An introduction to historical analysis and argumentation. While individual sections will focus on different topics and time periods, in all sections students will investigate a range of sources, methods and historical approaches to the past. Hist 100 may be repeated for credit with different topics.
| Distribution Area | Prerequisites | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities | 1 course |
This course is an exploration of seventeenth-century Jiangnan, the heart of the Chinese Ming empire, one of the largest empires of the early modern world and the center of the emerging global economy. Today, the region of Jiangnan is best-known for modern cities like Shanghai and the traditional gardens of Suzhou. The early modern period (ca. 1500-1800) was a transformative and turbulent time in world history and, by focusing on Jiangnan during this time, this course opens a window on the challenges, dramas, and fascination of people's lives and social change during this period. Through the best-selling fiction and historical sources of the seventeenth century, discover seeds of the modern world in the environmental issues, family relationships, economic growth, political conflict, and cross-cultural interactions of this time and place. This course provides an introduction and foundation for further work in Asian studies, history, and the humanities and social sciences.
Societies across the world attach different values, taboos, sacredness, and interpretations of sex, sexuality, and sexual relationships. In Africa, although societies saw sex as a routine exercise that every "adult" aspired to engage in, the act, however, was intersected with religion, culture, ritual, belief systems, and customs. The course investigates the historical, cultural, and social contexts of sexual diversity, identity, discrimination, and sexual violence in 20th and 21st-century Africa while paying close attention to the influence of cultural norms and religion. We will organize our inquiries around the themes of sexuality and sexual relations, religion, culture, family, and courtship. Some of the questions we will raise include: What counted as sex? What types of sex were considered socially acceptable in different societies in Africa? Who was allowed to engage in them? How did taboos, values, customs, and rituals on sexual relationships change over time and across histories and geographies? Also, the course covers ongoing issues such as HIV-AIDS and the current struggles for the rights of the LGBTQIA communities in Africa.
In this course, we will explore the global history of birth control and the rise of the reproductive rights movement. From Colonial Mexico to Postwar Japan, we will explore how the state, religious institutions, juridical system, healthcare practitioners, international organizations, and society have negotiated but also competed in their reproduction and birth control definitions. We will ask why doctors, governments, religious groups, left and right-wing politicians, feminists, intellectuals, and scientists had --and still have-- something to say about who should have children, who should not, and what means to prevent pregnancies are acceptable. Moreover, we will address how the appeal to control fertility had techno-material results, such as the development of new contraceptive technologies like the pill or the IUD in the second half of the 20th century, bringing new urgency to the discussions on women's health and bodily autonomy.