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Thematic History

HIST 375: Histories of Memories

This course will examine modern histories of memories in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the institutions and technologies that facilitate recall, such as museums, photography and film, print media and visual culture. We will focus on the moments of tension where history and memory appear to be at odds, where competing interests in the meanings of the past have created social conflict. Topics may include the aftermath of collective traumas (such as Sept. 11, 2001), genocide or war; the role of photographs, television and film in creating visually based memories of others¿ historical experiences; how institutions such as schools and museums, as well as memorial sites, contribute to the social construction of historical memories; or the course may focus on a single historical moment of memory crisis.
Course Credits
3

HIST 358: Natural History of Disasters

This one-semester, 3-unit undergraduate course examines the history of natural disasters. Earthquakes, storms, floods, fires, and droughts have all disrupted and transformed lives, environments, and societies. What defines a "natural" disaster? How have individuals, groups and nations understood and responded to these events? How have ideas about natural disasters changed over time? What are human responsibilities for natural disasters? Taking an environmental history approach, this course offers broadly based coverage of major topics in disaster studies, including cultural and political responses; disaster narratives and representations; changing scientific, technological and cultural interpretations of nature; memory and remembrances; impact of disasters on policy, economy, planning and society. We will explore and compare case studies through time and space. Throughout we will examine disasters as social, cultural and environmental phenomena, develop skills in analysis and interpretation, and consider the changing meanings of disasters.
Course Credits
3

HIST 356: Global Environmental History

This course will examine the ways in which different societies have defined, understood, valued, mapped, and made their livings in their environment. Also, it will explore how societies and environments mutually transform one another.
Course Credits
3

HIST 353: World History for Future Educators

This one-semester, 3-unit World History survey introduces History and Education majors to concepts, topics, and methods for teaching World and Comparative history at the appropriate level for K-12 students. The class covers the entire span of human history, from pre-history and antiquity to the medieval and early modern periods to the industrial revolution and the contemporary world. Topics include: the origins of complex human social and political organization; the history of transcontinental and transoceanic migrations; the development of agriculture and early city-states; regional histories and global economies; religion and the rise of early empires; modern state formation; and the cultural impact of technological innovation.
Course Credits
3

HIST 328: Cuisine, Culture, and Power

Physically, culturally, and socially, humans live through food and drink. Spanning the globe, as nearly limitless omnivores, humans have developed myriad ways of collecting and cultivating food and taking advantage of local environments. We also put food to work socially by creating cuisine. Through cuisine, humans have forged and nourished relationships, communed with deities, and through luxury choices, demonstrated "taste" and laid claim to status. Through the cultural practices of production and consumption of food and drink, individuals and groups have wielded power locally and globally. Food and drink consumption patterns have sustained slavery, poverty, malnutrition, and migration, and have laid waste to the environment. In this global history of food and cuisine, we will explore the physical, cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions of consumption and production and become more aware of how private, intimate acts connect us to the rest of humanity.
Course Credits
3

HIST 311: History of Epidemics

In the 14th century, an infectious disease that came to be known as the Black Death emerged in Asia and spread along trade routes to Europe, killing an estimated 60% of the population in about a year. Using the Black Death as a starting point, this course will examine the history of epidemics across the globe from 1350 to the present day using five case studies: Black Death (14th century); Smallpox (1775-82); Cholera (mid 19th century); Spanish Influenza (1918); and HIV/AIDS (1980s to the present). We will spend a significant amount of the course analyzing primary sources from those who witnessed epidemics, treated the sick, and lived and died during various epidemic outbreaks and attempted to understand them from a range of personal, literary, film, medical, media, museum, and public health perspectives. Over the course of the semester, we will analyze how epidemic and infectious diseases created historical watersheds that have shaped our world history socially, politically, environmentally, and economically to the present day. We will also examine human responses to epidemics in artistic, cultural, and intellectual realms, and the ways in which politicians, medical doctors, national and international bureaucracies, religious personnel, scholars, and everyday women and men debated their philosophical and moral implications. The final weeks of the course analyze contemporary "pandemic preparedness" policy and responses to health threats including vaccine controversies, ebola, and H1N1.

Course Credits
3

HIST 428: Food, Health, and Environment in History

Does food have a history? While seemingly a mundane aspect of everyday life, food has been central to cultural meaning, political conflict, religious life, and economic and social systems. Food has also been closely connected, both materially and in the realm of ideas, to bodily health and the natural environment, which will be the key themes of this course. Topics may include: the creation of the modern food system, the relationship between food production and landscape change, the shift from local to long-distance food procurement, the transformation of diet, the industrialization of agriculture, farm labor, the history of nutritional science and expert advice about what kinds of foods to eat, the development of global commodity chains, the environmental consequences of changes in the food system, the origins of public policy initiatives such as the school lunch and farm programs, and the rise of movements to challenge the conventional food system, such as vegetarianism, organic agriculture, and the local food movement. We will focus on historical experiences in their global and comparative context. Through this course, we will explore how a historical perspective can be insightful in understanding the food system.

Course Credits
3

HIST 310: The Black Death

A lecture course focusing on Europe in the age of bubonic plague (from 1348 to 1720), with emphasis on changes in climate, food supplies, public health, epidemic disease, demography, and economy. The last third of the course will be devoted to the religious and artistic responses to disaster.
Course Credits
3

HIST 271: The History of Christianity

This course examines the history of the great diversity of beliefs, practices, ways of life, and forms of authority among Christians, and especially conflicts about these. Not narrowly theological, the course construes Christianity broadly, treating, for example, society, culture, and art.
Course Credits
3
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