Courses

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

• CAS HI 323: Topics Jewish History
  Course may be repeated if topic differs. Explores the History of Jews and Jewish Communities in various geographic, chronological, or thematic contexts. Topic for Spring 2026: History of Jews in the Americas. The history of Jews and Jewish communities in North America, South America, and the Caribbean from 1492-present, highlighting the diversity of Jewish experiences and Jews¿ engagement with other sectors of society.
• CAS HI 331: Drugs and Security in the Americas
  (Meets with CAS IR 290). Drug trafficking has become a dominant issue in U.S.- Latin American relations. This class examines the War on Drugs from both U.S. and Latin American perspectives in order to draw out racial, socio-economic, political, and gender-based dimensions and explore alternatives. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning.
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  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 332: Introduction History, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research in the Digital Age: Tools and Methods
  Course 1 in two-semester-sequence (Fall: HI 332/XL 332; Spring: HI 333). Introduces principles and tools of digital research in history, the humanities, and social sciences. Through project-based learning, students combine skills in digital literacy, media creation, humanistic and social sciences inquiry. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy, Social Inquiry I.
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  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS HI 338: Repression, Revolution, Rock n' Roll: US in 1950s & 1960s
  Few periods shaped American society, culture and politics as dramatically and enduringly as the 1950s and 1960s, transforming institutions, life experiences, the nation's role in the world, and the ways Americans thought about social problems and political activism. Topics include: Cold War, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, Vietnam, Campus Protest, Counterculture Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS HI 339: A History of the Present: The United States since 1968
  Analyzing the recent experience of the United States and its people in historical perspective, the course allows students to explore important developments in US politics, race relations, economy, and popular culture, investigate diverse social science approaches to contemporary problems, and develop an independent research project. Topics include war, politics, religion, and popular culture as well as changing notions about race, gender, and selfhood. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS HI 341: Political and Cultural Revolution
  Comparative historical analysis of modern and contemporary revolutionary upheavals and cultural change in Europe, the Americas, East Asia, Africa, Middle East, and the former Soviet republics. Examines the challenges posed by modernization, crisis of legitimacy, nationalism, imperial decline, and globalization. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 215. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS HI 343: Taste, Culture, and Power: The Global History of Food
  An exploration of the global history of food from prehistory to the present, considering the birth of agriculture, food in nations and empires, hunger and nutrition, and the future of eating, including examples from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 347: Bodies, Drugs, and Healing: A Global History of Medicine
  An introduction to the history of medicine in global contexts, offering a broad perspective on the ways that bodies, healers, drugs, and health have been conceptualized, from antiquity to the present day, in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning.
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  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 348: Colonialism in Africa: Impact and Aftermath
  Uses case studies of particular African societies or nations to examine patterns of European conquest and African resistance; forms of colonial administration and socioeconomic consequences of colonial rule; decolonization and contemporary African liberation movements; economic and political developments since independence; and contemporary social and cultural change.
• CAS HI 349: History of Religion in Precolonial Africa
  The study of the development of religious traditions in Africa during the period prior to European colonialism. An emphasis on both indigenous religions and the growth and spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the continent as a whole. Also offered as CAS AA 382 and CAS RN 382. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 350: Atlantic History
  Examines the various interactions that shaped the Atlantic World, connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas between 1400 and 1820. Begins by defining the political interaction, then emphasizes cultural exchange, religious conversion, and the revolutionary era.
• CAS HI 352: Power, Leadership, and Governance in Africa and the Caribbean
  Haitian Revolution; British Caribbean, leadership, governance, and power in Africa during the period of legitimate trade; visionaries, dictators, and nationalist politics in the Caribbean; chiefs, western elites, and nationalism in colonial Africa; road to governance in post-colonial Caribbean and Africa. Also offered as CAS AA 395 and IR 394.
• CAS HI 353: Atlantic Africa and the Slave Trade
  Examines--both by region and across the larger Atlantic area--the ways that overseas commerce, in particular the slave trade, interacted with and was shaped by African politics and economic variables. Also offered as CAS AA 396.
• CAS HI 355: Fashion and Beauty Under War and Empire
  How can clothing reveal histories of US war and empire from the mid-nineteenth century to today' We examine case studies like Philippine lingerie production and the bikini¿s invention during the Atomic Age to investigate how fashion illuminates violence and power. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Historical Consciousness.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 358: Twentieth-Century European Thought and Culture
  This course treats artistic, musical, literary, political, and philosophical works historically. Among its large themes are modernism and the discovery of the unconscious, the cultural effects of both World Wars, democracy and its critics, totalitarian culture, existentialism, and postmodernism. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Writing-Intensive Course.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS HI 360: European Dimensions of the Black Diaspora
  Explores writings about the Black experience in Europe since the 1800s through examinations of historical and literary works, artistic and folkloric depictions, as well as politics and sports in England, France, Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands. Also offered as CAS AA 380.
• CAS HI 363: Early Chinese History
  From the Bronze Age to the seventeenth century, China changed dramatically yet maintained political and cultural cohesion, unlike any other civilization. This course explores both diversity and unity in early Chinese society as well as their historical legacies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 364: Modern Chinese History
  A hodgepodge of lands and seas between the Pamir and the Pacific, China is ten thousand worlds folded into one. We trace the people who animated those worlds: Manchus, Maoists, and the many. Featuring fun stories and deep thinking. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 367: The Odd Couple: China and the USA, 1776 to the present
  The USA, a bastion of capitalism, and China, the largest communist state on earth, are the two major global powers today. It was not always this way, and the course will map three centuries of this complex historical relationship, filled with mutual admiration and misunderstanding. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 369: Empires and Modernity's in Motion: Modern Japan and the Asian World
  Modern Japan is a story of miracles and tragedies, both to the extreme. This course explores the rise of the Japanese empire, the fall of its Pan-Asian intrigues, and the reconstitution of a nation on the ruins of empire. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Social Inquiry I.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Social Inquiry I