What is Digital Humanities? We explore the field's debates, platforms, tools, projects, and critical perspectives, as well as its current core practices: digital exhibits, digital mapping, text analysis, information visualization, and network analysis. We discuss the relationship between technology and knowledge production in historical and critical perspective.
This course explores the relationship of media - film, television and new visual technologies - to history: as historical representations, as sources of history, and as history itself. The course examines the impact of popular representations of history on screen and the controversies that emerge over these constructions of the past.
This course historicizes capitalism and all of the subcategories that derive from this mode of production: labour, management, the commodity chain, marketing, advertising, finance, exchange value, and the multinational corporation, to name but a few. Students will be introduced to classic texts as well as to more recent work that uses historical methods to study the social, cultural, environmental, gendered, and ethical aspects of economic life under capitalism. The course takes a global perspective, and the focus will range from examining the historical development of capitalism in Canada, the United States, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
This course takes as its starting point current world events of global significance. We focus on 3-4 flashpoints/crises/events shaping contemporary global politics and culture, and move back in time to understand how current events have been shaped by longer histories of power, inequality, conflict and contestation.
What are the historical circumstances through which mass killings emerge? An introduction to the history of genocide in comparative perspective, with an emphasis on the 20th century case studies. Course themes include denial and forgetting; justice and truth; and public memory.
This course is a brief survey of European history from the late Roman Empire to the fifteenth century emphasizing select themes that created the shape of medieval civilization and influenced developments in subsequent centuries. Content in any given year depends on the instructor. Visit the Departmental web site at History for further information.
European history from the late Middle Ages to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, emphasing the major political, cultural, economic and social changes that created early modern Europe.
An introduction to some of the major themes in British history. Depending on the year, these might include examples from prehistoric, Roman, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods. Both developments within Britain itself, and connections between Britain and the wider world, are considered.
Nineteenth-Century Europe is arguably the most revolutionary century in human history. Around 1800, Europe was a relative backwater characterized by agricultural economies and monarchial government. By 1900 a new decidedly modern world emerged, shaped by the priorities of industry, capitalism, and democracy. What caused these dramatic changes?
Nations, Ideologies, and Conflict offers a sweeping overview of European history from the eve of WWI to the present with attention to the key ideas--Liberalism, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, Populism, and Globalization--that drive social, political and cultural change.
An introductory survey that examines the political, social, and cultural developments that shaped the Russian empire from the settlement of Kiev in the 9th century to the collapse of the Romanov dynasty in 1917.
An introduction to the historical and ongoing disruptions of colonial extraction in Canada and their treatment within the historical record. From natural resources to Indigenous lands and knowledges, this course will deepen students’ understandings of the processes, industries and technologies responsible for settler colonial extraction in Canada.
A survey of the political, social, and economic history of Canada, topically treated from the beginning to the present. This course is intended for students from disciplines outside of History looking for a broad-ranging approach to Canadian history.
A broad survey of the history of Canada from the beginning to the present focused on changing notions of the country,its territory, and peoples. We will question widely held beliefs about Canada, both in the past and the present,through deep engagement with primary sources and historiography.
A survey of the main developments and themes of U.S. history from the colonial period to the end of Reconstruction.
How did the US move from the Civil War to a world power? What have been the tensions between national ideals of "liberty for all" and US market expansion? Topics covered include: Jim Crow South; immigration and urbanization; Populism and the Progressivism; consumerism; many wars; post-45 social movements; Reaganism and after.
A critical introduction to the main themes and questions defining South Asian history from its beginnings to the present. Emphasis will be placed particularly on the period after the 1750s, which saw the emergence of British imperialism, anti-colonial struggles, and the formation of new nation states after 1947.
A survey of East Asian civilization and history from antiquity to modernity. It particularly explores the interrelations of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultural and political development.
This course examines how Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and the US try to remember the Asian Pacific War. It focuses particularly on the bitterly contested representations of war atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre, the comfort women system, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
An introduction to the history of Latin America from pre-conquest indigenous empires to the end of the 20th century. Lectures, films, readings, and tutorials explore a set of themes in historical context: nationalism, authoritarianism, religion, racism, patriarchy, and Latin America's multiple interactions with the outside world.
A survey of African civilization and history from antiquity to modernity. The course also examines the transformation of Africa from colonial domination to postcolonial states, social movements, and ideologies.
This courses provides a richly rewarding opportunity for students in their second year to work in the research project of a professor in return for 299Y course credit. Students enrolled have an opportunity to become involved in original research, learn research methods and share in the excitement and discovery of acquiring new knowledge. Participating faculty members post their project descriptions for the following summer and fall/winter sessions in early February and students are invited to apply in early March. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.
A cultural history of North Africa and Western Asia from the 1870s to World War I. This late Ottoman period, known in Europe as the fin de siècle, was marked by imperialisms, nationalisms, and revolutions, as well as anxiety and alienation, environmental degradation, famine, and genocide.
The Klondike Gold Rush, imperial conflict in North Africa, and the Spanish American War: 1898 is a pivotal year in global history. This course investigates the circuits of empire, capitalism, and environmental extraction in a rapidly industrializing and increasingly interconnected world.
This course will review the alliance systems and conflicts that dominated international relations in the period 1945-1991. It will examine specific incidents such as the Berlin Blockade and Airlift of 1948-49, the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Prague Spring, as well as the broader strategies and tactics that followed by the two superpowers and their allies. Particular attention will be given to the documentary evidence that has been declassified in the past two decades, and the light it sheds on earlier developments.
The fall of the Romanovs and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks have been controversial. This course examines interpretations of the 1917 events using original sources from 1917 in English.
This course focuses on the history of women before the 19th century emphasizing select themes in ancient, medieval, and early modern history.
This course is a brief survey of the history of women in since 1800 emphasizing select themes in modern history.
This course examines the intertwined social, cultural, economic, and political histories of Indigenous peoples and immigrants in Canada. It explores the influence on lived experience of a wide variety of phenomena and ideas including community, place, indigeneity, ethnicity, gender, colonialism, empire, and mobility from the distant to the present.
This course focuses on the interaction of people and the environment. Themes include environmental change as a result of: European exploration and settlement; the transfer of animals, plants and diseases; the impact of contact and the "Columbian exchange" on indigenous peoples; the fur trade; the lumber industry; the destruction of the bison, the reserves system, and immigrant settlers in the West; the emergence of the conservation movement in Canada.