Tamika Richeson receives Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies
Fall 2014
HISA 5559 (1)
New Course in South Asian History
"Histories of Education and Citizenship in India"
Neeti Nair
This seminar will introduce advanced undergraduate and graduate students to writings on the relationship between education and citizenship in India. We will begin with tracing the relationship between education and the crafting of new demands in the colonial period, engage with the new literature on rights and duties of citizens that were first developed in the immediate aftermath of Partition, and conclude with discussions on citizenship and rights that have, following recent legislation, witnessed a resurgence.
Readings include essays and chapters from books by Krishna Kumar, Om Prakash Valmiki, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Partha Chatterjee, Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Jean Drèze, Abhijit Banerjee, Martha Nussbaum, and Amartya Sen.
Course requirements include attendance and active participation in class discussions (40%) and six short papers of 5 pages (60%). This course fulfills the second writing requirement.
Fall 2014
India’s Partition and its far-reaching consequences may be productively studied from multiple perspectives. This course juxtaposes select novels, films, contemporary writings, reports, and some secondary sources to reflect on a few of the big questions thrown up by this event. These include the place of minorities in the subcontinent and the changing nature of center-state relations in the subcontinent after 1947.
Readings include short stories by Manto, full novels such as Attia Hosain, Sunlight on a Broken Column, Mumtaz Shah Nawaz, The Heart Divided, Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines, Mirza Waheed, The Collaborator, Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age as well as chapters of books by Granville Austin, Paul Brass, Papiya Ghosh, Mushirul Hasan, Ayesha Jalal, Suvir Kaul, Bhaskar Sarkar, Willem van Schendel and Vazira Zamindar.
Course requirements include attendance and active participation in class discussions (30%); two short papers of 5 pages (30%), a final paper of about 10 pages (40%).
Fall 2014
This seminar is an inmersion into the lives of poor people. We will seek to see their lives as they see them, that is, daily, from the ground up, from within. We will read books that offer rich, descriptive accounts of their lives, in which the authors show us the lives of the poor, rather than tell us about the lives of the poor. We will be asking WHAT poverty feels like for the poor, how they live, rather then WHY they are poor. Readings range broadly in the modern period of history, that is, from the industrial revolution to the present. We will read about the poor in England, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States.
The poor are at the center of the seminar. At our margins, and in brief articles, we will also be looking at work about the poor by contemporary scholars attempting to answer the question WHY people are poor, and what can be done about their living conditions. Almost all of the scholarly literature on the poor asks whether and/or to what extent their conditions are the result of structural and institutional causes, on the one hand, and cultural ones on the other. An all-too-simple way of stating the issue is to ask whether society causes the lives of the poor, or whether the poor cause the conditions of their lives. In other words, are we responsible, or are they? These sorts of questions will be at the background of our thoughts.
Students will keep a journal of the readings and the seminar discussions, write a 8 page report on contemporary newspaper reporting on the lives of the poor, and a final, 15 page essay on the lives of the poor. The course meets the second writing requirement of the College.
Projected readings:
- Tim Hitchcock, Down and Out in Eighteenth Century London
- Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England
- George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
- Philip Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
- Oscar Lewis, The Children of Sanchez
- Oscar Lewis, La Vida
- Chris Van Wyk, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy: A Childhood Memoir
- Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai City
- Janice Perleman, Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro
- Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age the Bronx
- David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America
Fall 2014
How do Latin Americans navigate their ways, collectively and also individually, through their hierarchical social orders? Why is there so often so much stability and order to their societies? Surveys inform us that Latin Americans are among the happiest people in the world? Why might this be? Why do so many Latin Americans across time appear to be so proud of their nations? Why do they look at one another so often? Why is there so little hatred in Latin America? Why do poor people in Latin America seem to know more about rich people than rich people know about them? Why do traditions matter so? Why are there so many good novelists there? These and other questions, answerable and not, about life and the human condition in Latin America are what will be about in this course.
Probable Texts
Ernesto Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries
Carlos Fuentes, The Campaign, On-line used copy
John Charles Chasteen, Heroes on Horseback: The Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos
Carlos Fuentes, The Good Conscience
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies
Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio
David Goldstein, The Spectacular City: Violence and Performance in Urban Bolivia
Sian Lazar, El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia
Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba
Forrest Colburn, Latin America and the End of Politics
Grading
The journal, submitted as a work in progress during any day between November 1 and November 7, worth 30% of the grade, written continuously on Word, and sent as an email attachment. A twenty page final essay on historical patterns in Latin America, worth 40% of the grade. This final essay will emerge organically from the journal. Hard copy. Class participation, according to a structured format, worth 30% of the grade.
Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s “The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire,” awarded the New-York Historical Society’s American history book prize
Faculty: Andrew O'Shaughnessy
Fall 2014
One of the defining features of the twentieth century was the repeated use of genocide and mass terror by states against internal and external populations. In this seminar, we will explore these phenomena from a theoretical and historical point of view, with particular attention to the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the democides that have taken place under Communist regimes (e.g., Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia), and more recent experiences of one-sided mass killing in Africa. While the experience of victims will be of central concern, we will also examine the experience and motivations of perpetrators, the explicit and implicit goals of the terrorizing/genocidal state, and the response -- or lack of response -- by members of the international community. Requirements include readings of 250 to 300 pages per week, active participation in class discussions, two five-page book reviews, and a fifteen-page historiographical essay. This course meets the Second Writing Requirement.
Likely readings for the course include the following scholarly monographs: Eric Weitz, A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation; Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century; James Waller, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (2nd ed.); Taner Akcam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility; Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (2nd ed.); Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland; Stéphane Courtois, ed., The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression; Alexander Hinton, Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide; and Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda.
Fall 2014
One of the defining features of the twentieth century was the repeated use of genocide and mass terror by states against internal and external populations. In this lecture course, we will explore these phenomena from a theoretical and historical point of view, with particular attention to the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the mass killings carried out by Communist regimes (e.g., Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia), and the “ethnic cleansings” and genocides of the post-Cold War era (e.g., in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda). While the experience of victims will be of central concern, we will also examine the experience and motivations of perpetrators, the explicit and implicit goals of the terrorizing/genocidal state, and the response -- or lack of response -- by members of the international community. Requirements include attendance at lecture, active participation in section, weekly readings of about 100-150 pages, the viewing of several films, three short (2-page) writing assignments based on required readings/films, a midterm exam, and a final exam. The course is open to all undergraduate students and does not have any prerequisites.
The textbook for the course is Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (2nd ed.). Excerpts from the following books also will likely be assigned: Jean Hatzfeld, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (2005); Donald E. & Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide (1993); Donald L. Niewyk, ed., The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (3rd ed., 2003); Elie Wiesel, Night (2006); and Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (2008). Likely films to be viewed include: The Armenian Genocide (dir. Andrew Goldberg); The Wannsee Conference (dir. Heinz Schirk); S21 - The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (dir. Rithy Pan); and The Ghosts of Rwanda (dir. Greg Barker).
Fall 2014
In this colloquium, open to both graduate students and advanced undergraduates, we will explore how Europeans have conceived, managed, and experienced categories of human identity from the French Revolution to the end of the 20th century. Insofar as we will be viewing these categories as originally imagined or constructed, we will examine the various materials that have been used to define them and to bring them to life, focusing primarily on politics and science (anthropology, archeology, biology, and medicine) but also touching on other realms such as economics and culture. In turn, we will also be concerned with the power wielded by these categories in Europe -- in the internal affairs of particular countries, in relations and rivalries among them, and in the management of multi-ethnic empires extending beyond Europe.
A basic knowledge of modern European history or of some of its separate countries is desirable, though not required. Though we will focus primarily on Britain, France, Germany and Russia/USSR, we will also include readings on other countries of Europe when appropriate. Students will acquire the conceptual tools for understanding the workings of nationality, race, and ethnicity not only in Europe but in other societies including the present-day U.S.
The reading list is likely to include several of the following: Francisco Bethencourt, Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century; Emannuelle Saada, Empire's Children: Race, Filiation, and Citizenship in the French Colonies; Kathleen Paul, Whitewashing Britain; David Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad; Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis; George Stocking, Victorian Anthropology; Jeremy King, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans. Two-thirds of the course grade will be based on participation in class discussion and written summaries/reactions to the readings. The last third will be for a final paper of 15-20 pages.
Fall 2014
Want to understand the conflict unfolding between Russia and Ukraine, and what lies behind Vladimir Putin's behavior? Many of the answers lie in Russia's imperial past, when it ruled over not only Ukraine but also Poland, Finland, Georgia, Armenia, Central Asia, etc. We will begin with the reign of Peter the Great, and cover two centuries in which the Romanov dynasty struggled to bring Russia into the ranks of European and world powers by pursuing its economic, social, and cultural transformation, and by conquering ever more territories and populations. At the same time the tsars insisted on preserving many of Russia's traditional and distinctive features, including autocratic rule itself. This precarious situation ultimately led to social and political revolution, but almost as soon as tsarist rule ended in 1917, Russia and much of the empire were taken over by a new dictatorship, that of the Bolsheviks (Communists) under V. I. Lenin.
About half the course will be devoted to the last sixty years of the imperial (tsarist) period, from defeat in the Crimean War and implementation of the so-called Great Reforms (beginning with the abolition of serfdom), concluding with close analysis of the revolutions of 1905, February 1917, and October 1917. Special attention will be paid to the tsarist social hierarchy and the governance of diverse ethno-national populations.
Students will read from 100 to 150 pages per week. Basic texts include A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces, by Evtuhov, Goldfrank, Hughes, and Stites, and Major Problems in the History of Imperial Russia by James Cracraft. Primary source readings will include Russian literary classics such as the theatrical farce The Government Inspector (Nikolai Gogol) and the novels Fathers and Children (Ivan Turgenev) and Hadji Murad (Lev Tolstoy), and memoirs written by a peasant and a terrorist. Graded work will include a take-home midterm, one short paper, brief quizzes, and a comprehensive final exam. The class size is limited to 40 to allow for discussion of readings.
