107 courses with the subject HIST, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
HIST 10004 Gandhi, Nationalism and Colonialism in India6
The struggle for independence from colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent involved a wide array of nationalist movements, prominently including the struggle led by M. K. Gandhi, who forged a movement centered on non-violence and civil disobedience which brought down the mighty British empire. We will study this alongside numerous other powerful nationalist currents, particularly those based on Islamic ideas and symbols. A significant part of the course will involve a historical role-playing game, Reacting to the Past: Defining a Nation, wherein students will take on roles of actual historical figures and recreate a twentieth century debate about religious identity and nation-building in the colonial context. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information. Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Asia HIST Modern Faculty: Brendan LaRocque
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HIST 111Uncharted Waters: The History of Society and the Sea6
This course introduces students to maritime history, marine environmental history, and issues in contemporary marine policy. While traditional histories have framed the sea as an empty space and obstacle to be traversed, or as a battleground, we will approach the ocean as a contact zone, a space of labor, and as the site of focused scientific research, thereby emphasizing human interaction with the oceans. We will examine how people have come to know, utilize, and govern the world’s oceans across time and space, and we will explore how this history informs contemporary issues in maritime law, governance, and ocean conservation. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Environment and Health Faculty: Antony Adler
Celebrated as the bedrock of democracy, freedom of expression is often seen as an American or western value. Yet the concept has a rich and global history. In this course we will track the long and turbulent history of freedom of expression from ancient Athens and medieval Islamic societies to the Enlightenment and the drive for censorship in totalitarian and colonial societies. Among the questions we will consider are: How have the parameters of free expression changed and developed over time? What is the relationship between free speech and political protest? How has free speech itself been weaponized? How does an understanding of the history of free speech help us think about the challenges of combating hatred and misinformation in today’s internet age? Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Modern Faculty: Amna Khalid
HIST 114Indigenous Histories, Time Immemorial to 18876
Indigenous presence in North America pre-dates the United States by millennia and persists in spite of colonial attempts to eliminate Indigenous peoples. As Part I of the Indigenous Histories in the United States survey, we begin with Indigenous Knowledges of place, time, and identity since time immemorial. We then move through thousands of years of stories of diplomacy, captivity, colonialism, resistance, removal, and reconstitution. We conclude in the mid-1880s, a drastic period of change for lands, humans, and more-than-human relations. This course takes an ethnohistorical approach which centers Indigenous perspectives and draws on History, Indigenous Studies, and Anthropology. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: ACE Applied AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level HIST Modern MARS Supporting AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States Faculty: Meredith McCoy
Gender, race, and class shaped women’s participation in the arenas of work, family life, culture, and politics in the United States from the colonial period to the late nineteenth century. We will examine diverse women’s experiences of colonization, industrialization, slavery and Reconstruction, religion, sexuality and reproduction, and social reform. Readings will include both primary and secondary sources, as well as historiographic articles outlining major frameworks and debates in the field of women’s history. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States Faculty: Annette Igra
In the twentieth century women participated in the redefinition of politics and the state, sexuality and family life, and work and leisure as the United States became a modern, largely urban society. We will explore how the dimensions of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality shaped diverse women’s experiences of these historical changes. Topics will include: immigration, the expansion of the welfare system and the consumer economy, labor force segmentation and the world wars, and women’s activism in civil rights, labor, peace and feminist movements. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level GWSS Elective HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States Faculty: Annette Igra
HIST 126Black Freedom: Reconstruction to #BlackLivesMatter6
This course analyzes Black Freedom activism, its goals, and protagonists from Reconstruction until today. Topics include the evolution of racial segregation and its legal and de facto expressions in the South and across the nation, the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance, Black activism in the New Deal era, the effects of World War II and the Cold War, mass activism in the 1950s and 1960s, white supremacist resistance against Black rights, Black Power activism and Black Internationalism, the “War on Drugs,” racialized welfare state reforms, and police brutality, the election of Barack Obama, and the path to #BlackLivesMatter today. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AFST Survey Course AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place AMST Survey 2 CL: 100 level HIST Modern AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST Africa & Its Diaspora HIST
Encounter, interaction, and communication across space and between cultures are fundamental parts of the human story yet are often marginalized when we use national, regional, or religious frameworks to shape our study. In this course, we will center our investigation of the medieval time period (roughly 500- 1500CE) on interactions among cultures and peoples across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. We will think comparatively about how peoples around the globe approached similar questions and problems and ask how a global approach helps improve our understanding of this dynamic and creative period. Extra time required for one field trip. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Ancient & Medieval MARS Supporting Faculty: Victoria Morse
In this course we will explore a variety of distinct but interconnected worlds that existed between ca.300 and ca.1050. We will interrogate primary sources, especially written and visual materials, as they bear witness to people forming and transforming political, social, religious, and cultural values, ideas and structures. We will work to understand how communities adapt to new conditions and challenges while maintaining links with and repurposing the lifeways, ideas, and material cultures of the past. We will watch as new and different groups and institutions come to power, and how the existing peoples and structures respond and change. Projects in this course will build capacity to interpret difficult primary documents, formulate research questions, and build arguments that combine rigor and humane sympathy. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
This course explores developments in European history in a global context from the final decade of the nineteenth century through to the present. We will focus on the impact of nationalism, war, and revolution on the everyday experiences of women and men, and also look more broadly on the chaotic economic, political, social, and cultural life of the period. Of particular interest will be the rise of fascism and communism, and the challenge to Western-style liberal democracy, followed by the Cold War and communism's collapse near the end of the century. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CCST Encounters CL: 100 level EUST Core Course FFST History and Art History FREN Pertinent HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: David Tompkins
HIST 145History of Computing in England Program: World War II History6
This course will consider the broad context of World War II, from the British perspective. Topics will include a variety of aspects of the British experience both at home and abroad, including military, political, and social; the course will include a number of excursions to relevant sites, including the Churchill War Rooms, Bletchley Park, and buildings damaged or destroyed in the Blitz. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: David Liben-Nowell
Japan’s age of warriors is often compared to the Middle Ages. Sandwiched between the court society and the shogunate, the warrior population in Japan is often compared to the vassals in feudalism. This course examines the evolution of the samurai from the late twelfth to the seventeenth century, with the thematic focus on the evolving dynamics between violence and competing political regimes (monasteries, estate holders, opportunistic households, regencies, cloistered government). With analyses of many different types of primary sources (chronicles, poems, letters, diaries, travelogues, thanatologues, maps) students will develop critical skills to frame key historical questions against broader historiographical contexts. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ASST East Asia CL: 100 level EAST Supporting HIST Asia MARS Core
HIST 161From Mughals to Mahatma Gandhi: An Introduction to Modern Indian History
An introductory survey course to familiarize students with some of the key themes and debates in the historiography of modern India. Beginning with an overview of Mughal rule in India, the main focus of the course is the colonial period. The course ends with a discussion of 1947: the hour of independence as well as the creation of two new nation-states, India and Pakistan. Topics include Oriental Despotism, colonial rule, nationalism, communalism, gender, caste and race. No prior knowledge of South Asian History required. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 100 level HIST Asia HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC SAST Humanistic Inquiry ASST Humanistic Inquiry Faculty: Amna Khalid
HIST 165A Cultural History of the Modern Middle East6
This course provides a basic introduction to the modern history of the Middle East from the late eighteenth century to the present. We will focus on the enormous transformations the region has witnessed in this period, as a world of empires gave way one of nation-states and new political and cultural ideas reshaped the lives of its inhabitants. We will discuss the cultural and religious diversity of the region and its varied interactions with modernity. We will find that the history of Middle East is inextricably linked to that of its neighbors and broader currents of modern history. We will read both the works of historians and literary and political texts from the region itself. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CCST Encounters CL: 100 level HIST Asia HIST Modern MEST Studies Foundation POSI Elective/Non POSC Faculty: Adeeb Khalid
This course examines the formation of Iberian colonial societies in the Americas with a focus on the lives of “ordinary” people, and the ways scholars study their lived experience through the surviving historical record. How did indigenous people respond to the so-called Spanish conquest? How did their communities adapt to colonial pressures and demands? What roles did African slaves and their descendants play in the formation of colonial societies? How were racial identities understood, refashioned, or contested as these societies became ever more globalized and diverse? These and other questions will serve as the starting point for our study of the origins and formation of contemporary Latin America. Offered: Fall 2025 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Atlantic World HIST Latin America HIST Pre-Modern LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses MARS Supporting Faculty: Andrew Fisher
HIST 201Rome Program: Building Power and Piety in Medieval Italy, C.E. 300-11506
Through site visits, on-site projects, and readings, this course explores the ways in which individuals and communities attempted to give physical and visual form to their religious beliefs and political ambitions through their use of materials, iconography, topography, and architecture. We will also examine how the material legacies of imperial Rome, Byzantium, and early Christianity served as both resources for and constraints on the political, cultural, and religious evolution of the Italian peninsula and especially Rome and its environs from late antiquity through the twelfth century. Among the principal themes will be the development of the cult of saints, the development of the papal power and authority, Christianization, reform, pilgrimage, and monasticism. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: ARCN Pertinent CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Pre-Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG XDept Pertinent
HIST 202Oral History Research Methods: Theory, Ethics, and Practice6
This course introduces oral history methods in historical research. Students will examine power and authority, personal and collective memory, trust, representation, and community benefit in oral history projects. This iteration of the course will emphasize scholarship from Indigenous Studies and Indigenous scholars whose work employs oral histories. Students will deepen and apply their learning through an Academic Civic Engagement partnership with a local Indigenous organization; please note that this course requires some travel to Minneapolis, which will be organized by the professor. While prior coursework in history, Indigenous Studies, or American Studies would be useful, it is not mandatory. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: ACE Applied AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity HIST United States
This course introduces students to the history of settler education for Indigenous students. In the course, we will engage themes of resistance, assimilation, and educational violence through an investigation of nation-to-nation treaties, federal education legislation, court cases, student memoirs, film, fiction, and artwork. Case studies will illustrate student experiences in mission schools, boarding schools, and public schools between the 1600s and the present, asking how Native people have navigated the educational systems created for their assimilation and how schooling might function as a tool for Indigenous resurgence in the future. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level HIST Modern PPOL Education Policy AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST
Elective Courses – Required 24 credits Twelve credits should consist of Society, Culture, Policy electives and twelve credits should consist of Environmental Science electives. Any one of these elective courses may be used to satisfy the 300-level topical seminar requirement in section VI, below. In addition, students will work with their adviser to develop an interdisciplinary focus within environmental studies, such as food and agriculture, conservation and development, energy and climate, landscapes and perception, environmental justice, or water resources. This focus will be exhibited and explained in an e- portfolio (the “ENTS Profile”), to be completed by the end of Fall term senior year. Electives should be chosen to reflect this focus. Society, Culture, Policy Courses –
HIST 206Rome Program: The Eternal City in Time: Structure, Change, and Identity6
This course will explore the lived experience of the city of Rome in the twelfth-sixteenth centuries. Students will study buildings, urban forms, surviving artifacts, and textual and other visual evidence to understand how politics, power, and religion (both Christianity and Judaism) mapped onto city spaces. How did urban challenges and opportunities shape daily life? How did the memory of the past influence the present? How did the rural world affect the city and vice versa? Students will work on projects closely tied to the urban fabric. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Pre- Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting DGAH Cross Disciplinary
This course explores the causes, experiences, and consequences of the American Revolution, from the radical ideas and the alarming deeds that created the United States to the diverse array of individuals who shaped and who were shaped by its creation. In connection with the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, this course will take a fresh look at how historians, museum curators, and filmmakers explain this pivotal story and its meaning. Ken Burns’s new PBS documentary, American Revolution, will anchor this course. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level HIST Atlantic World HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity HIST United
In the first years of the United States, men and women of all races had to learn what it meant to live in the nation created by the U.S. Constitution. This class will focus on the American attempts to form a more perfect union, paying close attention to the place of slavery, Native dispossession, sexuality, and politics during the years 1787-1840. Throughout the course we will examine the ways in which the politics and protests of the early Republic continue to shape the current United States. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST America in the World AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level HIST Modern HIST United States Faculty: Serena Zabin
This course will examine the world of history outside the walls of academia. Looking at secondary-school education, museums, and public policy, we will explore the ways in which both general and specialized publics learn and think about history. A central component of the course will be a civic engagement project. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ACE Applied ACE Theoretical AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level HIST Modern AMST Production Consumption of Culture HIST United States Faculty: Serena Zabin
HIST 217Pirates, Rebels, Voodoo Queens: Black New Orleans6
Founded as La Nouvelle-Orléans in 1718, New Orleans was an imperial arena for France, Spain, and the US. It has a unique, diverse heritage, and its motto, “Let the Good Times Roll,” champions joy for life. The Big Easy is a distinct space for African, African American, and Caribbean histories and cultures. Through the 20th century, one third or more of the city’s population has been Black. This course uncovers NOLA’s Black and Creole populations' lives from the 1700s to Hurricane Katrina, including enslaved people's resistance, cultural expressions (such as music, carnival, cuisine, and religious practices like Voodoo), environmental challenges, race, class, and gender. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level HIST Atlantic World AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity HIST Africa & Its Diaspora Faculty: Rebecca Brueckmann
HIST 220From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film6
This course focuses on the representation of African American history in popular US-American movies. It will introduce students to the field of visual history, using cinema as a primary source. Through films from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the seminar will analyze African American history, (pop-)cultural depictions, and memory culture. We will discuss subjects, narrative arcs, stylistic choices, production design, performative and film industry practices, and historical receptions of movies. The topics include slavery, racial segregation and white supremacy, the Black Freedom Movement, controversies and conflicts in Black communities, Black LGBTQIA+ history, ghettoization and police brutality, Black feminism, and Afrofuturism. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: ACE Theoretical AFST Humanistic Inquiry AFST Survey Course AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 2 CAMS Extra Departmental CL: 200 level HIST Modern AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity HIST Africa & Its Diaspora HIST United States
In the period after 1880, the growth of a mass consumer society recast issues of identity, gender, race, class, family, and political life. We will explore the development of consumer culture through such topics as advertising and mass media, the body and sexuality, consumerist politics in the labor movement, and the response to the Americanization of consumption abroad. We will read contemporary critics such as Thorstein Veblen, as well as historians engaged in weighing the possibilities of abundance against the growth of corporate power. Offered: Fall 2025
HIST 233The Byzantine World and Its Neighbors 750-ca. 14536
The Byzantine world (eighth-fifteenth centuries) was a zone of fascinating tensions, exchanges, and encounters. Through a wide variety of written and visual evidence, we will examine key features of its history and culture: the nature of government; piety and religious controversy; art and music; the evolving relations with the Latin West, Armenia, the Slavic North and West, and the Dar al- Islam (the Abbasids and Seljuk and Ottoman Turks); gender; economic life; and social relations.Extra Time for special events and a group project (ecumenical council). Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ACE Theoretical ARCN Pertinent ARTH Pre-1800 CL: 200 level HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Asia HIST Pre-Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting MEST Supporting Group 1 EUST Transnational Support
In the spring of 1453, the inhabitants of the city of Constantinople found themselves besieged and eventually conquered by the rising power of the Ottoman Turks. The density and variety of the surviving historical evidence offer a distinctive opportunity to explore and to understand the ways in which people, structures, interests, beliefs, and circumstances interacted to bring about this transformative event. The contemporary and, at times, eyewitness nature of the sources also pose profound questions about historical analysis, narrative, explanation, and story-telling. In this collaboration between the History department and the Theater program, we will develop our own historically informed narratives along with performances that do justice to the events' many facets and implications. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Ancient & Medieval MARS Core Course MEST Supporting Group 1 EUST Transnational Support THEA Literature Criticism
HIST 239Plague, Pox, Poverty: Public Health in Britain
From plague protocols and smallpox vaccinations to community care provisions for vulnerable populations, England and its neighbors have been at the forefront in addressing health challenges through public policy. This course moves from the 16th through the 19th century, tracing ways in which scientific and political developments in history shaped changing attitudes and actions towards health and welfare challenges throughout the lifecourse. Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific HIST Environment and Health PPOL Public Health HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: Susannah Ottaway
HIST 240Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia
Nicholas II, the last Tsar-Emperor of Russia, ruled over an empire that stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific. Territorial expansion over three-and-a-half centuries had brought under Russian rule a vast empire of immense diversity. The empire’s subjects spoke a myriad languages, belonged to numerous religious communities, and related to the state in a wide variety of ways. Its artists produced some of the greatest literature and music of the nineteenth century and it offered fertile ground for ideologies of both conservative imperialism and radical revolution. This course surveys the panorama of this empire from its inception in the sixteenth century to its demise in the flames of World War I. Among the key analytical questions addressed are the following: How did the Russian Empire manage its diversity? How does Russia compare with other colonial empires? What understandings of political order legitimized it and how were they challenged? Offered: Fall 2025 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific POSI Elective/Non POSC RUSS Elective HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: Adeeb Khalid
The lands of the Russian empire underwent massive transformations in the tumultuous decades that separated the accession of Nicholas II (1894) from the death of Stalin (1953). This course will explore many of these changes, with special attention paid to the social and political impact of wars (the Russo- Japanese War, World War I, the Civil War, and the Great Patriotic War) and revolutions (of 1905 and 1917), the ideological conflicts they engendered, and the comparative historical context in which they transpired. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC RUSS Elective HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: Adeeb Khalid
The Enlightenment: praised for its role in promoting human rights, condemned for its role in underwriting colonialism; lauded for its cosmopolitanism, despised for its Eurocentrism… how should we understand the cultural and intellectual history of the Enlightenment, and what are its legacies? This course starts by examining essential Enlightenment texts by philosophes such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau, and then the second half of the term focuses on unpacking the Enlightenment’s entanglements with modern ideas around topics such as religion, race, sex, gender, colonialism etc. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies No Exploration WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level FFST History and Art History FREN Pertinent HIST Atlantic World HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: Susannah Ottaway
This course will explore the global context for this cataclysmic event, which provides the hinge from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. We will spend considerable time on the build-up to and causes of the conflict, with particular emphasis on the new imperialism, race-based ideologies, and the complex international struggles for global power. In addition to the fighting, we will devote a significant portion of the course to the home front and changes in society and culture during and after the war. For History majors, the field will be determined by the student's research project. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level FFST History and Art History FREN Pertinent HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support HIST Early
HIST 249Two Centuries of Tumult: Modern Central Europe6
An examination of the political, social, and cultural history of Central Europe from 1848 to the present day. We will explore the evolution of state and civil society in the multicultural/multinational regions of the present-day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, as well as eastern Germany and Austria. Much of the course will focus on the common experiences of authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, fascism/Nazism, and especially the Communist era and its dissolution. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Modern EUST Transnational Support HIST Early
This course offers a comprehensive examination of German history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will look at the German-speaking peoples of Central Europe through the prism of politics, society, culture, and the economy. Through a range of readings, we will grapple with the many complex and contentious issues that have made German history such an interesting area of intellectual inquiry. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific GERM Elective Course HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: David Tompkins
Working with evidence is what allows historians to encounter past societies and people. What kind of evidence we have and our approaches to interpreting it shape the questions we can ask and the interpretations we can offer. This course will provide interested students with hands-on experience in working with various kinds of evidence and learning about the process of writing histories with a focus on the origins and developments of the Chinese Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. Themes will include practices and reflections on personality formation, knowledge and power, class and nation, legitimatization of violence, and operations of memory. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Asia Faculty: Seungjoo Yoon
This course examines rich traditions of social movements in Korea from its preindustrial times to the present. It will analyze how the movement organizers came to claim the space between households and the state by organizing themselves around various groupings (religious societies, labor unions, and SMOs). Thematically, it will scrutinize the intersections of multiple value orientations (e.g., feminist consciousness and fight for democracy and social justice) and unintended consequences (state violence and traumatic memory). Engaging with different sources (e.g., films, testimonies, memoirs, autobiographies, journals, and government reports), students will develop skills to frame key historical questions against broader historiographical contexts. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies No Exploration WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ASST East Asia CL: 200 level EAST Supporting Faculty: Seungjoo Yoon
HIST 255Carleton in the Archives: Carleton in China6
What stories do pictures and voices tell? What roles did Carleton people play in the making of the twentieth century China during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, and the Communist revolution? What are the reflux effects of select Carls’ experiences in China under transformation? How do Carls project their voices and images to their audiences? The Gould Library Archives Carleton-in-China Collection consists of photographs, film footage, field reports, interviews, and public lectures. Students will be introduced to a wide range of visual and aural methods (e.g., oral history, deep mapping) to help complete a research paper based on their archival work. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level ASST East Asia DGAH Digital Arts and Humanities Program HIST Asia HIST Modern Faculty: Seungjoo Yoon
A survey of major political and social developments from the fifteenth century to the beginning of World War I. Topics include: state and society, the military and bureaucracy, religious minorities (Jews and Christians), and women in premodern Muslim societies; the encounter with modernity. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CCST Encounters CL: 200 level HIST Asia HIST Modern MEST Supporting Group 1 POSI Elective/Non POSC Faculty: Adeeb Khalid
HIST 261Partition Imagined: 1947 in Literature, Art & Film
British departure from the Indian subcontinent led to the creation of two new nation-states, India and Pakistan, sparking one of the greatest migrations in history. Millions perished en route. Those who survived were scarred for life. Only fiction writers of the time had the courage to narrate the horrors of partition. Since then literary, artistic and cinematic treatments of this conclusive moment in Indian history have shaped collective memories of 1947. This course explores how artistic representations of partition intersect with official narratives. Open to all students; an excellent complement for students enrolled in
HIST 262Borders Drawn in Blood: The Partition of Modern India6
India’s independence in 1947 was marred by its bloody partition into two nation states. Neighbors turned on each other, millions were rendered homeless and without kin, and gendered violence became rampant, all in the name of religion. Political accounts of Partition are plentiful, but how did ordinary people experience it? Centering the accounts of people who lived through Partition, this course explores how divisions and differences calcified, giving birth to national and religious narratives that obscure histories of intersecting identities. With right wing Hindu nationalism ascendant in India and Islamic nationalism in Pakistan on the rise, Partition alas is not over. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 200 level HIST Asia HIST Modern SAST Humanistic
HIST 266History of Islam and Hinduism in South Asia6
This course explores the emergence and development of the two major religions in South Asia, Hinduism and Islam. We will study the rich history of these traditions' beliefs, textual sources, architecture, political systems, culture, and social developments. Of particular interest will be a look into the ways Hindu and Muslim communities in local contexts understood their respective religions traditions, how this changed over time, and how this informed relations between followers of these traditions. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 200 level HIST Asia POSI Elective/Non POSC ASST Humanistic Inquiry Faculty: Brendan LaRocque
HIST 268Globalization & Local Responses in India Program: History, Globalization, and6
Politics in Modern India Indian democracy presents a complicated social and political terrain that is being reshaped and remapped by a wide variety of efforts to bring about economic development, social change, political representation, justice, and equality. In this course we will examine, among other topics, the history of modern India with a focus on political movements centered on issues of colonialism, nationalism, class, gender, and caste. We will also examine changes in contemporary India brought about by globalization, and study how particular groups and communities have reacted and adapted to these developments. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies program. Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 200 level HIST Asia HIST Modern SAST Support
HIST 270Nuclear Nations: India and Pakistan as Rival Siblings6
At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 India and Pakistan, two new nation states emerged from the shadow of British colonialism. This course focuses on the political trajectories of these two rival siblings and looks at the ways in which both states use the other to forge antagonistic and belligerent nations. While this is a survey course it is not a comprehensive overview of the history of the two countries. Instead it covers some of the more significant moments of rupture and violence in the political history of the two states. The first two-thirds of the course offers a top-down, macro overview of these events and processes whereas the last third examines the ways in which people experienced these developments. We use the lens of gender to see how the physical body, especially the body of the woman, is central to the process of nation building. We will consider how women’s bodies become sites of contestation and how they are disciplined and policed by the postcolonial state(s). Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective HIST Asia HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC SAST Humanistic Inquiry ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities Faculty: Amna Khalid
HIST 272The Mexican Revolution: History, Myth and Art
The Mexican Revolution was the twentieth-century’s first major social and political upheaval and a watershed moment in Latin American history. This course examines the factors that precipitated the conflict, as well as its main domestic and international dimensions. It explores how an official myth of “The Revolution” was created and contested by the Mexican state, artists, intellectuals, and peasants through the means of education, murals, photography, protest, commemorations, and shrines. The mythification of martyred agrarian leader and rebel chieftain Emiliano Zapata will be examined. Students will work with the College’s collection of Mexican silkscreen posters created in commemoration of the ninetieth anniversary of Zapata’s assassination in 1919. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Latin America HIST Modern LTAM Electives Faculty: Andrew Fisher
HIST 276In Search of Moctezuma: Reimagining Mexico’s Indigenous Past6
Even while still on the campaign trail, Spain’s conquistadors endeavored to describe Mexico's native societies to other Europeans. Thus began a centuries-long fascination with all things Mesoamerican, real and imaginary. This course explores how the Mesoamerican past has been imagined by indigenous and non-indigenous people. Potential subjects include Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, early Mexican nation-builders and artists, professional and pseudo-archaeologists, apocalyptic doomsayers, promoters of the Mexican tourist industry, and the counterculture and Chicano movements of the 1960s. Importantly, we will also consider how Mexico's indigenous groups have come to understand their own past from the time of Spanish rule to the present day. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: ARCN Pertinent CL: 200 level HIST Latin America HIST Modern LTAM
Come explore the world of feathered serpents, smoking mirrors, flower songs, and water mountains! This course examines from multiple disciplinary perspectives the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico under both Aztec and early Spanish rule (spanning approximately the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). Students will gain experience working with a range of sources produced by Nahua authors, scribes, and artists, including ritual calendars, imperial tribute records, dynastic annals, and translated documents. The College’s rich collection of Mesoamerican codex facsimiles will play a prominent role in our investigation. No prior knowledge is required or expected. Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Latin America HIST Pre-Modern LTAM Electives MARS Core Course MARS Supporting Faculty: Andrew Fisher
HIST 287From Alchemy to the Atom Bomb: The Scientific Revolution and the Making of
the Modern World This course examines the growth of modern science since the Renaissance with an emphasis on the Scientific Revolution, the development of scientific methodology, and the emergence of new scientific disciplines. How might a history of science focused on scientific networks operating within society, rather than on individual scientists, change our understanding of “genius,” “progress,” and “scientific impartiality?” We will consider a range of scientific developments, treating science both as a body of knowledge and as a set of practices, and will gauge the extent to which our knowledge of the natural world is tied to who, when, and where such knowledge has been produced and circulated.
HIST 289Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France6
Acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the leading intellects of her time, Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) became an author of unusual literary range, personal resilience, and perceptiveness in a time of ongoing warfare, civil strife, and intellectual ferment. In addition to composing romances, poetry, quasi-autobiographical works, royal biography, and political theory, she became an articulate critic of the patriarchy and misogyny of her world, contemporary patterns and cultures of violence, and a critical voice in defense of female capability. Using Christine’s writings together with other contemporary voices, we will examine how contemporaries confronted fundamental questions of identity, status, violence, ethics, and love in domestic and public spheres in late medieval France. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific FFST History and Art History FREN Pertinent GWSS Elective HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Pre-Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting
In the junior year, majors must take this six-credit reading and discussion course taught each year by different members of the department faculty. The course is also required for the History minor. The general purpose of History 298 is to help students reach a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of history as a discipline and of the approaches and methods of historians. A major who is considering off-campus study in the junior year should consult with their adviser on when to take History 298. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry excluding HIST 100, Independent Study and Comps with a grade of C- or better. Tags: ASST Disciplinary ASST Methodology CL: 200 level Faculty: Rebecca Brueckmann · Andrew Fisher
HIST 302Creatures and Cultures: The History of Animals and Society
How have animals shaped human societies and cultures, and how have humans in turn influenced the lives of animals? We will examine several historical contexts, cultures, and regions to gain a global understanding of the complexities of human-animal interactions. Other historical topics may include the ethical and political implications of these relationships as well as the impact on human societies and the environment of animal husbandry, wildlife conservation, and the display of exotic animals. Students will write a 25- to 30-page paper based on primary research and will read and critique each other’s papers. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Offered: Fall 2025 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 300 level HIST Environment and Health HIST Modern Faculty: Antony Adler
The Arctic world faces enormous interconnected environmental challenges. Climate change, wildlife threats, toxic pollution, human livelihoods and cultural practices – all of these and many more are colliding at a time when the region is also responding to shifting economic, geopolitical, and technological forces. This course will consider the deeper historical nature of these intertwined eco- cultural developments over the past two centuries, giving particular attention to animals and marine life, energy and mining, Indigenous resource strategies and well-being (including exploring Carleton’s Inuit art prints), storytelling and meanings, and ideas and policies focused on conservation, sustainability, and environmental justice. Recommended Preparation: HIST 205 Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: ENTS Society, Culture and Policy ENTS Topical Seminar HIST Environment and Health Faculty: George Vrtis
HIST 314Crime and Punishment: Early American Legal History
300-Level Seminar – (6 credits) At least 6 credits must be a Carleton History Department 300-level seminar. Note: a 300-level independent study does not fulfill the 300-level seminar requirement Junior Colloquium Course – Required 6 credits To gain an understanding of historical methods and broader developments in the History field.
How do historians find and use evidence of Ireland's history? Starting with an exploration of archaeological methods, and ending with a unit on folklore and oral history collections from the early twentieth century, the first half of the course takes students through a series of themes and events in Irish history. During the second half of the course, students will pursue independent research topics to practice skills in historical methods, and will complete either a seminar paper or a public history project. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 300 level EUST Country Specific HIST Atlantic World HIST Environment and Health HIST Modern MARS Capstone MARS Supporting HIST Early
HIST 338Digital History, Public Heritage & Deep Mapping
How do new methods of digital humanities and collaborative public history change our understanding of space and place? This hands-on research seminar will seek answers through a deep mapping of the long history of Northfield, Minnesota, before and after its most well-known era of the late nineteenth-century. Deep mapping is as much archaeology as it is cartography, plumbing the depths of a particular place to explore its diversity through time. Students will be introduced to major theories of space and place as well
HIST 341The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies6
The Russian revolution of 1917 was one of the seminal events of the twentieth century. It transformed much beyond Russia itself. This course will take stock of the event and its legacy. What was the Russian revolution? What was its place in the history of revolutions? How did it impact the world? How was it seen by those who made it and those who witnessed it? How have these evaluations changed over time? What sense can we make of it in the year of its centenary? The revolution was both an inspiration (to many revolutionary and national-liberation movements) and used as a tale of caution and admonition (by adversaries of the Soviet Union). The readings will put the Russian revolution in the broadest perspective of the twentieth century and its contested evaluations, from within the Soviet Union and beyond, from its immediate aftermath, through World War II, the Cold War, to the post-Soviet period. The course is aimed at all students interested in the history of the twentieth century and of the idea of the revolution. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 History course (with tag HIST Early Modern Europe) with a grade of C- or better. Tags: CL: 300 level HIST Modern POSI Elective/Non POSC RUSS Elective EUST Transnational Support HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe Faculty: Adeeb Khalid
Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Modern European
HIST 346The Holocaust6
This course will grapple with the difficult and complicated phenomenon of the genocide of the Jews of Europe. We will explore anti-Semitism in its historical context, both in the German-speaking lands as well as in Europe as a whole. The experience of Jews in Nazi Germany will be an area of focus, but this class will look at European Jews more broadly, both before and during the Second World War. The question of responsibility and guilt will be applied to Germans as well as to other European societies, and an exploration of victims will extend to other affected groups. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
HIST 355Carleton in the Archives: Carleton in China6
What stories do pictures and voices tell? What roles did Carleton people play in the making of the twentieth century China during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, and the Communist revolution? What are the reflux effects of select Carls’ experiences in China under transformation? How do Carls project their voices and images to their audiences? The Gould Library Archives Carleton-in-China Collection consists of photographs, film footage, field reports, interviews, and public lectures. Students will be introduced to a wide range of visual and aural methods (e.g., oral history, deep mapping) to help complete a research paper based on their archival work. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 300 level ASST East Asia DGAH Digital Arts and Humanities Program HIST Asia HIST Modern Faculty: Seungjoo Yoon
This course is designed to support majors in developing advanced skills in historical research and writing. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of constructing sophisticated, well-documented, and well-written historical arguments within the context of an extended project of their own design. They also learn and practice strategies for engaging critically with contemporary scholarship and effective techniques of peer review and the oral presentation of research. By permission of the instructor only. Offered: Winter 2026 Grading: S/CR/NC Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Faculty: George Vrtis · David Tompkins
Required of all seniors majoring in history. Registration in this course is contingent upon prior approval of a research proposal. Offered: Winter 2026 Grading: S/NC Credits: 6 Faculty: Victoria Morse
