Note: Not all courses listed will necessarily be offered each year. All courses are three hours a week.
This course is specifically designed for first semester history majors, to introduce them to the history department, different kinds of historical inquiry, and the basics of historical research. Further, it exists to create a cohort of the new history majors, both through participating in this class together and by working in small groups.
This course explores different forms of contact between peoples and civilizations during the Middle Ages. It will consider political, economic, social, and cultural forms of adaptations and interactions throughout an increasingly intertwined world.
This course explores the history of imperialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas from 1415 to 1783. It will consider political, economic, social, and cultural forms of imperial exchanges and their lasting impact on our contemporary world.
An overview of the major events and movements during the first half of the 'short' twentieth century. The course will broadly explore the impact of the world wars, communism, fascism, colonialism, the Great Depression, etc. The geographical focus of the material will vary with the instructor.
An overview of the major events and movements during the second half of the ‘short’ twentieth century. The course will broadly explore the impact of the Cold War, communism, decolonization, globalization, terrorism, etc. The geographical focus of the material will vary with the instructor.
Topics of current interest in history, which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit if content changes.)
A survey of Europe from the Age of Discovery to the French Revolution. Areas of study will include the formation of a world economy, the industrial revolution, the rise of the nation state, popular culture, the Catholic and Protestant Reformations, the printing revolution, the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and the Enlightenment.
A survey of Europe from the French Revolution to the present. Areas of study may include political ideologies, revolution, imperialism, world wars, Cold War, and European Union.
This course builds on historical skills and knowledge of the discipline introduced in HIST-1030. It emphasizes skills in research, assessing evidence, analyzing primary sources, bibliographic skills, and other tools needed for writing history papers. It will also introduce students to public history, digital history, and the ethics of research. At a larger level, it helps students think critically about the past and to recognize the way historians interpret the past and use evidence. (Pre-requisite: HIST-1030 or consent of instructor)
A survey of England’s transition from a medieval realm to a modern state. Areas of study may include relations with Scotland, Ireland and Europe, as well as dynastic, religious, and constitutional change.
A survey of Britain’s experience of industrialism, imperialism and post-colonialism. Areas of study may include political and social reform, the world wars, the welfare state, and the European Union.
This is a survey course that examines the development of a distinctive Islamic civilization over the course of four centuries in southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and portions of Central Asia. The lectures will emphasize the following themes: the formation of Islamic civilization as a long-term and gradual process engaging in by the conquering Arab Muslims and their conquered subjects; the diversity of expressions of Islamic culture and religious practices; and the important role played by historical memory in the formation of Islamic culture.
This is a survey course that explores the middle and early modern periods of Islamic history from 1000 to 1800 C.E. The middle period was one of continuing change and innovation as new political and religious institutions were developed. Throughout this period, the influence of Islamic civilization continued to expand to new regions including sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. From 1500 to 1800 C.E., Muslims founded the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. The subjects of these empires adopted new technologies and new patterns of trade as participants in the developing new world economy. The close of the course will be devoted to considering growing European dominance over these empires over the course of the eighteenth century, and the military and reforming modernizing schemes adopted by Muslims in response.
This survey course explores the history of the modern Islamic world. The dissolution of early modern empires led to a loss of sovereignty for most Muslims. The very serious challenges of colonialism, Zionism, war and civil war, and the impact of the oil economy were part of the Islamic world's encounter with modernity. So was the activism in the public and private spheres with which these challenges were met including the adoption of civil law codes, the creation of new national identities, Islamic reform movements and debates about gender and the role of women driven by intellectuals and elites. The final weeks of the course will address the tumultuous twenty-first century in the region, the Arab Spring and Political Islam in its various forms.
An overview of the evolution of military conflict during the last one hundred years. In addition to traditional military history, this course will introduce many facets of the New Military History, such as the social history of soldiers, life on the homefront, gender and war, etc.
A survey of the history of documentary film, from the development of moving pictures in the late nineteenth century to the present, with emphasis on the economic, social, and political context in the development of the documentary film genre, and the emergence of documentary filmmaking in all parts of the world. An introduction to major documentary films, and to the main stylistic schools that have defined the genre.
An overview covering Indigenous societies, European colonialism, and the emergence of the Canadian federation. Areas may include Indigenous-newcomer relations, colonial culture and society, imperial conflict, and the origins of confederation.
An overview of the development of the Canadian federation. Areas may include competing visions of the Canadian “nation”, relations with Indigenous peoples, industrialization, social change, as well as shifts in politics and political culture.
Indigenous peoples and their impact on the history of what is now known as Canada. Areas will include an overview of Indigenous nations, and the changing dynamics of the relationship between the first peoples and Europeans.
Indigenous peoples and their impact on the history of what is now known as Canada. Areas will include relations with the state, cultural, land and resource issues, politics and protest movements.
A social history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Indigenous, Black, immigrant, and native-born white women's roles in paid and household labour, family and cultural life, and reform movements will be examined.
An exploration of the collective action of women in the past and present in North America. Areas of study may include women's involvement with the temperance, civil rights, suffrage, trade union, environmental, reproductive rights, and women's liberation movements. (Also offered as Women's and Gender Studies ICWG-2510.)
The political, economic, social, and cultural history of the American colonies and the United States from the pre-contact era to the end of Reconstruction. Areas of focus may include Indigenous-European relations, the American Revolution, industrialization, reform movements, slavery, imperial expansion, and the Civil War.
The political, economic, social, and cultural history of the United States since Reconstruction. Areas of focus may include the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, imperial expansion, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, the World Wars, the Cold War, the rights revolution, the rise of neoliberalism and evangelicalism, the “War on Terror,” and the MAGA movement.
Nation-states in Spanish America, Brazil and the Caribbean, from the revolutions of independence to the present. Covers patterns of political and economic development shared throughout the continent. Country and thematic focus may vary from year to year, and may include the Haitian, Mexican, and Cuban revolutions, modern military dictatorships, resources and the environment, and gender and ethnic relations.
Examines the ways in which crime and criminal justice were shaped by the societies in which they occurred and the ways in which they changed as these societies changed.
Topics of current interest, which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with consent of an advisor in History.)
This course introduces third-year History students to the formative schools of historical thought that are the bases for contemporary practices of history as a discipline. The focus is on critically analyzing the major historiographical themes and debates since the 1960s. The specific geographical/temporal areas of the course material will vary with the instructor. (Pre-requisites: HIST 1030 and HIST 2030).
This course is a historical study of gender in Islamic History, from Late Antiquity to the present. We will begin the semester considering the creation of Islam’s foundational discourses on gender and their relationship to the practices of the pre-Islamic world and particular conditions of the Arab conquests. In the centuries that followed these discourses were shaped by regional differences. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to the transformation of those discourses in the modern period in response to internal and external change. Themes of the course are: discourses of gender were constructed in ways usually disadvantageous to women; the relationship of gender systems to other hierarchical social structures such as class, ethnicity and age; both women and men had an essential role in preserving and constructing the gender systems of their society; and the ways in which women and men were able to exercise agency in overcoming or transcending limitations of the dominant discourses on gender.
This course examines the various and distinct ways in which women experience war and peace, in both historical and contemporary contexts. Topics include home fronts during wartime in both combat and non-combat zones, women's peace activism, displacement, war crimes against women, women in combat, and media coverage of women and war/peace across the 20th and 21st centuries. (Also offered as Women's and Gender Studies ICWG-3400.) (Pre-requisite: One 2000-level Women and Gender Studies or History course, POLS-2600, or consent of the instructor.)
This course examines the evolving relationship between British North America/Canada and the United States from the end of the American Revolution (1776–1783) to the present. It explores the many ways in which people, communities, and governments on both sides of the border have interacted across political, economic, social, and cultural boundaries. Topics include Indigenous nations and colonial borders, imperial and international conflicts, diplomacy, cross-border trade and economic integration, migration, borderland communities, and the exchange of ideas, cultures, and identities. Through these themes, students will gain a deeper understanding of the historical forces that have shaped one of the world's longest and most significant international relationships.
The development of the Canadian labour movement and the working-class experience from the nineteenth century to the present. (Also offered as Labour Studies ICLS-3490.)
This course explores the history of race and slavery in North America from a transnational perspective. Specific topics under discussion will include Indigenous and African slavery, the transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples, the role of religion, the influence of gender, family life, resistance, and abolitionist movements. The course will also compare and contrast understandings of race and slavery in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as well as the movement of both free and enslaved peoples throughout the continent.
This course will foreground the experiences of Black people living in Canada and the United States from 1877 to the present. Specific topics under discussion will include the social construction of race, the development of the historiography associated with Black history, segregation, cross-border connections, labour and employment, the transnational civil rights movement, women, sports, culture, empowerment, and ongoing systemic issues.
Selected themes in the political and social history of the United States from the end of World War II to the present.
An investigation of North American popular culture from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics of study may include sports and masculinity, youth culture, media representations of women, “the Sixties,” the impact of cinema and television, and popular music.
This course will explore the various ways in which history is currently being learned, studied, researched, created, manipulated, and enjoyed on the internet today. Students will both interrogate and analyze these various uses, as well as participate in each approach to history on the web, including creation.
A project-based course in which students do historical research as the basis for non-fiction storytelling and design, with an emphasis on practical approaches to creating monuments, documentary films, podcasts, websites, museum shows, and corporate and community heritage sites. Students develop typical public history projects based on an analysis of existing examples, combining research, storyboarding and design in a workshop environment. (This is an experiential learning course.)
Topics of current interest which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with consent of an advisor in History.)
An intensive exploration of the theory and practice of learning and leadership which includes a practical component where students will mentor first-year students in a first-year course. Mentorship and Learning introduces students to learning theory, learning styles, group facilitation and effective leadership, critical thinking/reading and information literacy. Students will weave theory and practice throughout the semester, leading small group breakouts of first-year students. (Restricted to students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with at least Semester 5 standing, with consent of the instructor.) (A one-semester, 3-credit course offered in the Fall term.) (Also offered as GART-4000 and SOSC-4000.) (Credit can only be obtained for one of GART-4000 or SOSC-4000 or HIST-4000.) (3 lecture/3 lab hours a week.) (This is an experiential learning course.)
A social history of medicine, including non-Western and unorthodox traditions, with a cross-cultural focus on healers and an emphasis on the evolution of the allied health professions. Topics may include the consolidation of biomedicine, women and indigenous healers, the modern hospital, and the patient's perspective.
This course is designed to introduce students to four strands of thought in the history of constructing the life and legacy of the prophet Muhammad. These are: the traditional Muslim account of his life; a variety of approaches to the topic by modern social scientists; traditional delegitimizing of Muhammad in historic Western European polemics and their modern equivalents; and the role that Muhammad plays in the beliefs and practices of modern Muslims.
This course looks at the foundation, development and interaction of the different European empires (Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, British) in the Americas and Africa from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Topics include encounters with Africans and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, cross-cultural exchanges, circulation of peoples, ideas, and commodities, migration, missions, conversion, and slavery.
The impact of modernity on politics and the Canadian state. Topics may include political culture and ideology, political and social movements, and the beginning of state intervention in society.
The changing relationship between the state and society during and after the Second World War. Topics may include the politics of post-war planning, the welfare state, nationalism, and political and social protest movements.
This course will explore the political, economic, social, and cultural history of North America from an imperial perspective. Topics under discussion will include Indigenous understandings of the region, Indigenous-European relations, labour and slavery, women and gender, inter-imperial relations in the borderlands, and the emergence of unique national and imperial identities in the late eighteenth century.
This course examines the history of British North America from the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776 to the Confederation of Canada in 1867. Specifically, it examines the interactions between the various colonies that made up British North America (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island) and the northern United States. Using a continental approach to Canada’s history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this course focuses on these cross-border links. It addresses many topics, including colonial wars, political loyalties and cultural identities, migration, trade, diplomacy, American perceptions of British North America and its residents, and the transnational origins of Canadian Confederation. (This is an experiential learning course.)
The expansion of United States’ power throughout the Global South (emphases may vary according to the expertise of the professor, but will include consideration of the Americas, Africa, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East) from the late eighteenth century to the present. Topics will include transcontinental and overseas expansion, colonial warfare and resistance, the construction of racial and national identities, gender in an imperial context, and borderland cultures.
This course treats films as historical documents. Distinct from film history, that is the study of the history of cinema. The course pairs more “traditional” historical research materials with what became the dominant cultural medium of the twentieth century. Films function as both historical artefacts (objects implicitly capturing moments in time) and as historical narratives (mediums explicitly disseminating points of view relevant to the time of production). Engaging with films at both levels, students will be expected to examine the experiences, values, politics, and social identities within a particular period and/or as they relate to a specific historical theme.
This course will explore the political, military, cultural and social history of the First World War and surrounding period, primarily in Germany, France, and Britain, but including some attention to Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. The course will address the historiography of the Great War, with a focus on the experience of the war for soldiers, for women on the home front, for artists, and for those under occupation.
This course explores the theory and practices of Public History, including the ways in which history is communicated to the wider public by museums, cultural institutions, heritage sites, archives, film, social media, advertising, and national parks. Topics may include approaches to digital history, curating, digitizing archival documents, and exhibit design and presentation.
This practicum provides students in the History program with the opportunity to apply learned concepts and theory to a practical setting and become further familiarized with Public History. Students will be placed in organizations in the Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent regions related to their area of interest in Public History (e.g., museums, historical societies, heritage sites, etc.), and will be expected to dedicate a total of 100 hours to both in-class and on-line learning, and practicum components of the course.
This course introduces students to the history of southwestern Ontario and metropolitan Detroit from the pre-colonial era to the twentieth century while emphasizing the methods and practices of historical research. Students will develop skills in locating, analyzing, and interpreting a wide range of primary and secondary sources, with particular attention to local archives, maps, government records, newspapers, oral histories, and digital collections. Through course readings and discussions, students will examine topics such as pre-colonial Indigenous history, the founding of Detroit and the French presence in the region, eighteenth-century imperial transitions and the creation of the international border, Indigenous treaties and settler–Indigenous relations, the War of 1812, slavery, the Underground Railroad, Black history in the Detroit–Windsor borderlands, industrialization, urbanization, environmental history, cross-border economic and cultural connections, transportation, immigration, and collective memory. Research assignments will provide opportunities to apply historical methods using local and regional sources.
Topics of current interest which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with consent of an advisor in History.)