Lower-Division

Surveys the rise of complex societies: the formation of classical civilizations in Afroeurasia and the Americas, post-classical empires and cross-cultural exchange, technology and environmental change, the Mongol Empire, and oceanic voyages and the origins of the modern world.

Examines major world issues over the past 500 years. Topics include European expansion and colonialism, the Muslim empires, East Asia from Ming to Qing, the Americas, Africa, the scientific-technological revolution, decolonization, and modern environmental problems. Designed primarily for first- and second-year students, it provides a time frame for understanding events within a global framework.

This course answers big questions about the present state of the world by excavating their historical development. Each year, instructors identify four new contemporary questions to explore through lecture, podcasts, readings, and videos. Students learn historical methodologies, including gathering and evaluating evidence, and developing compelling arguments and narratives. Students use these skills to investigate questions that matter to them through a collaborative research project, learning that everything has a history, including the issues grabbing our attention right now.

Christianity from its origins as a Jewish messianic movement, its expansion in multiple forms in the Greco-Roman world and the East, to its transformation into the major religion of the Roman and Byzantine empires. (Formerly offered as Early Christianity: First to Fourth Century A.D.)

The Bible is a sacred text for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It is also a cultural artifact of human history, preserving ancient debates about political and religious identity, slavery and immigration, sexual ethics, and environmental stewardship. What can we know about the Bible's origins and interpretations, the relationships between its texts and others, and the people who wrote it? Course introduces the history and literature of the Bible through close readings of famous portions in a manner that introduces literary-critical methodologies for the study of religion.

The phrase "Religions of Abraham" describes three religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—that claim Abraham as chief patriarch. This course examines the formation of these diverse traditions chiefly through primary source material: literature, letters, and legal documents. The historical period of the ancient Near East from the height of the Babylonian Empire to the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate is covered, while students also learn about the variety of beliefs, texts, and practices that comprise these vibrant world religions.

Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Native American Studies and the Indigenous experience. Topics include: history of United States-Indian relations; colonialism; sovereignty; identity; representation of Native Americans in popular culture; and contemporary efforts toward decolonization in indigenous communities.

Spring

Focuses on the building of British American colonies and the establishment, disintegration, and reconstruction of the nation with an emphasis on how class, race, ethnicity, and gender impacted colonial development and structured the nation's agenda and the definition of citizenship.

Surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the United States from 1877 to 1977. Focuses on national politics with emphasis on how class, race, ethnicity, and gender changed the nation's agenda.

Introduces the social, cultural, economic, and political history of the New World through a close examination of the process of European conquest in the 16th century and its consequences for both native and settler peoples. Medieval and Renaissance European and African backgrounds; Inca, Maya, Aztec, plains, woodland, and tropical rainforest native American societies; processes of military and cultural conquest; epidemics and ecological changes; native resistance and the establishment of the fundamental institutions of colonial society.

An introduction to the study of Latin American history from the Independence Wars in the early 19th century to the present. Topics include changing economic models of development, U.S. role, rural and urban life, women, nationalisms, populism, revolution, the military in politics, and the problem of democracy.

Introduces students to the history of U.S. Latinos drawing on the experience of Central Americans, people of Mexican descent, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Americans, and Cuban Americans. Emphasizes international processes that fundamentally shape U.S. Latino communities.

Introduction to the many communities found within the American religious landscape, balancing extraordinary diversity characterizing American pluralism against the dominant religious culture. Proceeds historically, engaging major problems and developments including utopianism, the rise of evangelicalism, religion and reform, manifest destiny, secularization and modernity, and the intersection of politics and religion.

Takes students through five critical moments in United States history: the American Revolution, the Civil War, the New Deal, the Civil Rights era, and the years following the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Designed for non-majors.

Focuses on the development of popular music genres in the United States and the social contexts that have produced them, from the 19th Century to the present. Promotes an understanding of how music influences and reflects our political lives.

Examines the loss and reassumption of local and state autonomy in Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries. Delineates the modalities of the colonial state and society, modes of resistance to alien occupation, and the deformation of social, class, and gender relations.

Introduces students to African History, from the very beginning of Homo sapiens to the dawn of European colonialism across the continent. In this long journey, we are guided by the contributions brought by Africanist historiography to history as a field of knowledge and to the public debate. Course considers the way we think of history, how it impacts non-Western societies, and how learning about the African past enables us to better understand the historical roots of our time. To achieve this, course looks attentively at African societies from within.

Introduces the History of Islam, its spread over Africa, and the role of the African diaspora in making Islam a global religion. Course delves into the role of African and African diasporic communities in globalizing Islam, and considers the relationship between Islam and local cultures to understand how religious unity and cultural diversity within Islam interact. It also aims to develop tools to interpret how race and ethnicity have been used by and applied to African Muslims within the global Muslim community.

Familiarizes undergraduates with environmental history as a discipline, as well as introduce them to the early modern period and the Atlantic World as a region of study by focusing on themes such as climate shifts and crises, the spread of epidemic disease, and the relationship between the environment and colonialism. Course does not assume previous experience with history courses and is intended to be a broad survey encompassing several regions of study. It is arranged both thematically and geographically and emphasizes environmental change throughout the early modern period to give a broad geographical overview of major environmental topics during the 15th through 18th centuries.

Study of modern Japanese history from the late Edo period to the present day. Examines the cultural lives of monsters and transformations in meaning through major events in Japanese history. Examines the intellectual, cultural, and social histories of monsters and their entanglement with the emergence of science and folklore; the formation of the nation-state; racism, politics, and war; urbanization and kinship structures; and capitalism and virtual worlds.

Course stretches students' reflections on the nature of Christian mission and the work of missionaries, their imbroglio with and involvement in state and society, and how historical sourcing may impact the way we see things, lives, and our past. Begins in the 1st century BCE where Christianity emerged in West Asia and is organized chronologically through the 21st century. Course examines Christianity's expansion and external power and the competing views of it as rebellious, revolutionary and justice-oriented momentum versus a repressive conversion institution working politically, militarily, and economically. Also examines how the perception and strategy of Christian mission changed in time, region, groups, and individual missionaries, and how Christian mission, as a power, contributed to the regional and global changes.

Introduces the methodology of oral history as well as its varying applications for the public humanities. Students learn about the ethical, practical, and methodological strategies for creating an oral history project, as well as initiate at least their first interview by the end of the course.

Survey of U.S. military bases and influence in the Asia Pacific Region since the end of the Second World War. Using the geographic scope of PACOM (Pacific Command), the course covers an area including Japan, Guam, Hawai’i, and Korea. Despite the failure of President Obama’s “Pivot to the Pacific” campaign, there remains a long history of U.S. presence in and across the Pacific Ocean; sometimes this presence is in the form of U.S. soldiers stationed on bases abroad, sometimes this presence is landscape altering in the form of nuclear testing. Students are introduced to key themes in the creation of “America’s Lake,” as well as movements of resistance against the U.S. empire.

Surveys the history of East Asia from 1500 to 1894. Covers political, social, economic, and cultural histories of China, Japan, and Korea with the goal of perceiving a regional history that encompassed each society.

A broad introductory survey of the political, social, economic, philosophical, and religious heritage of modern China, Japan, and Korea. Emphasis on the historical foundations of modern nationalism, the colonial experience, and revolutionary movements.

History of the modern Middle East from 1800 to the present, with special reference to the 20th century and forces which have shaped the area. The impact of imperialism, nationalism, and revolution in the area, with particular attention to the history of four countries: Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Israel.

Provides an introductory survey of South Asian history and society from the beginning of the 16th Century until the dawn of the 21st Century. Students gain an understanding of major events and long transformations in society, economy, culture, and politics.

Introduces the political and social history of ancient Egyptian civilization from the Predynasitic through the end of the Pharaonic period. (Formerly Pyramids and Papyrus: the History of Ancient Egypt.)

Investigates the use of the pyramid architectural form in ancient societies across the globe, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Americas, and Southeast Asia. The social, political, and religious motivation for building pyramids is explored.

Covers the history of the Mediterranean from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present. It focuses on the role of empire in shaping patterns of economic and cultural exchange.

Students acquire an understanding of the history of the development of the English language, from its origins to present, and engage critically with the quantitative evidence for that history, using accessible online databases and digital texts.

Trains students in the principals that will help them make sense of Greco-Latin scientific and technical vocabulary. Introduces Greco-Roman natural philosophy and its general cultural context, and explains the historical relationship of that tradition to the emergence of modern European experimental science and technology. (Formerly Scientific Vocabulary and the Roots of the European Scientific Tradition.)

Introduces the philosophy of myth, and surveys classical Greek mythology. Students explore the mythic mode of thinking and its distinguishing characteristics as well as the repertoire of Greek myths and their cultural contexts.

An overview of Greek history from the beginnings through the Hellenistic period, with emphasis on the Archaic and Classical periods (ca. 800 B.C. through 323 B.C.).

A lecture course offering an overview of Roman history and civilization from the legendary founding of Rome in 753 B.C. to the collapse of the Roman Empire's central administration in the West in 476 A.D.

Reviews major social, political, economic, and cultural developments in Europe from 1000 to 1500 and themes including gender, warfare, ethnicity and religion, through primary sources and secondary readings. Primary focus is Western Europe: England, France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries, and Italy. (Formerly Europe, 1000-1500.)

Surveys the economic, social, cultural, and political history of Europe since the late 15th century: 1500-1815. Course 70A is not a prerequisite to course 70B.

Surveys the political, social, and cultural history of Europe from the era of the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the second millennium. Course 70A is not prerequisite to 70B.

Surveys 3,000 years of Jewish history. Themes include origins of the Jews in the ancient world, formation and persistence of the Jewish diaspora, coherence and diversity of Jewish experience, Jewish narrative and textual traditions, interaction between Jews and other cultures, productive tensions between tradition and modernity in Jewish history and literature.

Popular media present Muslims and Jews as age-old enemies; this is far from the truth. Through primary sources, secondary texts, and films, students examine this fraught and politicized history, challenging conventional narratives of the region and its Jewish population.

Surveys modern Jewish history from Morocco to Iran, 1500-2000. Studying these populations through original documents, scholarly works, and literature imparts a unique perspective on both modern Jewish history and that of the region, challenging and complementing standard narratives of each.

Examines a series of distinguished documentary and feature films about the destruction of European Jewry. Each film is placed in its historical context, and wherever possible, the readings include the original documents on which films were based. Emphasis is placed on the strategies the filmmakers used to address the problem of representing genocide without succumbing to mere melodrama.

Investigates the genocide of the Jews from 1933 to 1945 within its broader historical context, including anti-Semitism, the Great Depression, Nazi-Soviet relations, and World War II. Examines how the Holocaust unfolded in Europe as well as its impact on Jews in North Africa and the Middle East. (Formerly The Holocaust.)

Examines modern authoritarianism and mass dictatorship as distinct political forms that promote and draw their strength from popular support and mobilization. Students study how non-democratic leaders are able to attain, exercise, perpetuate, and misuse their power.

Introductory and collaborative history course that examines the social dimensions of globalization through a focus on China since 1500. Asking how China shaped and was shaped by interactions with major world regions—Europe, the Americas, and Asia—course discusses how networks of trade, imperialism, revolutions, migration, popular culture, and capitalism created significant global conjunctures and interdependencies with lasting impact. In addition, course offers instruction on how to collaborate with others effectively to achieve common goals. Students apply knowledge and techniques learned to a series of group projects.

Introduction to modern East Asian history, with a specific focus on the nations of China, Japan, and Korea. Students investigate major historical questions about modernity, imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, gender, and labor from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. This course is also designed to explore contemporary media, looking at how visual reproductions become instruments to remember the past. Through the exercise of visualizing East Asian history, the course aims to help students make critical assessments of mass media information on East Asia available to the American public.

The civil rights movement of the 1950s-60s was one of the most important grassroots social movements in American history. Course examines this movement and its effects on American society, focusing especially on the experiences of rank-and-file participants.

Examines how the meaning of such issues as war origins, war responsibility, the atomic bomb, reparations, and racism have been subjects of contention in postwar U.S. and Japan. Students explore the relations between history, memory, and contemporary politics.

Introduces students to the history of science in colonized lands. Covers topics such as natural history collecting, medicine, bodily experimentation, botanical gardens, healing plants, and agriculture. Students learn about local colonial scientific production and anti-colonial resistance by focusing on case studies from Southeast Asia, with supplemental readings on colonial Caribbean, Latin American, and North African sites, as well as present-day North American indigenous territories. Students also investigate the possibilities for decolonizing science itself.

Course seeks to reframe a paradigmatic event in the history of California and the United States as an event in global history. Rather than assume the spatial and temporal boundaries of the Gold Rush, students explore different possible answers to the questions of where and when the Gold Rush happened, why it matters, and for whom. Students retrace connections and make comparisons between events in California and other places that often fall beyond the purview of "California History" as conventionally understood. (Formerly Global History of the California Gold Rush.)

Examines the history of nuclear weapons development, nuclear weapons use, nuclear testing, and nuclear power in the Pacific region from 1942 to the present. Students do research on nuclear science, medicine, energy, and weapons testing and their social, political, demographic, and environmental impacts.

Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.