The course examines the fascist regimes of Europe in the twentieth century, with a focus on Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. The first part of the course explores the origins of fascist movements in nationalism, World War One, colonial racism, anti-Semitism, and notions of masculinity. The course examines several questions that have occupied historians of these regimes: what allowed what were initially fringe political movements to take power? How did Nazi Germany construct a state based on pseudo-scientific racist ideology?

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

This course is a practicum in the methods and techniques of historical research and writing. Students undertake independent research in primary source materials and complete an advanced research paper. Research topics may relate to any area of history covered by department faculty, and are defined through consultation with the instructor in a process which ideally begins before the start of the course.

This course is an advanced seminar in which students explore the historiography on a particular issue, topics, or field in the discipline. Students read recent works. Students discuss and evaluate cutting edge scholarship on the topic. In this reading intensive course, emphasis is placed on discussion and the growth of students as members of the community of historians.

This course seeks to introduce students to the debates surrounding the history of slavery in Africa. Did slavery in Africa predate the Atlantic Slave Trade? What impact did the Atlantic Slave Trade have on African communities? How did the Atlantic Slave Trade compare to other slave trades within and out of Africa? How were slavery and slave trading related to European colonial claims in Africa in the 19th century? These questions are addressed using both primary source material and scholarly arguments from historians, anthropologists and sociologists.

Half of all Africans identify themselves as Christian, but their interpretations of Christianity vary dramatically. Some follow the ancient traditions of Ethiopia and Egypt, while others embrace new and radical forms of Pentecostalism. This course offers a narrative of Christianity in Africa from the 4th century AD to the present, with a particular emphasis on the ways both Africans and Europeans spread Christianity. The course seeks to use Christian belief and practice as a window into issues of power, gender, colonialism, nationalism and identity.

The region referred to as the U.S.-Mexico borderlands has been the subject of wide-ranging popular and scholarly treatment, especially focusing on politics, cultural contact, economic exchange, and violence. Readings cover examples of how the geo-political boundary and socio-cultural space encompassed by the region have produced persistent debate about identity formation, the fluidity of the border, and the inability of governments to restrict the movement of peoples and goods.

In 1915 filmmaker D.W. Griffith predicted that "moving pictures" would soon replace book writing as the principal way to communicate knowledge about the past. Both historical writing and movies have at various times made parallel promises to objectively convey past realities. But just as historians have questioned the objectivity of the written word, one might also ask "how real is reel?" This course explores the relationship between film and historical interpretation and understanding. It considers how films produced in the U.S.