HIST 500-001: World War I

World War I or the Great War disrupted and destroyed live on a scale never known before. More than 60 million people were mobilized and 8.5 million killed, 21 million were wounded and in every town and village in Europe the blinded and maimed victims served as daily reminders decades after the war was over. In every town and village war memorials commemorate those who gave their lives. In this course, we will examine how a war which involved millions and for which millions suffered war launched by just a few men negotiating and conspiring in secret. In addition, we will examine why the war was so popular in 1914 and how the enthusiasm for the war died in the wake of the carnage. What were the experiences of men and women stationed on all fronts of the war? How did the war affect European society after 1918? How war the war commemorated and for what purposes? This course is as much a social and culture study of war as it is a military or political study.

Graham | | TR 1230-1345 | | CRN 82392

HIST 500-003: History of Christianity to 1517

This course will survey the history of the Christian religion from its origins in first-century Palestine up until the eve of the Reformation. These fifteen centuries witnessed momentous growth, development, and change, as Christianity progressed from being the creed of a dedicated few followers to the official religion of the Roman empire to the way of life around which the whole of medieval society was structured. The course will offer the opportunity to study the major developments and also focus on the lives and writings of specific individuals. Key topics covered will include: the growth of the early Church; the writings of the Church Fathers; the origins of monasticism; the conversion of northern countries; the struggles between the Papacy and the Empire; the Crusades; the rise of the friars; and the background of the Reformation. Individuals whose lives and written works we will study will include St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Benedict, the Venerable Bede, Peter Abelard, Hildegard of Bingen, and St. Francis. We will also consider the ways in which Christianity expressed itself through art, particularly in the form of illuminated manuscripts. There will be in-class quizzes, two papers, and a final examination.

Sanabria | | TR 1100-1215 | | CRN 82393

HIST 500-004: T: Water in History

This interdisciplinary undergraduate course delves into the intricate connections between environmental knowledge, social differentiation and history that has produced contemporary understandings around ‘Water’. Despite being an element that has sustained life forms, since time immemorial, this class will reflect on the social, cultural, and economic struggles salient to modern history of water. By looking at historical illustrations that shed light on access to water or lack thereof, this class considers contemporary issues of power dynamics, resultant socio-political structures, and exacerbated inequalities. Through a historical lens, we will explore how different cultures and societies manage water resources, negotiated rights, and navigated environmental challenges. Furthermore, this course critically examines issues of social justice and equity related to water access. We will investigate how factors such as race, class, gender, and colonialism intersect with water distribution and management, perpetuating disparities, and marginalization. Through case studies and contemporary examples drawn from a comparative of the Global North and South, students will evaluate the complexities of water governance, environmental racism, and the struggles for water rights. Through academic works, class-based lectures, and interactive activities, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the historical legacies and contemporary challenges surrounding water and social justice. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the analytical tools and critical perspectives necessary to engage with pressing issues at the intersection of water, power, and social justice.

Garcia y Griego | | TR 1530-1645 | | CRN 82679

HIST 539-001: New Mexico People, Land, Environment

"Examines the changing relationships among the peoples of New Mexico and their connection to and impact on land, water, and the environment since the late Spanish colonial period and the brief period New Mexico was a territory of the Mexican republic. The focus is on conflict and adaptation by Indigenous and nuevomexicano peoples after the Pueblo Revolt, trade with the United States and conflict with Texas during the Mexican period, and resource loss and adaptation during the extremely long period of delayed statehood between 1850 and 1912.

The emphasis since the Great Depression is on the impact of the delicate arid environment, land and water issues, the Manhattan Project that led to the nascent nuclear industry, conflicts over land and water, divided politics and changes in New Mexico society with the growth of ethnic groups.

The course requires a final research paper or other project on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor, presented initially for feedback as an ungraded preliminary draft. Class meetings will focus on discussion of readings and on providing feedback on student research. All readings are PDFs uploaded by the instructor on Canvas or eBooks available through the University Library. Books and materials published by historians will be supplemented by primary source documents and an extensive review of newspaper articles and op-ed pieces published in the more recent period."

Ryan | | TR 0930-1045 | | CRN 82396

HIST 595-004: T: Magic, Science, & Faith

The purpose of this class is to give students a basic, but by no means all-encompassing, understanding of the history of magic in premodern Europe and how it overlapped with the realms of science and religion. Magic and the occult were experienced in the arenas of politics, culture, economy, and society in Europe from antiquity until early modernity. The study of magic is recognized as an important field of historical inquiry and is currently undergoing a scholarly Renaissance. Students will be exposed to a variety of primary and secondary sources that negotiate this scholarly terrain.

Bieber | | TR 1230-1345 | | CRN 80123

HIST 597-001: Colonial Brazil

Brazil's history has much in common with the United States, featuring complex relationships that developed among indigenous, European, and African peoples. It had its own version of the Wild West. While Brazil would become the largest nation of South America, initially it was a neglected outpost of the Portuguese Empire. Over the course of the colonial period (1500-1822), it would become Portugal’s wealthiest and most populous colony. Brazil became the world’s largest sugar producer and was the site of the first gold rush of the Americas. It also was the largest importer of enslaved Africans in the New World. This course explores the historical relationships that developed between Portuguese colonists, indigenous peoples, and enslaved and free people of African descent. We will explore this history in all its dimensions - social, cultural, religious, economic, and political. We will examine the actions of the wealthy and the powerful and the lives of ordinary people as we chart Brazil’s trajectory from colony to independent nation.

Hutchison | | TR 1100-1215 | | CRN 82395

HIST 597-002: T: Dictatorship & Democracy in Chile

This course examines the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990) – why it happened, what occurred, why it ended, and the “redemocratization” that followed – both on its own historical terms and as a window into regional dynamics of political violence, economic development, and US intervention in Cold War Latin America. In addition to our deep dive into the texts, music, film and scholarship on the military dictatorship, we will examine Chile’s return to civilian democracy after 1990, including continuing neoliberal and authoritarian structures, efforts to memorialize and repair the effects of military violence, and the impact of social movements demanding indigenous, sexuality, and gender rights. We will also examine Chile’s history in the context of regional and global realities, examining topics such as the revolutionary left, civil-military relations, radical Christianity, counter-cultural movements, nationalism, agrarian reform, and social movements. This exploration of Chile’s past will not only illuminate the particularities of Chile’s recent history, but also questions and circumstances central to contemporary debates about the rise of “competitive authoritarianism” globally.

Gauderman | | MWF 1200-1250 | | CRN 83748

HIST 597-003: Gender & Sexuality Early Latin America

Scholars and activists frequently claim that the current status of women in Latin America stems from a colonial legacy of gender oppression and sexual repression. And yet, the status of women has changed substantially, not always for the better, since the colonial period. Similarly, sexuality in the colonial period contradicts modern notions of an evolution of sexual constraints constructed through public and private divisions of social space. We will examine the sources, methodologies, and theoretical approaches that shape the history of women and sexuality in early Latin America. The readings represent ethnic, racial, and class-based distinctions among individuals, and emphasize the importance of using diverse approaches in the reconstruction of gender and sexual norms, particularly for Indigenous persons and Afro-descendants. This course includes a focus on perceptions of same-sex attractions, Indigenous traditional religious practices, and witchcraft. The course ends with an analysis of how female figures from the colonial period, such as La Malinche and the Virgin of Guadalupe, have been incorporated into modern political agendas by intellectuals and political activists. Students will read, analyze, and discuss both primary and secondary sources to understand how history is conceived and written.

Leong | | T 1300-1530 | | CRN 27712

HIST 664-001: Advanced Historiography

This course will analyze how historians have researched, interpreted, and communicated historical knowledge for contemporary audiences, and what is at stake in these different approaches. We will explore theories and debates about the production of historical knowledge, how narratives have been constructed and challenged, and how different categories of analysis within the discipline have changed or developed over time. We will critique and engage with various approaches of professional historians within the discipline, while also reflecting upon the ways that some scholars in the 20th century have pushed against normative boundaries of historical knowledge and subsequently have challenged the field in significant ways.

Ryan | | T 1600-1830 | | CRN 82397

HIST 668-001: Premodern Cities

Cities in the premodern era, much like today, were nodes of concentrated cultural innovation, economic development, political power, and social dynamism. As such, they were vibrant, complex, contested spaces, defined and made by those who dwelled within them. Extensive maritime and terrestrial trade routes connected cities across Europe, Asia, and Africa in the premodern era, allowing the exchange of ideas, natural and man-made objects, flora and fauna, and pathogens. In this graduate-level readings/research seminar, we shall study the history of cities in premodernity. We shall analyze cities within these and other contexts and see to what degree they effected changes of various types in the premodern world. The bulk of our readings will focus on premodern cities in Europe and the Mediterranean, but we shall read about the history of cities in other parts of the premodern world. Written work will include weekly book reviews of scholars and a larger project involving premodern urban history. By encountering the many manifestations of what made the premodern city, students will come away with a more nuanced understanding of the history of these urban centers and what that can tell us about cities today.

Truett | | R 1600-1830 | | CRN 82398

HIST 685-001: Seminar in Borderlands History

Herrán Ávila | | T 1600-1830 | | CRN 82399

HIST 687-001: Latin America & Global Cold War

Latin America’s Cold War was a period of polarizations and radicalisms, and of large-scale social, cultural and economic transformations, altogether the product of convergent local, national, regional, and global conflicts. This seminar interrogates, contextualizes, and critically engages with how Latin Americans confronted these challenges and how they made the Cold War legible in local/global terms. The course weighs the agency and relative autonomy of Latin American actors vis-à-vis US and Soviet influence; parses out different episodes of domination, resistance, consent, and appropriation; examines the conflicts between reform, revolution, and counterrevolution, and considers the importance of global context, internal cleavages, and transnational exchanges. Students will engage with recent scholarship that locates national and regional conflict in a broader global lens, and will use a combination of primary and secondary sources to develop historiographical essays or research projects on the intellectual, social, political and/or cultural history of the period.

Hutchison | | M 1600-1830 | | CRN 82875

HIST 690-001: Women's Rights in Latin America - Research seminar

The study of women’s rights in Latin America—from female suffrage to women’s reproductive rights—has dominated much of the historical and social science literature on gender inequality in the region. This course will begin by examining the formation, advance, and success of movements for women’s rights in Mexico, the Southern Cone, Peru, and Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through common readings and seminar meetings, we will examine debates on women’s suffrage, education, labor protection, divorce, patria potestad, transnational feminism, and other core issues of early Latin American feminist movements, analyzing the great variety of political, class, and ethnic identities that informed these debates across the region. Readings on feminist movements in the 20th century also draw attention to the dramatic impact of struggles for women’s reproductive rights on broader political movements and redemocratization in the late 20th century. Finally, the seminar will also consider how recent attention to the political and social activism of women on the right has transformed scholarly assessments of gender and politics in Latin America.
This seminar will also foreground issues of research methodology and historical narrative, as students design and execute a semester-long research project on some aspect of the history of women’s rights in modern Latin America. This 20 to 30 page research paper must be based on primary sources: although many of these will only be available in Spanish, students will lesser facility in that language may structure a topic around appropriate English-language sources. The research and writing process will be collaborative, in that students are required to present their work and critique each others’ efforts at various points throughout the semester.

Bokovoy | | W 1600-1830 | | CRN 79346

HIST 692-001: Gender, War & Memory

This seminar explores the historical literature surrounding issues of individual memory, collective memory, and commemoration. The focus will be on the twentieth-century and its wars with special attention to gender. After a survey of different inter-disciplinary approaches to the field, two different kinds of evidence will be examined. The first relates to historical sites — monuments, ruins, battlefields, landscapes — as well as social spaces — families, trials, museums; the second to representations and languages of remembrance, through the narratives of mental illness, fiction, memoir, testimonial literature, photography and film. The focus is on society as much as the state and its manipulations of commemorative forms. This seminar will be a hybrid. Graduate students may explore the topic either by crafting an original research project(form up to yout) or write a historiographical essay focused upon their areas of expertise.