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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.

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  • CAS HI 390: Cities in the Middle East: Mecca to Dubai
    Examines Middle Eastern history through the lens of its cities because cities have always been pivotal sites of governance, religious life, cultural development, architectural legacies, and political protest. Today, they are the epicenter of neoliberal globalization. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Critical Thinking
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 392: Israel: History, Politics, Culture, Identity
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Using a broad array of readings, popular music, documentaries, film and art, this course explores Israel's political system, culture, and society, including the status of minorities in the Jewish state; post-1967 Israeli settlement projects; and the struggle for Israel's identity. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • The Individual in Community
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 393: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, analysis of conflicting narratives through primary sources and film. Students present their own reflections on the conflict and debate possibilities of resolution. Counts toward majors and minors in History, International Relations, Middle East & North Africa Studies, and Jewish Studies. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 397: Modern Latin America
    Struggles for equality and inclusion in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
  • CAS HI 399: Introduction to Latin American Politics and International Relations
    (Meets with CAS IR 367 and CAS PO 360.) Examines patterns and complexities of Latin American politics and foreign policies. Focuses on a range of Latin American political and historical experiences, from colonization to global inequality to the impact of Indigenous, Black, feminist and other social movements in the region. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 400: Topics in History
    May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Topic for Spring 2025, Section A1: Gender and Educational Opportunity in Africa. Considers histories of gender, sexuality, and education in Africa from the nineteenth century to the present. We explore precolonial diversity, colonial constraint, and post-colonial divergences in gender and educational access, concluding with the promises and opportunities of the present.
  • CAS HI 401: Senior Honors Seminar 1
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: senior standing and departmental approval. First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - The first of a two-semester seminar that guides students through the research and writing of an honors thesis grounded in primary historical research. Students participate in a workshop environment and are matched with an additional faculty advisor. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 402: Senior Honors Seminar 2
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: senior standing and departmental approval. - The second of a two-semester seminar that guides students through the research and writing of an honors thesis grounded in primary historical research. Students participate in a workshop environment and are matched with an additional faculty advisor.
  • CAS HI 410: Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Europe's most religiously diverse region -- from the establishment of an Islamic al-Andalus in 711 CE to the final Christian "reconquest" of the peninsula and expulsion of the Jews in 1492 CE. To enrich exploration of interrelated themes and learning outcomes, student registrants of RN/HI 410/RN 710 will meet with student registrants of LS 410 during scheduled class time on 2/21, 3/13, 3/27, 4/24, and 5/1 during the term. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 412: Popular Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
    An exploration of the various expressions of culture among the commoners of Europe, ca. 400-1600. Topics include religion, storytelling, material life, social and political organization, law and justice, gender roles, witchcraft and popular crusades, and the impact of the printing press.
  • CAS HI 414: Society and Culture in Early Modern Europe
    Examines selected topics in the history of Europe between the Renaissance and the Age of Revolution. The current offering focuses on the persecution of religious dissents, minorities, and witches; Wars of Religion; and the slow spread of ideas of toleration.
  • CAS HI 424: Communism, 1789-1989
    To some, communism posed a threat to freedom; to others, it promised social justice and rights for women and minorities. This course investigates communism's ideological origins, triumph in Russian and Eastern Europe, influence on Western European politics, and ultimate collapse.
  • CAS HI 426: Music and Ideas from Mozart to the Jazz Age
    This senior-level seminar considers music in its historical and cultural contexts. Masterworks from the eighteenth century to jazz are its subject. Topics include political and intellectual climates, evolving views of the artist, audiences, social criticism, and race. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
  • CAS HI 430: Comparative European Fascism
    Analyzes fascism as a political and social movement in Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and beyond. Emphasizes the creation of popular dictatorships through propaganda, repression, and racism, and ends with the fascist attempt to remake Europe through violence and genocide.
  • CAS HI 434: Monarchy in Modern Britain
    A seminar probing seminal moments in the history of modern British sovereignty, when the politics of the court intersected with the politics of the people. Particular consideration is given to how monarchy has survived as an institution. Also offered as CAS WS 434. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 444: Transformation and Trauma: Living in Post-Communist Russia
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar. - Using letters, diaries, oral histories, film, and fiction, course explores how ordinary citizens tried to rebuild on the ashes of the USSR, and why hope for a democratic Russia gave way to Putin. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 450: Topics in the History of Popular Culture
    May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2024, Section A1: The History of Stuff. This seminar explores American history in global context through material objects and commodities. How have historians used material objects to reveal important cultural, economic, social, and political processes? Topics include histories of sugar, cotton, meat, petroleum, rubber, uranium, and more.
  • CAS HI 451: Fashion as History
    This seminar treats clothing and other products of material culture as historical documents. Explores what clothing can tell us about key developments in the modern period relating to trade and commerce, empire, gender, class, industry, revolution, nation-building, identity politics, and globalization. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 457: Alternative America
    Explores groups who not only dissented from mainstream American society, but constructed entire alternative communities. Considers the ideas of freedom, religion, sex, family, community, justice, ecology, and survival that inspired such experiments from the country's beginnings to the present day. Effective Fall 2023 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 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

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