Fall 2019 Graduate Courses

(Tentative schedule; subject to change)

Course No. & Name Professor/Lecturer Day/Time Course Description
HIST 200J – Advanced Historiography: Near East: What Historians Do James Gelvin W 2-4:50 This course examines the methods that historians have used since the 1970s to understand the history of the modern Middle East. Among the topics considered: Orientalism, the study of religion, social history, cultural history, gender, political economy, and the influence of Weber, Marx, Gramsci, Hobsbawm, E.P. Thompson, and others.
HIST 200O – Advanced Historiography: Science/Technology Soraya De Chadarevian T 3-5:50 The course provides an introduction to the history and historiography of science, technology and medicine from around 1800. The way we understand science, technology and medicine changes how we study these subjects historically. Scientific and historical trends, as well as changing conceptions of the archive and its accessibility, also play a role. We will discuss various approaches to the history of science – from an understanding of science as cultural practice to the challenges of studying recent science. We will study the changing relationships between the history of science, technology and medicine and the exchanges with other fields such as anthropology, gender studies, postcolonial studies, visual studies and history more generally. We will also consider the role of the historian and the place of critique and political and moral responsibility in historical work. The sessions are organized thematically. The readings represent methodological approaches while engaging with a broad range of historical material. Besides introducing you to current debates in the history of science, technology and medicine, the course aims to sharpen your scholarly reading and writing skills.
HIST 201I – Topics in History: Latin America William Summerhill M 2-4:50 Seminar, three hours. Graduate course involving reading, lecturing, and discussion of selected topics. May be repeated for credit. When concurrently scheduled with course 191, undergraduates must obtain consent of instructor to enroll. S/U or letter grading.
HIST 201L – Topics in History: China: Gender & Sexuality in Early Modern and Modern China Andrea Goldman R 1-3:50 This course offers an overview of the study of gender and sexuality in early modern and modern China. We will read many of the major scholarly contributions to the field. Some of the themes that will be explored include: gender and the state, social constructions of gender (including femininities and masculinities), prostitution, sexuality and literary representation, and the body in text and practice.
HIST C201W – Topics in History: World: Genocide in World History: Case Studies and Historical Methods Benjamin Madley M 2-4:50 The mass murder of specific populations is a recurring theme in world history. In this seminar, you will examine the phenomenon of genocide through readings, discussions, the writing of a book review, a presentation, and the creation of a historiography or research paper. We will first consider definitions before addressing how to write an essay about genocide. During the following weeks, we will examine genocides in the United States, California, the Ottoman Empire, Europe, the Soviet Union, and East Timor. Our discussions of these cases will reference genocidal intent, motives, ideologies, rationality/irrationality, legal frameworks, killing processes, resistance, survival, post-genocidal justice, and memory as well as genocide detection, prevention, and intervention. We will also address six questions at the heart of genocide studies. First, what is genocide? Second, why does it happen? Third, why do people participate and do they have a choice? Fourth, why does it take distinctive forms? Fifth, how and why do genocides end? And, finally, how does one write genocide history?

This seminar also aims to nurture and develop your skills as a historian. You will read and distill arguments in monographs, critically analyze arguments and sources, discuss and write historiography, compose a scholarly book review, make a presentation, and construct historical arguments using primary and secondary sources.

Together we will examine how scholars craft theses, build narratives, use sources, and engage in scholarly debate. Genocide Studies is inherently interdisciplinary. Thus, we will read the works of historians as well as scholars from other disciplines. Readings, discussions, book reviews, and meetings with genocide scholars will prepare you to write your own historiography or research paper that you will submit in drafts as you write. You will also edit your classmates’ papers. Meanwhile, I will edit and return each assignment in order to help you with your writing.
HIST 204A – Departmental Seminar: Approaches, Methods, Debates, Practices Katsuya Hirano F 2-4:50 Introduction to range of important methodological approaches and theoretical debates about writing of history that are influential across fields, geographical contexts, and temporal periods to stimulate conversation and connection across fields, inviting students to think collectively and expansively about study and praxis of history.
HIST 213A – History of Women, Men, Sexuality Katherine Marino W 2-4:50 Seminar, three hours. Readings include historiography and theory, as well as classic and new historical studies drawn widely from U.S., European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Asian history to have diversity of interests and perspectives represented and discussed. S/U or letter grading.
HIST 246A – Introduction to U.S. History: Colonial Period Carla Pestana R 3-5:50 This reading course introduces students to the literature on early (British) North America, approximately 1580 to 1800. Recent literature considers themes of slavery, empire, and revolution, which topics will be highlighted in our reading.
HIST M256C – Political Economy of Race Peter Hudson T 11-1:50 Examination of historiography of history of capitalism and history of African diaspora, especially in their overlapping concerns with organization of race and racial states in contemporary world, development of modern imperialism–and emergence of global black resistance to both. Themes and topics considered may include capitalism and question of slavery; law, regulations, and legal pluralism in organization of markets and nations; uneven development and nature of black sovereignty; history of regimes of gender and sexuality in social and capital reproduction; modalities of capital accumulation and production of space; racial violence and territorial expansion; emancipation and growth of empire; history of finance capital and its discourses of debt; capitalism and history of anti-blackness; racism, neoliberalism, and governmentality; and emergence and content of black radical tradition and its critiques of racial capitalism.
275A – Colloquium: African History Andrew Apter T 2-4:50 (Formerly numbered 275.) Seminar, three hours. Designed for all entering and continuing graduate students in African history. Source identification, research methodologies, historiographical traditions, historical interpretation, approaches to teaching, and research design. Forum for critical discussion of dissertation prospectuses and work in progress. May be taken independently for credit. S/U or letter grading.