American history or relevant courses in other disciplines is asked.

HIST 470D1 Topics:Historical Interp 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 470D2 Topics:Historical Interp 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Judith E. Szapor

Topic: The Intellectual Migration, 1919-1946

NOTE: Course now offered under HIST 597 D1 in Fall 2013 and D2 in Winter 2014

HIST 485D1 Seminar in Japanese History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 485D2 Seminar in Japanese History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Gavin Walker

Seminar in Japanese History: Capital, Labour, Empire (click for description)

The history of the formation of Japanese capitalism (1870s-1930s) is directly linked to three highly specific instances: the economic production of the modern wage-labourer, the ideological production of the modern liberal individual with legal status as a person, and the enclosure of land in the colonial space of East Asia. We will investigate the development of Japanese capitalism, the formation of the modern Japanese nation-state, and the dynamics of Japanese imperialism from the perspective of these three instances. Both archival texts (in Japanese economic and colonial history) and theoretical texts (on colonialism, economic development, the relation between economy and ideology, the role of law in capitalist society, Marxist historiography, history and psychoanalysis, the literary writing of history, and more) will be discussed.

HIST 489D1 Topics: Germany 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 489D2 Topics: Germany 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Peter Hoffmann

HIST 490D1 Honours Tutorial 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 490D2 Honours Tutorial 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

with a Faculty member as supervisor An option if you would like to do independent research.  In order for this course to count as a required full-year honours seminar, you must find a supervisor within the History Dept. and then meet with your history honours program adviser for approval.

HIST 493D1 Topics:Canadian Social History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 493D2 Topics:Canadian Social History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Suzanne Morton

Topics: Social History and the Environment (click for description)

This course explores the intersection of social history and the environment and allows students to work on a primary source-based paper related to this theme.  The readings will draw upon both US and Canadian literature.


 

HIST 550 Ancient History: Seminar 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 551 Ancient History: Research 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Michael Fronda

Description (click for description)

This course examines the early phase of the political, economic and cultural integration of the peoples of Italian peninsula under Roman rule (c. 200-50 BC), through a selection of case studies and important literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological evidence. We will discuss and evaluate different approaches scholars have taken to the topic of Romanization. Particular emphasis will be placed on social rituals and political performances in reinforcing Roman power.

Note: this course is first part of a two-semester sequence (HIST 550-551). Completion of both courses counts as one History Honours Seminar. Registration is restricted to History and Classics Honour and Joint Honours program students or graduate students. Other advanced undergraduates may enroll only with permission of instructor.

HIST 565 Modern Britain: Seminar 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 566 Modern Britain: Seminar 2 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. J Elizabeth Elbourne

Topic: Slavery and Abolition in Britain and the British Empire (click for description)

Currently not available.

Note: this course is first part of a two-semester sequence (HIST 565-566). Completion of both courses counts as a full-year Honours Seminar. Registration is restricted to History Honours and Joint Honours program students or graduate students. Other advanced undergraduates may enroll only with permission of instructor.

HIST 591D1 Modern Middle East History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 591D2 Modern Middle East History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Laila Parsons

Description (click for description)

This course is designed for history honors students but also open to other advanced students with the permission of the instructor. The course will focus on the ways that the people of the Middle East resisted British and French colonial rule in the early 20th Century. In addition to those who fought in the armed rebellions in Syria (1925-1927), Palestine (1936-1939), and Algeria (1954-1962), the course will focus on intellectuals, religious leaders, and political elites, and on the various ways--private and public--that these men and women tried to confront the overwhelming force of colonial power. Sources will include archival documents, memoirs, novels, and film.

HIST 593D1 French Atlantic Worlds:Seminar 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 593D2 French Atlantic Worlds:Seminar 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Nicholas Dew

HIST 597D1 Seminar: Modern Europe 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

HIST 597D2 Seminar: Modern Europe 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Prof. Judith E. Szapor

Course Oultine:  hist597d_fall2013winter2014_szapor.pdf

Topic: The Intellectual Migration, 1919-1946 (click for description)

The course provides an overview of the forced migration of intellectuals, artists, and ideas from Hitler’s Europe during the interwar and WWII periods. It was a refugee wave unique in its scale and impact on the intellectual life of the host countries, in particular the United States. We will highlight specific cultural fields – among them Bauhaus architecture, nuclear physics, psychoanalysis, Hollywood film, and history - in which the refugees made particularly significant contributions. We will explore the refugee experience, shaped by age, gender, class and nationality and assess the dynamics of cultural transfer in this unprecedented movement of people and ideas.

Note: This course replaced HIST 470D1/D2.

Fall Term 2013 History Courses

 

HIST 193 FYS: Topics in History - - ***COURSE CANCELLED***
[Please check for HIST 198 FYS: Nation and National Building to be added to the Winter 2014 term]

HIST 197 FYS: Race in Latin America 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Catherine LeGrand [Note: open only to students in their first year of study]

Topics: Race in Latin America (click for description)

This course has a double purpose: first, to explore the history of people of African and, to a lesser extent, native Indian descent in Latin America; and, second, to analyse how concepts of race and ethnicity shaped colonialism, social organization, visions of the nation, and social movements.  We will devote particular attention to Brazil and the Caribbean, with some readings on Mexico, Guatemala, and the Andes as well.  We will also, at times, compare race relations in Latin America to the United States and/or Canada.

Course outline:  hist197_fall2013_legrand.pdf

HIST 200 Intro to African History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Rachel Sandwell

HIST 202 Survey: Canada to 1867 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Elsbeth Heaman

Course outline:  hist202_fall2013_heaman.pdf

HIST 205 Ancient Mediterranean History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Prof. John Serrati

HIST 208 Intro to East Asian History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen

HIST 211 American History to 1865 -  ***CANCELLED***  Please see other options for American history courses that were recently added - HIST 311, HIST 351 in fall 2013 and HIST 327 in winter 2014

HIST 214 Intro to European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Matthew M. Milner
HIST 216 History of Russia to 1801 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

CANCELLED

HIST 219 Jewish History: 1000-2000 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Daniel Heller

HIST 226 E Central &SE Europe in 20th C 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. James Krapfl

HIST 249 Health&the Healer in West Hist 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Faith Wallis and Prof. Thomas Schlich

Course Outline:  hist249_fall2013_wallis-schlich.pdf

HIST 304 IR History 2: Cold War 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Lorenz Lüthi

Course Outline:hist_304_fall2013luthi.pdf

Description (click for description)

‘History of International Relations,’ part 2, draws on the new historiography and on newly accessible archival materials from the former East Bloc. You will be exposed to the different viewpoints and experiences of multiple Cold War participants. Given the size of the topic, the course will focus on North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. This is an intellectually challenging course.

If you are a U0 or U1 student and you have not had any other HIST 300-level class, this course may be too difficult for you.

HIST 309 Hist of Latin America to 1825 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

HIST 311 Gilded Age&Progressive Era 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Shanon Fitzpatrick

HIST 315 Themes in World History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jason Szabo Section 001  -  Topic: "The AIDS pandemic - taking the long view"
HIST 315 Themes in World History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  Prof. Subho Basu

[revised - July 3 - Course CANCELLED for Fall 2013 and will be offered in Winter 2014]

HIST 319 The Scientific Revolution 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Nicholas Dew

HIST 320 European Thought and Culture 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Hellman

Course Outline:  hist320_fall2013_hellman.pdf

HIST 323 History and Sexuality 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Nancy Partner

HIST 328 The Qing Empire 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Johanna Ransmeier

HIST 331 The U.S. Between the Wars 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

CANCELLED

HIST 335 Science and Medicine in Canada 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. David Wright

HIST 339 Arab-Israeli Conflict 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: Julie M. Norman
HIST 341 Themes in South Asian History  - Prof. Subho Basu

*****THIS IS A NEW COURSE - will be added to Minerva soon*****

Making of Modern India (1526-1947) (click for description)

This course surveys some major themes and events in the history of Indian subcontinent since the sixteenth century. Thematically, it explores the making of modern Indian subcontinent in the course of interaction with colonial modernity and the birth of organized nationalist movement. Chronologically, it surveys the history of Indian subcontinent from the inception of colonial rule in the late eighteenth century to the establishment of independent nation states of India and Pakistan in the middle of the twentieth century.

The course is necessarily selective as to the subject, period and region, but hopes to provide a good understanding of modern South Asian history as basis for more advanced study, and as a training in historical methods. Students will be asked to consider a range of historical controversies, demonstrating the perpetual disagreements of historians, but also the need to understand historical techniques and to develop skills of historical judgments.

The reading is illustrative but not exhaustive. It is not a list of set readings. The list of introductory works gives students a choice of books to study (and possibly buy) so as to obtain an overview and to follow lectures and contribute to class discussions. The reading assignments are an initial guide to help in the search for materials related to the topics within the course which individuals will study in detail- such research develops some of the important historical skills. Additional advice will be given in discussion classes and lectures.

HIST 349 Greece: From Ottoman to the EU 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Anastassios Anastassiadis

Description (click for description)

Why has a tiny 10 million people state been capturing the world’s headlines during the last three years within the context of one of the most severe economic crisis of our times?

Trying to tackle this question, this course has a two-fold objective.

First of all, it examines the main aspects and events in political, economic, social and cultural history, which shaped the formation of Modern Greece and Greeks. Adopting a longue durée perspective, it will kick off during the 18th c. We will explore life in the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent emergence and development of a new national state from the status of a component of a multiethnic, albeit Islamic empire, to its present position of a full-fledged member of the world’s wealthiest association of states, i.e. the European Union. On the other hand, this course situates Greece within the broader European evolution in terms of identity formation and state building by putting an emphasis on the importance of Greece's classical past for European identity when trying to identify the reasons for this state's disproportionate place in the news. In a way this is as much a European history of Greeks as it is a Greek history of Europe.

HIST 351 Themes in U.S. History s. 1865 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Shanon Fitzpatrick

Topics: American Mass Media (click for description)

This course surveys the history of American mass media in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to covering the rise of various communications technologies and genres within a specific national context, it also interrogates the relationship between media, culture, identity, and power. Topics discussed in this course include: dime novels and mass journalism, radio, the Hollywood Studio System, comics,  media globalization, and theories of cultural production and reception.

HIST 353 History of Montreal 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jarrett Rudy

HIST 358 Medieval to Early Modern China 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen (will only be offered in Fall term)

HIST 368 Greek Hist: Classical Period 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Hans Beck

HIST 380 Western Europe:The Middle Ages 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Faith Wallis

HIST 382 History of South Africa 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jon Soske

Description (click for description)

The story of South Africa has been told in many forms: a settler colonial myth of conquest and Christian triumph, a liberal tragedy of cultural mixing and racial conflict, an African nationalist saga of indigenous resistance passing into the struggle for freedom and nationhood, a Marxist epic of racial capitalism and class struggle, and a Black Consciousness vision of pride and self-reliance. To a certain degree, South African history is the history of these competing narratives. People’s belief in their ultimate truth has often driven the decisions of individuals and mass movements alike; ideologies like apartheid and non-racial nationalism existed as visions of history before they became political projects which would shape the lives of millions. This course will introduce students to the major historical events and socioeconomic forces—from slavery in the Cape colony to the “Mineral Revolution” of the late 19th century, from the rise of Afrikaner nationalism to the 1976 Soweto Uprising—that have shaped South African society since the mid 17th century. In doing so, it will focus on the ways in which these developments were understood and represented by contemporaries as well as their incorporation into the historical memory, and thus living politics, of later periods.

HIST 386 Twentieth-Century Britain 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Brian Lewis

HIST 387 The First World War 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Peter Hoffmann

HIST 393 Civil War & Reconstruction 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Leonard Moore

HIST 394 British Revolutions 1603-1714 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Brian Cowan

Course Outline:  hist394_fall2013_cowan.pdf

Description (click for description)

This course surveys British and Irish history during the revolutionary seventeenth century.  We will focus on the origins and consequences of the British and Irish civil wars and revolutions of the 1640-50s and the 1680-90s.  The politics of the period will be approached from a variety of perspectives, including social, intellectual, economic and religious history.
A basic familiarity with early modern history is assumed, and some previous coursework in European history (either at the university or CGEP level) is a prerequisite.

HIST 399 History and Historical Methods 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jon D. Soske [required course for honours students]

HIST 403 History of Quebec Institutions 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jarrett Rudy

HIST 405 European Cultural History 1 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. John Hellman

Course Outline:  ist405_fall2013_hellman.pdf

HIST 407 Topics in Ancient History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Michael Fronda

Topic: Hannibal’s War (click for description)

The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) was one of the pivotal events in Roman history. Hannibal’s invasion of Italy and his string of battlefield victories pushed Rome to the brink of surrender, but after years of struggle and setbacks, the Romans prevailed and went onto become the dominant power in the Mediterranean. This course provides a detailed analysis of the war. We will examine the causes of the conflict, and how and why the Romans won.

Prerequisites: HIST 391 recommended.

HIST 411 African Intellectual History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Jon Soske (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

*****THIS IS A NEW COURSE*****

Topic: Frantz Fanon (click for description)

When the anti-colonial revolutionary and political philosopher Frantz Fanon died in December 1961, his writings were only known among a section of the French intelligentsia and Algerian militants. Today, Fanon is one of the most widely read and discussed intellectuals in the post-colonial world, and his works are at the centre of debates over resistance politics, revolutionary violence, neocolonialism, identity and selfhood, Third World culture, and the project of a new Global South. While the course will concentrate on his two most important books (Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth), we will read all of Fanon's published intellectual work, including his articles for the Algerian revolutionary journal El Moudjahid and his technical reports in medical journals. We will also discuss seminal texts from the intellectual traditions that influenced Fanon or his contemporaries, including phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis, négritude, pan-Africanism, and Islamic political philosophy. Particular attentions will be given to Fanon's interlocutors throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the political context of decolonization.

In addition to Fanon’s writings, course readings will include texts by Aimé Césaire, Huey Newton, Amilcar Cabral, Mahmoud Darwish, Sayyid Qutb, Ali Shariati, Jean-Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, Chandra Mohanty, and Saba Mahmood.

HIST 413 Independent Research 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

- various supervisors

HIST 414 Canadian Cultural History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Elsbeth Heaman

Course Outline:  hist414_fall_2013_heaman.pdf

HIST 419 Central America 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Catherine LeGrand

Description (click for description)

This course focuses on the Central American crisis of the 1980s and its historical roots, especially in the countries of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.  In seeking perspective, we shall trace the evolution of the economic, social, and political conditions of the Central American countries, devoting particular attention to agrarian and ethnic questions, the Church, the military, foreign intervention and nation-building.  An effort will be made to situate the history of Central America within the broader Latin American context.  Furthermore, we will attempt to use what we learn of the Central American situation to develop analytical perspectives for the study of political upheaval and social change in the global South.

Course Outline:  hist419a_fall2013_legrand.pdf

HIST 426 Topics: British Cultural Hist - [revised April 3 - will not be offered]

HIST 435 Topics in South Asian History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Basu Subho (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

*****THIS IS A NEW COURSE*****

Topics: Partition and Indian Films (click for description)

The partition of India in 1947 not only led to the birth of two independent republics of India and Pakistan but also caused exodus of millions of people across the new borders of nation sates. Rival nationalist movements, informed by deep religious sensitivities drawing upon Muslim and Hindu traditions of the subcontinent, clashed with each other at the time of British imperial retreat from South Asia in 1947. As colonial political elites drew the boundaries of new nations states in the summer of 1947 in a rather hasty manner, riots flared in different corners of the subcontinent and ethnic cleansing began in full swing rendering millions homeless. People left their homes and possessions and crossed the border in order to evade being trapped in wrong nations. This overwhelming tragic saga of religious conflicts, nationalist mobilizations and plight of refugees, came to constitute a critical aspect of politics and social life in independent India and   informed popular culture in various ways.

This course explores the representation of religious conflicts, mass exodus and refugee lives in India in films. While official narratives of the Partition provide politically charged stories of nationalism, films locate stories within the context of families and provide a human dimension to the political process. Questions we will investigate include: how did religious group identities evolve in South Asia historically? Was the partition conflict simply about religion? In what ways did movies locate the implication of partition within the framework of family tragedy? In what ways did gender play a central role in the Partition process? How did the micro details of family tragedies reflect the story of nation formation from the perspective of women and refugees? How did movies create ideas of popular histories of religious conflict, partition and the struggle for survival from margins?          

HIST 436 Topics: European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Brian Cowan

Course Outline:  hist436_fall2013_cowan.pdf

Topic: Cafés and Coffeehouses (click for description)

This seminar is devoted to the history of the coffeehouse in Europe and the wider European world from the opening of the first coffeehouses in mid-sixteenth-century Istanbul until the present day. In so doing, it will also engage with larger arguments about the development of a modern consumer society and the new forms of public association and communication often described as the bourgeois public sphere.
Particular attention will be devoted to the putative ‘golden age’ of coffeehouse culture in the early modern era, but we will also study some transformations.

HIST 436 Topics: European History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Anastassios Anastassiadis (***RECENTLY ADDED***)

Topics: The Modern construction of Antiquity: Archeology, Museums, Tourism and the (ab)use of the past (click for description)

Who owns Classical Antiquity? Academics, dilettante antiquarians or “the public”? Do monuments and ideas belong to States or Humanity as a whole? Why have Classics been such an important aspect of modern academia and what explains their decline today? Why has the classical past fascinated so many people, been reinterpreted so many times and given rise to so many public uses and, one is tempted to say, abuses (ex. the Nazis and the Olympic Games)? What is the connection between archaeology, colonialism, nationalism? Why do people are ready to travel far away, engage in a costly voyage and spend so much time under the burning sun just to see ruins?

This course will address all these issues. It will examine the evolution of the interest in and study of Classical Antiquity from the 18th c. to nowadays through the simultaneous and intertwined processes of the progressive professionalization of history and archaeology as academic disciplines, the emergence of nationalism and the nation-states, the transformation of cultural practices from the Grand Tour to the modern museum and mass tourism.

HIST 438 Topics in Cold War History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Lorenz Lüthi

Course Outline:  hist438_fall2013_luthi.pdf

Description (click for description)

This is a seminar on the international history of the Vietnam Wars.  It draws heavily on the new historiography that has emerged in the last fifteen years and is based on newly declassified documents from Vietnam, China, Russia, the former socialist camp, and the western world.  You will be exposed to the viewpoints of the many participants in the conflict.

If you are a U0 or U1 student, this course is too difficult for you.  U0 and U1 students must get special approval from the instructor to take the course!

HIST 451 The Ancient Mediterranean City 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Hans Beck

HIST 453 Hist. of Revolution in Europe 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. James Krapfl

HIST 456 Russn Intellec Hist 1825-1917 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Dr. Katrin Bozeva-Abazi

(***RECENTLY ADDED***)

Topic: 19th century Russian cultural, intellectual and literary history (click for description)

The course will analyze Russian conservatism under Alexander and Nicholas I, the theatricality of polite society, card playing, dueling, romantic nationalism, the way imperial authorities tried to legitimize the exercise of force by securing consent through education and the fin-de-siècle impulses to anarchism and radical social change. It presents the Russian Empire as a place of "alternative" morality and examines various approaches to Russian thought and literature from Chaadaev and Pushkin to Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Berdyaev, Shestov and Rozanov. The last four lectures will discuss the rise of Marxism, Lenin's contribution to revolutionary theory and how the Great War distilled the views of the left opposition and accelerated the end of the monarchy.

HIST 457 Topics in Medical History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Andrea Tone

HIST 499 Internship: History 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Instructor: tba

Note: Department approval required

One-term (3-credit) Undergraduate/Graduate Seminars

HIST 528 Indian Ocean World Slave Trade 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Gwyn Campbell

HIST 581 The Art of War in China 3 Credits
    Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

Prof. Robin Yates

Description (click for description)

In this course, we will study certain aspects of the historical development of military theory and practice in China from earliest times to the twentieth century from a variety of perspectives, historical, technological, scientific, social, and cultural.  Since China’s military experience has been generally ignored in world histories of war, and ignored by historians of China, who have privileged other issues and aspects of the past, this course will expose the student to the rich variety of problems in Chinese military theory and practice.  These are only now beginning to receive from scholars both inside and outside China the attention they deserve.  As the subject is so vast, and since class time is so limited, not all topics can be covered during the course of the term.  For their research papers, students are encouraged to explore such omitted topics or to examine topics covered in class in greater depth.