The History 101 seminar is designed to guide you through the capstone experience of your undergraduate history education: the researching and writing of your senior thesis. Successful completion of this challenging, but rewarding, endeavor requires you to do the work of a historian. Ultimately, this translates to producing a piece of scholarship – in this case a 30-50 page final paper – in which you articulate and defend a historical interpretation/argument rooted in extensive primary source research and informed by thorough secondary source reading.
Beginning June 24th there will be a full set of course descriptions and an online course application form linked at the top of this page that will allow you to request enrollment into the 101 seminars. You will be asked to rank you top three seminar choices. All submissions must be received by July 7th at 5pm in order to be considered for the first round of 101 seminar assignments. Finalized class assignments and corresponding course control numbers will be emailed the week of July 8th. AFTER YOU ARE ACCEPTED INTO A SECTION, YOU MUST ENROLL IN THE COURSE ON TELEBEARS.
Note that ONLY ONE ONLINE APPLICATION FORM WILL BE ACCEPED PER PERSON via the online application system. If you submit multiple entries, only the first submission will be considered. You should receive an e-mail confirmation of your online submission. However, if you do not receive an email confirmation of your submission, send a message to history@berkeley.edu. Your request is only considered complete once you receive an email confirming all the data you have submitted.
Section assignments are NOT first-come, first-served, so there is no need to submit your preferences during the first days the form is available if you are still waiting for information to be posted to the website. So long as you submit by August 10th, your application will receive full consideration. All are encouraged to submit application forms, but priority is given to History majors.
Sign-Up Procedure After Priority Enrollments Have Taken Place:
Although initial sign ups for these courses take place in July, spaces are available in many of the sections after the first round of seminar assignments. You may add them directly through Telebears begining the week of the 15th. Particularly for full sections, make certain that
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101.002: Topics in Ancient History
Greg Smay is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. His interests include Roman political history, Greek intellectual history and the unique intersection of the two among the Hellenized Roman political elite of the Late Republic. Urbanism in the ancient world has been another recent focus of his research
In order to make the course as accessible as possible to students with a variety of interests the class will range over a diverse set of topics in the political, economic, social and intellectual history of the ancient Mediterranean world. In the course of this sampling of subjects we will take the opportunity to consider methodologies appropriate to each and take stock of recent trends in selected branches of ancient historiography. Readings will include both primary sources and modern scholarship Although it will focus on the Mediterranean the class is open to all History majors with research interests in the ancient world, and may be appropriate for others pursuing topics in related fields. If you are unsure about whether this class is well suiting to your needs you are encouraged to contact me at gsmay@berkeley.edu. |
Greg Smay 3104 Dwinelle MW 2-4 39312 |
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101.003: Asian Urban Centers Amanda Buster is a Ph.D. candidate in early Chinese history, with a second field in premodern Japanese history. Her research focuses on the growth and development of Han ChangÕan and its satellite communities. She has taught (and read) for courses in modern Chinese history, US history, and 19th-20th century Indian history. This 101 seminar will introduce students to some of the key themes in the growth and development of Asian urban centers, and will guide students through the process of articulating a research topic, choosing appropriate sources, researching and writing a senior thesis. We will begin with a selection of readings on urban centers in both premodern and modern periods, turning a critical eye on the methodologies and sources used by the authors, in order to determine which are appropriate to the students’ own topics and questions. Class will meet less frequently after the fifth week, giving way to individual meetings with the instructor and peer review discussions. This 101 seminar is open to students with an interest in any topic relating to Asian history, or to urban history in other subfields. It will guide students through the process of articulating a research topic, choosing appropriate sources, researching and writing a senior thesis. Using examples taken primarily from works of urban history of both premodern and modern periods, we will turn a critical eye on the methodologies and sources used by the authors. Other readings relevant to students' interests may be included. Class will meet less frequently from the fifth week, giving way to individual meetings with the instructor and peer review discussions. Interested students are encouraged to contact the instructor in order to get an early start on defining research questions and choosing sources (abuster@berkeley.edu). |
Amanda Buster 2231 Dwinelle TuTh 1230-2 39315 |
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101.004: South Asia and the British Empire
Gita V. Pai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Her general field of research and teaching interests concern the political, social, and cultural history of seventeenth to twenty-first century South Asia, particularly India. She received her MA and PhD in South Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
This seminar focuses on researching and writing a senior thesis paper on an important question in the history of South Asia (from the ancient period through the 21st century) or the British empire. The course is open in terms of topic and time period; however, students are strongly encouraged to contact the instructor during the current fall semester to discuss their ideas. We will begin the seminar with assigned readings on the methodology of historical research and writing. In subsequent weeks, students will read secondary literature to help them transform their broad interest into specific research questions. Next, they will search for and analyze primary sources. The final step is writing a 30-50 page original research paper. Students will meet collectively in seminar writing workshops and in small working-groups as well as individually in consultations with the instructor. |
Gita V. Pai 2231 Dwinelle WF 12-2 39318 |
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101.012: Anything on the Middle East from Afghanistan to Morocco post-1600
All research topics relating to the modern and early modern history of the region from Morocco to Afghanistan are welcome. The expectation is that you will either |
Thomas W. Hill 2231 Dwinelle MW 2-4 39342 |
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101.005: Anything on Imperial Britain This class is primarily designed for students who have made Britain or its empire their area of concentration. Class meetings will focus on the process of research and writing. Early readings will explore different models of research and writing and introduce students to the research materials available to them on campus. I am open to students writing on any subject so long as they have a good question and a set of archival sources that will help them answer it.  101 Imperial Brit12-1.doc |
James Vernon 3205 Dwinelle TuTh 2-330 39321 |
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101.004: South Asia and the British Empire See details under Asia. |
Gita V. Pai 2231 Dwinelle WF 12-2 |
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101.006: Writers GroupNote new time.
This section is designed for seniors with well-conceived thesis projects that do not fit within the rubrics of other 101 seminars. Members of the group will observe a common schedule in developing, drafting, and critiquing material but will not share a common subject area. Admission requires a written statement and the consent of the instructor. The statement should include: (1) a two-hundred word description of the proposed thesis topic; (2) a preliminary annotated bibliography (with full citations) of suitable primary sources; (3) a short bibliography of secondary sources; (4) a list of previous coursework in the proposed field of research; and (5) the name of a departmental instructor in that field who is willing to help mentor the student by providing bibliographical guidance, occasional consultation, and a critique of the first draft of the thesis. Students apply online by submitting the online preference form, and must also submit their statements directly to Leah Flanagan's mailbox in 3229, or via email to leahf@berkeley.edu by 4 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 11th. Although most applicants will not have had time to develop rigorous statements by the application deadline, they must demonstrate the viability of their projects and their commitment to serious preparation in advance of the course. This section is limited to students whose work clearly falls outside the scope of other 101 sections. If in doubt, please apply. |
John Connelly 2231 Dwinelle TuTh 2-330P 39324 |
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101.007: Politics, Patronage, and Networks in Europe (East and West), 1700-1989
This senior writing seminar will focus on how sociability and politics intersect. It is well known that social institutions as various as fraternities, Masonic lodges, church organizations, and friendship circles, as well as the family (kinship networks), have served as incubators for the development of political theories. They have also served as spaces in which political actors could develop relations of trust with potential allies. In pursuing these topics, we will be informed by, though not beholden to, historical and sociological theories about Òthe public sphere.Ó To pursue this course, you will need to find three things: a political agenda (historical, not necessarily your own!), a patronage or other personal network that supported it, and a set of primary sources. Students enrolled must meet with the instructor in November to begin discussing a potential topic. Students wishing to write on Russian history are particularly welcome. |
Victoria Frede 2303 Dwinelle MW 10-12 39327 |
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101.008: The Intellectual Migration from Nazi Germany
After 1933, emigration from Nazi tyranny brought many eminent artists and intellectuals to America, and many others who achieved prominence in later years. They enriched virtually all fields of scholarship and played important roles in all the arts. Among their number were future faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. In recognition of their contributions, the Judah Magnes Museum will be mounting an exhibition in 2014, the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II. Although students will not be restricted in their research to the emigres with a Berkeley connection, they will have an opportunity to work in materials in the Bancroft Library and play a role in the preparation of the museum exhibition. |
Martin E. Jay 2303 Dwinelle MW 2-4 39330 |
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101.009: Early Modern EuropeNote new room.
This seminar is open to thesis-writers focusing on any topic in early modern Europe, ca. 1450-1800. Please contact the instructor (tlange@berkeley.edu) this fall or visit his office hours (Monday, 1-3 pm, 3224 Dwinelle) to discuss potential topics. Good theses will be based on themes already developed over the fall semester or in a previous 103. If you have good acquaintance with your chosen field, this discussion will prepare you to begin research in primary sources. If you do not, it should encourage you to begin a directed reading in the historiography of your chosen field. The very best theses will require knowledge of the language or languages relevant to your chosen region or time period. Once the spring semester begins, we will move quickly into the research and drafting of your thesis, a thirty- to fifty-page work of original research based on primary sources. Syllabus.docx |
Tyler C. Lange 2231 Dwinelle MW 10-12 39333 |
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101.010: The Transformations of Modern Europe, 1789-1989Mark Sawchuk received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2011. He specializes in nineteenth-century European history. His special interests include political culture, repression and surveillance, and the social history of the intersection of regional and national identities.
The "long" 19th century witnessed the apex of European global power and influence, while the "short" 20th century witnessed its downfall. This 101 seminar is open to those who wish to write about some aspect of European history during these two formative time periods. Social and cultural approaches will certainly be welcomed. Reading knowledge of one foreign European language is highly desirable, but not required. You should come prepared in January to discuss some topic ideas so that you can hit the ground running. Feel free to contact me this fall if you would like to get an early start on defining a topic or set of sources. |
Mark Sawchuk 2303 Dwinelle MW 4-6 39336 |
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101.011: Latin American and Inter-American historyNote new room.Louis Segal was born and raised in Berkeley. He has a MA and PhD in Latin American history from UC Davis. His area of specialization at Davis was early settlement patterns in the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru and his teaching field was 19th century US history. His dissertation was on ÒImages of Conquest in Imaginative Nineteenth-Century North American Literature: Mexico and Peru. He received his PhD degree in 1997 and has taught at UCSC, UCD, UCB, Stanford, San Jose State, California State University East Bay, USF, and the Naval Postgraduate School. He has long-term interests in inter-American relations, social history and revolution, intellectual histories of the Americas, and historiography.
This 101 is for history seniors who are specializing in Latin American and Inter-American history. The emphasis of this 101 will be on methods, research strategies, honing thesis questions, outlining, drafting and writing the senior thesis on a subject that treats Latin American and Inter-American themes. Initially, we will read exemplary portions of some of the classic histories of Latin America with an eye towards both methodological and historiographical questions. The first three or fours weeks of the course will be devoted to these joint readings and guided group discussions. As we examine these "big" questions, the 101 students will also hone their own research project and devise strategies to complete their research paper in a timely fashion. As we move into the middle weeks of the semester, the weekly seminar meeting will become secondary to individual research and regular, individual consultations with the instructor. At the end of the semester the student will submit a journal-size research paper. Towards the end of the course, we’ll reconvene our class meetings for progress reports and findings. Get in touch with me if you’re interested in this 101 at louis_segal@hotmail.com. 101 syllabus WIP.doc |
Louis Segal 204 Dwinelle TuTh 2-330 39339 |
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101.013: The Middle Ages
Students will work closely with the instructor to complete a research project in medieval history. Topics will be chosen in collaboration between instructor and student. Given the challenges of medieval source material (much of which is not available in English), good projects will focus on a substantive source - one meaty enough to generate an interesting paper even if the original paper idea or concept does not work. Students are highly encouraged to contact the instructor before the term starts to begin exploring what will be a feasible topic. In the first part of the course, students will locate a significant body of source material and use it to frame a research question. In the second, students will begin research, using scholarship to refine their question. Finally, students will workshop their writing and help each other with issues of organization, argumentation, and interpretation. Attendance at the first meeting is mandatory. |
Jeffrey D. Miner 2229 Dwinelle MW 10-12 39345 |
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101.014: History of Medicine and Science around the World
In this course, participants will write a research paper on a topic related to the history of medicine and science. The course is open to students working on topics in any part of the world. During the first three weeks of the course, we will read a selection of readings which address themes in the history of medicine and science. These will include epidemic disease in India, physics in South Africa, eugenics in Brazil and microwaves in the United States. Students will then focus on their own topics and provide weekly updates on their research and writing progress. Interested participants may contact the instructor at osseo@berkeley.edu by December 7, 2012 to discuss possible thesis topics. Students are expected to do original research with primary sources (letters, photographs, newspaper articles, novels, laboratory reports, and/or oral history interviews). They may travel to archives to secure these materials, locate resources in the Bay area, or find digitized records online. |
Abena Osseo-Asare 202 Wheeler MW 10-12 39348 |
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101.019: Law and Society in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1763 - 1919
This research seminar explores American law and society in the “long nineteenth century,” c. 1763 – 1919. Students will be guided through the process of framing, researching, and writing an article-length essay on a topic of their choice in the period under study. We will construe the meaning of “law and society” broadly. Possible areas of research include (but are not limited to): the relationship between law and the environment; law and food; the transformation of land, waterways, ideas, labor, and certain classes of laborers into property; the legal profession and legal thought; the history of organized labor and the law; law and slavery; transitional justice in the post Civil War South; capital punishment and the changing penal system. In the first few weeks of the semester we will orient ourselves in the article/thesis genre, chiefly by reading and critiquing some innovative and influential article-length scholarship in the fields of legal, cultural, and political history. The rest of the semester (approximately twelve weeks) will be organized as a workshop. Students will frame and develop research topics, in consultation with the instructor and in conversation with the class, and write and workshop a prospectus, long draft, and final draft. You will also be required to attend a number of one-on-one meetings with the instructor. |
Rebecca McLennan 2303 Dwinelle TuTh 2-330 39363 |
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101.020: Betwixt and Between in the United States: Boundaries and the People who Defy ThemMacKenzie Moore recently received her PhD in American History from UC Berkeley. Her research interests
include the American West, cultural history and cultural geography, and environmental history.
This 101 seminar is geared toward any student who wants to study the boundaries among and between people, nations, or states, broadly defined. It is also perfect for those wishing to explore what happens when such barriers are (inevitably) ruptured, questioned, or otherwise revealed to be unstable. Some, but by no means all, possible topics include: immigrant history, Native American/colonial contact, the history of American sexuality, frontier environments, mixed-race communities or individuals, the US/Mexico Borderlands, religious synthesis, or urban communities. We will begin the semester by exploring theoretical approaches to the question of boundaries and categories and the power that sustains them. We will also discuss what such categories mean to people as they construct communities, nations, and identities. We will then consider specific examples of people who, out of choice or circumstance, defy those boundaries. The rest of the semester will be run as a writing and reading seminar. We will support and encourage each other through peer editing, research partners, and other boundary-crossing activities. |
MacKenzie Moore 3104 Dwinelle MW 4-6 39366 |
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101.015: Communities, Environments, & Spatial Dynamics in Social History
This is a research seminar broadly conceived to aid students interested in exploring relationships between social, spatial and/or environmental history. To facilitate the research process, students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the Bancroft Library’s vast holdings of rich manuscript collections. This seminar asks students to consider the ways that communities shape environments, organize physical spaces, and draw and redraw boundaries that include and exclude particular groups and individuals over time. Students should consider the diverse conceptual tools that they might employ to define the boundaries of communities whether they be municipal, ethnic, racial, ecological, occupational, transnational, social, or economic in character. These are only a handful of examples. The course will begin with two weeks of shared readings, discussions of historiography, and visits to the Bancroft for an orientation and preliminary research. Students will provide an in-class presentation and written analysis of at least one primary source and how it could be used in their larger project. |
Robert N. Chester 2303 Dwinelle TuTh 330-5 39351 |
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101.016: America to 1914
This research seminar is for students writing theses on any aspect of American history from the early colonial period through World War One. Topics involving some transnational/international component are very welcome, so long as the United States figures importantly. Early sessions will emphasize skills: defining topics, designing research programs, organizing and writing successful essays, consideration of exemplary work. The bulk of the semester will be devoted to the production, critique, and refinement of student theses. PLEASE NOTE: If you are planning on enrolling in this class you must meet with me in the Fall to discuss your proposed thesis topic and historical sources. Hist 101-America to WWI.docx |
Brian DeLay 3104 Dwinelle TuTh 11-1230 39354 |
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101.017: American Protestant Missionaries to Asia in the 20th Century Note new room.
Although the emphasis in this section of 101 will be on the foreign missionary project of ecumenical Protestants (esp. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc.) to Asian lands (esp. China, Japan, India, and the Near East), other topics in 20th century Protestantism can also find a place within the scope of the seminar. Special attention will be given the adult careers in the United States of individuals who began life as the children of missionaries. The resources of the library of the Graduate Theological Union as well as of UC Berkeley can be drawn upon for research projects in this domain. |
David Hollinger 2123 Dwinelle WF 12-2 39357 |
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101.018: Science, Technology and Politics in North America
Projects are welcome from any period, and we will define our themes broadly. Students are encouraged to consult with me as early as possible. Participants should bring a one page prospectus to the first class. The prospectus should include a brief summary of the proposed research and potential sources. |
Kerwin L. Klein 3205 Dwinelle TuTh 330-5 39360 |
