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  • CAS HI 459: Paper Children and Tiger Parents: Capitalism and Asian American Families
    How does capitalism condition the bonds, structures, or feelings in Asian immigrant and diasporic families' Explores how patterns of empire, war, and immigration lead to new family formations and how families adapt to this trauma through interdisciplinary texts ranging from history, literature, psychology, and sociology. Through sources like memoirs, scholarly works, literature, and film, we discuss dynamics such as intergenerational trauma, sexuality, and childhood. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Oral and/ Signed Communication, Social Inquiry 1.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS HI 467: Postwar America: Issues in Political, Cultural, and Social History, 1945-69
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing course (WR 120 or equivalent) - Exploring a variety of source materials, analytic methods, and modes of writing, students investigate how, after the upheavals of World War II, American fought over and refashioned new norms and ideals in politics, daily life, and the home, Topics include Cold War culture, youth rebellion, the African American freedom movement, liberalism, the Vietnam war, and the counterculture. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 480: The Theater of History
    A practical workshop in the uses of history as source for theatrical productions including narrative films, television and other forms of performance arts, including dance, and the uses of such creative engagement as modes of historical imagination.
  • CAS HI 482: Merchants, Pirates, Missionaries, and the State in Maritime Asia, 600-2000
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Oceans connected the peoples of coastal Asia, Africa, and Oceania long before the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s. This course examines how commerce, piracy, religious contact, and imperialisms shaped maritime Asia, and how oceans facilitated our own era's global connections. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 488: Twentieth Century Japanese History
    An examination of the cultural, social, and political impact of World War I on Japanese society; the nature of Taisho liberalism; 1930s militaristic nationalism, with emphasis on the role of the United States leading into and beyond World War II.
  • CAS HI 489: The African Diaspora in the Americas
    History of peoples of African descent in the Americas after end of slavery from an international framework. Examines development of racial categories, emergence of national identities in wake of the wars of independence, diverse Black communities in the twentieth century. Also offered as CAS AA 489.
  • CAS HI 490: Blacks and Asians: Encounters Through Time and Space
    This course comparatively explores how artists, writers, and activists of African descent and those of Asian descent have struggled against the political-economic, spiritual, psychological and cultural aggressions of global white supremacy and imagined and invented new modes of human liberation. Also offered as CAS AA 490.
  • CAS HI 500: Topics in History
    May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Topics for Fall 2025-- Section A1: Global Philippines through Adobo. This seminar interrogates the limits and possibilities of telling the history of a place through food. How can reading about cooking and eating Philippine adobo reveal global histories of migration and colonialism from the early modern period through today? Section B1: The Photography of Persecution. Explores the use of photography by state and nonstate actors to criminalize, control, and crush vulnerable social groups. Examines claims of photographic objectivity, the circumstances of photographic production, and visual genres from mugshots to memes, memento mori to mass murder.
  • CAS HI 504: The Civil War in American Memory
    From the immediate post-war years through very recent political conflicts, Americans have vigorously contested the memory of their Civil War. This course considers this question by exploring literature, film, and historical documents. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 505: The American South in History, Literature, and Film
    Explores the American South through literature, film, and other sources. Considers what, if anything, has been distinctive about the Southern experience and how a variety of Americans have imagined the region over time. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 462. Also offered as CAS AM 505. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 506: The Transformation of Early New England: Witches, Whalers and Warfare
    Explores how religious schisms and revival, warfare with native Americans, political revolution, and commercial development transformed New England from a Puritanical agricultural society into an urbanized, industrial society by the outbreak of the American Civil War. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS HI 507: Three Revolutions
    The course examines how the English civil wars, the Glorious Revolution, and the American Revolution altered Anglo-American political thought and encouraged the rise of a democratic order and changed the nature of governance. Writers from Hobbes and Milton to Burke and Jefferson grappled with these transformations that created political modernity. The course situates these changes within their broader social and spiritual contextes and explores the continuation of inequality within a democratic order. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS HI 514: Enlightenment and Its Critics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Explores how eighteenth-century criticisms of the Enlightenment have been taken up by twentieth-century thinkers such as Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, Gadamer, and Foucault; discusses recent defenses of Enlightenment ideals of reason, critique and autonomy by Habermas and others. Also offered as CAS PO 592 and CAS PH 412.
  • CAS HI 526: Poverty and Democracy: Modern India and the United States in Comparative Perspective
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Through an examination of historical, empirical, and journalistic evidence, students examine the peculiar and pernicious nature of modern and contemporary poverty in the context of two large democracies, India and the United States. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 527: Getting Around: Transportation, Cars, and Community in the Modern World
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: "First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or 120)" - Explores the history of transportation and mobility and its impact on daily life, community, environment, and justice, examining automobiles, walking, biking, and mass transit in diverse global contexts from the nineteenth century to the present day. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 528: Engineering Boston
    Examines how governments, companies and residents have constructed Boston, its neighborhoods and its transportation systems. The class studies shifting immigration and development patterns, produce photographic essays, and construct maps analyzing urban renewal, while visiting neighborhoods every week. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS HI 529: History Media Lab: Producing Public-Facing History
    Prerequisites: consent of instructor. Preference given to history majors and minors. - Advanced seminar exploring research and production of historical documentaries and podcasts. Students blend historical research with digital storytelling, developing skills in archival research, interviewing, and audio/video production while creating short-form media that bring critical historical narrative and debate to general audiences. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 532: The Far Right in Europe
    This seminar approaches the resurgence of the far right in Europe since 1945 historically, reconstructing the ideology through its major thinkers, texts, organizations, and turning points with attention to broader social and political-economic context. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Critical Thinking, Historical Consciousness.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 537: World War II: Causes, Course, Consequences
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior and senior standing. - Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and 75 million ordinary and extraordinary dead. From 1939-1945, the whole world waged total war in cruel ways unknown to any history before or since. Explore the causes, course, and consequences of these events.
  • CAS HI 539: Nazis on Film
    Explores changing representations of Nazis on the silver screen, from celebrations of the "Third Reich" to post-1945 depictions of Nazis as evil. Focuses on the longing for strong leadership, pleasure at inflicting pain on enemies, fear of others, and racism. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness

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