History of Modern Japan
HIST-G369 with Professor O'Bryan
While we hear much these days about the rising influence of China and India, Japan remains an Asian nation with a particular power to fascinate--and at times, to alarm--Americans. The economy of Japan is still the third largest in the world after that of the United States and China and its cultural products now boast the kind of cool cachet around the world that once was solely associated with Hollywood and the culture industries of the United States.
We will study the history of modern Japan from the beginning of the nineteenth century, through the Meiji Revolution that ended the era of the samurai and on to the present. We learn about the early creation of a constitutional monarchy (democracy!), the building of Japanese empire, the rise of industrial capitalism, and Japan’s role in World War II. There will also be strong emphasis the dynamism of Japanese cultural history after WWII, including film, art, and what’s advertised as the Japanese “love of nature.” Throughout, we will understand Japanese experience not as an exotic one lying outside the main currents of history in America or Europe, but as part of the larger history of modernity everywhere
- MW 8:00 AM-9:15 AM
- 2nd 8 weeks
- Fulfills CASE S&H
Histories of Violence in Native America
HIST-J300 with Professor Black
This course will introduce students to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The content of this course could be triggering. Students will learn about the crisis by delving into the data about the crisis and the causes: the policing of Native America; the erosion of tribal sovereignty; the forced sterilization of Native women; and Native family separation policies.
- MW 4:45 - 7:00 PM
- 2nd 8 weeks
- COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
- COLL INTENSIVE WRITING
Modern Ukraine
HIST-D320 with Professor Saburova
It is Ukraine, not the Ukraine! What do you know about the country that has been on the front pages since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine? Why did Putin want Ukraine and how did he distort history to contest Ukrainian statehood? We will explore the history of Ukraine, the second largest sovereign state in Europe, learning about its geography and people, times of political turmoil, wars, and nation-building. We examine how the history of Ukraine was entangled with that of Poland, Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, and look at twentieth century history through the prism of Ukraine, from a Soviet republic to an independent state, from the Orange Revolution to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidency. But our course is not a simple linear narrative, we will explore the Ukrainian past through the history and culture of different places, “traveling” to Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Odesa, Mariupol, Lviv, and Sevastopol, to hear the voices of people and see history in these cities.
- MW 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
- Fulfills CASE GCC, CASE S&H
Russian Revolution of 1917
HIST-J300 with Professor Bruno
After two and a half years of bloody and exhausting war, one of Europe’s largest empires dramatically fell. The collapse of the Russian monarchy in February 1917 quickly precipitated a series of events that led to the formation of the world’s first communist government. The Bolsheviks came to power in a maelstrom of war, social strife, protest, plots, intrigues, and a changing global political order. Their tumultuous experience in attempting to create a workers’ state helped define the terms of political debate worldwide in the twentieth century. Participants, observers, and historians have understood the Russian Revolution in multiple and contradictory ways. This course will investigate some of these varied understandings and seek to make our own sense of the revolution.
- TR 9:45 - 11:00 AM
- COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
- College Intensive Writing
American History II 1865-present
HIST-H106 with Professor Ortega
Amid the debates on what constitutes U.S. history and what should be taught—students, instructors, and learning institutions—have grappled with the social, cultural, political, and economic events that have shaped U.S. history since the late nineteenth century. Major events and figures will be examined in relation to the lives of people of color, immigrants, women, and the working class. As this course engages contemporary events, I invite students to approach history as a dynamic relationship between the past and the present. The central purpose of this course is to encourage informed, thoughtful, and critical perspectives on the U.S. experience as encountered by diverse groups of people.
The College of Arts + Sciences