This course develops the argument that the history of early North America cannot be understood fully without appreciation of forces and events occurring across the North American continent and Atlantic Ocean (and not just within the thirteen English colonies). Topics explored include: conquest; colonial administration; trade; rebellion; religious freedom and violence; slavery, empire; sovereignty; discourses of democracy, republicanism, and freedom; cross-cultural interactions; genocide; and the rise of capitalism. AHLG ARHC FRST NPJ RPI
This course explores the relationship between Canada and the United States since the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on environmental change. It explores moments and places in time where the interaction between the two countries shaped continental landscapes, the international boundary, and political relationships in North America. ARHC NPJ
This course is an introduction to European history from the 1000 to 1700, which means it covers a vast swath of history in its broadest sense. We will touch on many things from the Byzantine Empire, to the Black Death, to the Columbian Exchange. Throughout this course, we will examine the standard, well-known narrative of premodern history…and then we will learn the messy, complicated version that historians of today argue about. We will aim to not only have a knowledge of the major historical events of this time period, but have an idea of how we might consider those events as a continuous history from the medieval to the modern. We will also discuss the common debates historians had in the past, how those debates have changed over the years, and how (and maybe why) the premodern history we have all learned is so flawed. By the end of the course, any time these narratives come up in modern entertainment, conversations with friends and family, or news stories, we will all feel compelled to say, “Well, actually…” AHLG ARHC
The course will present students with a series of specific past events which will serve as case studies of critical historical and geographical thinking so as to ascertain the usefulness of those events for understanding the present. To this end, students will explore different notions of space and time, place and event, scale and narrative. In particular, the course will examine “hidden histories” and “residual geographies” to address how counternarratives have helped non-dominant peoples preserve and defend their identities and influence and sometimes overturn the politics of oppression. CCIP
Understanding the Holocaust requires careful attention to the cultural and political of Germany, the development of Nazism, the status and variation of the communities that the Nazis and their allies would eventual target, the scope and range of the industry of death developed in Europe after 1939, and the experience of survivors after World War II. This course attempts to cover these topics in an engaging, analytical, and sympathetic manner. AHLG ARHC GBCC W2
This course explores the relationship between Canada and the United States since the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on environmental change. It explores moments and places in time where the interaction between the two countries shaped continental landscapes, the international boundary, and political relationships in North America. ARHC
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Originally written in 1976 by the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, these words have been attributed to women as diverse as Eleanor Roosevelt and Marilyn Monroe. Much like the confusion over its originator, the quotation demonstrates the problems of women and historical narratives. But what makes a woman “well-behaved”? Is there a single set of criteria? Has any woman managed to completely comply with the standards set out for her? Or are we all, as Kelly Sue DeConnick terms it in Bitch Planet, “non-compliant”? This course is a globally diverse study of “non-compliant” women throughout history. As the semester progresses, the course moves forward in time looking at different women or groups of women from around the globe, who defied norms or exhibited resistance. Each week there will be primary sources related to a certain woman or women. A secondary source or two will be provided on each to contextualize the subject, highlight central debates, and to illustrate how scholarly arguments are constructed. The overall goal is to interrogate the concept of history as progress, as well as what ideas of compliance and non-compliance mean. ARHC
Examines the history of Afro-descendant women beginning in pre-colonial West Central Africa to the present, emphasizing the experiences of Black women’s political, civic, community and reform activities in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa, analyzed within the context of racism, sexism and economic deprivation. ARHC GBCC RPI W2
Description. ARHC
This course begins from the premise that to understand health and disease, we must analyze Western medicine through how it treats the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society. Through a series of major episodes in the twentieth century history of medicine – eugenics, medical experimentation, reproductive control, mental illness, and epidemics – students will learn to ask key questions: Who is recognized as a legitimate patient? Who has access to robust medical care? Whose experiences are validated (and, by extension, invalidated)? AHLG ARHC DUSC RPI
From popular culture: music, film, fashion to digital technologies: cell phones, computers, fit-bits, and GOOGLE-glass to our food: morning coffee, sugar, and spices, we rely on African ideas and resources. Through novels, films, and scholarly articles we examine how International Relations across Africa and with Africa matter in our lives. AHLG ARHC GBCC SSLG
This course is a history of republics in Latin America & the Caribbean, from independence to the present. Our focus will be drawn to the Haitian, Mexican, and Cuban Revolutions; dictators and populists; banana republics; hurricanes; inflation, and the beautiful game of fútbol…er, soccer. Together we will explore the region’s major developments in Latin American politics, society and culture. ARHC
GBCC SSLG
Covering everything from Pirate Utopias to Slave Republics, Revolutionary Communes to Occupy Wall Street, we will ask what these radical ways of organizing and instituting society offer us and question why and how electing a representative once every few years has come to hegemonize our conception of democracy today. ARHC
This course probes the histories and historiographies of the United States’ three major wars of the first two-thirds of the 19th century: the War of 1812, the U.S.-Mexico War, and the Civil War. By investigating the experiences of British redcoats, Indigenous fighters, African American insurgents, Mexican troops, U.S. soldiers, Confederate rebels, and noncombatants of all stripes, we seek a more capacious and nuanced understanding of war during the early American Republic. Thus, our exploration takes us onto and away from the battlefield, into the political, economic, social, technological, and cultural worlds of multitudes of historical figures. ARHC W2
Description. ARHC
This IP examines the potential of “truth” in fiction and of “falsehood” in historical accounts, with Russia as our focus. From Peter the Great through successive emperors and empresses, up to the Revolution of 1917, the story of Russia is a story of terror, culture wars between “Russia” and the “West,” and, in the midst of it all, some of the bloodiest history and finest literature ever written. Studying Russia is an exercise in interpretation, in discerning truth and recognizing “fake news” narratives. CCIP
Description. CCIP
Students will be exposed to pedagogy in both the natural and applied sciences, and in the humanities and social sciences. This course will explore how scholars study and understand the basic physical and biological principles related to climate change, the sixth mass extinction (thought to be underway), and other manifestations of the Anthropocene, while also questioning the human construction and conceptions of this epoch. These approaches are linked by an overarching sense of the role of environmentally-related scholarship: framing, documenting, and then imagining responses to the various problems associated with the socio-environmental crises of the Anthropocene. In other words, how do we as scholars make sense of the crises – and what do we do about them? Key pillars include: • The nature of evidence and scientific measurement of aspects of the Anthropocene; • The meaning and uses of scientific literacy, and the place of science in public policy; • The existence of diverse narratives of the Anthropocene from a variety of disciplines; • Historical patterns and precedents of industrialization and unsustainable energy frameworks; • The ethics and technological efficacy of human response, and the meaning of well-being. CCIP
This course explores the streets of Lewisburg to ask how our “charming” little town of rural Pennsylvania embodies larger histories of environmental change, and the origins of today’s environmental challenges. The town’s quaint streetscapes embody the same ambitions for growth, practices of extraction and consumption, environmental alteration, and dependency on mineral energies that define the Anthropocene in the global North. How do these connect our campus and town to regional and national histories? And how do we respond? This course sees history in the landscape around us. The landscape is an historical text. How can we read it? Readings and discussions will be followed by weekly field trips.CBL
*All course and times subject to change.