HIAF 1501-001: Africa and Virginia, 1619 - Now

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course explores changes in relationships between Africa and Virginia in the very long run, from earliest arrivals of Angolans near Jamestown in 1619, through Jefferson’s view of the continent and its people, to mass emigration to Liberia after 1820, through dialogues and commerce during colonial overrule in Africa and after independence, and finally to the resurgence in trans-Atlantic families and experiences in the 21st century.

As an introductory seminar, this course uses a broad topic to provide opportunities to learn and improve skills – in research, analysis, and written and oral communication – broadly applicable towards success at the University and beyond. As a course in History, it emphasizes how people (and not just scholars) interested in the past think, how academic historians do their work with never-straightforward sources (or “evidence”), the contexts in which people have changed their views of the past (“historiography”), and the significance of those new understandings to their audiences. Participants will learn through doing, and this will surely include engagement with the kinds of “primary sources” (e.g., old books and private letters) typical of scholarly history. Depending on student interest and practicalities, it may also include some site visits to places of significance on Grounds and nearby, as well as interaction (or “fieldwork”) with fellow UVa students whose life experiences mock any notion of stark separation between “Africa” and “Virginia.”

No prior experience studying Africa is expected nor is previous college-level study of History required.

HIAF 3051-001: West African History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course explores the history of West Africans in the wider context of the global past.  Our course begins in very distant times, and traces currents of change from West Africans’ first attempts to make a living in ancient environments through their subsequent challenges and actions in the eras of the slave trades (domestic, trans-Saharan and Atlantic), colonial overrule by outsiders beginning in the 19th century, political independence in the late 20th century, and ever-increasing globalization to 2018.  Though the course focuses primarily on those people living in the region, we will follow a select few to their new places of residence in the Americas in the era of the Atlantic era and to global capitals and their suburbs in our own lifetimes.

Experience studying Africa and/or any of the course themes is welcomed. This may include foundational work in HIAF 2001 or HIAF 2002, or achieved through other courses, including those offered in other departments and disciplines, that approach Africa, Africans, and African diasporas. Other students will bring life experiences or intellectual curiosities about the topics and thereby enrich our work. The course’s focus is on Africa, but the issues are global and comparative, and therefore course learning is broadly applicable to other places and people.

HIAF 3051 qualifies for the College of Arts & Sciences graduation requirements in the traditional curriculum in Non-Western Perspectives and Historical Studies; and in the New College Curriculum as Historical Perspectives and Cultures & Societies of the World. History majors may use HIAF 3051 as a “non-Western” course for their undergraduate program.

HIAF 3501-001: Gender, Law, and Empire in Africa and Middle East

Instructor: Emily Burrill 

Codes of conduct and legal parameters – explicit or implicit – are important cornerstones to all societies. In different historical contexts, legal systems have often been formed by patriarchal systems of governance. These political entities establish access to rights and privileges according to hierarchies defined by gender, as well as other notions of difference and inequality (such as race, age, sexuality, nationality, or religion). Within colonial, imperial and post-colonial contexts, legal systems become even more complex and multi-layered, as they often reflect hybrid and competing notions of justice, rights, and power. With these ideas in mind, this class focuses on case studies of gendered engagement with colonial and post-colonial legal systems in Africa and the Middle East. We will interrogate themes such as customary law, Shari ’a or Islamic law, family law, property rights, transitional justice, and processes of disputation and conflict resolution. Our main goals throughout the course will be to engage with the following questions: how does gender influence the ways in which women and men navigate legal systems? How are “rights” decided within a state, a colony, or an empire? How have people worked to transform laws, legal tools, and legal process? And most of all, what does all of this tell us about gender and social change?

HIEA 1501-001: Thought and Religion in Early China

Instructor: Cong Ellen Zhang

This is a discussion- and writing-intensive course. Through an introduction of scholarly works and primary source materials, this course explores the most prominent figures, ideas, and forces that shaped the intellectual life and religious beliefs in Chinese history. Major topics include early Chinese worldview, the “Hundred Schools of Thought,” and popular beliefs and practices. Another goal of this class is to introduce students to the historian’s craft of research and writing. Class discussion, presentations, and a variety of written assignments all gear toward developing students’ critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Reading assignments include Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett Publishing, 2005), Bryan W. Van Norden, Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett Publishing, 2011,), and selected articles and book chapters. This course fulfills the College’s second writing, historical perspective, and world societies and cultures requirements. No previous knowledge of Chinese history is required.

HIEA 1501-002: Japan's Fukushima Disaster

Instructor: Robert Stolz

This course has three goals. One, to introduce you to the historical record of the triple disaster of 3/11. Two, to introduce you to the emerging field of disaster studies. Three, to get you to start reading texts of all kinds for the categories and concepts that a given text uses to think through a “disaster.” By the end of the course you not only be familiar with major disasters, and the responses to major disasters, in modern Japanese history. You will also be able to discuss and add to the growing discipline of disaster studies, including the cultural, historical, social, economic, scientific, and even existential nature of what we call a “disaster.”

HIEA 1501-003: The Question of "China"

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

During China’s long history, there were times when “China” became a puzzling and hotly debated phenomenon.  Some recurring questions include: What is the meaning of “China”?  Where are the geopolitical limits of China?  Who are the Chinese?  How do the Chinese perceive the others?  How should the existence and behavior of China be understood?  And, in what direction is China heading?  In view of China’s enormous area, huge population, long history, and rich culture, answers to these questions at such historical junctures are of tremendous significance to the contemporaneous world.  Due to China’s “rise” in our own time, “China” has again been questioned in numerous ways.  This class is not intended to answer all the questions but to find some clues from China’s recent history.

The students will read selected titles helpful to achieve an informed understanding of contemporary China.  They will contribute to class discussions through writing and presenting “commentaries” on historical works and questions of historical significance.  Each student will also write a historical essay on an aspect of the “China question” of her/his own choice. 

HIEA 2101-100: Modern Korean History

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

This course traces Korea's history from its unified rule under the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) to Japanese colonization (1910-1945) and subsequent division into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Republic of Korea (South Korea). It examines how processes of reform, empire, civil war, revolution, and industrialization shaped both Koreas' development and how ordinary people experienced this tumultuous history.

HIEA 3111-001: China to the Tenth Century

Instructor: Cong Ellen Zhang

This class introduces Chinese history from the beginning through the end of the 10th century. Political, social, cultural, and intellectual history will all be treated, though not equally for all periods. Major themes of the course include intellectual developments, empire-building efforts, religious and popular beliefs, family and social life, and Chinese interaction with other cultures and peoples. Required reading includes a variety of primary sources as well as articles and book chapters. Final grades for the class will be based on daily quizzes, mini-exams, and two short papers. The course fulfills the College’s non-Western and historical perspective requirements. 

HIEA 3172-001: The Japanese Empire

Instructor: Robert Stolz

This course is an exploration of Japan’s imperial project from roughly 1890-1945 culminating in a close reading of three important, recent works on the empire. These books are probably too much to dive into right away so we will start by developing a critical theoretical vocabulary to prepare. At the end of the semester we will also look briefly at anti-imperial and decolonization movements as well as the status of the category of “empire” for analyzing the postwar period.

HIEA 3323-001: China and the United States

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

In this class we explore the relationship between China and the United State since the late 18th century.  Starting as an encounter between a young republic and an ageless empire on the two sides of the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese-American relationship has gone through stages characterized by the two countries’ changing identities and international positions.  By using both recent scholarly works and written records from the past, we consider the historical contacts between China and the United States broadly and seek to understand this intricate and profoundly important relationship by learning from insights at individual, communal, societal, state, and international levels.

The course consists of lectures, occasional in-class discussions, and documentary films.  The student’s grade is based on participation, two exams (midterm and final), and a team project (graduate students in the class should write a research paper instead).

HIEA 4501-001: North Korea

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

North Korea’s brutal resiliency on the international stage makes it increasingly important to understand its unique historical trajectory. Together we will discuss obstacles as well as opportunities related to finding primary sources on North Korean history while completing original research papers that help us better understand the inner workings and outward-facing aspirations of this authoritarian “democratic people’s republic.”

HIEA 4501-002: Cultural Revolution in China

Instructor: Bradly Reed

In 1966, Mao Zedong launched his last great mass campaign by calling upon the youth of China to “practice revolution” and rebel against established authority. The tumultuous response to Mao’s summons opened a ten year period in which political and social order were nearly destroyed, over a million people were persecuted, and countless lives were ruined. With the death of Mao in 1976, a movement that had begun as an effort to keep China firmly on the path to socialism thus ended amid fear, apathy and doubt as to the legitimacy of the Communist Party and the revolution which it had led. Today, fifty years after it began, the Cultural Revolution remains one of the most traumatic yet least understood periods of Modern Chinese History.

This seminar attempts to get at the meaning and significance of the Cultural Revolution by examining it as a multi-faceted period that cannot be adequately understood through any single analytic framework. Through the reading and discussion of secondary literature and translated primary sources, we will consider a number of issues: the movement’s political and ideological roots, the role and culpability of Mao, the significance of the Cultural Revolution as a youth movement, the causes of social violence, the impact of the movement on rural areas, and the influence that this “decade of violence” has had on Chinese government, society, and culture since the death of Mao.

For the first ten weeks, seminar participants will read and discuss an average of between 200 to 250 pages of primary and secondary material. The remainder of the semester will be devoted to the completion of a substantial research paper of 20-25 pages. Evaluation will be based on the quality of both the seminar paper (50%) and attendance/participation in weekly discussions (50%). All seminar participants are expected to have had some background study of China in the post-1949 era. Those without such background will need to have read Mao’s China and After, by Maurice Meisner prior to the beginning of the course.  This course satisfies the Second Writing Requirement and may be used as a capstone course for East Asian Studies majors.

HIEA 9021-001: Tutorial in "China in Hot and Cold Wars in Modern Times". . .

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

This tutorial explores three types of conflicts in China modern experiences: civil wars, international conflicts, and Cold War confrontations. Reading materials include major scholarships on these topics. The class meets biweekly, and the students are evaluated on the basis of participation, short book reviews, and a final paper.

HIEU 1502-001: The Berlin Wall: Spies and Lies in a Cold War City

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

The Berlin Wall is now a global symbol of division. It is invoked in policy debates about US immigration; its fall has become synonymous with the end of the Cold War; its fragments are preserved as monuments to the human spirit – including right here at UVA. But what was the Berlin Wall, exactly? Why did it go up, and how did it work? What did it divide, and what got through? Why did it fall when it did – and what legacy did it leave behind?

This course examines the rise, fall, and afterlives of the Berlin Wall, from the end of the Second World War to the present day. We will consider who built the Berlin Wall; how it divided a united city; and how ordinary people learned to live with the barrier in their midst. We will also explore the shadowy world of spies, lies, and border crossings that sprung up around the Wall, on the front lines of the Cold War. Finally, we examine who, or what, brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as the many ways in which it still lives on today.

 This course will double as an introduction to historical method. We will look at a wide range of sources, including films, novels, memoirs, newspaper reports, and case files kept by the Secret Police. We will also pay particular attention to developing writing skills: over the course of the semester, students will write several types of papers, including a film review, a primary source analysis, a diary entry, and an op-ed.

HIEU 2041-100: Roman Republic and Empire

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

A survey of the political, social, and institutional growth of the Roman Republic, with close attention given to its downfall and replacement by an imperial form of government; and the subsequent history of that imperial form of government, and of social and economic life in the Roman Empire, up to its own decline and fall.  Readings of ca. 120 pages per week; midterm, final, and one seven-page paper.

Readings will be drawn from the following:
Sinnegan and Boak, A History of Rome (text)
Livy, The Early History of Rome
Plutarch, Makers of Rome
Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars
Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
R. MacMullen, Roman Social Relations
and a course packet

HIEU 2072-100: Modern Europe and the World

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

This course offers an introduction to European history since the French Revolution, with an emphasis on the ways that social, cultural, and political change in Europe has been shaped by contact with the wider world. Our goal is to develop a framework for understanding the major developments that transformed a society of peasants, artisans, nobles, kings, and multinational empires into one of industrial economies, liberal democracies, and nation-states. Along the way, we’ll consider how ideas about state power and citizenship, social and class relations, religious and cultural life, ethnic and gender identities, and what “Europe” itself is have changed. Topics for discussion include the political and social legacies of the French Revolution, industrialization, European imperial expansion, the rise of mass culture, the two world wars and the Holocaust, European unification, decolonization, the Cold War, and contemporary crises of liberal democracy.

We will have two weekly lectures and a weekly discussion section led by a graduate teaching assistant that will allow you to deepen your understanding of the course material. Readings, discussions, and assignments are designed to help you develop the skills to identify and analyze historical problems, to evaluate evidence and construct historical arguments, and to move beyond simply repeating answers into a larger conversation about our world and our own place within it. Assignments will include regular participation and in-class activities in section, two short essays, and a midterm and a final exam.

In addition to a textbook (Edward Berensen, Europe in the Modern World), we will read a range of primary documents that illuminate key developments in European history, including the following novels, memoirs, and history books: Voltaire, Candide; Rafe Blaufarb & Liz Clarke, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle Against the Transatlantic Slave Trade (A Graphic History); Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South; Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four; Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968; and Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance. We’ll also watch some films: Grand Illusion (1937); Dr. No (1962); The Battle of Algiers (1966); and The Spanish Apartment (2002).

HIEU 2102-001: Modern Jewish History

Instructor: James Loeffler

Jewish civilization is one of the oldest and most influential components of world religion and history. Yet the Jewish people never possessed a large empire and always constituted a tiny minority in numerical terms, even in ancient times. In the modern period, Jews experienced an equally dramatic fate, including two pivotal events at the epicenter of the twentieth century: the unprecedented catastrophe of the Holocaust and the improbable rise of the State of Israel. All along, Jews have repeatedly surfaced at key junctures in the political, intellectual, and cultural moments that define our world.

In this course, we will seek explanations for this unique history through surveying the basic narrative of Jewish history from the sixteenth century to the present. We will focus on the political, social, religious, and cultural transformations of Jewish life and identity around the world. Major topics to be discussed include political emancipation and the Hebrew Enlightenment, Zionism and modern Jewish politics, antisemitism and the Holocaust, the divergent paths of American and European Jewries, and post-World War II relations between global Jewry and the State of Israel. We will also examine how Jewish history relates to modern European, American, and Middle Eastern history.

This is an introductory course that assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism or Jewish history. We will read and critically analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources, including religious, political, and legal writings, artistic images and musical recordings, and scholarly studies. Our goal is to introduce you not only to the study of Jewish history, but also the related academic fields of Jewish Studies, European history, and world history. Equally importantly, we aim to provide you with a concrete sense of the methods and questions that professional historians use to engage the past.

HIEU 2162-100: History of Russia Since 1917

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

Explores the collapse of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Communist state. Emphasizes the social revolution, Stalinism and subsequent 'de-Stalinization,' national minorities, and the collapse of the Soviet regime.

HIEU 2721-100: Supernatural Europe, 1500-1800

Instructor: Erin Lambert

Today, witchcraft and vampires are the stuff of hit movies and bestselling novels.  Five centuries ago, however, few Europeans questioned that magic was real.  This course reconstructs that enchanted world.  Throughout the semester, we will explore the reasons why early modern Europeans believed in the forces of witches, demons, comets, and more, and what caused these beliefs to change and ultimately recede over time. For example, how did beliefs about demonic activity frame the interpretation of natural disasters? What do rituals surrounding birth and death reveal about the daily lives of ordinary people? And why did Europeans begin to hunt witches in this period, and why did they stop? As we pursue these questions, we will also gain a broader understanding of European society, culture, religion, and science between 1500 and 1800. In order to understand the reasons behind the witch-hunt, for example, we will examine their judicial systems and their views on women. At the same time, this course introduces students to the skills through which historians analyze sources and draw conclusions about the past. In assignments and class discussions based on primary sources, such as first-hand accounts of possession and the records generated by witchcraft trials, we will learn how to practice those skills ourselves.

HIEU 3471-001: English Legal History to 1776

Instructor: Paul Halliday

This course surveys English law from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century. In class, we will consider how social and political forces transformed law. Because this is a history course, law will be understood as a variety of social experience and as a manifestation of cultural change as well as an autonomous zone of thought and practice. We will look at competition among jurisdictions and the development of the legal profession. We will examine the development of some of the modern categories of legal practice: property, trespass and contracts, and crime. We will conclude by considering what happened to English law as it moved beyond England’s shores. Assignments include two essays (approximately 2000 words each) and a final exam.

Students will read an array of court cases, treatises, and other sources from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. These readings are dense and difficult but also fascinating. Most students will only grasp their meaning by paying very close attention to language, reading with a dictionary nearby, and re-reading. Assigned books may include:

J.H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History (5th ed.)

Mary Bilder, The Transatlantic Constitution: Colonial Legal Culture and the Empire

Amy Louise Erickson, Women and Property in Early Modern England

John Langbein, Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial 

HIEU 3559-100: Empires of Faith. Europe and the World, 700-1000

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

Europe and the wider Mediterranean and western Eurasian world were home to multiple cultures, communities and polities in the period from c. 700 to 1000 CE. Some of these polities were ‘empires of faith’ in the fullest sense: the Carolingian and Ottonian empires in western Europe, Byzantium, the eastern Roman empire in the eastern Mediterranean, the Caliphate. Others, however, possessed distinctive forms of their own: the hydrarchies of Viking and Islamic raiders, the nomadic confederations of the Avars and Magyars, the oligarchic rule of effectively independent cities and trading centers such as Rome or Venice. This class explores their distinctive histories and the ways in which those histories were interconnected through warfare, multiple forms of cultural exchange, and an increasingly complex and dynamic set of interlinked economic and environmental systems as well as the ways they connected with a wider world: North Africa, Central Asia, and the Arctic.

We’ll also look at the evidence for how these distinctive societies were impacted by common phenomena, including climatic changes, the so-called ‘Dark Ages Cold Period’ and the subsequent Medieval Climate Anomaly. Other subjects to be addressed are forms of historical writing; early medieval slavery; the ideals and realities of political power; gender and identity; belief; travel and trade; forms of warfare; technological change; the reception of antiquity, and changing scholarly approaches to this peirod.

The course will blend the chronological with a strongly comparative thematic component, as we explore particular issues in cross-cultural perspective.

Format: two lectures and one discussion section each week. Requirements include: regular attendance, active discussion participation, two essays.

HIEU 4502-001: The Holocaust and Law

Instructor: James Loeffler

This course explores the pursuit of justice after the Holocaust. We will study legal responses to the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews from 1945 to the 1960s through the lens of pivotal post-Holocaust trials, including the 1945-1946 Nuremberg Trial; the 1961 Eichmann Trial, and the 1963-1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. We will ask how the pursuit of legal justice after the Holocaust affects our understanding of the legal process. 

HIEU 5051-001: Roman Empire

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

Studies the founding and institutions of the Principate, the Dominate, and the decline of antiquity.  Prerequisite: HIEU 2041 or equivalent.

HIEU 5585-001 / HIEU 8585-001: Thinking France in the World

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

The central goal of this interdisciplinary course is to explore what it means to think about “France in the world” as a framework for French history and culture. First, to understand how scholars have reconceptualized national histories “in the world” as being inherently and reciprocally global, imperial, and transnational, we will examine key theoretical and conceptual statements drawn from a range of fields.

Second, we will examine the particular stakes--intellectual, cultural, and ideological--of this new approach for French studies through the controversy sparked by the publication of the 2017 volume L’Histoire mondiale de la France (France in the World: A New Global History).

Finally, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of how France has been shaped by its global interactions and how we understand the enduring impact of those interactions today. Readings will cover a broad chronological span, focusing on works that place medieval, revolutionary, Third Republic, and postwar France in global, imperial, and transnational contexts. We will have the opportunity to discuss some of these texts with their authors, who will join our seminar in person or virtually.

This seminar will allow graduate students in a variety of fields to develop their understanding of global methodologies, as well as of modern French history, and to think more deeply about how that history intersects with their own research and teaching agendas. It will offer preparation for teaching, research, and other endeavors in French history and culture, European studies, global history, and related fields. Open to advanced undergraduates by permission.

HIEU 9029-001: Tutorial in the History of Reformation Europe

Instructor: Erin Lambert

Surveys the history and historiography of European Christianity c. 1450-1650. 

HIEU 9030-001: Tutorial in the History of Early Modern Europe

Instructor: Erin Lambert

Explores the history and historiography of Europe, c. 1450-1750. It provides a broad introduction to early modern society and culture, with particular emphasis on the transformations that reshaped Europe in this period, such as the emergence of the early modern state, the division of Christendom, and global exploration.

HILA 1501: Gender-Based Violence in Latin America: International Collaborations

Instructor: Lean Sweeney

Violence targeting people because of their gender, based on their perceived violation of gendered norms, or enacted through power inequalities based on gender differentiations is rampant throughout the world, affecting people of all ages, races, abilities, classes, nationalities, sexual orientations and gender identities.  Yet its visibility often remains subsumed by other layers of inequality, contexts of violence, and histories of family-making, nation-formation, and cultural and political processes.  The present seminar aims to use a focus on modern Latin America to highlight the stories of both gender-based violence and the fight against its continued presence within the broader history of the region, culminating in a collective report produced through individual student projects and the mentorship of Dr. Laura Aragon, Director of the Pan-American Development Foundation.  Students will receive a broad-based understanding of the overlapping relationships between gender, race and class in Latin American history, as well as an introduction to intersectional and decolonial approaches to research.  With Dr. Aragon, they will engage in hands-on analyses of databases, court cases, and laws, as well as presidential speeches and popular culture that incorporate forms of violence as well as discursive strategies of defense against this violence.  Class assessments will include two short presentations, a journal, bibliographical entries to Zotero, and a final project incorporating quantitative and qualitative analysis, primary sources, and graphs.  The class’s collective report will be uploaded to UVA’s LibraOpen, for consultation across the university.  

HILA 2002-100: Modern Latin America, 1824 to Present

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

This course examines modern Latin American history from independence to the present. It focuses on socioeconomic, cultural, and political changes, and on how different social groups -peasants, indigenous people, workers, and women- have experienced these changes. We will consider a number of key questions about the causes of underdevelopment, the roots of authoritarianism, the nature and causes of revolutionary movements, the question of human rights, the problem of social inequality, United States imperialism, and the role of the Catholic Church in Latin America. Requirements for the course are two in-class midterm exams (20% of final grade each) and a final exam (35% of final grade). The three exams will be closed-book and students will write five paragraph-long analyses of key terms, names, or phrases for the midterms and ten for the final exam. Students will be graded on their mastery of material from the assigned readings, lectures, and discussion sections. In addition, attendance and active participation in section discussions are required and will be factored into the final grade (25% of final grade). Students will read on average 100-125 pages per week. Reading assignments must be completed before discussion sections.

HILA 3021-001: Human Rights in Latin America

Instructor: Lean Sweeney

Beyond simply discussing a variety of cases of rights violations in Latin America, this course

challenges students to confront some of the grey areas that still vex the search for human rights in Latin America and the worlds of its diaspora. For the past fifty years, the issue of human rights has defined Latin American societies and political cultures. Today, Latin American countries attempting to consolidate their democratic systems and the rule of law continue to confront the legacies of human rights violations committed during decades of civil war and military dictatorship, as well as in the cradle of neoliberalism and in the face of environmental disaster. Yet these are global issues in which we are implicated. Further, they demand that we return to confounding questions like, what is the truth, who decides, and why does it matter? Should human rights violations be treated differently during war than in peace time? Should the obligation to rectify rights abuses fall more on some than others, more on states than on individuals, more on judges than mothers, more on parents than children? What can be done about lasting traumas from centuries of exploitation and repression, or future dystopias of climatic upheaval and environmental destruction?

HIME 2002-100: The Making of the Modern Middle East

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

What are the historical processes that have shaped the Middle East of today? This course focuses on the history of a region stretching from Morocco in the West to Afghanistan in the East over the period of roughly 1500 to the present. We examine political, social, and cultural history through the lens of "media" in translation, such as manuscripts, memoirs, maps, travel narratives, novels, films, music, internet media, and more.

HISA 1501-001: Free Speech and Blasphemy

Instructor: Neeti Nair

This course will engage with changing notions of free speech and blasphemy in South Asian history. Major topics include debates on a free press and legislation to curb hate speech in colonial India, and the renewed vigor with which laws restricting free speech are being deployed across the subcontinent today.

HISA 3003-001: Twentieth Century South Asia

Instructor: Neeti Nair

This course considers a few of the key debates that have animated twentieth century South Asia: on the nature of anti-colonial nationalism; the shape of a free India; the founding principles of the states of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; the independence of Bangladesh; and the legacy of colonialism on democracy, development and militancy in these South Asian countries. Structured chronologically, the course begins with a study of colonialism in early twentieth century India and ends by considering the challenges of deepening democratization, and unequal development.

HIST 1501-001: Jews and Humor

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

What makes a joke funny? What is the relationship between humor, tragedy, and power? In this course, we will investigate the role of humor in Jewish history from the Bible to the modern-day United States and Israel. Does a distinct “Jewish humor” exist, and if so, what makes it unique? Sources for this course include literature, films, folklore, religious texts, stand-up comedy, and new forms of online media.

HIST 2152-001: Climate History

Instructor: Chris Gratien

Climate change is widely regarded as the most important environmental question of the present. This course equips students to engage with the study of climate change from multiple perspectives. Part 1 surveys how understandings of the climate developed and transformed. Part 2 explores how historical climatology lends new insights to familiar historical questions. Part 3 explores the history of environment and climate as political issues.

HIST 2014-100: Fascism: A Global History

Instructors: Manuela Achilles and Kyrill Kunakhovich

This class studies fascism as an ideology, movement, and regime in a global framework. Thematic perspectives include: the origins and theories of fascism, key terms in the fascist lexicon, motives that brought people to fascism, fascism as an aesthetics and lived experience, and the role of women in fascism. We will also study the historical articulations of antifascism, i.e. groups and individuals who have fought against fascism over the years.

HIST 3452-100: The Second World War

Instructor: Philip Zelikow

The significance of the war needs little embellishment.  In many ways, the war formed the world we live in now.                  

The course perspective is broad, encompassing Europe, Asia, and the United States.  At every turning point, we ask why.  In each important episode, we try to comprehend how leaders, societies, and young people saw their choices.

This is a lecture course with discussion sections.  There will be a midterm and a final exam.  Both of these will be take-home exams for which students will write papers drawing on the lectures and the readings.

Required Readings

• Paul Kennedy, Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who turned the Tide in the Second World War (New York: Random House, ppbk, 2013)
• Evan Mawdsley, World War II: A New History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ppbk, 2009)
• Lynne Olson, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 (New York: Random House, ppbk, 2013)
• Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (New York: Basic Books, ppbk, 2012)

A number of shorter, required readings will be posted on the Resources page of the class Collab site.

HIST 3501-001: Microhistory and the Historian’s Craft

Instructor: Fahad Bishara

This course helps students develop the tools of micro-historical analysis, and uses them to ask broader questions about the nature of research and writing in history. We explore how to reduce the scale of analysis; identifying protagonists and other actors; interpreting clues and historical action; mapping the possibilities and limits of the historical record; and crafting historical narratives.

HIST 3559-001: Anti-Imperialism, Decolonization, Post-Colonialism

Instructor: Spencer Leonard

This course examines the opposition to colonialism that existed from at least the time of the British conquest of India, the global impetus toward decolonization and independence beginning post-World War I and realized in the decades following World War II, and, finally and more briefly, the postcolonial condition that has prevailed since the late 1970s. The course seeks to grasp decolonization as ambivalent and contradictory, as simultaneously the realization of both imperialist and anti-imperialist political ambitions. Some basic questions our course will address are: How, when, and by whom did opposition to imperialism first come to be articulated? How was it different from a demand for decolonization? What role(s) did the international left, in particular, play in opposing, first, imperialism and, later, colonialism? As regards earlier liberal, socialist, and communist anti-imperialism, was decolonization after World War II its realization, betrayal, or both? What underlying dynamics shaped the process of decolonization? How are we to make sense of the “post-coloniality” that resulted from decolonization in the mid-20th century? This syllabus, which moves chronologically (with some exceptions), starts with India, privileging it as the first and, in some respects, the exemplary instance of the ideological debates on imperialism, but will also address China, Indochina, the Middle East and Central Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. The class concludes with a brief treatment of the post-colonial condition, with the recognition of the failures of decolonization to secure democratic self-determination and economic independence for billions worldwide.

HIST 4501-001: Using and Abusing the Medieval Past in the Modern World

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

Representations of the medieval past are a pervasive – and often problematic - presence in the twenty first century. This class explores the nature of that exploitation: the ways in which the Middle Ages have been used and abused from the nineteenth century to the present day, whether placed in the service of a range of political agendas from nineteenth-century nation building, drawn upon in the spheres of entertainment from Victorian novels to films, games and music, to the right-wing extremism of today. Why do the Middle Ages continue to haunt the twenty-first century, why do they remain a focus of contention, and how has academic scholarship interacted with these other currents?

This course has two components. We will meet for a number of weeks synchronously to discuss a number of set works and major topics. Thereafter, the focus will shift to a program of individual student research conducted in dialogue with me. The ultimate goal of this class, as for all 4500-level history seminars, will be the production of a 25-30 page research paper (approximately 7,500 – 8,000 words). Digital projects  – rather than traditional written work – of comparable substance can also be pursued in this class, should students possess the necessary skills and training.

Among others, readings will be drawn from:  

Ian Wood, The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2017)

Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, 2002) 

Nicolas Meylan and Lukas Rosli, Old Norse Myths as Political Ideologies: Critical Studies in the Appropriation of Medieval Narratives, ACTA Scandinavica, 9 (Brepols, 2020)

HIST 4501-002: The Climate Crisis

Instructor: Justin McBrien

This course asks what makes anthropogenic climate change a “crisis” through an exploration of the history of environmental crisis theory from the 1960s to present.

HIST 4991-001: Distinguished Majors Program - Special Seminar

Instructor: Bradly Reed

Open only to fourth-year students in the Distinguished Majors Program in History. In this seminar, students will write and revise their DMP theses.

HIST 5559-001: The International Economy since 1850

Instructor: Mark Thomas

This seminar will focus on key aspects of the development of the international economy since the mid-nineteenth century. Emphasis will be on the process of change, the impact of policy, and the operation of international institutions. Special focus will be paid to the economics of the Great Depression, the impact of the First and Second World Wars, and the drivers of growth.

HIST 5003-001: Public History: Museums, Monuments, Media

Instructor: Christa Dierksheide

How is history conveyed and consumed outside of the academy? How is the past presented and explained to various audiences—at museums and historic sites and through movies, documentary films, radio, social media, and journalism? From historic house museums to African American preservation sites, this course blends theory and practice by providing an informed and engaging overview of the many aspects of public history.

HIST 5621-001: Genocide

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

Readings and discussion of the history of genocide and other forms of one-sided, state-sponsored mass killing in the twentieth century.

HIST 7559-001: Trans-imperial Lives: Decolonization and Empire through Biography

Instructor: Penny Von Eschen

This course focuses on decolonizing projects throughout the twentieth century through the lives, writing, and art of activists and artists who confronted the upheavals of war and colliding imperial projects throughout the 20th century.   Readings include:

Tara Zahra: The Lost Children Reconstructing Europe's Families after World War II Harvard (2015); Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (Duke University Press, 2015; Priya Satia, Time’s Monster: How History Makes History (2020)

C.L.R. James, Beyond a Boundary (1963); Edward Said Out of Place: A Memoir (1999); Mark Mazower: No Enchanted Palace: The Ends of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations, (Princeton University Press, 2013); Susan Williams, Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation (2006); Deborah Baker, The Convert (2012); Imani Perry, Looking for Lorraine (2018).

HIST 7559-002: Oral History: Theory and Methodology

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

This course is an introduction to the uses of and methodological approaches to oral history.  It introduces students to a variety of historical monographs that employ oral history from different periods and regions, as well as some theoretical literature on oral history and the related field of ethnography.  We will examine contemporary debates among oral historians and anthropologists about the status of oral history and ethnography as a historical source or basis for producing ethnographic knowledge of "the other."  A particular theme of interest will be historians' and anthropologists' efforts to male legible the worlds of what are sometimes referred to as "subaltern" subjects, to "give voice to the voiceless," to construct decolonial forms of knowledge.

HIST 8001-001: MA Essay Writing

Instructor: Chris Gratien

Writing of the MA essay (for second-semester History graduate students).

HIUS 1501-001: Pandemics

Instructor: Justin McBrien

This course examines the history of pandemics and their impact on societies from the Black Death to COVID 19. 

HIUS 1501-002: Conspiracy in America

Instructor: Justin McBrien

This course looks at the history of the United States through the lens of conspiracy theories and mass panics from witch-hunts and anti-masonic protests to chemtrails and Q-Anon.

HIUS 2051-100: War and the Making of America to 1900

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon

This course examines warfare and military developments in America from the colonial period to 1900. Major topics include debates over the role of the military in society; the motivations and experiences of soldiers; interaction between the military and civilian spheres; the development of a professional army and navy; and the social and cultural context, impact, and legacies of warfare.

HIUS 2053-100: American Slavery

Instructor: Justene Hill Edwards

Over a four-hundred-year period, twelve million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas. Enslaved Africans lived and labored, formed families and suffered through forced separations, in various regions of the Atlantic world, from Brazil to Barbados, South Carolina to St. Domingue. In this course, students will explore how slavery developed in one region of the Atlantic world, a small group of British colonies that would become the United States of America. Broadly, students will be introduced to the history of slavery and emancipation in the United States. Specifically, students will examine the ways in which slavery as an economic, legal, and social institution influenced the lives of the people involved, both directly and tangentially, in slavery’s growth and its ultimate, contentious demise.

HIUS 2101-001: Technologies of American Life

Instructor: David Singerman

From Thomas Edison to Elon Musk, we’ve all heard stories of heroic inventors. In this course you’ll explore a different history of technology: how it’s shaped the ordinary lives of Americans, and how ordinary Americans shaped our common technologies. By viewing technology from the bottom-up, you’ll learn how to question and challenge the powerful stories about technology that surround us today.

HIUS 3072-100: Civil War and Reconstruction

Instructor: Caroline Janney

This course will examine the causes, fighting, and outcomes of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The course combines lectures, readings, films, and discussion to address such questions as why the war came, why the United States won (or the Confederacy lost), and how the war affected various elements of American society.  The principal goal of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the scope and consequences of the bloodiest war in our nation's history--a war that claimed between 620,000 and 700,000 lives, freed nearly 4,000,000 enslaved African Americans, and settled definitively the question of whether states had the right to withdraw from the Union.

HIUS 3162-100: Digitizing America

Instructor: Brian Balogh

This class will explore the history of  the United States from 1980 to the present through the lens of the information revolution that occurred during this period.  We will examine the origins of the technological changes like the mainframe computer, merged media, the emergence of the internet, and the impact that they had on the economy,  politics and social interaction.

HIUS 3232-100: The South in the Twentieth Century

Instructor: Grace Hale

Studies the history of the South from 1900 to the present focusing on class structure, race relations, cultural traditions, and the question of southern identity.

HIUS 3261-100: History of the American West

Instructor: Alan Taylor

This course examines the expansion of the United States beyond the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, from 1800 into the twentieth century.  It also explores the response of, and impact on, the native and Hispanic peoples who possessed that land - as well as the Asian peoples who migrated eastward across the Pacific to settle in the region.  And we will consider the generation of new myths of American nationhood and character from the conquest of this region.

There will be two lectures and one discussion section per week.

The course features two collections of primary sources, and three books by historians.  There will be a paper built through three installments as well as a mid-term and a final exam.

HIUS 3282-001: Virginia History, 1900-2021

Instructor: George Gilliam

History is the study of change over time.  This course will examine change in Virginia from about 1900 to the present. The course will study the creation of the great political machines of the 20th century in Virginia, governmental regulation of race relations, progressive regulatory reform, the eugenics movement, and Virginia’s “massive resistance” to school desegregation. The course will study the making of the modern Republican and Democratic parties in Virginia. The course will consider three major themes: (a) which groups have tried to empower which Virginians, at what times and utilizing which strategies, and which groups have tried to disempower which Virginians; (b) how have Virginians used racism to weave the political, social, moral, and economic fabric of modern Virginia; (c) in which respects were the changes in the political, economic, social and racial landscapes of Virginia during the first 45 years of the 20th century similar to such changes in the years following World War II?

Readings will average approximately 120 pages per week, and will be drawn from both primary documents and secondary material.  Among the readings will be selections from Ronald L. Heinemann et al., Old Dominion/New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607-2005; J. Douglas Smith, Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia; Matthew D. Lassiter and Andrew B. Lewis, The Moderates’ Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia; and J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1845-1966. The class meets twice per week.  Approximately 2/3 of each class will be spent in lecture and 1/3 in guided class discussion. There will be a short answer mid-term exam, two short, 2-3 page papers, one 8-10 page term paper requiring the use of primary source materials, and an essay-type final examination.

HIUS 3411-001: American Business History

Instructor: Mark Thomas

This course examines the history of the American business enterprise from the workshop to the multi-national corporation. The trend in recent business history research has been to emphasize the genealogy of the contemporary business organization. In part, we shall follow this trend and examine legal, political, economic, and institutional factors as they have helped to shape business enterprise. We shall also be discussing the rise of American business in a wider context, looking particularly at the relationship between government and the corporation. American business history is traditionally taught by the case study method; we will operate within tradition to an extent by focusing on the experiences of key individuals and businesses and relating them to problems and issues inherent in the rise of managerial capitalism.

There are five books assigned for this course:

Alfred D. Chandler. Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass., 1977);

James Willard Hurst, Law and the Conditions of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century United States (Madison, 1955);

Harold Livesay, Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business (New York, 1975);

Alfred P. Sloan, My Years with General Motors (New York, 1990);

Frederick W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (New York, 1911).

Other assigned readings are available in a course packet. Readings average 150 pages per week.

The course requirements are a midterm and a final. The first exam sequence will consist of an in-class exam (30% of the final grade) and a take-home essay (20%). The second exam sequence will also have take-home (20% of the final grade) and in-class components (30%).

HIUS 3456-100: America in the World since 1914

Instructor: Philip Zelikow

Studies American foreign relations from 1914 to the present.

HIUS 3501-001: Making History Public

Instructor: Brian Balogh

“Making History Public” will examine where history comes from by looking closely at a variety of forms of U.S. history. After an introduction that provides an overview of historical sources, different approaches to history and the variety of audiences that consume history, we will turn to historical scholarship. Scholarship produced primarily by professors with Ph.Ds in history or related fields provides “basic research” and narratives for a variety of historical venues.
We will then move from the scholarly realm to examine more popular non-fiction venues for history. The blockbuster book is one such form. Blockbuster films, (like Lincoln) is another. Two other important forms of nonfiction venues for history are the documentary film and memoirs, written by prominent figures. In the last section of the class we will examine history that is conveyed to audiences of millions through audio on radio and podcasts, and video on the web and television. Because the Civil War and the memory of that war has been sucha compelling topic for scholars and the public alike – just check out the history section of your favorite book store – we will focus on a variety of historical treatments of the Civil War and how it has been remembered, including the debate over Civil War monuments.

As an introductory History Workshop (HIUS 3501) this class will focus on what it means to be a historian, introducing students to the diverse ways in which historians conceive of the past, interpret their sources, and write histories. The course will introduce students to the methods through which historians collect and interpret their evidence and help students develop skills of historical research and analysis that will encourage success in other history courses, particularly the major seminar.

HIUS 3612-100: Gender & Sexuality in America, 1865 to Present

Instructor: Bonnie Hagerman

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3654-001: Black Fire

Instructor: Claudrena Harold

What can we learn about the politics of race in the post-Civil Rights era by studying demographic, social, and intellectual transformations at the University of Virginia?  How and to what degree have the individual and collective experiences of African American undergraduates transformed since the late 1960s and early 1970s? And how have those transformations been shaped by larger political developments in higher education, U.S. race relations, etc.?   To what extent can an engagement with the history of African Americans at UVA assist current efforts to make the University a more democratic, equal, and inclusive space for students, faculty, workers, and others?   How do we discuss “difference” within the black community and find ways to more effectively bring the many segments of that community (athletes, black Greeks, second-generation immigrants, Christians, Muslims, etc.) together?  What’s the current relationship between white and black progressive students on grounds and how has that relationship evolved over time?

To facilitate critical thinking and exchange on these and other important questions, this course grounds contemporary debates on the state of race relations at UVA within the larger history of the “black Wahoo” experience. Though the focus of this course is local, we will explore topics that have and continue to engage college students across the nation: black enrollment trends at flagship public universities, rising tuition rates and college affordability, universities’ impact on local housing markets and wage rates, the political potential of Greek organizations, the status of the black athlete, the vibrancy of African American Studies programs and departments, and the corporatization of the modern university.

HIUS 3752-100: The History of Early American Law

Instructors: Christa Dierksheide and Alyssa Penick

Studies the major developments in American law, politics, and society from the colonial settlements to the Civil War. Focuses on legal change, constitutional law, legislation, and the common law from 1776 to 1860.

HIUS 4501-001: American Capitalism, American Slavery

Instructor: Justene Hill Edwards

One of the most enduring debates among scholars of American slavery is the connection between slavery and capitalism.  In recent years, historians have explored, with renewed interest, the relationship between the profitability of slavery and the rise of capitalist development in the United States and the Atlantic World between the sixteenth to the late-nineteenth centuries.  In this course, students will not only delve into the history of these debates, but students will learn about the interconnected history of American capitalism through the lens of slavery, beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ending in Reconstruction.  Students will be required to read 1 book per week and will spend the semester researching and writing an original 15-page research paper on a topic relevant to the course theme. 

HIUS 4501-002: Wives, Widows, and Witches: Women’s Lives in Early America

Instructor: Emily Sackett

This course examines the varied experiences of women in early America as they navigated the social systems and gender norms that developed over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. English colonization created new roles for women and new understandings of how gender would function in the “new world” for white, Black, and Indigenous women. In this course, we will study how these women experienced English colonization, beginning with the arrival of the first white women at Jamestown in the early seventeenth century and extending until the conclusion of the American Revolution. Students will engage with primary sources and secondary readings that illustrate the diversity of women’s experiences across different regions of early America. A substantial research paper based on primary and secondary sources is the expected outcome of this course.

HIUS 4501-003: Readings in the Civil Rights/Black Power Movement

Instructor: Kevin Gaines

This seminar on the history of the civil rights and Black Power movement is based largely on historical and autobiographical writings by writers and movement activists, including Julian Bond, James Baldwin, Anne Moody, Maya Angelou, and Angela Davis.

HIUS 6240-001: Constitutional Law II: Poverty

Instructor: Risa Goluboff

This course will explore the Supreme Court’s flirtation with constitutional protection against poverty during the 1960s and 1970s. We will read cases in which the Court considered different doctrinal approaches to protecting against poverty, including wealth as a suspect classification, fundamental rights equal protection, procedural due process, and the right to travel. We will also read both contemporaneous and contemporary law review articles arguing for and against various kinds of constitutional protections for the poor. We will place the Court’s poverty-related doctrines in the context of other types of constitutional protection, including against discrimination on the basis of race and gender. Finally, we will discuss the demise of the Court’s protections against poverty.

This course is cross-listed with the Law School, and follows their calendar. Please see the course website for more details: https://www.law.virginia.edu/courses/view/123218032

HIUS 7011-001: Colloquium in US History to 1877: Teaching the American History Survey

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon

This course is designed to help students craft an undergraduate course on the first half of the US Survey. Through both reading and discussion, we will focus on the big questions of the period and consider the various ways in which one might convey a narrative(s). Attention will be given to pedagogy and content, with emphasis on best practices in the classroom. Students will design their own course with a syllabus, assignments, and lectures.

HIUS 7021-001: Comparative Cultural Encounters in Colonial North America

Instructor: Alan Taylor

This course examines the scholarship on the cultural frontiers between expanding European empires and the diverse native peoples of North America.  It explores the epistemological issues raised by attempting to understand native peoples within a cultural heritage - history - derived from the European colonizers.  We will read about fifteen books and thirty articles to get the full range of the relevant scholarship.  This course seeks to prepare graduate students for comprehensive exams in the early republic.  Each student will prepare six precis of selected readings and one review essays.

HIUS 8559-001: Introduction to Southern Studies

Instructors: Grace Hale and Jennifer Greeson

In this course, we will use literary and historical analysis as well as the interdisciplinary methodologies of American studies to examine the changing meaning of an American region, the South, from the colonial period through the end of the twentieth century.  We will explore how different people in different time periods have created music, literature, and visual art that reflects their understandings of the region.  We will also ask how competing conceptions of the South have functioned in regional, national, and global politics.  Assigned texts will include literature, historical documents, music, and other primary sources as well as more recent work by literary and American studies scholars and historians. 

HIAF 1501: Africa and Virginia, 1619 - Now

Introductory Seminar in African History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This seminar introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history

HIAF 2001: Early African History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course studies the history of African civilizations from the iron age through the era of the slave trade, ca. 1800. Emphasizes the search for the themes of social, political, economic, and intellectual history which present African civilizations on their own terms.

HIAF 3021: History of Southern Africa

Instructor: John Mason

This is a lecture course on the history of southern Africa, with an emphasis on South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We'll begin with a look at the precolonial African societies of the region and then move on to an examination of colonial conquest, life under colonialism, and the rise and fall of apartheid (South Africa's infamous system of racial oppression). The course ends with the birth of democracy in South Africa that was marked by the election of Nelson Mandela as president. Course materials include autobiographies, photography, and music, as well as historical studies.

HIAF 3112: African Environmental History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course explores how Africans changed their interactions with the physical environments they inhabited and how the landscapes they helped create in turn shaped human history. Topics covered include the ancient agricultural revolution, health and disease in the era of slave trading, colonial-era mining and commodity farming, 20th-century wildlife conservation, and the emergent challenges of land ownership, disease, and climate change.

Concentrations/Pathways: Environment, Space, and Society

HIEA 1501: Pollution and Society in Asia

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

This seminar introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEA 1501: Cultural History of Japanese Monsters

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Using films, fiction, and historical sources, this seminar is an introduction to the history and theory of monsters, ghosts, and the fantastic in Japan. The focus will be on modern monsters and ghosts — why and how they persist beyond what is supposed to be a rational modernity that replaced the supposed age of superstition. Topics include monster theory, folklore, the uncanny, and the broad question of haunting. There will be two short, formal papers, in-class writings, a final group or individual project with class presentation, and a final take-home exam."

HIEA 1501: Culture and Society in Imperial China

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Ellen Zhang

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEA 2011: History of Chinese Civilization

Instructor: Ellen Zhang

An intro to the study of Chinese civilization. We shall begin with the earliest human remains found in China & conclude in the present. The goal of this coure is not merely to tell the story of Chinese history, rich and compelling though the story is. Rather, our aim will be to explore what makes Chinese civilization specifically Chinese, & how the set of values, practices, & institutions we associate with Chinese society came to exist.

Concentrations/Pathways: War, Violence, and Society

HIEA 2031: Modern China

Instructor: Bradly Reed 

Studies the transformation of Chinese politics, society, institutions, culture and foreign relations from the Opium War. through the post-Mao Reform Era. Emphasizes the fluid relationship between tradition and transformation and the ways in which this relationship continues to shape the lives of the Chinese people.

HIEA 2101: Modern Korean History: One Peninsula, Two Paths

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

This course traces Korea's history from its unified rule under the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) to Japanese colonization (1910-1945) and subsequent division into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Republic of Korea (South Korea). It examines how processes of reform, empire, civil war, revolution, and industrialization shaped both Koreas' development and how ordinary people experienced this tumultuous history.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire | War, Violence, and Society

HIEA 3171: Meiji Japan​

Instructor: Robert Stolz

This course introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEU 1502: History, Knowledge, and Sensibility

Introductory Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Allan Megill

Intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEU 2031: Ancient Greece

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

This course studies the political, military, and social history of Ancient Greece from the Homeric age to the death of Alexander the Great, emphasizing the development and interactions of Sparta and Athens.

Concentrations/Pathways: War, Violence, and Society

HIEU 2071: Early Modern Europe and the World

Instructor: Erin Lambert

European history, from the Reformation to Napoleon, in global perspective.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History

HIEU 2122: France in the Twentieth Century, 1871-Present

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

Introduction to major developments in French society, culture, and politics since 1871: struggles to establish a secular Republic; nationalism and imperialism; antisemitism and Islamophobia; changes in women's roles and gender ideals; the traumas of world war and fascism; postwar consumer culture and economic modernization; European integration, Cold War, and decolonization; post-colonial immigration and multiculturalism.

HIEU 3141: Age of Conquests: Britain from the Romans to the Normansomans to Normans (43-1066)

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

Surveys the history of Britain from the establishment of Roman rule to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Particular focus falls upon the social, political and cultural history of early England and its neighbors in Wales and Scotland, the Scandinavian impact of the 8th through 11th centuries, and Britain's links with the wider late antique and early medieval worlds.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire | War, Violence, and Society

HIEU 3312: Europe at War, 1939-1945: Occupation, Genocide, Resistance 

Instructor: William Hitchcock

This course examines the range of human experience in Europe during the Second World War. Why did Nazi Germany invade and attempt to colonize large parts of Europe? What were the methods of Nazi rule? How did European peoples respond to the Nazi project, whether through forms of resistance or collaboration? Who were the principal victims of the war--and why is this question so difficult to address even today?

Concentrations/Pathways: War, Violence, and Society

HIEU 3321: The Scientific Revolution

Instructor: Karen Parshall

This course studies the history of modern science in its formative period against the backdrop of classical Greek science and in the context of evolving scientific institutions and changing views of religion, politics, magic, alchemy, and ancient authorities.

HIEU 3812: Marx

Instructor: Allan Megill

This course introduces the social theory of Karl Marx. What Marx said, why he said it, what he meant in saying it, and the significance thereof. Situates Marx's writing in the context of 19th-century intellectual history. Focuses on the coherence and validity of the theory and its subsequent history.

Concentrations/Pathways: Capitalism and Economic Life | Global and Transnational History

HIEU 4501: Late Antiquity AD 235-4109

Seminar in Pre-1700 European History

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See Professor Lendon or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations/Pathways: War, Violence, and Society

HIEU 4511:Viking Worlds

Pre-1700 European History Seminar

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

This seminar focuses upon the social, cultural and political history of the Viking world (c. AD 700-1050). Drawing upon archaeological, anthropological and literary studies alongside historical scholarship, we will explore the ways in which “the silver seekers from the North” travelled, traded and transformed the world around them, and were themselves transformed in turn.  Topics we’ll explore in this class include belief, social structure, runes and writing, magic, questions of gender and identity. How did the Vikings bury their dead, conduct trade and acquire wealth, think about the animal world, talk to the gods, see themselves and others?  

HILA 2001: Colonial Latin America

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

This course introduces major developments and issues in the study of Latin American history from Native American societies on the eve of the Spanish Conquest to the wars of national independence in the early 19th century.

Satisfies concentration requirement for Global and Transnational History | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HILA 3051: Modern Central America

Instructor: Lean Sweeney 

This course studies the history of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador from 19th century fragmentation, oligarchic, foreign, and military rule, to the emergence of popular nationalisms.

Satisfies concentration requirement for Capitalism and Economic Life | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire | War, Violence, and Society

HILA 4511: Gender and Sexuality in Latin America

Colloquium in Latin American History

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

This course examines the history of gender and sexuality in Latin America from the pre-1492 period (in indigenous societies) and the period of conquest and Iberian colonization to the modern period and present.  We will examine the massive transformations caused by the conquest and its aftermath , as well as the changes wrought by the development of modern states and the emergence of different forms of capitalism (as well as revolutionary socialist regimes) in the lives of men and women in the sphere of gender and sexuality.

HIME 1501: Israel/Palestine Literature and Film

Introductory Seminar in Middle East History

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

In this introductory history seminar, we will approach the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of literature and film. We will study memoirs, short stories, documentaries, and feature films in order to think about several broader historical themes, including: the relationship between religion and nationalism, the role of colonialism in the Middle East, the links between history and memory, and the meaning of armed struggle.

Concentrations/Pathways: Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIME 2001: History of the Middle East and North Africa, 500-1500

Instructor: Joshua White

This survey course explores the history of the Middle East and North Africa (very broadly construed), from late antiquity to the early modern era. Beginning with an overview of the geography of the region, the peoples who inhabited it, and the two polities, Roman and Persian, that dominated it in late antiquity, this course covers the major political, social, cultural, and religious developments that followed the formation of Islam and the first Arab-Islamic conquests, including the establishment and subsequent fragmentation of the empire of the caliphate; the historical development of Islamic social, legal, and political institutions; science, philosophy, and scholarly ventures; the impact of invaders (Turks, Crusaders, Mongols); and the rise to superpower status of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire | War, Violence, and Society

HIME 2559: Modern History of Palestine/Israel

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

In this course, we will survey the history of modern Palestine/Israel. Part I focuses on Ottoman Palestine, early Zionist settlement, British conquest, and the Holocaust in Europe. Part II focuses on the 1948 War, known as the Israeli "War of Independence" and the Palestinian "Nakba" (Catastrophe). Part III addresses the Palestinian refugee crisis, the rise of Palestinian resistance movements, continued wars between Israel and Arab states, and Israeli-Arab peace initiatives.

Concentrations/Pathways: Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIME 3501: Migration, Displacement, and Diaspora in the Middle East

Introductory Seminar in Middle East History

Instructor: Chris Gratien

This introductory history workshop offers firsthand experience of what it means to be a historian. The course presents diverse ways in which scholars conceive of the past, interpret their sources, and write new histories. The theme of this workshop is “Migration, Displacement, and Diaspora in the Middle East.” It explores the methods of history through an examination of how the modern Middle East has been shaped by the forced and voluntary movements of people, which have forged connections between the region and other parts of the world.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIME 3559: Environmental History of the Mediterranean

Instructor: Chris Gratien

The Mediterranean is an interconnected space that joins three continents and numerous distinct societies and geographies. This course explores those connections, the historical experiences Mediterranean societies share, and how their experiences have diverged over the past thousand years through the lens of environmental history.

Concentrations/Pathways: Environment, Space, and Society | Global and Transnational History

HISA 3004: India's Partition

Instructor: Neeti Nair

India's Partition and its far-reaching consequences may be productively studied from several different perspectives. This course juxtaposes select novels, films, contemporary writings, 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.

HIST 1501: Photography and Racial Justice

Introductory Seminar in African American History

Instructor: John Mason

This seminar course focuses on the history that African American portraits made in Charlottesville in the early twentieth century can reveal. This was an era of the New Negro, a time of racial oppression and rising resistance to it. As the Black philosopher Alaine Locke said in 1925, "a new spirit is awake in the masses." The portraits demonstrate that the spirit of the New Negro was alive and well in the Charlottesville region. They show members of African American community as they wished to be seen -- as people of dignity, beauty, respectability, and strength. The portraits are silent assertions fo equality and demands for the rights of citizenship. They challenge the crude racial stereotypes that were so common in American culture at the time. Students in this class will learn to analyze primary sources, such as the portraits and newspapers, and work with members of the local community to create web pages and pop-up exhibitions that will bring these portraits to a wider audience.

HIST 1501: ​Global Financial Crisis of 2008

Introductory in American History

Instructor: David Singerman

In 2008, people knew they were living through a consequential historical event. In this discussion- and project-based course, you’ll discover the causes and consequences of the global crisis of that year. You’ll learn what happened during the crucial months, and broadly how those events continued a sequence of bubbles and busts back to the 1500s. And we’ll see how the responses to 2008 shaped the world’s capacities to react to COVID from 2020 to today.

Satisfies concentration requirement for Capitalism and Economic Life

HIST 2002: The Modern World: The World since 1760

Instructor: Philip Zelikow

This is a survey course in modern world history. It covers a period in which the main historical questions about what happened, and why, more and more involve global circumstances, global beliefs about those conditions, and global structures to solve problems. This course can therefore be an essential foundation for other courses dwelling on particular regions or nations.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | War, Violence, and Society

HIST 2212: Maps in World History

Instructor: Max Edelson

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the history of cartography that ranges across the globe from oldest surviving images of pre-history to GIS systems of the present day. It approaches map history from a number of disciplinary perspectives, including the history of science, the history of cartography, critical theory and literary studies, anthropology, historical geography, and spatial cognition and wayfinding.

Concentrations/Pathways: Environment, Space, and Society | Global and Transnational History

HIST 2213: The Rule of Law

Instructor: Paul Halliday and Fahad Bishara

This course explores the history of law around the world through the prism of "the rule of law." By examining different legal cultures across space and time, we will explore how societies mobilized law to order relations between rulers and subjects, between people and wealth, and among different communities and nations. The “rule of law” thus emerges as a dynamic project that unfolded along multiple scales and in different arenas.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | Law and Society | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire 

HIST 3281: Genocide

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

History of genocide and other forms of one-sided, state-sponsored mass killing in the twentieth century. Case studies include the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the mass killings that have taken place under Communist regimes (e.g., Stalin's USSR, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia).

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | War, Violence, and Society | Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIST 3501: Into the Archives

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Erin Lambert

In this seminar, students will gain first-hand experience with historical research. We will explore the archive as the foundation of the historian’s work. How are archives created, and how can historians use them to recover the voices of people in the past? Readings will be drawn from a broad range of historical subfields. Through visits to Special Collections and the use of online archives, students will implement a research project.

HIST 3501: Jumping Scales: Time, Space, and History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Penny Von Eschen

We will draw on primary texts and historiography from multiple regions of the globe and multiple centuries to examine how historians think across space and time and to introduce students to the great diversity of methodological and thematical approaches employed by historians to examine the past.  Students will gain experience working in archives both old (e.g. written manuscripts) and new (e.g. digital databases), as they develop skills in historical analysis. 

Concentrations/Pathways: Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIST 3352: The First World War

Instructor: Philip Zelikow

At the Great War's centennial, we take stock of how it shaped life in the 20th century for peoples around the globe. Movies, memoirs, government reports and other texts throw light on causes of the war, the human carnage of 1914-18, Woodrow Wilson's effort to end war forever with a League of Nations, the demise of liberalism and the rise of fascism and communism in postwar Europe, and the launch of anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | War, Violence, and Society

HIST 3559: Soccer Politics

Instructor: Laurent Dubois

This course explores the history of soccer and of the World Cup in order to understand why it has become the most popular sport in the world. We examine the development and spread of the game, its economics, culture and institutions, and biographies of players. The course is global in scope, and we will focus particularly on the way in which soccer condenses, channels, and at times transforms political life.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History

HIST 4400: Topics in Economic History

Instructor: Mark Thomas

Comparative study of the historical development of selected advanced economies (e.g., the United States, England, Japan, continental Europe). The nations covered vary with instructor. Cross-listed with ECON 4400.

HIST 4501: Research on the Cold War, 1945-1990

Instructor: William Hitchcock

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pages in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See Professor Hitchcock for more course information.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | War, Violence, and Society

HIST 4501: 20th Century Genocides

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pages in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations/Pathways: Global and Transnational History | War, Violence, and Society

HIST 4890: DMP (Distinguished Majors Program​) Colloquium

Instructor: Bradly Reed

Studies historical approaches, techniques, and methodologies introduced through written exercises and intensive class discussion. Normally taken during the third year. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 4990: DMP (Distinguished Majors Program​) Fourth Year Seminar

Instructor: Bradly Reed

Analyzes problems in historical research. Preparation and discussion of fourth-year honors theses. Normally taken during the fourth year. Intended for students who will be in residence during their entire fourth year.  Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 5559: Race and Slavery at UVA’s North Grounds

Instructor: Christa Dierksheide

This research seminar will explore the historical intersections of slavery, race, and law on UVA’s North Grounds. Class readings, discussions, and field trips will investigate the history of this landscape within a broader historical context of enslavement in Virginia and at the University, land use in Virginia, and the Jim Crow South.  In consultation with the instructors, students will design and complete individual research projects on a topic of their choosing related to North Grounds history.

HIST 7001: Approaches to Historical Study

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions and Emily Burrill

This course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of historical approaches.

HIUS 2001: American History to 1865

Instructor: Alan Taylor

Studies the development of the colonies and their institutions, the Revolution, the formation and organization of the Republic, and the coming of the Civil War.

HIUS 2061: American Economic History

Instructor: Mark Thomas

Studies American economic history from its colonial origins to the present. Cross-listed as ECON 2060.

HIUS 3071: The Coming of the Civil War

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon 

Examines the period from roughly 1815 to 1861 focusing on the interaction between the developing sectional conflict and the evolving political system, with the view of explaining what caused the Civil War.

Concentrations/Pathways: Race, Ethnicity, and Empire | War, Violence, and Society

HIUS 3131: Emergence of Modern America

Instructor: Caroline Janney

This course will examine the years after the Civil War, from 1865 to 1900, a period in which Americans witnessed unprecedented economic expansion that profoundly altered political and social arrangements. It explores how the nation recovered from civil War, how it reconstructed itself, and continued to define the notion of who was an American and who was not. It examines how the nation transitioned from one divided to an emerging empire.

HIUS 3501: Immigration, Race, and Rights in the US

Instructor: Deborah Kang

This seminar will offer an historical examination of the relationships between immigration and race in the United States. The course will ask how migrations to the United States, from 1789 to the present, have shaped and reshaped our conceptions of race, fueled nativist and white supremacist movements, and inspired immigrant movements for racial redress and rights. Students will attain an overview of the major developments in US immigration history from 1789 to the present and the shifts in domestic conceptions of race in this period. It will also introduce students to some of the key turning points in the development of US immigration law and policy, the histories of various immigrant and ethnic communities, and the histories of nativism, racism, and white supremacy.

Concentrations/Pathways: Law and Society

HIUS 3652: African American History Since 1865

Instructor: Kevin Gaines

Studies the history of Black Americans from the Civil War to the present.

HIUS 4501: Gender History of the Civil War

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See Professor Varon or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4501: Historical Fiction

Instructor: Alan Taylor

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 5559: Oral History Workshop: A Hands On Approach to Democratizing the Archives

Instructor: Grace Hale

In this class, graduate students and advanced undergraduates will learn best practices in oral history and associated research methods for democratizing archives.  We will put these skills to work collaborating with local historical research projects, including the Piedmont Environmental Council’s collaboration with Black community groups to document Black land ownership in southwestern Albemarle County. This work will include (if possible, given the pandemic) facilitating community conversations, recording interviews, and doing related research in newspapers, genealogical records, and other sources.

HIUS 7031: Colonial British America

Instructor: Max Edelson

This colloquium offers an introduction to themes, regions, and debates in the history of colonial and Revolutionary America. It will focus on colonization, development, and cultural encounter in early North America, West Indies, and the Atlantic World in the early modern period, ca. 1600-1800, from a variety of historical approaches.

HIAF 1501: Runaways, Rebels, and Revolutionaries

Introductory Seminar in African History

Instructor: James La Fleur

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIAF 2002: Modern African History

Instructor: John Edwin Mason

Studies the history of Africa and its interaction with the western world from the mid-19th century to the present. Emphasizes continuities in African civilization from imperialism to independence that transcend the colonial interlude of the 20th century.

HIAF 3031: History of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Instructor: Amir Syed

This course concerns the trans-Atlantic slave trade, with an emphasis on African history. Through interactive lectures, in-class discussions, written assignments and examinations of first-hand accounts by slaves and slavers, works of fiction and film, and analyses by historians, we will seek to understand one of the most tragic and horrifying phenomena in the history of the western world.

HIAF 3051: West African History 

Instructor: James La Fleur

History of West Africans in the wider context of the global past, from West Africans' first attempts to make a living in ancient environments through the slave trades (domestic, trans-Saharan, and Atlantic), colonial overrule by outsiders, political independence, and ever-increasing globalization.

HIAF 3112: African Environmental History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course explores how Africans changed their interactions with the physical environments they inhabited and how the landscapes they helped create in turn shaped human history. Topics covered include the ancient agricultural revolution, health and disease in the era of slave trading, colonial-era mining and commodity farming, 20th-century wildlife conservation, and the emergent challenges of land ownership, disease, and climate change.

Concentrations/Pathways: Environment, Space, and Society

HIAF 4501: Photography and Freedom in Africa 

Seminar in African History

Instructor: John Edwin Mason

Photography and Freedom in Africa, blends African history, American history, and the history of photography to explore the ways in which both African and western photographers shaped and misshaped the world's understanding of Africa during the era of anti-colonial struggles and the Cold War.

HIEA 1501: Thought and Religion in Early China

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Ellen Zhang

HIEA 1501: Question of "China"

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

HIEA 3111: China to the Tenth Century

Instructor: Ellen Zhang

Surveys the social, political and economic organization of traditional Chinese society, traditional Chinese foreign policy, and major literary, artistic, and intellectual movements.

HIEA 3162: Historical China and the World

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

The course traces China's external relations from antiquity to our own times, identifying conceptions, practices, and institutions that characterized the ancient inter-state relations of East Asia and examining the interactions between "Eastern" and "Western," and "revolutionary" and "conventional" modes of international behavior in modern times. The student's grade is based on participation, midterm test, final exam, and a short essay.

HIEA 3559: A History of Japan from 1945 to Present

New Course in East Asian History

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Lecture course on the history of Japan from the defeat in 1945 to the present. Topics will include the Occupation, the high-growth period, the “Lost Decade” of the 1990s, as well as political, social, and environmental protest movements. Assignments will include short papers, in-class writings, participation, and a final take-home exam.  

HIEA 4501: Cultural Revolution in China

Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Brad Reed

A small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIEU 1502: History, Knowledge, and Sensibility

Introductory Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Allan Megill

Intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEU 2041: Roman Republic and Empire

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

A survey of the political, social, and institutional growth of the Roman Republic, with close attention given to its downfall and replacement by an imperial form of government; and the subsequent history of that imperial form of government, and of social and economic life in the Roman Empire, up to its own decline and fall.  Readings of ca. 120 pages per week; midterm, final, and one seven-page paper; quizzes.  Readings will be drawn from the following: Sinnegan and Boak, A History of Rome (text); Livy, The Early History of Rome; Plutarch, Makers of Rome; Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars; Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome; Apuleius, The Golden Ass, R. MacMullen, Roman Social Relations and a course packet.

HIEU 2061: The Birth of Europe

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

Studies ways of life and thought in the formation of Western Europe from the 4th century a.d. to the 15th. Includes a survey of the development of society and culture in town and countryside, the growth of economic, political, and religious institutions, and the impact of Muslim and Byzantine civilizations.

HIEU 2112: Modern Britain: Kingdom, Empire, Nation

Instructor: Erik Linstrum

This course surveys the history of modern Britain from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the resurgent nationalisms of the present.  Themes include the state-building, overseas expansion, and widening inequality of the Georgian years; the industrialization, urbanization, and increasingly assertive imperialism of the Victorian era; and the problems of war, decolonization, and decline in the twentieth century. 

HIEU 2162: History of Russia Since 1917

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

Explores the collapse of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Communist state. Emphasizes the social revolution, Stalinism and subsequent 'de-Stalinization,' national minorities, and the collapse of the Soviet regime.

HIEU 3021: Greek and Roman Warfare

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

An advanced course for students familiar with the outlines of Greek and Roman History, Greek and Roman Warfare will survey the military history of the classical world from Homeric times to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West.  Themes of the course to include the influence of social and cultural factors on methods of warfare—and vice versa, the birth and development of tactics and strategy, the relationship of technology to warfare, and the evolution of the art of battle description.  Topics will include the nature of Homeric warfare, the Greek phalanx, Greek trireme warfare, the Macedonian phalanx, the rise and evolution of the Roman legion, the culture of the Roman army, the defense of Roman frontiers, suppression of rebellions, the Roman army and politics, and Roman military decline in late antiquity. Reading of c. 140 pages a week, midterm, final, and two seven-page papers, one of which can be replaced with a construction project.

J. Warry, Warfare in the Classical World (U. Oklahoma Pr.), J. E. Lendon, Soldiers and Ghosts:  A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (Yale U. Pr.), V. D. Hanson, The Western Way of War, 2nd ed. (U. Cal. Pr.), Aeneas Tacticus, Asclepiodotus, Onasander (trans. Illinois Greek Club; Loeb Classical Library: Harvard U. Pr.), D. Engels, Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army (U. Cal. Pr.), Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire (trans. Scott-Kilvert; Viking/Penguin), B. Campbell, The Roman Army, 31 BC - AD 227:  A Sourcebook (Routledge), Julius Caesar, The Gallic War (trans. Hammond; Oxford U. Pr.), Josephus, The Jewish War (trans. Williamson; Viking/Penguin), E. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (Johns Hopkins U. Pr.), Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (trans. Hamilton; Viking/Penguin). And a xerox packet with selections from: Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Tacitus.

HIEU 3091: Ancient Law and Society

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

This new course examines the relationship of law and society in classical Athens and ancient Rome:  their legal systems in their respective historical contexts.  Such a comparison allows us to ask, What is law?  What do Athenians and Romans think its role should be?  How effective is law in meeting its goals?  How do law, judicial procedure, legal argument, and legal culture develop over time?  Each system offers fundamental insight into the influence of social norms and politics on the development of law, but also into how societies differ, depending on their legal institutions and legal culture.  Requirements include class discussion, two 5-7 page papers, midterm, final.  Readings will be drawn from extensive selections posted on the course web site, as well as from: Paul du Plessis, Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law (2010); Carey, Trials from Classical Athens (2nd edition, 2011); and J. Crook, Law and Life of Rome (reprint, 2008).

Graduate students interested in this course should plan to sign up for the 9000-level tutorial on Greek and Roman Law, whose meeting time we will determine on the basis of students’ schedules.

HIEU 3501: Film and Memory in Postwar Europe

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor:  Erik Linstrum

This seminar introduces ideas of collective memory, visual culture, and national identity through the study of postwar European cinema. The reconstruction and remembrance of past events, the use of historical narratives to make sense of the present, and the potential for films to function as historical sources are all considered.

HIEU 3692: The Holocaust

Instructor: Victoria Barnett

This course aims to clarify basic facts and explore competing explanations for the origins and unfolding of the Holocaust (the encounter between the Third Reich and Europe's Jews between 1933 and 1945) that resulted in the deaths of almost six million Jews.

HIEU 3802: Origins of Contemporary Thought

This class examines the work of four thinkers who have been massively important in modern thought: Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Martin Heidegger. The span is from Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) to Heidegger’s path-breaking Being and Time (1927), but issues of contemporary relevance will be kept firmly in mind, and these thinkers will all be connected to the wider intellectual and cultural contexts that they reflected and in part also created.

Instructor: Allan Megill

HIEU 4511: Late Archaic Greece

Colloquium in Pre-1700 European History

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

The major colloquium is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the colloquium. Colloquia are most frequently offered in areas of history where access to source materials or linguistic demands make seminars especially difficult. Students in colloquia prepare about 25 pages of written work. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIEU 5011: Late Archaic Greece

Instructor: J.E. Lendon

This course examines the history of Greece in the late archaic age down to the end of the Persian wars (c. 650-479 BC). The course will begin with consideration of Herodotus, our main source for this period, proceed through a set of topics on political, constitutional, social, cultural, and economic history, and end up with systematic reading and discussion of Herodotus’ account of the Persian Wars.  Neglected for the most part are religion, art and archaeology, and literature qua literature. This is an advanced course; it assumes familiarity with the general outlines of Greek History and institutions. HIEU 2031 Ancient Greece or equivalent, is strongly recommended as a prerequisite for undergraduates.

Reading will average 250 pages/week. Requirements will include participation in discussion, oral reports, papers on scholarly controversies, and a final exam.

HIEU 9029: Tutorial in History of Reformation Europe

Instructor: Erin Lambert

Surveys the history and historiography of European Christianity c. 1450-1650.

HIEU 9040: Tutorial in Greek and Roman Law

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

This graduate tutorial introduces students to the details and interpretations of antiquity's two greatest legal systems, although it will be specifically tailored to the needs and interests of the individual students. Readings will be drawn from both primary and secondary sources; students will be expected to master the information provided by the primary sources and write two analytical summaries of recent secondary works.

HILA 1501: Gender, Violence, and Migration

Introductory Seminar in Latin American History

Instructor: Lean Sweeney 

This seminar uses Latin American experiences of migration as the lens through which gender-based violence can be identified, understood, and efforts to combat it highlighted. Students should expect to do some background reading on gender-based violence, the Latin American context, and the societal effects of migration, as well as engage in their own research on a particular topic.  

HILA 2002: Modern Latin America, 1824 to Present

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

Introduces the history of Latin America from national independence in the early 19th century to the present.

HILA 3021: Human Rights in Latin America

Instructor: Lean Sweeney 

Covers issues of human rights violations, defense, reparations, and prevention, from independence movements through the Cold War, neoliberalism, extractivism, racism, and transnational migration, trade and crime.

HILA 3559: Latin America during the Age of Revolution

New Course in Latin American History

Instructor: Nicholas Scott

The creation of this course will allow for the department to boost course offerings in Latin American history. In addition to student demand for Latin American history courses, there is also reasonable demand for more courses focused on race, native history, and the histories of African descended people in the Atlantic World which this course will provide. 

HIME 2002: The Making of the Modern Middle East

Instructor: Christopher Gratien

What historical processes that have shaped the Middle East of today? This course focuses on the history of a region stretching from Morocco in the West and Afghanistan in the East over the period of roughly 1500 to the present. In doing so, we examine political, social, and cultural history through the lens of "media" in translation, such as manuscripts, memoirs, maps, travel narratives, novels, films, music, internet media, and more.

HIME 3192: From Nomads to Sultans: the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1700

Instructor: Joshua White

A survey of the history of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins around 1300 to 1700, this course explores the political, military, social, and cultural history of this massive, multi-confessional, multi-ethnic, inter-continental empire which, at its height, encompassed Central and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa.

HIME 3501: A Global History of Print Before Gutenberg

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Kristina Richardson

In this course we'll learn about printing in ancient Mayan and East Asian societies; in medieval Central Asia, Middle East, and Africa; and in medieval and early modern Europe. We will also learn how technologies moved across continents, connecting different cultures. Ultimately, students should come to see the pre-Gutenberg period as a vibrant and innovative stage in print history.

HIME 9027 - Tutorial in Ottoman History to c. 1820

Instructor: Joshua White

This tutorial surveys the history and historiography of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins through the 18th century. Initial readings introduce major historiographical debates and political, military, and institutional history of the Empire, before moving into the historiography of the 16-18th centuries and current trends in multiple sub-fields. Specific works read and discussed will be shaped in part by interests of students enrolled.

HISA 3003: Twentieth-Century South Asia

Instructor: Neeti Nair

Surveys 100 years of Indian history, defining the qualities of the world's first major anti-colonial movement of nationalism and the changes and cultural continuities of India's democratic policy in the decades since 1947.

HISA 4501: The Partition of India

Seminar in South Asia

Instructor: Neeti Nair

The 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent and the creation of the new nation-states of India and Pakistan have spawned a rich historiography on its causes and still-unfolding consequences. This course aims to provide students with a deep background of communal relations in British India, an overview of the negotiations and tensions that eventually necessitated the partition, and an examination of a few of the transformations that were among its lasting consequences: the wars over Kashmir and the creation of Bangladesh are cases in point. Students will spend the latter half of the semester working on 20-page research seminar papers.

HISA 9022: Tutorial in Modern South Asian History

Instructor: Neeti Nair

In this tutorial we will read and discuss a wide range of texts about South Asia's rich and contentious past. Major topics include change and continuity under colonial rule; law and colonialism; debates over nationalism and the Partition of the subcontinent; and developments in post-colonial South Asia.

HIST 2301: Democracy in Danger

Instructor: William Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan

Democracy is in trouble today. Why? This course explores the growing threats to democracy in the United States and globally. Topics include: the impact of xenophobia, racism and radical nationalism on democracy; the rise of far-right media; the appeal of ethno-nationalism; the growth of White Power militias; legal barriers against voting, immigration and citizenship; as well as the impact of social media and cyber-based disinformation.

HIST 3501-001: Digital Map History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: S. Max Edelson

This workshop introduces students to map history research as well as digital humanities methods using GIS software tools. The focus of our work will be the Seymour I. Schwartz Collection of North American Maps, 1500-1800, an important new collection at UVA’s Small Special Collections Library. Students will research maps in the collection and produce ArcGIS Storymaps that visualizes their findings.

HIST 3501-002: Race, Religion, & Resistance in Atlantic History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Amir Syed

This course introduces students to how historians conceptualize the Atlantic World and approach the entangled histories of Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Students will learn how to ask historical questions, examine issues on the production of historical narratives, and interpret documents.

HIST 3501-003: Sugar in Global History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: David Singerman

The demand for sugar has shaped the modern world. Along with grain, cotton, and oil, it's one of the crucial commodities of the past 500 years, and we only ever seem to want more of it. But is our modern sweet tooth just human nature, or is it a product of larger forces? What are the costs of our craving, to human beings and the nonhuman world? A simple sugar crystal, it turns out, is a window both into global history and into how history works. 

HIST 3501-004: Microhistory and the Historian's Craft

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Joshua White

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIST 4501-001: Using and Abusing Medieval Past in Modern World

Major Seminar

Instructor: Paul Kershaw

Representations of the medieval past are a pervasive – and often problematic – presence in the twenty-first century. This class explores the nature of that exploitation and its past: the ways in which the Middle Ages have been used and abused, from the nineteenth century to the present, placed in the service of political agendas ranging from European and US nation building in the nineteenth- century through to the extremism of today, including ISIS/Daesh and the alt-right. We'll also look at Jefferson's attitude to the medieval past and the ways in which his thinking on the early English past has informed the  UVa's institutional history from its foundation to the events of August 2017. Why do the Middle Ages continue to haunt the world today;  why do they remain a focus of contention, and how has academic scholarship addressed these questions? Ultimately, students will write a substantial  25-30 page research paper (approximately 7,500 – 8,000 words) on a subject of their own selection. Digital projects – rather than traditional written work – of comparable substance can also be pursued in this class, should students possess the necessary skills and training.

HIST 4501-002: Money & Atlantic Empires, 1500-1800

Instructor: Donovan Fifield

This course investigates the emergence and use of currencies in the early modern Atlantic, including the colonial Americas, Europe, and West Africa. Areas of focus include the origins of types of money, debt, currency and the law, mercantilism, commodification, wealth inequality, and the use of monetary policy as a tool of imperial states. 

HIST 4511: Gender, Sex, and Citizenship in Global Perspective

Major Colloquium

Instructor: Emily Burrill

This course explores the historical meaning of citizenship in global contexts and its relationship with gender, sex, race, and ethnicity, from 1790-present. Themes will touch on issues of slavery, empire, decolonization, civil rights, immigration, and more. We will ask: how is citizenship determined, and by whom or what? What rights, privileges or obligations does citizenship convey? What does it mean to lose or be without citizenship?

HIST 4991: DMP (Distinguished Majors Program​) Special Seminar

Instructor: Bradly Reed

Analyzes problems in historical research. Preparation and discussion of fourth-year honors theses. Intended for Distinguished Majors who will have studied abroad in the fall of their fourth year. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 5001: Policy Design and Statecraft

Instructor: Phillip Zelikow

The seminar orients students to the professional world of statecraft by working through historical case studies. Breaking down critical episodes step by step, analyzing the perspectives, information, and choices of different participants, students gain more lifelike education and insight. Applying templates for policy design and assessment, they get more experience working on public problems and learning a lot of history along the way.

HIST 5130: Policy Design and Statecraft

Instructor: Fahad Bishara

The seminar orients students to the professional world of statecraft by working through historical case studies. Breaking down critical episodes step by step, analyzing the perspectives, information, and choices of different participants, students gain more lifelike education and insight. Applying templates for policy design and assessment, they get more experience working on public problems and learning a lot of history along the way.

HIST 5201: Memory and History in the Caribbean

Instructor: Laurent Dubois

This transdisciplinary course explores the layered histories of the Caribbean region and the ways in which that history is remembered in literature and visual art, religious practices, music and performance, and through monuments and museums. As we collectively explore Caribbean history from a variety of forms and different angles, students will also develop a final project, which can take a variety of different forms.

HIST 5559: Reading Marx's Capital

New Course in General History

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Lecture course on the history of Japan from the defeat in 1945 to the present. Topics will include the Occupation, the high-growth period, the “Lost Decade” of the 1990s, as well as political, social, and environmental protest movements. Assignments will include short papers, in-class writings, participation, and a final take-home exam.  

HIST 5621: Genocide

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

Readings and discussion of the history of genocide and other forms of one-sided, state-sponsored mass killing in the twentieth century.

HIST 8001: Master's Essay Writing

Instructor: Christopher Gratien

Master's Essay Writing offers first-year doctoral students in History and those in the JD/MA program a workshop in which to discuss and develop an article-length work of original scholarship. Prerequisite: First-year history Ph.D. students or JD/MA students.

HIST 9101: Readings in Origins of Global Capitalism

Instructor: Fahad Bishara

This tutorial aims to orient students to debates in the history of global capitalism. We will acquaint ourselves with the principal debates and trends in the field, and think through how to design classes under that broad heading.

HIUS 2051: War and the Making of America to 1900

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon

This course examines warfare and military developments in America from the colonial period to 1900. Major topics include debates over the role of the military in society; the motivations and experiences of soldiers; interaction between the military and civilian spheres; the development of a professional army and navy; and the social and cultural context, impact, and legacies of warfare.

HIUS 2559: US Immigration Law & Policy in United States Historial Perspective

New Course in United States History 

Instructor: S. Deborah Kang

This course will provide students with a comprehensive overview of American immigration law and policy from the colonial period to the present.  

HIUS 3011: Colonial British America

Instructor: S. Max Edelson

This course tells the story of British America from an Atlantic perspective. The thirteen colonies that formed the United States were once part of a larger empire that spanned eastern North America and the Caribbean. From 1500 to 1800, cross-cultural encounters among Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans created a dynamic new world. Key topics trade, religion, agriculture, slavery, warfare, and the origins of the American Revolution.

HIUS 3031: The Era of the American Revolution

Instructor: Alan Taylor

Studies the growth of ideas and institutions that led to American independence, the creation of a union, and a distinct culture.

HIUS 3051: The Age of Jefferson

Instructor: Christa Dierksheide

This course uses Thomas Jefferson as a lens to explore the post revolutionary era in the United States (ca. 1776-1830), with a focus on race and slavery, trans-nationalism, imperialism, and legal/constitutional developments.

HIUS 3232: The South in the Twentieth Century

Instructor: Grace Hale

Studies the history of the South from 1900 to the present focusing on class structure, race relations, cultural traditions, and the question of southern identity.

HIUS 3501: Race, Place, and the Schoolhouse

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Erica Sterling

Few things evoke more emotion from the U.S. electorate than assertions of state control over how and where children are educated. Using 20th century black educational history as our guide, students will learn how urban, gender, or cultural historians, for example, use different methodologies to answer similar questions about access, equity, and power.

HIUS 3612: Gender & Sexuality in America, 1865 to Present

Instructor: Bonnie Hagerman

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3853: From Redlined to Subprime: Race and Real Estate in the US

Instructor: Andrew Kahrl

This course examines the history of housing and real estate and explores its role in shaping the meaning and lived experience of race in modern America. We will learn how and why real estate ownership, investment, and development came to play a critical role in the formation and endurance of racial segregation, modern capitalism, and the built environment.

HIUS 4501-001: History of Canada and the US

Seminar in the United States History

Instructor: Alan Taylor

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See Professor Varon or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4501-002: Slavery and the Founders

Seminar in the United States History

Instructor: Alan Taylor

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 6240: Constitutional Law II: Poverty

Instructor: Risa Goluboff

This course will explore the Supreme Court's flirtation with constitutional protection for poor people during the 1960s and 1970s. We will place the Court's efforts in the context of the civil rights movement and ongoing concerns about race. Finally, we will discuss the demise of such protections, the reasons for it, and the recent developments in constitutional interest in poverty, income inequality, and their relationship to racial inequality.

HIUS 7061: Black Intellectual and Cultural Production since the 1960s

Instructor: Kevin Gaines

We’ll explore the intellectual and cultural production of the civil rights/Black power era and its enabling and uneasy relationship with other social movements, incl. feminism and gay liberation, disability rights, the anti-apartheid movement, and demands for economic justice/redress/reparations. A guiding premise in the course will be tensions within the movement giving rise to subsequent Black thought and activism.

HIUS 7621: Topics in United States Gender History

Instructor: Elizabeth Varon

This colloquium will survey foundational and cutting-edge scholarship on the social construction of femininity and masculinity in U.S. history, from the colonial era to 1900. We will explore how gender conventions take shape, and how they are perpetuated and contested. Our readings reconsider key events in women's and gender history such as the Salem witch trials and Seneca Falls convention.

HIUS 7659: Twentieth Century US Cultural History

Instructor: Grace Hale

This readings course introduces graduate students to the theory, methods, and historiography of cultural history through a survey of key texts in twentieth century US history.

HIUS 8755: American Legal History

Instructor: Cynthia Nicoletti

Directed research in selected areas of American legal history.

HIAF 2001: Early African History

Instructor: James La Fleur

Studies the history of African civilizations from the iron age through the era of the slave trade, ca. 1800. Emphasizes the search for the themes of social, political, economic, and intellectual history which present African civilizations on their own terms.

HIAF 3021: History of Southern Africa

Instructor: John Mason

Studies the history of Africa generally south of the Zambezi River. Emphasizes African institutions, creation of ethnic and racial identities, industrialization, and rural poverty, from the early formation of historical communities to recent times.

HIAF 3112: African Environmental History

Instructor: James La Fleur

This course explores how Africans changed their interactions with the physical environments they inhabited and how the landscapes they helped create in turn shaped human history. Topics covered include the ancient agricultural revolution, health and disease in the era of slave trading, colonial-era mining and commodity farming, 20th-century wildlife conservation, and the emergent challenges of land ownership, disease, and climate change.

HIAF 3501: Africa and Virginia, 1619 - Now

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: James La Fleur

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIAF 3559: Muslim Societies in African History

New Course in African History

Instructor: Amir Syed

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of African History.

HIEA 1501: Culture and Society: Imperial China

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Cong Zhang

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEA 1501: A Cultural History of Japanese Monsters

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEA 2011: History of Chinese Civilization

Instructor: Cong Zhang

An intro to the study of Chinese civilization. We shall begin with the earliest human remains found in China & conclude in the present. The goal of this coure is not merely to tell the story of Chinese history, rich and compelling though the story is. Rather, our aim will be to explore what makes Chinese civilization specifically Chinese, & how the set of values, practices, & institutions we associate with Chinese society came to exist.

HIEA 2072: Modern Japanese Culture and Politics

Instructor:  Robert Stolz

An introduction to the politics, culture, and ideologies of modern Japan from roughly 1800 to the present. We will pay special attention to the interplay between Japan's simultaneous participation in global modernity and its assertion of a unique culture as a way to explore the rise of the nation-state as a historically specific form.

HIEA 2091: Korean Civilization to 1900

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

This course covers the history of Korean civilization from its archeological and mythical origins to the late nineteenth century. Together students will examine sources on premodern Korean warfare, society, sex, politics, religion, and culture to understand how this seemingly distant past continues to shape Korea's present and future. We will also explore the influence of Korean civilization on regional and global histories beyond the peninsula.

HIEA 3323: China and the United States

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

The course explores Chinese-American relations since the late 18th century. Starting as an encounter between a young trading state and an ageless empire on the two sides of the Pacific Ocean, the relationship has gone through stages characterized by the two countries' changing identities. The course understands the relationship broadly and seeks insights at various levels.

HIEA 4501: North Korea

Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Joseph Seeley

A small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIEA 4511: China's Borderlands

Colloquium in East Asia History

Instructor:  Xiaoyuan Liu

A small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the colloquium. Most frequently offered in areas of history where access to source materials or linguistic demands make seminars especially difficult. Students prepare about 25 pages of written work. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIEA 9021: Tutorial in 'China in Hot and Cold Wars in Modern Times'. . .

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

This tutorial explores three types of conflicts in China modern experiences: civil wars, international conflicts, and Cold War confrontations. Reading materials include major scholarships on these topics. The class meets biweekly, and the students are evaluated on the basis of participation, short book reviews, and a final paper.

HIEA 9022: Tutorial in "Making of the 'Chinese Nation'". . .

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

This tutorial is about conceptual and political constructions of the "Chinese Nation" in the 20th century. Readings include relevant writings by important intellectual and political figures of 20th-century China and major scholarships on the subject from multiethnic perspectives. The class meets biweekly, and the students are evaluated on the basis of participation, short book reviews, and a final paper.

HIEA 9023: Tutorial in Modern Japanese Thought, Culture, & Politics

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Introduction the history and historiography of modern Japanese Thought, Culture, and Politics. Topics include modernity, empire, the nation-state, war, fascism, and capitalist development.

HIEA 9026: Tutorial in Sources for Imperial Chinese History

Instructor: Cong Zhang

This course introduces students to the major types/genres of materials for the study of Imperial Chinese history, including both official documents and unofficial/literary and artistic works. Its two primary goals are to (1) familiarize students with the large variety of available sources and (2) provide abundant hands-on opportunities for critical reading and textual analysis.

HIEU 1502: History as Knowledge, Media, and Sensibility

Introductory Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Allan Megill

Intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history. This class offers an introduction to the study of history that diverges greatly from the view of historical study that many students receive in high school. The class is also concerned with perceptions of history more generally, in popular culture, in people's memories, and in propaganda. We read three exemplary (and relatively short) history books (by Natalie Davis, Christopher Browning, and Erik Midelfort). In addition, I assign for reading a selection of articles and excerpts from books by prominent theorists who discuss both historical method and the nature of history generally. Authors represented include R. G. Collingwood, Arthur Danto, Louis Mink, Thomas Kuhn, Hayden White, Frank Ankersmit, and Berber Bevernage. Most of these authors are not household names, but especially since 1970 or so, the collective impact of their work has transformed the way we theorists of history think about academic history, about memory, and about the visually often quite impressive "mediated" forms of history that have become increasingly visible in the last 10 or 15 years.

HIEU 2004: Nationalism in Europe

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

This course examines the history of nationalism in modern Europe, from the 1700s to the present day. We will consider the emergence and consolidation of European nation-states in the eighteenth century; nationalist movements and the breakup of empires in the nineteenth; ethnic cleansing and nationalist violence in twentieth-century Europe; as well as the rise of the European Union and its challenges today.

HIEU 2031: Ancient Greece

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

Studies the political, military, and social history of Ancient Greece from the Homeric age to the death of Alexander the Great, emphasizing the development and interactions of Sparta and Athens. Concentrations/Pathways: War, Violence, and Society

HIEU 2102: Modern Jewish History

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

Survey of Jewish history from the seventeenth century to the present, primarily in Europe, but with further treatment of Jewish life in the U.S. and Israel. Major topics include Jewish historical consciousness; patterns of emancipation; religious adjustment; the role of women; anti-Semitism; Zionism; the American Jewish experience; the Holocaust; the establishment of Israel; and Jewish life in Europe after the Holocaust.

HIEU 3041:The Fall of the Roman Republic

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

Surveys the history and culture of the last century of the Roman Republic (133-30 b.c.), emphasizing the political and social reasons for the destruction of the Republican form of government and its replacement by a monarchy.

HIEU 3152: Colonizing the World: The British Empire

Instructor: Erik Linstrum

This course will focus primarily on the 'second' empire in Asia and Africa, although the first empire in the Americas will be our first topic. Topics covered include the slave plantations in the West Indies, the American Revolution, the rise of the British East India Company and its control of India, and the Scramble for Africa. Special emphasis will be placed on the environmental history of our points of debarkation.

HIEU 3390: Nazi Germany

Instructor: Manuela Achilles

Detailed survey of the historical origins, political structures, cultural dynamics, and every-day practices of the Nazi Third Reich. Cross-listed in the German department, and taught in English.

HIEU 3462: Neighbors and Enemies in Germany

Instructor: Manuela Achilles

Explores the friend/foe nexus in Germany history, literature and culture, with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries.

HIEU 3501: Ukraine/Russia: Entangled Histories

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIEU 3501: Crime, Scandal, & Politics in Fin-de-Siecle Europe

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIEU 3812: Marx: As Philosopher & Social Scientist

Instructor: Allan Megill

Introduces the social theory of Karl Marx. What Marx said, why he said it, what he meant in saying it, and the significance thereof. Situates Marx's writing in the context of 19th-century intellectual history. Focuses on the coherence and validity of the theory and its subsequent history.

HIEU 4502: Europe and the World: Intro to European Studies

Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIEU 5559: Comparative Imperialism and Decolonization

New Course in European History

Instructor: Erik Linstrum

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of European History.

HIEU 9025: Tutorial in the Late Roman Republic

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

This tutorial will cover the most tumultuous period in Roman Republican history, that which stretches from 133 BC to the establishment of Octavian (Augustus) as the first emperor in 27 BC.

HIEU 9038: Tutorial in the History of Modern France 

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

This tutorial serves as an introduction to the history and historiography of France and the French empire. Looking at the period since the French Revolution, readings explore themes including revolution, industrialization, urbanization, modernity and mass culture; gender and sexuality; race and religion; and regionalism, and imperial expansion.

HIEU 9039: Tutorial in the History of Modern French Empire

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

An introduction to the history and historiography of the French colonial empire in the modern period. Looking at the period since the French Revolution, readings explore the ideologies, institutions, and practices of French imperialism, the processes of decolonization, and the postcolonial legacies of empire.

HILA 2001: Colonial Latin America, 1500-1824

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

Introduces major developments and issues in the study of Latin American history from Native American societies on the eve of the Spanish Conquest to the wars of national independence in the early 19th century.

HILA 3051: Modern Central America

Instructor: Lean Sweeney

Studies the history of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador from 19th century fragmentation, oligarchic, foreign, and military rule, to the emergence of popular nationalisms.

HILA 9020: Readings in Modern Latin American History

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

This class reviews major trends in the scholarship on modern Latin American history. Students will present assigned books to the class throughout the semester and write a final twenty-page historiographical essay on a topic of their choosing.

HIME 1501: The Ottoman Empire and the Modern Middle East

Introductory Seminar in Middle East History

Instructor: Baris Unlu

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIME 2010: Modern History of Palestine/Israel

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

"This course surveys the history of modern Palestine/Israel. Part I focuses on the Ottoman Empire, early Zionist settlement, British rule, and the Holocaust. Part II focuses on the 1948 War, known as the Israeli ""War of Independence"" and the Palestinian ""Nakba"" (Catastrophe). Part III addresses the Palestinian refugee crisis, ongoing wars between Israel and Arab states, Israeli and Palestinian societies today, and Israeli-Arab peace initiatives."

HIME 3501: Israel/Palestine Through Literature and Film

Introductory Seminar in Middle East History

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HISA 1501: Free Speech and Blasphemy in South Asian History

Introductory Seminar in South Asia

Instructor: Neeti Nair

Introduction to the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussion, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HISA 2003: History of Modern India

Instructor: Neeti Nair

Surveys 200 years of Indian history from the mid-18th century to the present, focusing on the imperial/colonial encounter with the British Raj before Independence, and the social and political permutations of freedom in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since.

HIST 2152: Climate History

Instructor: Christopher Gratien

Climate change is widely regarded as the most important environmental question of the present. This course equips students to engage with the study of climate change from multiple perspectives. Part 1 surveys how understandings of the climate developed and transformed. Part 2 explores how historical climatology lends new insights to familiar historical questions. Part 3 explores the history of environment and climate as political issues.

HIST 2212: ​Maps in World History

Instructor: S. Edelson

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the history of cartography that ranges across the globe from oldest surviving images of pre-history to GIS systems of the present day. It approaches map history from a number of disciplinary perspectives, including the history of science, the history of cartography, critical theory and literary studies, anthropology, historical geography, and spatial cognition and wayfinding.

HIST 3281: Genocide

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

History of genocide and other forms of one-sided, state-sponsored mass killing in the twentieth century. Case studies include the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the mass killings that have taken place under Communist regimes (e.g., Stalin's USSR, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia).

HIST 3501: Race, Religion, & Resistance in Atlantic History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Amir Syed

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIST 3501: The Age of Revolution

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Laurent Dubois

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIST 4400: Topics in Economic History

Instructor: Mark Thomas

Comparative study of the historical development of selected advanced economies (e.g., the United States, England, Japan, continental Europe). The nations covered vary with instructor. Cross-listed with ECON 4400.

HIST 4501: 20th Century Genocides

Major Seminar

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pages in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIST 4890: Distiniguished Majors Program-Special Colloquium

Instructor: Joshua White

Studies historical approaches, techniques, and methodologies introduced through written exercises and intensive class discussion. Normally taken during the third year. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 4990: Distinguished Majors Program-Special Seminar

Instructor: Joshua White

Analyzes problems in historical research. Preparation and discussion of fourth-year honors theses. Normally taken during the fourth year. Intended for students who will be in residence during their entire fourth year.  Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 5501: Cartography of the Americas, 1500-1800

Historical Geospatial Visualization

Instructor: S. Edelson

This workshop introduces advanced humanities students to map history research and geospatial visualization. It features work with maps in Special Collections as well as the production of digital scholarship using ArcGIS software. No experience is expected or required. This course counts as an elective for the DH Graduate Certificate program. Prerequisite: Graduate student or College 3rd or 4th year.

HIST 7001: Approaches to Historical Study

Instructor: Emily Burrill, Jennifer Sessions

This course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of historical approaches.

HIST 7559: Race, Gender, and Empire: The US in the World

New Course in History

Instructor: Penny Von Eschen

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of general history.

HIST 9028: Readings in Indian Ocean History

Instructor: Fahad Bishara

This course introduces students to the historiography on the Indian Ocean in broad terms, placing it within the context of discussions on world history. While the main goal is to develop a deeper knowledge of Indian Ocean history, the bulk of the course is devoted to thinking about how historians conceptualize connectivity across watery spaces and, more fundamentally, how they deal with issues of scale and time in writing trans-regional history.

HIST 9037: Tutorial in Podcasting History

Instructor: Christopher Gratien

Students will explore approaches to "podcasting history" and learn the basic conceptual considerations of the medium. Work will include reading and presenting the work of conventional textual scholars as well as gaining familiarity with methods of recording and producing audio. Alongside the assigned materials, students will work towards a podcast draft aimed at a public audience based on themes in 19th and 20th century global history.

HIUS 2061: American Economic History

Instructor: Mark Thomas

Studies American economic history from its colonial origins to the present. Cross-listed as ECON 2060.

HIUS 3490: From Motown to Hip-Hop

Instructor: Claudrena Harold

This survey traces the history of African American popular music from the late 1950s to the current era. It examines the major sonic innovations in the genres of soul, funk, and hip-hop over the course of the semester, students will examine how musical expression has provided black women and men with an outlet for individual expression, community building, sexual pleasure, political organizing, economic uplift, and interracial interaction

HIUS 3611: Gender & Sexuality in AM, 1600-1865

Instructor: Corinne Field

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3671: African American Freedom Movement, c 1945-Present

Instructor: Kevin Gaines

This course examines the history and legacy of the African American struggle for civil rights in twentieth century America. It provides students with a broad overview of the civil rights movement -- the key issues, significant people and organizations, and pivotal events -- as well as a deeper understanding of its scope, influence, legacy, and lessons for today.

HIUS 3853: From Redlined to Subprime: Race and Real Estate in the US

Instructor: Andrew Kahrl

This course examines the history of housing and real estate and explores its role in shaping the meaning and lived experience of race in modern America. We will learn how and why real estate ownership, investment, and development came to play a critical role in the formation and endurance of racial segregation, modern capitalism, and the built environment.

HIUS 4501: Immigrants in American History and Life

Seminar in United States History

Instructor: S. Deborah Kang

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4501: The History of Black Education in the U.S.

Seminar in United States History

Instructor: Erica Sterling

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4511: Civil War in Myth and Memory

Colloquium in United States History

Instructor: Caroline Janney

The major colloquium is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the colloquium. Colloquia are most frequently offered in areas of history where access to source materials or linguistic demands make seminars especially difficult. Students in colloquia prepare about 25 pages of written work distributed among various assignments. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 5232: Oral History Workshop: A Hands-On Approach to Researching the Past

Instructor: Grace Hale

The course is run as a workshop, a space for students to learn oral history methodologies in a hands-on manner. In partnership with local/regional organizations, students will learn to conduct interviews and related research, which may include completing historical surveys, doing genealogical work, & completing archival or database research. Students will learn new skills while helping expand historical archives and knowledge of regional history.

HIUS 5559: Urban History

New Course in United States History

Instructor: Andrew Kahrl

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.

HIUS 6175: Law in American History: The Twentieth Century

Instructor: George White

A survey of law in American history in the twentieth century. Some topics to be covered include jurisprudence and legal education from Legal Realism through "aw and"; regimes of mass media law; the emergence of administrative law; and several chapters on constitutional jurisprudence from 1930 to 2000, including foreign relations, equal protection, free speech, and due process.

HIUS 7658: Nineteenth-Century American Social and Cultural History

Instructor: Caroline Janney

Reading and discussion of primary and secondary sources.

HIUS 8452: History of the American Administrative State

Instructor: Joy Milligan

This course will explore the development of the American administrative state from the nineteenth century through the present. This course will engage political and theoretical debates over the bureaucratic state's role, and its implications for democracy and inequality. Readings will include work by historians, social scientists, and legal academics.

HIAF 2002: Modern African History

Instructor: John Mason

Studies the history of Africa and its interaction with the western world from the mid-19th century to the present. Emphasizes continuities in African civilization from imperialism to independence that transcend the colonial interlude of the 20th century.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIAF 4501: Gender and Sexuality in African History

Seminar in African History

Instructor: Emily Burrill

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. Seminar work results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies. Covering a selection of readings on the deep historical past to recent times, students will examine how gender and sexuality have shaped key historical developments, from African kingdoms and empires to postcolonial states, from colonial conquest to movements for independence, from indigenous healing practices to biomedicine, from slavery to the modern forms of work. It will also explore the history of different sexualities and gender identities on the continent. 

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History

HIEA 1501: Thought and Religion in Early China

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Cong Zhang

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIEA 1501: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Trauma, History, Memory

Introductory Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Robert Stolz

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; War, Violence and Society

HIEA 2031: Modern China

Instructor: Xiaoyuan Liu

Studies the transformation of Chinese politics, society, institutions, culture and foreign relations from the Opium War. through the post-Mao Reform Era. Emphasizes the fluid relationship between tradition and transformation and the ways in which this relationship continues to shape the lives of the Chinese people.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEA 2101: Modern Korean History: One Peninsula, Two Paths

Instructor:  Joseph Seeley

This course traces Korea's history from its unified rule under the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) to Japanese colonization (1910-1945) and subsequent division into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Republic of Korea (South Korea). It examines how processes of reform, empire, civil war, revolution, and industrialization shaped both Koreas' development and how ordinary people experienced this tumultuous history.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEA 3111: China to the Tenth Century

Instructor: Cong Zhang

Surveys the social, political and economic organization of traditional Chinese society, traditional Chinese foreign policy, and major literary, artistic, and intellectual movements.

Concentrations: War, Violence and Society

HIEA 3172: The Japanese Empire

Instructor: Robert Stolz

This course is an exploration of Japan's imperial project from roughly 1890-1945. We will start by developing a critical theoretical vocabulary with which we will then focus on three recent and important books on Japanese imperialism in East Asia. At the end of the semester we will also look briefly at anti-imperial and decolonization movements as well as the status of the category of 'empire' for analyzing the postwar period.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIEA 9064: Tutorial: Readings in Imperial Chinese History

Seminar in East Asian History

Instructor: Cong Zhang

This course introduces students to the most influential English-language scholarship on imperial China, especially the Tang (618-907), Song (960-1279), and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, in the last century. In addition to familiarizing students with the historiography of this important period, it aims to explore the key issues and developments in political and intellectual life as well as the formation and evolution of social and cultural ideals and practices.

HIEU 1502: The Berlin Wall: Spies and Lies in a Cold War City

Introductory Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

Intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history. This course examines the rise, fall, and afterlives of the Berlin Wall, from the end of the Second World War to the present day. We will consider who built the Berlin Wall; how it divided a united city; and how ordinary people learned to live with the barrier in their midst. We will also explore the shadowy world of spies, lies, and border crossings that sprung up around the Wall, on the front lines of the Cold War. Finally, we examine who, or what, brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as the many ways in which it still lives on today.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; War, Violence and Society

HIEU 2041: Roman Republic and Empire

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

Surveys the political, social, and institutional growth of the Roman Republic, focusing on its downfall and replacement by an imperial form of government, the subsequent history of that government, and the social and economic life during the Roman Empire, up to its own decline and fall.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEU 2101: Jewish History I: The Ancient and Medieval Experience

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

This course surveys the pre-modern Jewish historical experience from antiquity through the sixteenth century.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History

HIEU 2112: Britain since 1688: Nationalism, Imperialism, Modernity

Instructor: Erik Linstrum

This course surveys the history of modern Britain from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the resurgent nationalisms of the present. Themes include the state-building, overseas expansion, and widening inequality of the Georgian years; the industrialization, urbanization, and increasingly assertive imperialism of the Victorian era; and the problems of war, decolonization, and decline in the twentieth century.

Concentration: Global and Transnational History

HIEU 2121: France in the Age of Revolutions, 1789-1871

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

Introduction to French social, political, and cultural history from 1789 to 1871. Examines political struggles from the French Revolution to the Paris Commune, and considers how industrialization, urbanization, mass culture and imperial expansion reshaped relationships between men and women, rich and poor, city and country, artists and audiences, and metropole and colony. Traces changing ideas of nation, citizenship, and democracy.

Concentrations: War, Violence and Society

HIEU 2162: History of Russia Since 1917

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

Explores the collapse of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Communist state. Emphasizes the social revolution, Stalinism and subsequent 'de-Stalinization,' national minorities, and the collapse of the Soviet regime.

Concentrations: War, Violence and Society

HIEU 3505: Hitler

History and Fiction, Topics

Instructor: Manuela Achilles

Detailed survey of the historical origins, political structures, cultural dynamics, and every-day practices of the Nazi Third Reich. Cross-listed in the German department, and taught in English.

Concentrations: War, Violence and Society; Transnatonal and Global History

HIEU 3692: The Holocaust

Instructor: Victoria Barnett

This course aims to clarify basic facts and explore competing explanations for the origins and unfolding of the Holocaust (the encounter between the Third Reich and Europe's Jews between 1933 and 1945) that resulted in the deaths of almost six million Jews.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEU 4501: Roman Empire

Seminar in Pre-1700 European History

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies. This course is cross-listed with HIEU 5051, but the 4501 has different requirements and fulfills the History Major's Seminar requirement.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEU 4502: Stalinism

Seminar in Post-1700 European History

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations: War, Violence and Society

HIEU 5051: Roman Empire

Instructor: Elizabeth Meyer

Studies the founding and institutions of the Principate, the Dominate, and the decline of antiquity. Prerequisite: HIEU 2041 or equivalent.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIEU 9037: Tutorial in Central and Eastern European History

Instructor: Kyrill Kunakhovich

This course introduces students to the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. We will consider topics like the rise of nationalism, the challenges of state-building, the spread of left- and right-wing ideologies, interactions with the "West," and the experience of war and revolution.

HIEU 9038: Tutorial in the History of Modern France

Instructor: Jennifer Sessions

This tutorial serves as an introduction to the history and historiography of France and the French empire. Looking at the period since the French Revolution, readings explore themes including revolution, industrialization, urbanization, modernity and mass culture; gender and sexuality; race and religion; and regionalism, and imperial expansion.

HILA 3021: Human Rights in Latin America

Instructor: Lean Sweeney

Covers issues of human rights violations, defense, reparations, and prevention, from independence movements through the Cold War, neoliberalism, extractivism, racism, and transnational migration, trade and crime.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life; Global and Transnational History; Law and Society

HILA 3501: Race and State in Mexico

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Lean Sweeney

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

Concentrations: Law and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HILA 9020: US-LA Relations, 19th & 20th C

Seminar in Latin American History

Instructor: Thomas Klubock

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. Seminar work results primarily in the preparation of substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIME 2001: The Making of the Islamic World

Instructor: Kristina Richardson

Explores the history of the Middle East and North Africa from late antiquity to the rise to superpower status of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Topics include the formation of Islam and the first Arab-Islamic conquests; the fragmentation of the empire of the caliphate; the historical development of Islamic social, legal, and political institutions; science and philosophy; and the impact of invaders (Turks, Crusaders, and Mongols).

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

HIME 3192: From Nomads to Sultans: The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1700

Instructor: Joshua White

A survey of the history of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins around 1300 to 1700, this course explores the political, military, social, and cultural history of this massive, multi-confessional, multi-ethnic, inter-continental empire which, at its height, encompassed Central and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HISA 3501: Women and Wealth in South Asia 16th-20th Century

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Indrani Chatterjee

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term. This course attempts to understand debates between Indian feminists about the nature of dowry and the legislation intended to prohibit its practice in the late twentieth century. It first establishes the existence of women's wealth as an old concept as well as its practical traces in the early medieval landscape. The primary materials for this part of the course will include inscriptions, visual records, classical prescriptive texts. Then the course will move on to the colonial era of the eighteenth-early twentieth century and trace both court records, judgements and legislation. Finally it will move to twentieth-century feminist debates on the changed nature of property relations, marriages and dowry prohibition.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life

HIST 2014: Facism: A Global History

Instructor: Manuela Achilles

This class studies fascism as an ideology, movement, and regime in a global framework. Thematic perspectives include: the origins and theories of fascism, key terms in the fascist lexicon, motives that brought people to fascism, fascism as an aesthetics and lived experience, and the role of women in fascism. We will also study the historical articulations of antifascism, i.e. groups and individuals who have fought against fascism over the years.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; War Violence and Society

HIST 3352: ​The First World War

Instructor: Christopher Gratien

At the Great War's centennial, we take stock of how it shaped life in the 20th century for peoples around the globe. Movies, memoirs, government reports and other texts throw light on causes of the war, the human carnage of 1914-18, Woodrow Wilson's effort to end war forever with a League of Nations, the demise of liberalism and the rise of fascism and communism in postwar Europe, and the launch of anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa.

Concentrations: Globals and Transnational History; War, Violence and Society

HIST 3501: Digital Map History

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: S. Edelson

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

Concentrations: Enviornment, Space and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIST 3501: Modern Jewish History through Literature and Film

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Caroline Kahlenberg

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIST 3861: Soccer Politics

Instructor: Laurent Dubois

Explores the history of soccer to understand how and why it has become the most popular sport on the planet. We focus on the culture, economics and politics of the sport. Examples are drawn from Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, and include a focus on women's soccer. Class materials include scholarly works, essays, fiction, and film; students work on digital projects related to upcoming international tournaments.

Concentrations: Environment, Space and Society; Global and Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIST 4501: Twentieth Century World

Major Seminar

Instructor: William Hitchcock

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pages in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; War, Violence and Society

HIST 4890: Distinguished Majors Program-Special Seminar

Instructor: Joshua White

Analyzes problems in historical research.  Preparation and discussion of fourth-year honors theses.  Intended for Distinguished Majors who will have studied abroad in the fall of their fourth year. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Distinguished Majors Program.

HIST 5706: Race & Slavery at UVA's North Grounds

Instructor: Randi Flaherty

This hands-on research seminar will explore the historical intersections of slavery, race, and law on UVA's North Grounds. Class readings, discussions, and field trips will investigate the history of this landscape within a broader historical context of enslavement in Virginia and at the University, land use in Virginia, and the Jim Crow South.

HIST 7020: Twentieth Century World

Instructor: William Hitchcock

This graduate seminar for PhD students explores the recent scholarship in international and transnational history of the twentieth century. It exposes students to work on imperialism, ideologies of global war and peacemaking, radical political ideologies of the right and the left, global economic upheaval, genocide, refugee and humanitarian movements, decolonization, modernization, the United Nations, and the post-Cold War world.

HIST 8001: Master's Essay Writing

Instructor: Erin Lambert

Master's Essay Writing offers first-year doctoral students in History and those in the JD/MA program a workshop in which to discuss and develop an article-length work of original scholarship. Prerequisite: First-year history Ph.D. students or JD/MA students.

HIST 8999: Research in History

Instructor: TBA

For master's essay and other research carried out prior to advancement to candidacy, taken under the supervision of the student's adviser.

HIST 9960: Readings in History

Instructor: Jeffrey Rossman

This course is a graduate-level adaptation of an undergraduate course in history. The graduate-level adaption requires additional research, readings, or other academic work established by the instructor beyond the undergraduate syllabus.

HIST 9961: Supervised Reading

Instructor: TBA

Graduate study of the historiography of a particular topic or historical period, equivalent to a graduate-level colloquium course. Prerequisites: Approval of director of graduate studies or department chair.

HIST 9962: General Exam Preparation

Instructor: TBA

In this course, students will prepare for the general examination under the guidance of a faculty examiner. During the course, the student will identify relevant readings; complete and review those readings; and explore the larger questions raised by those readings and their fields more generally.

HIST 9999: Dissertation Research

Instructor: TBA

 For doctoral dissertation, taken under the supervision of the dissertation director.

HIUS 2101: Technologies of American Life

Instructor: David Singerman

From Thomas Edison to Elon Musk, we've all heard stories of heroic inventors. In this course you'll explore a different history of technology: how it's shaped the ordinary lives of Americans, and how ordinary Americans shaped our common technologies. By viewing technology from the bottom-up, you'll learn how to question and challenge the powerful stories about technology that surround us today.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life

HIUS 2201: US Immigration Law and Policy in Historical Perspective

Instructor: S. Deborah Kang

This course will trace the origins of today's immigration policy debates by providing students with a comprehensive overview of American immigration law and policy from the eighteenth century to the present. The course will also explore how state and federal policies impacted a wide array of immigrants, including the Irish, Chinese, and Mexican arrivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Concentrations: Global and Transnational History; Law and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3011: Colonial British America

Instructor: S. Edelson

This course tells the story of British America from an Atlantic perspective. The thirteen colonies that formed the United States were once part of a larger empire that spanned eastern North America and the Caribbean. From 1500 to 1800, cross-cultural encounters among Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans created a dynamic new world. Key topics trade, religion, agriculture, slavery, warfare, and the origins of the American Revolution.

Concentrations: Environment, Space and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3261: History of the American West

Instructor: Alan Taylor

The course examines the relationships of environment and culture and of native and settler peoples in transforming North America west of the Mississippi River, 1750 to present. We will explore the expansion of the United States; its environmental consequences; and the emergence of a mythic culture casting violence as heroic.

Concentrations: Environment, Space and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3411: American Business

Instructor: Mark Thomas

Surveys the rise of the modern corporate form of American business and an analysis of the underlying factors which shaped that development.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life

HIUS 3501: Race, Place, and the Schoolhouse

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Erica Sterling

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life, Law and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3501: Disasters in America from Cholera to Covid

Introductory History Workshop

Instructor: Sarah Milov

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life; Environment, Space and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3612: Gender & Sexuality in America, 1865 to Present

Instructor: Bonnie Hagerman

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3620: All Politics is Local

Instructor: Andrew Kahrl

The history of local government and local politics in shaping American life. Course examines issues, themes, and problems of local democracy in historical and contemporary contexts. Class meetings combine lectures and discussions. Course includes local civic engagement component.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life; Environment, Space and Society; Law and Society; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3654: Black Fire

New Course in United States History

Instructor: Claudrena Harold

This course examines the history and contemporary experiences of African Americans at the University of Virginia from the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the present era.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 3753:The History of Modern American Law

Instructor: Sarah Milov

Studies the major developments in American law, politics, and society from the era of Reconstruction to the recent past. Focuses on legal change as well as constitutional law, legislation, and the common law.

Concentrations: Capitalism and Economic Life; Law and Society

HIUS 4501: History of Canada and the US

Seminar in United States History

Instructor: Alan Taylor

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations: Environment, Space and Society; Global Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 4501: Black Power

Instructor: Claudrena Harold

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

Concentrations: Race, Ethnicity and Empire

HIUS 5559: Monetary Constitution Seminar

New Course in United States History

Instructor: Edmund Kitch

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.

HIUS 7559: Readings in African American History Since 1865

New Course in United States History

Instructor: Kevin Gaines

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.

HIUS 9023: Tutorial in Early American History to 1763

Instructor: S. Edelson

The course examines the historiography of colonial British America and the Atlantic world from the late sixteenth century through the late eighteenth century. It surveys scholarship on the imperial and Atlantic contexts of early modern colonization and focuses on the regional histories of settlement and development in North America and the Caribbean with a special focus on Native Americans and African Slavery.

MSP 3501: Medieval Identities, Cultures, and Conflicts

Exploring the Middle Ages

Instructor: Deborah McGrady

Discussion and criticism of selected works of and on the period. Taught by different members of the medieval faculty. This course will (re)introduce you to the Middles Ages by decentering the common Eurocentric approach and prioritizing instead cross-cultural encounters that profoundly marked over a thousand years of shared history. Four units are planned for the semester: (1) early Iberia as an international center of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian exchange; (2) crusading culture as portrayed in epic poetry, satire, the diary of a Byzantine princess and writings by Muslims living in occupied Jerusalem; (3) travel and discovery as recounted by the well-known Marco Polo as well as globetrotters from Africa and Asia; and (4) an early history of women, studied here through the Arabic epic tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman, writings by the first professional female writer – Christine de Pizan (d. 1431), and the lives of female spiritual visionaries. Our discussions will be enhanced by visits from numerous UVA professors who will discuss their research in relation to our topics. Course assignments include response papers, collaborative class activities, and a final research project that may take the form of a traditional paper, a podcast, or a creative work. This course can satisfy the Second Writing Requirement; fulfills the Artistic, Interpretative, and Philosophical Inquiry; and is required for the Medieval Studies major. No previous knowledge of the Middle Ages is needed.

Concentrations: Global Transnational History; Race, Ethnicity and Empire; War, Violence and Society

Capitalism and Economic Life

HILA 3021, Human Rights in Latin America

HISA 3501, Women and Wealth in South Asia, 16th -20th Centuries

HIUS 2101, Technologies of American Life

HIUS 3411, American Business

HIUS 3501, Disasters in America: Cholera to Covid

HIUS 3753, The History of Modern American Law

Environment, Space, and Society

HIST 3501, Digital Map History

HIST 5706, Race & Salvery at UVA’s North Grounds

HIUS 3011, Colonial British America

HIUS 3261, The American West

HIUS 3501, Disasters in America: Cholera to Covid

HIUS 3559, All Politics is Local

Global and Transnational History

HIEA 2031, Modern China HIEA 2101, Modern Korean History: One Peninsula, Two Paths

HIEU 1502, The Berlin Wall: Spies and Lies in a Cold War City

HILA 3021, Human Rights in Latin America HILA 4501, US-Latin American Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries

HIST 2014, Fascism: A Global History

HIST 3352, The First World War

HIST 3861, Soccer Politics

HIST 4501, Twentieth Century World

HIUS 2201, US Immigration Law and Police in Historical Perspective

Law and Society

HILA 3021, Human Rights in Latin America

HILA 3501, Race and State in Mexico

HIUS 2201, US Immigration Law & Policy in Historical Perspective

HIUS 3501, Race, Place, and the Schoolhouse

HIUS 3559, All Politics is Local

HIUS 3753, The History of Modern American Law

Race, Ethnicity, and Empire

HIAF 2002, Modern Africa

HIEA 2031, Modern China

HIEA 2101, Modern Korean History: One Peninsula, Two Paths

HIEA 3172, The Japanese Empire

HIEU 2041, Roman Republic and Empire

HIEU 3692, The Holocaust

HIEU 5061, Roman Empire

HILA 3021, Human Rights in Latin America

HILA 3501, Race and State in Mexico

HIME 3192, From Nomads to Sultans: The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1700

HIST 3501, Digital Map History

HIST 5706, Race & Slavery at UVA’s North Grounds

HIUS 2201, US Immigration Law and Police in Historical Perspective

HIUS 3011, Colonial British America

HIUS 3261, The American West

HIUS 3501, Race, Place, and the Schoolhouse

HIUS 3559, All Politics is Local

HIUS 3654, Black Fire

HIUS 4501, Black Power

War, Violence, and Society

HIEA 1501, Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Trauma, History, Memory

HIEA 2031, Modern China

HIEA 2101, Modern Korean History: One Peninsula, Two Paths

HIEU 1502, The Berlin Wall: Spies and Lies in a Cold War City

HIEU 2121, France in the Age of Revolutions, 1789-1871

HIEU 2162, Russia since 1917

HIEU 3692, The Holocaust

HIEU 4502, Stalinism

HILA 3021, Human Rights in Latin America

HILA 3501, Race and State in Mexico

HIST 2014, Fascism: A Global History

HIST 3352, The First World War

HIST 4501, Twentieth Century World