Fall 2023 Undergraduate Courses

HIST 11100: World History to 1500
Instructor: Melson/ Tue-Fri 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
This is a survey of the history of human civilization from the end of the Stone Age to 1500 CE. The course examines the concept of civilization, the emergence of the earliest civilizations, and the distinctive features of ancient cultures, societies and governments. Other topics include the expansion of contacts among the early centers of urban society, and the emergence of civilizations in what had originally been peripheral regions. Particular attention is paid to the development of the religious and intellectual traditions of several classical civilizations, and the influence these traditions have had on later societies. The course ends roughly around 1500, on the eve of the tremendous changes that came about in the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world as a result of the European explorations and conquests that began with the voyages of Columbus.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American and Prior to 1800

HIST 11300 (W): 20th Century World
Instructor: Bhagavan/ Tue-Fri 1:00 – 2:15 pm
This course is designed to introduce students to major themes in the world’s history during the twentieth century. Some of the questions explored during the term include: What are the drivers of integration and unification? What forces have been divisive? What have been major fault lines of conflict? What visions have advocated peace and justice, and in what way?
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American

HIST 12100: Early Modern Europe
Instructor: Melson/ Tue-Fri 4:00 – 5:15 pm
The early modern period saw the Renaissance, the Reformations, the Age of Discoveries, the invention of print, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Contemporary observers interpreted these events as harbingers of new times, and speculated how society should or will be organized in the future. This course reads the major transformations of early modern Europe through the lens of these utopian visions. As we will see, the expectations of contemporaries were often not realized. Yet their writings reveal how scholars, priests, newswriters and ordinary people experienced and hoped to shape the world they were living in.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
For History Majors: Counts as European and Prior to 1800

HIST 12200 (W): 19th and 20th Century Europe
Instructor:  Spritzer/ Mon-Th 8:30 am -9:45 am
Instructor:  Mëhilli/ Tue 10:00 – 11:15 am (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
History of modern Europe between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering Western, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The focus of this course is upon political history but topics related to economy, culture and the arts are included as well. We start with the French Revolution of 1789 and complete the course with the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union in 1991. We will analyze how the concept of Europe changed over time; how colonies turned into nation states, and how these nations transformed during the modern era; why, how, and when some states adopted totalitarian models; and how colonialism and totalitarianism came to an end in Europe after WWII. Themes include: the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars, romanticism, liberalism, socialism and Marxism, 1848, empire and nation states, European imperialism, WWI, interwar radicalism, Nazism, fascism, and Stalinism, WWII, the Holocaust, cold war, European Union, the collapse of communism, and the creation of a new Europe. Lectures will be supplemented by weekly readings from the textbook and primary sources. Students will learn to work with primary sources and incorporate them into historical analysis.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
For History Majors: Counts as European
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 14166 (W): Russian Foreign Policy
Instructor: Casper/ Mon-Thurs 4:00 – 5:15 pm
This course examines Russia's international engagements and entanglements over the past two centuries. Devoting particular attention to the country's territorial expansion and clashes with neighboring empires, the course will consider policy continuities and divergences in Russia's actions on the global stage. Topics to be addressed include the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars, the Great Game, the sale of Alaska, the conquest of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the building of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, the Comintern and the interwar Left, World War II, the Cold War, the dissolution of the USSR, the rise of illiberal democracy, the annexation of Crimea and frozen conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and 2016 US presidential election. Readings will be drawn from scholarly books and articles, as well as select primary sources.
For History Majors: Counts as European
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 15100: United States from the Colonial Era to the Civil War
See general schedule for sections, instructors, day/times and MOIs
American political, social, and cultural history from the early period of European settlement to the conclusion of the Civil War.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (US Experience).
These sections will NOT be offered as writing intensive
For History Majors: Counts as US and Prior to 1800

HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War to the Present
See general schedule for sections, instructors, day/times and MOIs
American political, social, and cultural history from the Civil War to the present. Among the subjects covered are the struggles for justice of African Americans and women; the expanding scope and power of the federal government; and the increasing engagement of the United States with the world.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (US Experience).
These sections will NOT be offered as writing intensive
For History Majors: Counts as US

HIST 208: History of the Jews
Instructor: Ruben/ Mon-Th 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
The History of the Jews surveys almost 4000 years in one semester. Beginning with the origins of the Jewish people in the biblical period, it will look at Jewish identity as it evolved over time. We will examine Jewish life in the Greco-Roman world, the Medieval diaspora communities of Babylonia, Spain and Northern Europe. After the expulsions from much of Christian Europe by the end of the 15th century, Jews made new homes in the Ottoman Empire, Eastern Europe and eventually in Amsterdam and the New World. We will examine the gradual secularization of European society that allowed for a partial reintegration of Jews into Western Europe and the radical impact this process had on Judaism itself. Finally earning emancipation, thoroughly acculturated Western Jews faced new challenges with the rise of Modern anti-Semitism. These virulent new trend culminated in the Holocaust. In its aftermath came the rise of the State of Israel and the remarkable growth of the American Jewish community. What were the key beliefs and practices that defined the Jewish people in each period? What did Jews share or learn from their neighbors during periods of cultural openness? How did they contrast their identity with those of their neighbors? This overview offers an opportunity to understand the continuities and discontinuities that characterized the Jewish people over this long history.
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American

HIST 25004 (W): US Latino History
Instructor: Contreras/ Mon-Thurs 4:00 – 5:15 pm
This course surveys the histories and diversity of Latino communities in the United States from the colonial era to the present. It considers the legacies of conquest, imperialism, and colonialism; processes of racialization, (im)migration, and labor market participation; and the predicaments of citizenship and Americanization. It also focuses on community formation; civic action and social movements; and the cultural politics surrounding gender relations, family life, and sexuality.
For History Majors: Counts as US
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 25015: Rabbis, Radicals and Racketeers: Jewish NYC
Instructor: Welt/ Mon-Thurs 4:00 – 5:15 pm
How have Jews shaped the history of New York? As we will see in this course, New York’s Jews profoundly shaped the city’s experience during the American Revolution, the debate over slavery and the Civil War, large-scale immigration and machine politics during the Gilded Age, New Deal governance during the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement and today’s modern urban social debates. This course will survey the Jewish history of New York City with a particular emphasis on their political and cultural impact while tracing the rise of America’s largest metropolis over three centuries.
For College: Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
For History Majors: Counts as US This section will not be offered as writing intensive.

HIST 25013 (W): History of Humanitarian Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa
Instructor: Rosenthal/ Tue-Fri 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
Instructor: Rosenthal/ Tue-Fri 4:00 – 5:15 pm
What does it mean to give ‘humanitarian aid’? Who receives aid and why? This course is designed to offer students a historical understanding of humanitarian action that, while centered geographically in sub-Saharan Africa, is applicable in a global framework. Beginning with the evolution of the concepts of ‘humanitarian’ as well as ‘aid,’ we will explore the motivations behind humanitarian endeavors through the era of the slave trade, colonialism and the present. We will also examine how terms such as ‘refugees,’ ‘peacekeeping,’ ‘famine,’ and ‘gender,’ have evolved in humanitarian discourse, and the consequences of these processes for aid endeavors. Throughout, questions will be posed regarding the interactions between humanitarian aid, international relations, exploitation, and violence. The focus of this course is both local and global—we will analyze international humanitarian policy as well as the effects and perceptions of humanitarian aid within different African localities. We will consider how notions of power and objectivity affect both the site of aid inception as well as implementation. Students having completed the course will acquire the skills to think critically about humanitarian aid and its role in local, regional and global contexts.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 25022: Gender in Modern Jewish History
Instructor: Welt/ Mon-Thurs 11:30 am - 12:45 pm
Gender has a played a pivotal role in the major turning points of modern Jewish history. This course will explore how Jewish men and women, informed by intra-Jewish debates and interactions with the empires in which they lived, constructed the gendered norms of the larger Jewish world. This course will pay particular attention to the ways in which Jewish women carved out spaces in politics, economic activity, and religious life across the Jewish diaspora in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Students will also grapple with how Jewish masculinity has been conceived and performed during different moments of modern Jewish history. As the course probes Jewish encounters with the rise of global capitalism, the forging of imperial networks and nation-states, mass migrations, and Zionist state-building, students will learn how gender integrally shaped the modern Jewish experience.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
This section will not be offered as writing intensive.

HIST 25072 (W): Christianity to Reform
Instructor: Melson/ Tue-Fri 10:00 – 11:15 am
This course examines the first 1500 years of Christianity’s existence as a religion in Europe, the Mediterranean, and West Asia, beginning with its origins in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in the 1st century and culminating in the Reform movements of the early 16th century. The first third of the course traces the history of the earliest days of institutional Christianity, from the time of Jesus, through the many theological debates plaguing the early churches, to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. The second part looks role of institutionalized Christianity in the post-Roman world, as it fulfilled social functions and created cultural structures that ordered medieval life. The final third of the course surveys the evolution and diversity of Christian belief and practice in the Late Middle Ages, culminating with the early Protestant movements.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 25086 (W): Women in the U.S. to 1869
Instructor: May/ Tue-Fri 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
Description TBA

HIST 27100: Early Latin America
Instructor: John/ Tue-Fri 10:00 – 11:15 pm
This course provides an overview of the early political, economic, cultural and social history of Latin America (1490s to 1820s). The course encompasses the history of Spanish America as well as Portuguese Brazil, but emphasis will be on the former. Among the topics covered are pre-Columbian indigenous societies in the Americas; the personal, regional and transnational impact of the encounter between European, African and Native peoples; evolving land, labor and production arrangements; Christian evangelization and the role of the Catholic Church in colonial society; the character and reach of imperial authority; racial, ethnic, caste and gender relations; popular resistance and protest; and the ideological and material underpinnings of emergent independence movements in the early 19th century.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American

HIST 27800 (W): East Asia 1600 to Present
Instructor: Belsky/ Tue-Fri 1:00 – 2:15 pm
A survey history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from 1600 AD to the present day. The course examines the cultural, economic and material attainments of the Qing empire, and the Choson, Tokugawa and Nguyen regimes. We trace the rising presence of Western powers in East Asia during this period, note the differing challenges and varied responses in these different regions to Western challenges, examine the fall of traditional polities and the rise of new ones. Finally we examine the reconstructed modern East Asian identities, the renegotiated power relations (among East Asian states and vis-à-vis the international order), the rise of new and types of political orders, as well as economic developments and cultural trends. Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
For College: Fulfills CUNY Common Core (World Cultures).
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 29000: History Practicum (W)
Instructor Roldán / Mon. 2:30 – 3:45 pm (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
Instructor Bhagavan/ Tue 10:00 – 11:15 am (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
Instructor Hett / Mon-Thurs 10:00 – 11:15 am
A writing intensive seminar intended to help history majors develop their skills as historians. Each section of this course may focus on a different historical theme and so students will encounter different readings and topics. But in all sections of this course students will learn to locate, critically assess, and interpret primary sources, both textual and non-textual; analyze and critique a range of secondary sources for both methodological and historiographical purposes; and develop, draft, and revise a strong and effective research paper by learning how to construct a thesis, organize a paper, devise a bibliography, and cite sources following the Chicago Manual of Style.
Writing Intensive Course (W)
Prereq: ENGL 12000; 6 cr in history and declared history major.

HIST 30900: Jewish History in the Ancient World
Instructor: Ruben/ Mon-Thurs 1:00 – 2:15 pm
This course will survey the first 1500 years of Jewish history from its biblical origins to the crystallization of the rabbinic Judaism.  It will address how Judaism evolved through the biblical, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, early Christian and Babylonian periods, influenced by all the cultures in which Jews found themselves.  Through an examination of primary sources (in translation) and a variety of scholarly essays, we will examine which elements of Judaism endured and which changed to address the concerns of each period.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American and Prior to 1800

HIST 32900: History of European Diplomacy
Instructor: Mëhilli/ Tue. 4:00 – 5:15 pm (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
What is power? Who enables it? Can it be completely taken away? Can a big state lack power? Can a small state effectively exercise power? How? Are states the only legitimate sources of power? Can anyone else have it? In tackling these questions, this course offers a broad overview of modern European international relations since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Major themes include international stability and instability, ideas and ideology, alliances, world war, the establishment of international organizations, Cold War confrontation, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the making of post-Cold War Europe. Students will engage with a variety of texts, including original sources, and they will be expected to actively participate in debates on major themes.
For College: Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
For History Majors: Counts as European

HIST 33600 (W): Germany Since 1914
Instructor: Hett/ Mon-Thurs 1:00 – 2:15 pm
This course is an introduction to the major themes in German history in the 20th Century. We will cover such topics as the impact of the First World War, the incredible culture of the Weimar Republic, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the Second World War, and Germany’s place in the Cold War. The course will place particular emphasis on understanding the controversies which have arisen out of Germany’s turbulent recent past, and on encouraging students to develop their skills in participating in such arguments. We will also put much emphasis on reading and understanding primary texts: eyewitness accounts from people involved in these dramatic historical events.
For History Majors: Counts as European
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 34108 (W): US Colonial History to 1763
Instructor: Gelfand/ Tue-Fri 1:00 – 2:15 pm
This upper-level, writing-intensive (W) course explores the fascinating history of colonial North America from initial encounters between Native Americans and Europeans in the sixteenth century through the Seven Years’ War in the 1750s.
Through the study of Spanish, French, Dutch, and English settlements in North America, the course emphasizes themes of encounter, exchange, conflict, and community, while embracing both a continental approach and Atlantic world framework to understand what historians have increasingly come to call “Vast Early America.” The worlds of familiar historical figures, such as Pocahontas and Anne Hutchinson, and some, who are perhaps less well known, like Olaudah Equiano and Petrus Stuyvesant, will be examined in this wide-ranging course that looks at settlements from Santa Fe to Boston and Quebec to Saint Augustine. Equally sweeping is the thematic approach of the course, which covers topics including European-indigenous relations, slavery and race, religious culture, commercial activity, and gender construction. Seminal events like Bacon’s Rebellion, King Philip’s War, the Salem Witch Trials, the Great Awakening, and the Stono Rebellion will also be examined.
For History Majors: Counts as US and Prior to 1800
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3411F (W): Cold War
Instructor: Mëhilli/ Tue 11:30 am – 12:45 pm (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
The Cold War evokes images of an imminent military confrontation and the terrifying prospect of nuclear weapons deployment. The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was intense, its impact profound. But competition between the two super-powers also extended to other areas and had global repercussions. This seminar examines these entanglements. Rather than exhaustive in coverage, it underscores the relationship between centers and peripheries. The European theater is central to our discussions, but we will also venture beyond it. Central themes include the making of a Communist world system from Eastern Europe to East Asia, the rise of China in global affairs, Third World revolutions and solidarity, economic advising and technological exchange, reform and failure, the unexpected dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the legacy of Cold War conflicts in the world we live in today—from the Balkans to Afghanistan.
For History Majors: Counts as European Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3412R (W): Modern China and the World: History of Chinese International Relations
Instructor: Rick Belsky/ Tue-Fri 10:00 – 11:15 am
This course focuses on the history of modern China’s interaction with the world. It includes such topics as China’s place in the emerging world trade system of the late 16th century, Qing-period (1644-1911) expansion into predominantly non-ethnically Han Inner Asian territory and efforts to define territorial boundaries. It covers late-imperial conceptions of proper foreign relations, Qing attempts to respond to growing Western presence, China’s nineteenth century struggles with imperialism, semi-colonialism, and the legacy of China’s “Century of Humiliation”. The bulk of the course focuses on China’s evolving interactions with the world during the twentieth century and thereafter.  Topics covered include the impact of the two world wars on China’s standing internationally, republican China’s diplomatic legacy, the vicissitudes of China’s foreign policy under Mao Zedong, China’s re-engagement with the world in the post-Mao reform period, and more recent efforts to redefine the international system in ways perceived to be more conducive to policy goals of the contemporary Chinese party/state. Both state-to-state interactions and the role of non-governmental actors in international relations are considered. Student assignments include a medium-length (10 to 12 page) term paper that allows students to explore in more depth a relevant topic of their choosing.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3411Y (W): Africa in the Cold War
Instructor: Rosenthal/ Tue-Fri 1:00 – 2:15 pm
This course centers the history of sub-Saharan African states and peoples during the Cold War.  Such histories reveal how struggles over decolonization fundamentally altered the “balance of power” following World War Two—in Africa but also in Europe and the United States.  Tensions over what kind of nations would emerge from colonization in Africa became central to conflicts over control—of people and of resources—in Africa.  We will explore struggles over communism and capitalism, democracy and development, through case studies ranging from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ghana and Angola (among others). Through such analysis, students will explore the history of how Cold War rivalries impacted different African communities, and how those contestations in turn affected the tenor of the Cold War itself.
For History Majors: Counts as World, Non-Western, Latin American
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3412L (W): Civil Rights, Hip Hop and Racial Justice
Instructor: Haywood/ Tue-Fri 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years ...That sounds like a choice.” Rapper Kanye West came under fire for these comments. In 1966, Martin Luther King declared that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” was “my own government.” He faced a national backlash. Are these two men, their ideas, effect on society, and the generations they represent more similar than we think…or worlds apart? This class explores this question, among others. This class critically engages written and visual texts, ranging from King’s writings to Malcolm X’s autobiography to Jay-Z’s Decoded, alongside civil rights documentary footage and rap videos. These diverse sources will challenge students to interrogate questions of Black leadership, Neoliberalism, “movement music,” and the Black freedom struggle from the Civil Rights era to the Post-Civil Rights era, and possibly, the Post-Hip Hop era.
For History Majors: Counts as US
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3412M (W): The Sounds of Black Folks: Debating Aural History
Instructor: Haywood/ Tue 4:00 – 5:15 pm (Hybrid, with additional online work each week)
When scholars conduct research, they may spend much of that time combing through archives containing documents left behind by some well-known or obscure historical actor in order to tell some compelling story about the past or present. Recently, however, scholars have rightly called the archive into question, arguing that what makes it into the archive and becomes a part of the historical record has a lot to do with power and privilege: who does and does not get access to the written word? What about silences in the archive, or when certain voices can be accounted for but not others? What about violence in the archive, that it is no accident that certain voices are preserved while others are deliberately erased? What if these crucial gaps help the archive maintain the hegemony and racial hierarchies of the white supremacist project, and therefore require decolonization and dismantling? This course answers these important questions with “Sonic Scholarship.” In other words, where there are silences in the archive, Sonic Scholarship unearths, recovers, imagines, and represents critical voices and soundscapes. This class fuses the academic and artistic, the critical and creative, to challenge students to interrogate questions of the historical record, state power and white supremacy, racial justice, the possibilities of popular culture as a political and autonomous space, Black activism and public rhetoric and speech-making, Neoliberalism, and the connections between Black soundscapes and liberation politics, using, perhaps, a people’s archive—what this course posits as “aural” history. Working through diverse readings, documentaries, films, close listenings, discussions, soundscapes and lyrics that center on Black people’s freedom struggles from the Civil Rights era to Black Lives Matter, assignments involve critical writing, research, creative thinking, and live student performances. Students will leave the course with a “usable history” that empowers them to produce research and knowledge in textual and sonic form intended to raise a critical voice at this present historical moment.  
For History Majors: Counts as US
Writing Intensive Course. (W)

HIST 3412O (W): Violence in 20th Century Europe
Instructor: Casper/ Mon-Thurs 2:30 – 3:45 pm
The twentieth century was marked by profound shifts in Europe’s social, political, and ethnic profile: centuries-old dynastic empires were recast into nation-states, communism, fascism, and democracy vied with each other for ideological predominance, and during two world wars previously-untold levels of violence were visited upon civilian populations. This course explores the interplay between the transformations that reshaped the European order and the repressions, ethnic cleansings, and genocides that accompanied – and in many instances drove – these processes. This is therefore not only a history of the creation of contemporary Europe through widespread killing and displacement, but also of the ways in which governments and individuals sought to set right the wrongs of their recent past.
For History Majors: Counts as European
Writing Intensive Course. (W)