Undergraduate Course Descriptions
History 101 Seminars - Spring 2009
This page last updated: Friday, 29-May-2009 14:55:10 PDT
Special enrollment procedures are required for these courses.
Priority enrollments for these courses will take place between October 13-15, 2008. Most students who participate in the priority enrollment process are assigned to their first or second choice.
A complete 101 and 103 course listing will NOT BE AVAILABLE until October 13.
Sign-Up Procedure:
All submissions (online section preference forms) must be received by Wednesday, October 15 in order to be considered for the first round of 101 and 103 seminar assignments. Final results and course control numbers will be posted outside 3327 Dwinelle on Monday, October 20. AFTER YOU ARE ACCEPTED INTO A SECTION, YOU MUST ENROLL IN THE COURSE THROUGH TELEBEARS.
Note that ONLY ONE PREFERENCE FORM will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries, only the first submission will be considered. However, If you do not receive an email confirmation, 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. All are encouraged to submit preference forms, but priority is given to History majors.
Sign-Up Procedure for After Priority Enrollments Have Taken Place:
Although initial sign ups for these courses take place before the start of TeleBears, spaces are available in many of the sections after the first round of seminar assignments. Just peruse the class lists outside 3327 Dwinelle and add your name to any numbered space which identifies an open seat. These courses are limited to 15 students per section.
Online Section Preference Form
Africa |
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| 101.007 - The Post-colonial Moment – the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe | Irschick | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 | ||
| Description and course details posted under the Asia listing. | ||
Ancient |
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| 101.008 - Research Seminar in Ancient History | Mackil | |
| TuTh 9:30-11 3104 Dwinelle | ||
| This course is open to all students intending to write a thesis in ancient history, Greek or Roman. The first few sessions will be devoted to exploration of several major historiographical approaches to the doing of ancient history, which may serve as points of reference or departure for students' own research projects. These readings will be focused around the subject of the ancient city, a tremendously pervasive socio-cultural phenomenon in the ancient world. Not only did ancient cities exert a heavy influence on the social, religious, political, and economic activities of ancient Greeks and Romans, even (perhaps especially) of those who dwelt in the countryside and the provinces, but the historiography of ancient cities has ranged so widely that it provides an excellent introduction to major approaches and methods in the study of ancient history more broadly construed. Students will, thereafter, pursue individual research projects on topics of their choosing, based on (translated) primary sources and informed by careful methodological and analytical considerations. | ||
Asia |
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| 101.007 - The Post-colonial Moment – the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe | Irschick | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 104 Dwinelle | ||
| Among the welter of events following World War II, the emancipation of "colonial peoples" was among the most memorable. It was only in the 1950s that people of color started to be able to go to school and vote in America. Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth was one of the most famous accounts of "post-colonial" people. In this seminar we will examine the way in which "post-colonialism" developed as a way of thinking from the time of Fanon to the present. Part of the post-colonial project was to free colonized peoples not only from the juridical control of their masters but also the over-determining knowledges that made it impossible for these people to speak. One large area of "over-determining knowledges" was the writing of history itself. In sites such as South Asia, the Subaltern collective, following the publications of Edward Said, published a number of articles and books that was theoretically based on Marx, Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci. Other writers and movements picked up many of these traces. In this seminar we will read part of Paul Gilroy's Black Atlantic, Partha Chatterjee's, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, along with sections from Said, Foucault, Gramsci and Marx. Members of the class will be able to write their papers on any world area that reflects these post-colonial orientations wherever they find a resonance. | ||
| 101.015 - Research Topics in the History of East Asia | Yeh | |
| WF 12-2 2519 Tolman | ||
| A complete description is forthcoming. Please check back. | ||
| 101.019 - An American Imperium?: The U.S. & The Middle East, 1866-Present | Khalil | |
| TuTh 4-6 | ||
| Osamah Khalil is a History doctoral candidate focusing on U.S. and Middle East history, and is currently completing his dissertation on the origins of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East. He has served as a Graduate Student Instructor for History 7B, 12 and 101. | ||
| Description and course details posted under the comparative listing. | ||
Britain |
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| 101.014 - Anything on Modern Imperial Britain | Vernon | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 3104 Dwinelle | ||
| 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. | ||
Comparative |
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| 101.006 - The Writers Group | Hollinger | |
| WF 2-4 321 Haviland | ||
| Updated January 29, 2009 | ||
| Note New Room. | ||
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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 Dwinelle by 4pm on Monday, October 20. 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. |
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| 101.019 - An American Imperium?: The U.S. & The Middle East, 1866-Present | Khalil | |
| TuTh 4-6 3104 Dwinelle | ||
| Osamah Khalil is a History doctoral candidate focusing on U.S. and Middle East history, and is currently completing his dissertation on the origins of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East. He has served as a Graduate Student Instructor for History 7B, 12 and 101. | ||
| The seminar will focus on the historical relationship between the United States and the Middle East. Using primary sources, students will examine a particular aspect of that relationship (political, economic, military and/or cultural) during a defined time-period in a 40-page final paper. Possible paper topics include: an examination of the relationship between the U.S. and a country or countries in the “Middle East,” ranging from North Africa to Central Asia; or an analysis of America’s interactions and policies toward political and religious movements in the region; an assessment of the U.S.’s role in a particular conflict; or a study of the role and influence of institutions, corporations, the media, literature, and/or movies on the relationship between America and the Middle East. This seminar is designed to build upon my Fall 2008 History 103 seminar: America and the Middle East: God, Oil & Hegemony. However, it is open to students who have not taken the History 103 seminar but have completed prior course work in U.S. and Middle East History. | ||
Europe |
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| 101.002 - War and Conflict in Mid-Twentieth Century Europe | Adamthwaite | |
| TuTh 9:30-11 210 Dwinelle | ||
| This seminar will explore different readings of total war in Europe in mid-twentieth century, utilizing campus primary materials. If you are interested in this class you should start thinking seriously this semester about possible subjects and source material.Please feel free to stop by and talk in office hours. | ||
| 101.003 - Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe | Dandelet | |
| TuTh 12:30-2 3104 Dwinelle | ||
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While the religious history of early modern Europe has traditionally been constructed around the Protestant and Catholic reformations, recent scholarship, particularly from historians, has resulted in a much more complicated and compelling view of Europe's religious culture. Together with the more familiar ideas, personalities, and institutions of the Catholic and Protestant churches, there existed a wide body of practices such as popular prophecy, secret rural rituals, the common belief in magic, and local vows that is just now coming into clearer focus. Drawing from recent historical work, this seminar will explore the variety of religious mentalities and practices which characterized the period including central developments and figures from the mainstream of Catholic and Protestant reforms, as well as lesser known people and practices. As a research seminar, this course will pay particular attention to the various methods, sources, and theoretical approaches that are used in the research of each book as students move to develop their own research projects. EME students with other thematic interests may join with the permission of the instructor. |
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| 101.007 - The Post-Colonial Moment – the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe | Irschick | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 | ||
| Description and course details posted under the Asia listing. | ||
| 101.013 - Research Topics in Soviet History | Slezkine | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 89 Dwinelle | ||
| After reading several interpretations of the history of the Russian Revolution and the USSR, students will pursue individual research projects based on (translated) primary sources. | ||
| 101.017 - Human Migrations and Diaspora Communities in the Modern World | Scott | |
| MW 12-2 201 Wheeler | ||
| Erik R. Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in History. His research looks at migration, diaspora, and empire in Europe and the Middle East, focusing in particular on the changing occupational specializations and cultural stereotypes of diaspora groups from the Caucasus in the Soviet Union. He spent 2008 conducting dissertation research in Moscow, Russia and Tbilisi, Georgia. | ||
| While the nationalist historiographies of Europe often conceal the dramatic movement and resettling of peoples across the continent in the modern era, the historiographies of other nations, most notably the United States, make migration and immigration a central part of their narrative. Any history based around the nation-state, however, is complicated by the presence of groups who cannot or will not assimilate and who preserve an identity and culture linked to their original homeland and separate from the nation they reside in. Such groups are often described as diasporas, a term which has come to be used with increasing frequency in both academic and popular parlance. What does "diaspora" mean and how can the concept be used in research? How does diaspora offer a different historical perspective from that of immigration? In this seminar, students will produce an original paper that draws on substantial primary source research to engage the themes of migration and diaspora. They may focus on any migration or diaspora community in the modern period of interest to them, but should start the course with an idea of what they want to write about and what will be feasible given the availability of primary sources. In conducting their primary source research, students will be encouraged to draw not only upon the vast collection of relevant memoirs, published letters, travelers’ accounts, newspapers, and fiction available at Berkeley’s library, but also to move beyond the library to explore family history, oral history, and the records of diaspora community centers in the Bay Area and beyond. Given the seminar's global comparative approach to the concept of diaspora, students with interests outside of Europe and the United States are welcome as well. | ||
| 101.018 - Markets and European History | Lange | |
| MW 10-12 201 Wheeler | ||
| Tyler Lange is a PhD candidate in Early Modern European History. His dissertation, Heresy and Absolute Power: Constitutional Politics in Early Reformation France, examines the constitutional consequences of legal responses to the fiscal crises and emerging heresy of the 1520s. He is interested in the interaction between religion and the law, state development, fiscality and economic development, and ideas. | ||
| Current events have amply demonstrated the power of markets and their seeming independence of human control. What can historians do with them? Are market movements like forces of nature outside of human control? The course will briefly examine European economic history from the late Middle Ages onward and consider price trends and market events in relation to non-economic developments. The goal is to question the prevalent view that human action is determined by market movements and to show just how difficult it is to correlate economic and non-economic events. Students are invited to attempt just that, without being too simplistic or deterministic. Contact the instructor with questions: tlange@berkeley.edu | ||
Latin America |
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| 101.005 - Latin America | Ballenger | |
| WF 10-12 104 GPB | ||
| Updated November 10, 2008 | ||
| Note NEW Instructor! -- Stephanie Ballenger is a doctoral candidate in Latin American history. Her dissertation examines the emergence of modern medical practices and changing constructions of insanity in nineteenth-century Mexico through the prism of Mexico City's insane asylums. She has served as a GSI for History 8A, 8B and 103, PEIS 100 and IAS 102H and 195H, the year-long honors thesis seminar offered by the Department of International and Area Studies. | ||
| Thesis seminar for research on Latin American history. Projects on anything ranging from colonial Mexico to modern Brazil are welcome, but we will be particularly interested in social, political and cultural history. Since identifying an interesting question and locating appropriate sources early on is crucial to success with the thesis, all students wishing to take this seminar must contact Ms. Ballenger (jvandsb@comcast.net) before December 1 to discuss possible topics. | ||
| 101.007 - The Post-Colonial Moment – the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe | Irschick | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 | ||
| Description and course details posted under the Asia listing. | ||
Medieval |
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| 101.011 - Writing Medieval Europe | Miller | |
| MW 2-4 202 Wheeler | ||
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This seminar is designed to guide students through the process of researching and writing an independently defined study in the history of medieval Europe that will fulfill the department's senior thesis requirement. Several sessions at the beginning of the term will be devoted to specific research challenges and to forming a cooperative community of inquiry to support thesis writing. During these opening weeks we will read and discuss essays taking different approaches to the evocation and analysis of the medieval past. Over most of the term, periods of independent research and writing will be punctuated by class presentations to solicit commentary, critique, and suggestions. This 101 section is framed as a sequel to this fall's 103.002 (Change and Conflict in Medieval Europe). Students not completing this 103 should consult with the instructor before registering for the seminar and do so well in advance of the beginning of the spring semester. |
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Science |
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| 101.016 - Cutting-Edge Topics in the History of Medicine and Science | Barker | |
| TuTh 4-6 2303 Dwinelle | ||
| NOTE: Revised description! -- Crispin Barker has a Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from Yale and completed his dissertation on the history of the molecular biology of aging and telomere biology. He is presently investigating the influence of radiation genetics and medical physics on early molecular biologists and the role of laboratories at Berkeley, Colorado, Yale, Harvard, and similar institutions in elucidating the synthesis and significance of DNA termini. | ||
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This seminar explores recent scholarship at the frontiers of medical and scientific history, as a means of understanding the choices historians make when producing essays and articles and providing a historiographical foundation as the class embarks on the researching, drafting, and polishing of the senior thesis. How do historians of science and medicine decide what precisely to write about? What informs their research methodologies, analytical perspectives, and writing techniques? What happens when they address controversial subjects, such as sexuality, human experimentation, and pseudoscience? How do they make a contribution to historical knowledge, however small, by analyzing primary sources? This seminar is open to all students planning to write a thesis on any aspect of the history of medicine, engineering, the life sciences, or the physical sciences from the Scientific Revolution (broadly defined) to the twentieth century (exceptions to this should be approved by the instructor). Possible fields from which specific topics may be chosen include the history of gerontology; the history of conjuring, public science, and the “philosophical experiment show”; the history of experiments, laboratories, and research policies on the Berkeley campus; the history of epidemic disease; the history of sex education; the history of pharmacology, therapeutics, and alternative medicine; and the history of religion, science, culture, and the state. The seminar will be run as a workshop, with breaks for research and writing, and will emphasize constructive peer criticism of drafts as well as one-on-one tutorials with the instructor. Please contact crispin.barker@berkeley.edu with any questions. |
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United States |
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| 101.004 - Researching Children and Youth in American History | Fass | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 123 Dwinelle | ||
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Students will be required to write on a subject relating to the history of children and youth in the United States from 1865 to 1968. These subjects can concern child-rearing and family life, play and consumption, work, politics, and education. Students will be required to research primary materials and to write a prospectus, first and second draft according to a firm calendar. Students wishing to take the class should consult with Professor Fass, who will be available in her office between 1 and 3pm on October 13th. If you are unable to come to these hours, please email Professor Fass at psfass@berkeley.edu. |
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| 101.009 - Difference, Identity, and Power - The US from 1800-1990 | Martin | |
| TuTh 12:30-2 123 Dwinelle | ||
| NOTE NEW SCHEDULE! | ||
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This seminar will allow students to pursue research interests in US History in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The guiding historical problems are threefold and interrelated: (1) the development and impact of specific forms of difference (i.e., race, gender, sexuality, class); (2) how these differences come to be expressed as identities; and (3) the role of power in shaping these various, at times overlapping, histories of difference and identity formation. I anticipate that research topics will range across social, intellectual, political, and cultural history. Students with interdisciplinary, comparative, and adventurous research projects will be welcomed. As an integral part of the seminar, we will discuss selected interpretive, theoretical, and methodological issues generated by a limited number of core readings, in part to be designed by the participants. Doe and Bancroft Libraries have innumerable resources that students might consult, from newspapers, government data, letters and archival collections, on one hand, to special collections on Social Movements and the recent Social Movements of Communities of Color, on the other. Also there are specialized libraries, like those in Ethnic Studies and African American Studies, and special research holdings, like Professor Alan Dundes' Folklore Archive and various collections in the Music Library, that might prove useful. A core reading will be James W. Cook, et.als., eds., The Cultural Turn In US History (U Chicago Press, 2008). |
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| 101.010 - Law, Morality, and the Market: U.S. Legal History, 1607 – Present | McLennan | |
| TuTh 3:30-5 204 Wheeler | ||
| This research seminar explores cultural, intellectual, and social approaches to the history of American law, from 1607 to the present, and will guide you through the exciting and demanding process of writing a senior research paper in the field of American legal history. In the first few weeks of the semester, we will orient ourselves in the historiography, chiefly by reading and discussing some of its most innovative, article-length scholarship. Key themes include: The trial in American culture; competing conceptions of the "rule of law"; law's role in the making of a modern market economy; the historical relationship between moral and legal order; the making of modern American legal consciousness; and historical struggles over access to legal institutions and the "right to rights" (in the words of Hannah Arendt). As well as furthering your understanding of legal history, the assigned texts will introduce you to the wide range of sources and interpretive methods available to the historian of American law and society. The assigned articles are about the same length as a senior research paper, and analyzing them will familiarize you with the genre and with some of the narrative strategies available to you as a thesis-writer. The rest of the semester (approximately twelve weeks) will be devoted to the tasks of framing, researching, writing, and polishing a research paper of approximately 40 pages in length. You may choose to work in one of the areas discussed in the orientation or develop your own topic in consultation with the instructor. Class will break intermittently in order to allow time for research and writing. When we convene, class will be run as a workshop: you will present your work to the class, and "workshop" (i.e., read, and constructively discuss) fellow students' drafts. In the course of the semester, you will also be required to attend a number of one-on-one meetings with the instructor. | ||
| 101.012 - Writing the History of American Foreign Relations | Sargent | |
| WF 12-2 122 Latimer | ||
| American history has been decisively shaped by U.S. interactions with the world, just as the United States has enduringly impacted larger international society. These interactions have become an important and exciting area of historical research. In this 101, "Writing the History of U.S. Foreign Relations," students will undertake original research on the history of United States in its relations with the larger world. While some will chose to write on diplomacy and statecraft – long-standing priorities in the field of U.S. foreign relations – others may focus on economic, cultural, demographic, and other types of interaction. This is a research seminar and will be structured and graded accordingly. In early sessions, the class will collectively review examples of effective scholarship on the U.S. and the world. We will discuss procedural and methodological issues involved in researching and writing on the history of U.S. foreign relations, especially as regards the use of primary sources. All students will be expected to present on their individual research and to provide peer feedback on other students' work. | ||
| 101.017 - Human Migrations and Diaspora Communities in the Modern World | Scott | |
| MW 12-2 | ||
| Erik R. Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in History. His research looks at migration, diaspora, and empire in Europe and the Middle East, focusing in particular on the changing occupational specializations and cultural stereotypes of diaspora groups from the Caucasus in the Soviet Union. He spent 2008 conducting dissertation research in Moscow, Russia and Tbilisi, Georgia. | ||
| Description and course details posted under the Europe listing. | ||
| 101.019 - An American Imperium?: The U.S. & The Middle East, 1866-Present | Khalil | |
| TuTh 4-6 | ||
| Osamah Khalil is a History doctoral candidate focusing on U.S. and Middle East history, and is currently completing his dissertation on the origins of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East. He has served as a Graduate Student Instructor for History 7B, 12 and 101. | ||
| Description and course details posted under the comparative listing. | ||
| 101.020 - Economy and Politics in Nineteenth-Century America | Ron | |
| MW 12-2 | ||
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This thesis seminar invites students to investigate aspects of the American political and economic systems of the 1800s. The terms "economy" and "politics" can be broadly defined, but students must be prepared to narrow their focus in order to identify manageable questions and the available sources to answer them. The major course requirement, of course, is the final research paper, but also important is thoughtful participation in writing workshop-style meetings where we will review and helpfully criticize each other’s work. In early meetings we may examine examples of successful historical scholarship, discuss possible topics of research, and identify available sources. |
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