Note: Not all courses listed will necessarily be offered each year. All courses are three hours a week.
This course is 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 is specifically designed to create a cohort of the new history majors, both through participating in the class together, and more specifically, by working in small groups with an upper year history undergraduate mentor or graduate assistant through weekly breakout sessions as well as a semester-long group project.
This course looks at the different forms of contact between Europeans and the rest of the world during the Middle Ages, focusing on conflict and coexistence with Islam. It will consider exchanges between civilizations, whether of an economic, cultural, artistic or spiritual nature. Topics include Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and Venice.
This course looks at the different forms of contact between Europeans and the rest of the world during their first period of imperial expansion (15th-18th Century). Special attention will be paid to the discovery, conquest and settlement of India, Asia, and the Americas, as well as the relationship of Europeans with native populations of these continents.
An overview of the major events and movements during the first half of the 'short' twentieth century. The course will broadly explore the world-wide impact fo the world wars, communism, fascism, colonialism, the Great Depression, etc. The geographical focus of the material will vary with the instructor. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
An overview of the major events and movements during the second half of the 'short' twentieth century. The course will broadly explore the world-wide impact of the Cold War, communism, decolonization, globalization, terrorism, etc. The geographical focus of the material will vary with the instructor. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
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. (3 lecture hours a week.)
A survey of Europe from the French Revolution to the present. Areas of study may include political ideologies, revolution, imperialism, World War, Cold War, and European union. (3 lecture hours a week).
This course builds on historical skills and knowledge of the discipline introduced in HIST 1100. It emphasizes skills in research, assessing evidence, analyzing primary sources, bibliographic skills, and others 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) (Anti-requisite: HIST 2030)
A survey of England's transition from a medieval to a modern state. Areas of study may include relations with Scotland, Ireland and Europe, as well as dynastic, religious, and constitutional change. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours/1 tutorial hour a week.)
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. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours/1 tutorial hour a week.)
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: 1) the formation of Islamic civilization as a long-term and gradual process engaging in by the conquering Arab Muslims and their conquered subjects; 2) the diversity of expressions of Islamic culture and religious practices; and 3) the important role played by historical memory in the formation of Islamic culture.
This is a survey course that explores middle and early modern periods of Islamic history from 1000-1800 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 continuted to expand to new regions including sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. From 1500-1800 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 18th century, and the military and reforming modernizing schemes adopted by Muslims in response. 3 lecture hours per week
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. (3 lecture hour, or 2 lecture hours/1 tutorial per week.)
This course is an overview of the major historical shifts in Africa during the pre-modern period (700-1800 AD). Its purpose is to introduce the student to Africa and the Africans: the space and its occupants.
Main topics include climatic and linguistic maps, major networks of trade and communication, the cultivation of the 'Semitic' heritage (Christianity and Islam) and its impact on African experiences and relations with the rest of the world.
A survey of the history of documentary film, from the development of moving pictures in the late 19th 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. (Prerequisite: At least semester 3 standing.)
An overview of covering Aboriginal societies, European colonialism, and the emergence of the Canadian federation. Areas may include native-newcomer relations, colonial culture and society, imperial conflict, and the origins of confederation. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
An overview of the development of the Canadian federation. Areas may include competing visions of the Canadian "nations", relations with Aboriginal peoples, industrialization and social change, and shifts in politics and political culture. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
Aboriginal peoples and their impact on the history of Canada. Areas will include an overview of aboriginal nations, and the changing dynamics of the relationship between the first peoples and Europeans. (2 lecture, 1 lab hour per week.)
Aboriginal peoples and their impact on the history of Canada since 1850. Areas will include relations with the state, cultural, land and resource issues, and the politics and protest movements. (2 lecture, 1 lab hour per week.)
A social history from the period of Native-European contact to the mid-nineteenth century. Work, family and sexuality, cultural ideals, and political status and activism among women of Native, African and European origins will be examined. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
A social history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Native, black, immigrant, and native-born white women's roles in paid and household labour, family and cultural life, and reform movements will be examined. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
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 Studies WGST 2510.) (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
The social, economic, and political history of the British North American colonies and the United States. Areas may include Native-European contact and conflict, the growth of the British Empire, slavery, the American Revolution, industrialization, reform movements, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
The social, economic, and political history of the United States since Reconstruction. Topics may include urbanization and immigration, Progressive reform, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the World Wars, McCarthyism, civil rights and women's liberation, the Vietnam War, and the end of the Cold War. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour a week.)
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. (Restricted to History, Forensics, and Forensic and Criminology Majors.)
Topics of current interest selected by the area which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with consent of a program advisor in History.)
An introduction to the social, literary and technological aspects of the book in history. Surveys the oral/manuscript culture of Western Europe, assesses the print culture of early-modern and modern Europe and North America, and addresses contemporary publishing. (3 hours per week, lecture and discussion.)
This course introduces third year History students to the formative schools of historical thought that are the basis 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.
This course is a historical study of gender in Islamic History, with special emphasis given to the modern Middler East and Afghanistan.
We will examine the role of gender systems at different times and places in Islamic history through primary sources.
Some themes of the course may be 1) the ways in which discourses of gender were constructed in ways usually disadvantagous to women. Though careful attention must be paid to important differences in time and place; 2) The relationship of gender systems to other hierarchical social structures such as class, ethnicity and age; 3) women and mens' roles in preserving and constructing the gender systems of their society; and 4) the ways in which women and men were able to exercise agnecy in overcoming or transcending limitations of the dominant discourses on gender.
A study of European intellectual, cultural and artistic life from the 14th to the 16th century. Centered around the notions of Humanism and the revival of Greco-Roman Antiquity, special attention will be given to Italy and the Germano-Flemish lands, but areas of study will also include Spain, France, Eastern Europe, and the Ottoman empire.
This course explores the nature and terms of West Africa's interaction with the Atlantic commercial system that materialized after European colonization of the Americas.
It revolves around the birth, growth and demise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1600s-1800s). The major themes cover the rationale and mechanics of this slave trade, and its impact on the African side of the Atlantic system.
Students will be introduced to the general parameters of academic discourses on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its legacy. (at least Semester 4 standing or Permission of instructor.)
This course explores the imposition and liquidation of European colonialism in Africa. It focuses on the political, economic, and cultural forces behind colonialism, and attitudes of its agents.
Emphasis will be placed on highlighting the major similarities and differences between European colonial power structures and African resistance to, adaptation to and adoption of those structures (Prerequisites: HIST 2200 or semester 4 standing.)
An introduction to women's status, roles and significance in European history, with emphasis on feminist ideologies and women's movements from the eighteenth- through the mid-twentieth centuries. The geographic focus may vary from year to year.
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 WGST 3400.) (Prerequisite: one 2000 level Women's andGender Studies or History course or POLS 2600 or consent of the instructor.)
The development of the Canadian labour movement and the working-class experience from the nineteenth century to the present. (Also offered as Labour Studies WORK 3490.) (Prerequisites: semester 4 standing. Labour Studies majors must have Semester 5 or above standing or consent of instructor.)
This course examines the relations between British North America/Canada and the United States from the end of the American Revolution (1776-1783) until today. It looks at the multiple ways that both the people and the federal government from each side of the border interacted with their counterparts. It Fall 2021 Undergraduate Calendar 122 discusses several topics, including Indigenous peoples and Euro-American borders, colonial wars, diplomatic relations, transnational economies, cultural influences, borderland communities, and cross border migrations. (Prerequisties: At least semester 5 standing.)
The history of racial slavery, including both Amerindians and Africans, the emergence of the concept of "race", male and female experiences, resistance to slavery, British abolition, Civil War, and Reconstruction. The Canadian and U.S. experiences will be compared.
The history of racial discrimination, violence, and segregation, struggles for political rights, labour, migration and immigration, and the cultural activity of people of African descent in the U.S. and Canada from the end of American slavery to the present. Women's and men's lives will be treated equally. (Prerequisite: semester 4 standing.)
Selected themes in the political and social history of the United States from the end of World War II to the present. (Prerequisite: HIST 2620 or consent of instructor.)
An investigation of North American popular culture from the nineteenth century to present. Topics of study may include sports, and masculinity, youth culture, the media representations of women, "the sixties," the impact of cinema and television and popular music. (Prerequisite: One of HIST 2440, HIST 2620, or HIST 3630 or consent of the instructor.)
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. (Prerequisite: Semester 5 standing or above.)
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. (Prerequisite: Semester 5 standing or above.)
Topics of current interest which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with consent of an advisor in History.)
History courses at the 400 level are restricted to History majors and to third- and fourth-year majors in other programs with a History component. Others may register only with the consent of the instructor.
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. (Prerequisite: Semester 7 standing or permission of instructor. Restricted to History majors.)
A thematic approach to Victorian studies. Areas may include labour and leisure, science and religion, history and memory, gender and sexuality, class and national identity, literature and education. (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
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 1) the traditional Muslim account of his life, 2) a variety of approaches to the topic by modern social scientists, 3) traditional delegitimizing of Muhammad in historic Western European polemics and their modern equivalents, 4) the role that Muhammad plays in the beliefs and practices of modern Muslims. (Semester 5 standing or above.)
This course deals with the intersection between religion and politics in Africa. The main focus of this course is on the role of religion in territorial expansion and political centralization.
Comparable examples of the deployment of 'providential truth' to legitimize the conquest of space, control of its resources and the management of its occupants in different geographical settings will be introduced, and how it shaped African interactions with Asians and Europeans with comparable ideas about providential truth. (Prerequisite:Semester 5 standing. or Consent of Instructor.)
This course introduces students to the cumulative South African historical experience known as Segregation (1910-1948) and Apartheid (1948-1994). Students will explore how “race” became a determinant of where one could live, what one could do for a living, for ‘how much’, and even who one could marry.
To emphasize the casual relation between power relations and the production of knowledge, the readings assigned for this course are, mostly, produced by South African literati with first-hand experience of Segregation and/or Apartheid. (Prerequisites: HIST 2200 or HIST 3210, and Semester 6 standing and/or permission of instructor.)
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 15th to the 18th century. Topics include encounters with Africans and the native peoples of the Americas, cross-cultural exchanges, circulation of peoples, ideas, and commodities, migration, missions, conversion, and slavery.
Everyday experiences of Canadians from the nineteenth century to the present. Areas of study may include labour, women's ethnicity, sexuality, native peoples, leisure and sport, and the environment. (Prerequisites: two courses in Canadian history or consent of instructor. Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
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. (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
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. (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
Selected themes in the political and social history of early American, which may include European and Native American contacts, the political and social development of the American colonies, slavery, war and society, the changing status of women, and the American Revolution and its aftermath.
(Prerequisite: HIST 2610 or consent of instructor.) (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
The formal and hegemonic 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. (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.) Seminar (3 hours/week).
The cultural ideology, social regulation, and experience of reproduction and sexual relations and marriage, with an emphasis on women from 1600 to the present. Topics include childbirth, inter-racial relationships, abortion and contraception, sex and social class, sex and slavery, same-sex relationships, concepts of masculinity, and sexuality and feminism.
(Also offered as Women's Studies WGST 4630.) (Prerequisite: one of HIST 2490, HIST 2500, or HIST 2510/HIST 2000.) (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and Women's Studies majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
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 course treats films as historical documents through which to lens broader social and cultural phenomena. Distinct from film history, that is the study of the history of cinema, the course pairs more “traditional” historical research materials, such as academic historical writing and primary documentation, to what became the dominant cultural medium of the 20th 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 them at both levels, students will be expected to examine the experiences, values, politics, and social identities within a particular period (such as 1970s America) or as related to a specific historical theme (gender, for example) as a means of better understanding the history of the subject.
(The topic will vary with the instructor and may be re-taken by permission of History’s undergraduate coordinator.)
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 of soldiers, for women on the home front, for artists, and for those under occupation. (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors with at least semester 5 standing; and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
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. Pre-requisites: at least semester 5 standing.
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 an area of interest in 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.
The course is open to History majors only (Prerequisites: HIST 4800 and minimum average in History courses of 75% or permission of instructor).
A project-based, seminar-workshop on issues and problems specific to the historical documentary genre in which students research, write and make a short historical documentary film (or video). Study of methods and practices for incorporating historical elements into documentary, and analysis of traditional and experimental historical documentary practices. Student work will be developed through presentation in a workshop environment. (Prerequisite: Semester 5 standing)
This seminar-based course introduces students to the history of southwestern Ontario and metro Detroit from the pre-colonial era to the twentieth century. It addresses many topics, including pre-colonial Indigenous history, the founding of Detroit and the local French presence, political regime changes in the eighteenth century and the creation of the border, Indigenous treaties and settler[1]Indigenous relations, the War of 1812, slavery and the Underground Railroad, industrialization/urbanization and environmental history, cross-border economic and cultural ties, transportation, African Americans in Detroit, immigration, and collective memories.
Topics of current interest which may vary from year to year. (May be repeated for credit with permission of a program advisor.) (Prerequisite: Restricted to History majors and other students with at least semester 5 and permission of the instructor.)
Students will receive training in the methods and skills of advanced historical research, ultimately composing an undergraduate research thesis based on their own original research in the subject area of the course as offered.
In the first term of this two-term course, they will identify a practical research topic, perform a review of relevant scholarly literature, and produce a research proposal outlining the topic and identifying a body of relevant research materials, either in manuscript form or available digital archives.
In the second term, students will implement the research proposal, spending much of the term engaged in original research. Having collected the relevant research materials, they will write, edit, and revise their final research thesis, the cumulative exercise of the course.
The course’s specific theme or region/time-period will vary with the instructor. (Pre-requisite: At least Semester 6 standing, and 75% average in History courses or permission of instructor.)