History Courses

MWF 13:00 - 13:50

This course provides an overview of world history from c. 400 to c. 1400 with an emphasis on social and cultural history. Topics will include medieval European Christianity and culture, the Islamic Golden Age, Indigenous cultures in the Americas and Africa, and dynastic empires in China and India.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

History 111 is a survey of the religious, political, and intellectual development of world civilizations from the 15th to 19th century. Topics may include: the Renaissance, the African slave trade, the conquest of the Americans, the Ottoman Empire, etc.

LEC A01: TR 11:00 - 12:20
LEC A02: TR 14:00 - 15:20

This course looks at the role of technology throughout history; from cars, rockets, and trains to AI, nuclear power, and metaverse, this course brings together the past, present and future.

MWF 9:00 - 9:50

Drawing on global examples from the ancient world and present day this course explores the causes, impacts, and experiences of disease in human history.

 TR 11:00 - 11:20

This course examines the social, cultural, and political histories surrounding humanity’s use of criminalized drugs like opium, marijuana, amphetamines, and cocaine. Throughout the course, students will consider the blurry lines between licit “medicines” and illicit “drugs”, cultures of drug consumption, and the efforts to fight production and distribution.

TR 9:30 - 10:50

History 134 will survey the history of alchemy in several ancient cultures. From making gold to curing all disease, developing supernatural powers, or attaining immorality, the transmutation of matter lies at the heart of alchemical endeavor.

MWF 13:00 - 13:50

This course gives students a basic introduction to the types of sources we have for understanding the premodern past and the methods and disciplines used to study them. We will engage with a variety of sources in class, including literary works, architecture, and visual and material culture.

TR 9:30 - 10:50

Europe made the modern world. It created the most dynamic and influential model of social and cultural development which dominated globally until the end of the 20th century. Like any historical phenomena of such magnitude, European civilization has two sides. On the one hand, one can see the ideas of progress, principles of human rights and equality, an efficient economy, and great scientific and cultural achievements. On the other, one sees imperialism, colonialism, racism as well as totalitarian ideologies and two world wars. The united Europe has been a golden dream of many generations of intellectuals and politicians. However, today it faces numerous challenges that are diminishing its global influence. The course aims to introduce students to the key events, processes, ideas, and actors that have shaped and reshaped Europe over the past two and half centuries. Important themes include empire, nation, region, identity, and modernization.

TR 12:30 - 1:50

This course will discuss various themes relating to the histories of Europe. Themes may include: the effects of disease and climate change, international relations, religious violence, the enslavement of non-Europeans in the development of European colonial systems, revolutions, and war.

TR 09:30 - 10:50

History 250 covers a broad survey of the history of the United States through the year 1865.

Online Asynchronous

This course is an introduction to the history of what would become Canada up to and including Confederation in 1867. Topics will include ancient histories of North America, Indigenous societies, the fur trade, disease, war, colonization, western settlement, and confederation.

MWF 10:00 - 10:50

This course is an introduction to the history of what would become Canada from the time before Indigenous peoples and Europeans came into contact up to Confederation in 1867. It is about individuals, families, communities, and bigger things beyond individual control such as business, climate, culture, disease, home life, migration, religion, work, and war.

MWF 11:00 - 11:50

This course positions students to understand the major social, political, cultural and economic currents that have shaped diverse histories in what’s now widely known as Canada since the late 19th century.

MWF 13:00 - 13:50

This course offers a survey of the history of East Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam to 1500.

TR 12:30 - 13:50

China has enticed and eluded Western imaginations ever since Marco Polo’s reports of an exotic land of fabulous wealth reached Europe at the turn of the fourteenth century. This course surveys the development of Western perceptions and misperceptions of China from Polo’s time to our own. Through readings drawn from Western travel accounts, philosophy, literature, and journalism from different historical periods, students will be exposed directly to the shifting terms in which Westerners have constructed their China and the Chinese and how those images have in turn influenced international relations.

TR 15:30 - 16:50

What is India? What are its ancient roots? And what was its formative period, in which its sciences, philosophical traditions, classical literature, and ancient religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) were shaped?

This course introduces topics in the history and culture of early India, from its prehistorical past to roughly around 500 CE. We will discuss the emergence of Vedic culture, religion, and society; urbanization, the first Upanishads, and the birth of breakup religions such as Buddhism; The Mauryan Empire and its famous King Ashoka; the creation of Yoga, the composition of the Sanskrit epics, the emergence of poetry and of the philosophical systems; and end with the Gupta Empire and its so-called "Golden Era."

TR 9:30 - 10:50

This discussion-based course introduces some of the central issues, debates, theories, practices and dilemmas of the academic discipline of history as well as the fields of Public History and Museum Studies. One central concern will be the relationship between the sources historians use and the narratives historians create using these sources.

TR 11:00 - 12:20

History 290 is an introduction to the academic discipline of History, including an examination of the central issues, debates, theories, practices, and controversies that have come to shape the field. Throughout the semester, we will discuss historiographical developments, understanding the different ways historians have argued and written about the past.

MWF 11:00 - 11:50

In the course of World War II around 60 million people died, and the War is the largest human-made catastrophe in history. During History 296 students will develop a broad familiarity with the major developments, issues and themes of the history of World War II.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

Christianity is one of the world’s most widespread and enduring religions. This course will explore the history of Christianity as a world religion, from its beginnings in Palestine to its current global diversity. This is not a theology course and although doctrine will be discussed to a limited extent, the focus will be on critical study of Christianity’s historical significance.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

Topic: Russia from 1985 to Present

The course will examine the last years of the Soviet Union (1985-1991) as an introduction, followed by the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin, and the lengthy period under Vladimir Putin from 2000 to the present. We will focus on economic and social problems, political issues, and the lengthy wars in Chechnya (1994-2002) and Ukraine (2014-present). The fundamental questions we will ask are: why was democracy unsuccessful in Russia? How did Russia become an authoritarian state? How do Russians view the Western world? Can we define contemporary Russian identity?

MWF 14:00 - 14:50

Topic: Medieval England

This section of HIST 300 explores medieval England from the withdrawal of the Roman Empire in the early 400s to the end of the War of the Roses in the late 1400s. Through a combination of historical and scholarly sources, we will examine politics, daily life, religion, and popular culture.

TR 9:30-10:50

Topic: A Society in Motion: Austria from Empire to Republic

This course traces the history of Austria across the twentieth century —rom the collapse of the Habsburg Empire through fascism, war, and occupation, to the consolidation of the Second Republic and the transformations of recent decades. Students will explore the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped modern Austria, with migration and mobility serving as an organizing thread throughout. Topics include the end of empire and the interwar crisis, Austrofascism and National Socialism, postwar reconstruction and the Cold War, labor migration and economic transformation, and Austria's place in a changing Europe after 1989. The course combines lecture with primary source analysis and discussion, and is designed for students with no prior background in Austrian or Central European history.

TR 11:00 - 12:20

You won’t find “Eastern Europe” on a political map. Instead, you will see a multitude of large and small countries located in the historical/geographical regions of the Baltis and East-Sentral Europe. All of them have something important in common. They have been identified as borderland countries and peoples. Geographically, they occupied a place between the Baltic and Adriatic Seas as well as the Carpathian and Ural Mountains. Historically, their lands were both a meeting place and contested territory for global empires, religions, and civilizations. The meaning of these last two imaginary entities was constantly changing. So too were the boundaries and identities of the borderland countries and peoples. “Eastern Europe” is an elusive and fascinating object of study, constantly shifting its names, boundaries, and identities.

TR 12:30 - 13:50

This course surveys the multicultural history of women and gender in the United States from the colonial era through the twentieth century. We will examine historical writings, primary sources, and film to better understand the experiences of women and the meanings of gender over the past 400 years.

TR 11:00 - 12:20

Topic: Immigration Canada

This course examines the issues of immigrants, refugees, and/or ethnic minorities since the late nineteenth century. Immigrants and their descendants often created a “transnational space” between their homelands and Canada in order to prepare themselves for the new country and to fight against discrimination and racism. This course will look at how ethnic leaders maintained the ethnic sphere and negotiated with Canadian “mainstream” laws, regulations, and norms, focusing on several issues in Canadian history, including racism, segregation, and internment in the 20th century.

TR 14:00 - 15:20

Explore the history of Rupert’s Land and the North-West from time immemorial to the early 20th century. Examine colonial expansion, treaty-making, and land dispossession alongside Indigenous diplomacy, sovereignty, and resistance.

MWF 13:00 - 13:50

Have you ever noticed that histories of Indigenous Peoples are often hidden or subsumed with broader narratives of non-Indigenous Peoples and concerns? What do Indigenous Peoples’ understandings of their own histories add to our broader understandings of this place now known as Canada? How do we access these histories, especially when we may only have non-Indigenous sources? This course grapples with the how and the why of Indigenous histories, and places these in conversations relevant to us today.

TR 14:00 - 15:20

This course will cover the transformation of China from around 1800 to the present. All histories are contested, and the course will emphasize critical interrogation of historical narrative, with a view to depending our understanding of China’s place in today’s world, and the competing claims within which China’s place in the world is framed.

TR 12:30 - 13:50

This course provides an overview of world history from c. 400 to c. 1400 with an emphasis on social and cultural history. Topics will include medieval European Christianity and culture, the Islamic Golden Age, Indigenous cultures in the Americas and Africa, and dynastic empires in China and India.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

This class considers the history of the world since the beginning of the 19th century. Through a broad examination of key events around the globe over the last few hundred years, HIST 112 will offer a look into the dimensions - whether economic or political, cultural or social - which have driven the development of the modern world. Structured around primary source material and examination, students will leave with an understanding of the history-making process.

MWF 10:00 - 10:50

Delve into the world in which we live and some of the main problems and questions that currently occupy us with an emphasis on the interaction of states/events and peoples.

LEC 850: Online Asynchronous

LEC B01: TR 11:00 - 12:20

This course looks at the role of technology throughout history; from cars, rockets, and trains to AI, nuclear power, and metaverse, this course brings together the past, present and future.

MWF 11:00 - 11:50

The history of colonization in the Americas, European-Indigenous encounters, and the transatlantic slave trade that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the early modern era, emphasizing economic, political, social and cultural legacies.

TR 09:30 - 10:50

History 124 offers an introduction to the history of sexuality in the United States. From colonial courtrooms, to underground ballrooms, and internationally broadcasted drag competitions, this course will highlight the frequently overlooked narratives of those whose sexual identities subverted social norms.

TR 09:30 - 10:50

The construction of a compelling story is fundamental to the discipline of history. Video games intentionally and unintentionally bend, borrow, and break history to shape the stories they tell. Whether set in Ancient Rome, the French Republic, or the American south, games make arguments about the past. This course provides students with tools, theories, and experience needed to place games within a larger discussion of history.

TR 09:30 - 10:50

History 203 will survey the history of modern computing, dating from the 19th century all the way to the turn of the 21st century. Students will focus on how the computer became a ubiquitous part of modern life, and the ways in which computing has affected scientific, business, and everyday activities.

TR 09:30 - 10:50

The development of global capitalism through an exploration of historical changes in trade, markets, ideas, work, consumption, and government policies.

TR 15:30 - 16:50

This course is a survey of medieval Europe from c. 300 to c. 1200. Topics include medieval Christianity, the Crusades, book culture, medieval kingship, and more. There will be optional opportunities for guided visits to the University's special collections library to view and handle books from the Middle Ages.

TR 11:00 - 12:20

This course is an exploration of the 1923-1933 famine in Ukraine in the broader context of 20th century starvation and famine, mass atrocity and genocide, survivor experience and testimony, and Societ and world history. Through a nuanced, comparative study of some of the worst tragedies in human history – and the efforts of interested parties to either memorialize or to deny them – the goal of this course is to develop a background for understanding the deep crises currently afflicting our planet, and an appreciation for both heroism and the horror that humanity can display in times of hardship.

 TR 14:00 - 15:20

A survey of Latin American history since 1810.

MWF 10:00 - 10:50

This course is an introduction to the history of what would become Canada up to and including Confederation in 1867. Topics will include ancient histories of North America, Indigenous societies, the fur trade, disease, war, colonization, western settlement, and confederation.

MWF 15:00 - 15:50

This course covers Canadian history from 1867, the year of Confederation, to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. It combines political, social, cultural, and gender history approaches to the study of Canada’s past. Topics may include: Indigenous peoples, federal politics, society and gender, war, activism , regional politics, and Canadian culture.

MWF 9:00 - 9:30

History 281 will provide a survey of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam) from 1500 to the present.

R 12:30 - 15:20

Throughout this course we will examine the idea of historiography, specifically how history has been and is approached, discussed, analyzed, and written about in the past and present. We will examine how historians go about researching the past, including how they use sources, formulate arguments and communicate in written form.

W 14:00-16:50

Required for history majors, this course is an introduction to theory, method and research in history. Exploring leading developments in historiography and methodology from the eighteenth century to the present day, this course will include practical instruction in research skills, the analysis of sources, and citation.

TR 12:30 - 13:50

Throughout the course, we will examine the First World War primarily as a European war with wider global consequences. Rather than provide a straightforward military history of the First World War, this course will be concerned with the wider economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions of the war and especially how ordinary soldiers and civilians experienced unprecedented mobilizations and catastrophic violence.

TR 14:00 - 15:20

History 296 will examine the global conflict, with an emphasis on the political, social, scientific, and cultural aspects.

TR 11:00-12:20

Topic: Nationalism in Central Europe

This course will offer an introductory thematic overview to the ideas and politics of nationalism in Central Europe, from the Napoleonic Wars to today. Using case studies from the lands east of France and west of Russia, lectures will focus on questions such as: What is a nation? Who is part and not part of a nation? What makes and/or breaks nations? What is nationalism’s relationship to violence?

TR 9:30-10:50

Topic: Autocracy Ascendant: National Socialism in Central Europe

This course examines how a democratic society can collapse into autocracy, using the rise of National Socialism as its central case. Tracing the movement's emergence in Germany and its spread across Central Europe — with particular focus on Austria, Czechoslovakia, and neighboring states — the course shows how the erosion of democratic institutions and the systematic exclusion of targeted groups escalated into war and genocide, costing the lives of millions. Students will examine the mechanisms and speed of this democratic collapse, and reflect on its consequences for postwar Europe and beyond.

TR 14:00 - 15:20

This course is designed to acquaint students with sainthood during the Middle Ages. Throughout, we will explore changing trends in what led people to venerate particular people as saints and examine how concepts of sainthood changed in response to developments in Christianity.

TR 11:00 - 11:50

HIST 310 sketches some themes associated with the histories of the Habsburg Dynasty and its members’ political holdings from approximately the eleventh through the early twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on the Central European branch of the dynasty in the period from approximately 1526 to 1918.

MWF 9:00 - 9:50

Beginning with the Muscovy’s institutional and ideological ‘matrix’ and proceeding to the Russian “long 19th century” via Peter the Great’s and Catherine the Great’s epochs with their respective reforms and revolutions. Modernizations and its peculiarities in Russia is the central problem of this course and this course will acquaint students with the intellectual tradition of Russia since the history of ideas has always played a central role in its political and social life.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

This course deals with the history of 20th century Russia. Social, political, economic development; motivations, policies, obstacles and achievements are emphasized.

TR 9:30-10:50

Topic: Latin America & the Caribbean

This course provides students with the historical tools to analyze history as it is presented in movies.

TR 14:00 - 15:20

This course is an in-depth exploration into the history of Black life in the United States from the era of early settlement to the Black Power movement.

MWF 12:00 - 12:50

This course examines selected themes of the histories of Indigenous Peoples in what is now known as Canada after 1870. It addresses and challenges settler-colonialism from Indigenous perspectives. Drawing on Indigenous voices and perspectives, the course examines how historic and ongoing colonial structures have displaced Indigenous peoples from their lands, imposed change, and also reinforced cultural continuity. It also highlights how Indigenous peoples have actively shaped and resisted these events and structures demonstrating the ways Indigenous peoples have made Canada.

MWF 14:00 - 14:50

Canada is often thought of as a peaceful country. But before the 20th century many wars were fought here between Indigenous people, the French, the English, and the Americans. Beginning in 1900, many Canadians went overseas to fight in wars large and small, hot and cold, and to maintain peace through military power. Within Canada wars did not flare up again, but the possibility loomed. We will cover the breadth of this history, with a focus on the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the 1885 Rebellion, and the First and Second World Wars. Topics discussed will include the causes of war; the experiences of men and women as soldiers, supporters, and bystanders; technological change; and the legacies and remembrance of wars once concluded.

MWF 9:00 - 9:50

This course explores key questions about how people lived their lives and understood their experiences in what’s now widely known as Canada during the period starting in 1945. This was a period characterized by huge changes along social, cultural, environmental, and economic lines, and grappling with this period leaves us better positioned to understand the world we live in today.

TR 12:30 - 13:50

Topic: TBD

MWF 11:00 - 11:50

How did Japan evolve from samurai society to a modern nation-state? Why did Japan emerge as a fascist nation, leading to World War II? What did Japan learn from its colonialism? How did Japan achieve the economic miracle, and what were the consequences? This course deals with the history of modern Japan since the Tokugawa Era, focusing on how Japan’s nationalism has shaped social, political, economic and technological development, motivations, policies, obstacles, and achievements.

TR 14:00-15:20

Topic: History of India Through Food

What is considered food, how is the cooking done, what is a permissible drink, how and with whom can one dine, and how does diet change over time? These are some questions that influence our understanding of the history of every society and nation. In this course we will explore India’s history through food.