Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • 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
  • CAS HI 541: Comrades & Competitors: US and Soviet Cultural Exchange
    Many of attitudes that color US-Russia relations today come from their history of friendship and enmity in the 20th century. This seminar investigates US-Soviet culture wars, which shaped not only each society's "way of being," but also international relations.
  • CAS HI 543: The Prevention of Genocide
    (Meets with CAS IR 437.) Examines various approaches to and challenges in prevention of genocide, including ability of existing international institutions to develop early warning systems. Evaluation of effectiveness of unilateral military action and multilateral options at the UN and regional levels to stop genocide.
  • CAS HI 549: Nationalism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
    Explores the origins of modern nationalism as a major force, molding identity and motivating politics. Examines the relationship between nationalism, revolution, and war, as well as the challenges presented by ethnic revivalism, ethnonational conflicts, and globalization.
  • CAS HI 550: Jews in Modern Culture
    Examines the role and impact of Jews as producers and brokers of modern culture, with focus on fields ranging from psychoanalysis to movies. Considers whether Jews' cultural activities were distinctive and, if so, how and why.
  • CAS HI 559: Wars, Peace, and Diplomacy
    Why do wars occur? What constitutes peace? How is peace maintained or lost? What are the virtues and deficiencies of diplomacy as practitioners have implemented it? How do memory, justice, and the requirements of security interact in the international arena?
  • CAS HI 560: The American Transcendentalists
    Led by Emerson, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and others, the Transcendentalists constituted the first "counter-cultural" movement in American history. Seminar focuses on how and why they did so within the philosophical, religious, literary, antislavery, communitarian, and ecological currents they inhabited.
  • CAS HI 569: Boston Architectural and Community History Workshop
    Focuses on class readings, lectures, and research on a single neighborhood or community in Boston (or Greater Boston). Greatest emphasis is on using primary sources-- land titles and deeds, building permits, fire insurance atlases and other maps. Topic for Fall 2020: Somerville Project. Explores the architectural and urban transformation of Somerville from agricultural fields, country estates, to an area of dense urban settlement and industrial development. Explores places and sources that help assess and narrate the rich history of architectural and urban development.
  • CAS HI 575: The Birth of Modern America, 1896-1929
    The political, economic, social, and cultural history of the United States in the formative years of the early twentieth century. Topics include Progressivism, World War I, immigration, modernism, the Scopes Trial, suffrage, the Harlem Renaissance, and the emergence of modern business practices. Effective Fall 2020, 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 578: The United States as a World Power
    The course material is organized along a debate format. Although the course is primarily concerned with twentieth-century U.S. foreign policy, attention is also given to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century issues
  • CAS HI 580: The History of Racial Thought
    Study of racial thinking and feeling in Europe and the United States since the fifteenth century. Racial thinking in the context of Western encounters with non-European people and Jews; its relation to social, economic, cultural, and political trends. Also offered as CAS AA 580.
  • CAS HI 582: Protest and Resistance in the Americas
    How do ordinary people rise up to challenge economic exploitation, racism, police violence, and environmental harm? This course examines protest movements in Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, and the US from the Mexican Revolution to Black Lives Matter.
  • CAS HI 584: Labor, Sexuality, and Resistance in the Afro-Atlantic World
    The role of slavery in shaping the society and culture of the Afro-Atlantic world, highlighting the role of labor, the sexual economy of slave regimes, and the various strategies of resistance deployed by enslaved people. Also offered as CAS AA 514. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS HI 587: U.S.-Mexican Borders
    Examines the geographic border, as well as political and cultural boundaries inside Mexico and the U.S., from 1848 to the present. Topics include the Chicano movement, maquiladora assembly plants, the Zapatista rebellion, youth gangs, free trade, and music and art.
  • CAS HI 588: Women, Power, and Culture in Africa
    Understanding the role of women in African history. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade, power, religion, the economy, resistance movements, health, the state, and kinship. Emphasis on the period before independence. Also offered as CAS AA 588.
  • CAS HI 595: Morocco: History on the Cusp of Three Continents
    Explores the range and limits of social mixture -- cultural, political, economic -- as three civilizations met at the northwest corner of Africa and influenced one another from the 8th to the 21st centuries. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 597: Diasporas and Identity
    History of diasporan commercial networks during the past four centuries in the West and other parts of the world, and emergence of modern global political economy. Focuses on transformation from exilic nationalism to diasporization, transnationalism, and deterritorialization of diasporic identity.
  • CAS IR 500: Topics in International Relations
    Examines aspects of international relations. May be repeated for credit if topics are different. One topic is offered Fall 2021. Section A1: Democracy and the Populist Challenge in Europe and North America. Focuses on the crisis of liberal democracy in Europe and North America and the challenges of populism. Examines different possible sources of populist discontent, including economic, social, and political. Explores comparatively the populists' playbook while in (and out) of power. Topic for Spring 2022, Section A1: Sovereignty and Resistance: Non- Western States in the Age of Imperialism. In the nineteenth century European powers conquered Asia and Africa. Only China, Japan, Siam/Thailand, Persia/Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Abyssinia/Ethiopia remained independent. Examines states' strategies to retain their sovereignty. Korea, Morocco, Madagascar, Tonga, and Hawai'i might be included.
  • CAS IR 501: Conflict and Cooperation in Asia
    Meets with CAS PO 554. Investigates patterns of conflict and cooperation in South and East Asia surrounding issues ranging from water resources and health to borders and war. Analyzes how such issues contribute to instability in the region, as well as methods of cooperation.
  • CAS IR 502: Latin American Political Parties
    Meets with CAS PO 561. Parties and party systems of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Historical origins and labor incorporation. Populist, working-class, and hegemonic parties. Market reform and party system transformation or collapse. Ethnic parties, clientelism, rise of a new Left. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy

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