Understanding China—the world’s only other superpower—has never been more important. But China is a big place with a long past and a large population, and attempts to construct histories of China that are neat and linear seem increasingly forced. Depictions of China as politically unitary and culturally homogenous are hardly more convincing. China resists simplification; indeed, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically it is one of the most diverse places on the planet. In this course, we will study key moments and events in Chinese history and culture from Neolithic times to the present day, tracing the various ways in which China—as civilization, as empire, and as modern nation-state—has been continually reconstituted and reinvented over time. Despite what it is often said, or assumed, about China, we will see that this most open of empires was never truly closed-off from the outside world. By studying the most important events, figures, and ideas in Chinese history, we will come to understand how the different competing Chinas that co-exist today emerged from centuries—millennia, even—of shifting boundaries (geographic, political, cultural), porous borders, and complex interactions with other countries, cultures, and civilizations.

Prerequisites 2 This course is open to all students. All discussion and readings for this course will be in English; no prior knowledge of Chinese language, history, or culture is required. Students interested in non-western literature, religion, and cultural history are encouraged to pursue these lines of inquiry in this course.

Required readings All readings for this class will be made available on Canvas and/or UT Box, as appropriate. Any copyrighted material is provided in accordance with fair use doctrine and US copyright law and is not to be distributed to anyone not officially registered for this class (see also “Sharing of course materials” below). Students are responsible for printing, reading, and preparing (i.e., taking notes) all readings in advance of each class.

Grading This class will be graded on the plus/minus system, with final grades calculated on the following basis:

• Observation posts: 20%

• Test 1: 15% 4

• Test 2: 15%

• Test 3: 15%

• Test 4: 15%

• Final essay: 20%

This course introduces students to the history of Africa since 1800 to the present. The course is divided into four parts: Part I – an overview of African life before 1800. Part II – an overview of the partition of Africa and the upheavals to economic, political, cultural, and social institutions. Part III – an over view of colonial histories, the struggles for freedom, and the euphoria of independence. Part IV – an overview of the legacies and disappointments of colonialism, and the post-colonialism. Because the continent is so vast, its history complex, and the time period so wide, each part will have a case study to illuminate each section of the course more concretely, giving students both depth and breadth in a subject for which they have little or no prior knowledge. The readings augment the lectures and allow students to follow their interests from the topics covered. This is a great course to take before “that trip to Africa!” The class will also utilize feature films and documentaries to illustrate the historical issues more vividly. Karibu! Welcome!

Sufism defies neat categorization. It is a broad trend in the cultural sphere of Islam, associated mainly with approaches to divinity, justice, piety, joy, sorrow, and beauty. In the course of history, it has placed checks and balances on an exclusivist reading of religion. At times it is identified with mysticism: an attempt of the finite to reckon with infinite powers. It has many synonyms. This class explores Sufism and other Islamic mystical traditions that color cultural milieus spanning four continents and fourteen centuries. The first half of the semester focuses on the historical developments in the Islamic theosophical traditions of the Arab and Persian worlds. In the second half of the semester, we move on to discuss the growth of Islamic mysticism over time and beyond the porous borders of Arabia and Iran. The relationship between Sufism and poetics, Sufism and colonialism, and Sufism and post-colonial resistance movements also constitutes a significant part of this course. Issues of authority, gender, sexuality, music, globalization, and religious pluralism are topics of discussion throughout the semester. Only one part of the class lecture springs from the readings so it is important for the students to carefully note that material which is not found in the assigned readings.

Grading: Students are expected to come prepared for class by reading all the required assignments for that class. Students are responsible for all the information presented in the lectures as well as for what is contained in the required readings. 

• Two in-class Exams (40%)
• Comprehensive Final Exam (50%)
• Class Attendance & Participation (10%)

This course surveys the emergence of modern China from the nineteenth century to the present, covering the Qing dynasty, the Republic (1912-49), and the People's Republic (since 1949). Beginning with a review of the intellectual, economic, and sociopolitical trends in imperial China, it examines the rise of nationalism and the challenge of modernization in the midst of dynastic decline and foreign threats in the nineteenth century. Its coverage of the twentieth century emphasizes the struggles between the Nationalists and Communists for the making of a modern state and their experiments of contrasting political schemes. The course further examines recent changes in the post-Mao era, focusing on economic and political reforms as well as China?'s ongoing integration into the global system.

Cross-listed with History; carries the Writing Flag and Global Cultures Flag

The Cultural Outsider: Memoirs and Travelogues of East Asia

The focus of the capstone seminar is on the cultural outsider’s perceptions of East Asia as addressed in greater literature originally written in English (with one exception), in the genres of memoirs and travelogues dating from the 19^th century to works published in contemporary America. Works selected for the seminar are to be read and discussed within the broad context of “travel literature” written by a broad expanse of visitors to greater East Asia: China (including Hong Kong and Tibet), Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. These pieces of “travel literature” are written by a diverse group of “cultural outsiders” that includes missionaries, journalists, POW’s, scholars, English teachers, students, and tourists.

Some major concepts and themes that emerge from these works concern Asian stereotypes, self-discovery and cultural identity formation, and exoticization of Asia and all things Asian (or “Oriental”). We will pose open-ended questions about these perceptions of Asia not as literary critics, but rather more as readers, or as fellow “participant observer” travelers to Asia. In particular, we will discuss and analyze a cultural outsider’s approach to memoir writing through the lenses of “layered memory” and “gossip.”

The course focus will be on primary, rather than secondary, sources and materials. Students will choose from selected works for oral panel presentations, leading class discussion in a Roundtable forum, which in turn will form a focus for weekly written responses and the final inquiry paper.

The course will be divided into two categories for in-depth discussion and analysis:

            Section I – The Adventurer Travelogue

            Section II – The Contemporary Traveler Memoir

This course investigates the political, constitutional, economic, and social causes of disunion and the American Civil War. It seeks to provide students with an understanding of how the stability of the Union was affected by key developments of the period 1829-1861, including the growth of slavery, the rise of abolitionism, the development of modern political parties, economic modernization, immigration, and territorial expansion.

Planned texts (titles subject to change):
William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy

in South Carolina, 1816-1836

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (second edition, edited

by Blight)

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War

Grading: There will be two midterm exams; each will count 25% of the course grade. The final examination, which will be cumulative, will count 40% of the course grade. These exams will consist mainly of essay questions on the material from the classes and readings. In addition to the three exams, unannounced short, objective-question quizzes will be given frequently at the beginning of class, testing mastery of  recent course material. These quizzes will constitute 10% of a student’s course grade.

Students in this course will investigate why the Cuban Revolution of 1959 had an impact beyond its shores, essentially transforming both Inter-American and East-West relations. At the outset, students then will survey the history of Cuban-U.S. relations from the so-called Spanish American War to the Great Depression. We will next analyze the populist period in Cuba that ended up in the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista and how a middle-class rebellion forced him from power on January 1, 1959. Then we will take a long look at the process by which Fidel Castro consolidated political power, mobilized the popular classes for revolutionary reforms, and turned to an alliance with the Soviet Union. We pay special attention to the revolution's influence on social organization, gender relations, and education. The students must also understand the relationship between popular demands, political consolidation, and Cuba's external relations. Finally, the class will assess how the Cuban Revolution affected U.S.-Latin American relations and why Castro choose to support other revolutions in Latin America and Africa.

Texts:

Sebastian Balfour, Castro?Lois M. Smith, Sex and Revolution?Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War

Grading:

Student requirements and preparations for the course include reading three paperback books and two articles in a reading packet, viewing video documentaries, participating in class discussions, and attending lectures. In addition, each student will turn in a map assignment and a 5-page essay based on a book selected from the bibliography of our readings. ??One's final grade will consist of the following graded exercises:?-A map assignment worth 5 % of the final grade or 50 points.?-A mid-term exam worth 20 % of the final grade or 200 points.?-A written book essay worth 35 % of the final grade or 350 points.?-A final exam worth 40 % of the final grade or 400 points.??The accumulation of points at the end of the semester will determine the student's final grade: i.e., 900 points or more for an A, 800 or more for a B, and so forth.

This intensive writing course focuses on some of the main topics that have affected rural Latin American society in the later nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, with a view to understanding the causes of some of the tensions and unresolved conflicts affecting Latin America today. Using selective national case studies, the course will discuss the social-agrarian relationships linking landlords and campesinos; the role of the state and the impact of official ideologies embracing (or constraining) indigenous people, such as indigenismo; religion and the Catholic Church; the history of rural institutions, such as the hacienda; and the success or failure of the main land reforms enacted in countries such as Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Mexico. Our focus throughout will be on understanding the different ways in which Latin American peasants have been protagonists in, not merely passive witnesses to, the histories of the countries in which they live. The course will follow a seminar as opposed to strict lecture format: the emphasis throughout will fall on researching and crafting extended written assignments in consultation with the instructor; there will also be elements of peer review, in which students will engage critically with the work of other members of the group. Students will be expected to participate actively in class through responses to readings or presentations.

Texts:

Friedrich, Paul. Agrarian revolt in a Mexican village (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1986)

Gotkowitz, Laura. A revolution for our rights: indigenous struggles for land and

justice in Bolivia (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007)

Handy, Jim. Revolution in the countryside: rural conflict and agrarian reform in

Guatemala, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994)

Larson, Brooke. Trials of nation making: liberalism, race, and ethnicity in the Andes,

1810-1910 (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2005)

Lyons, Barry. Remembering the hacienda: religion, authority, and social change in

highland Ecuador (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006)

Grading:

There is no final exam. Instead, each student will complete two shorter reading reviews (collectively 30%) and two extended essays in the form of a mid-term paper and a final paper (40-50%). In the final two weeks of term, students may deliver short presentations in which they circulate their written findings to then group for discussion and peer review (probable 10%).

SEMINAR IN HISTORIOGRAPHY: HONORS PROGRAM

Open only to students admitted to the History Honors program.

This seminar introduces students to a range of historical methods, topics, and sources, with no claim to being comprehensive. We will consider how “history” has changed along with other forms of knowledge. We will read different kinds of history (social, intellectual, cultural, and so on). We emphasize research with primary sources that students will be able to use in their theses.

Faculty from the Department of History will lead discussions about their areas of expertise, giving the class examples of documents and sources that historians use, or showing how they generate questions for research.  By the end of the semester, each student will have come up with an advisor and a prospectus for the senior thesis she or he will write next year.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course, and it moves quickly from introductory to advanced work.

 REQUIREMENTS:

1)   preparation for and participation in each weekly seminar, including short writing assignments (40%). Reading is about 200 pages a week.

2)   the various steps in drafting and revising a 10-12 page research prospectus as described below (60%). The preliminary stages of research entail reading at least 10-15 books, review essays, and articles.

You will meet with me individually to consult on your topic a little over halfway through the semester. Short topic statements and bibliography are due a week later. We will spend the last three weeks of class in editorial session: discussing the structure, prose, style, and subject of each prospectus.

PROSPECTUS

         A prospectus is a “description in advance of a proposed undertaking.” It sets out your topic based on preliminary research. It should identify the problem or event that will be investigated, explain why it is important, survey the historical literature on the subject, describe the primary sources you will use, and discuss how you intend to carry out the work.

 The prospectus is not binding; you will certainly change your topic in some way during your senior year, and you may change it entirely. It is nonetheless very important preparation. It also requires substantial background work. I expect you to have looked at and read in at least 10 books, articles, and review essays.

The prospectus should also include a bibliography and four to six photocopied samples of primary sources. You may discuss the usefulness of the sources in either the text of the prospectus or in notes attached to the copies of the sources.

This course examines major shifts and changes in the political, social, cultural, and economic history of the U.S. since 1941, paying particular attention to some of the defining historical frameworks of the era: World War II and the origins of the Cold War, Suburbanization in the Fifties, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, the “Sixties,” the Women’s Movement, the “Seventies,” Reagan and the triumph of conservatism, the end of the Cold War, and politics and society in the global era.  Classes will consist of both lecture and discussion, and we will be drawing from a variety of sources, such as works of historical analysis, fiction, primary documents, photographs, and film clips.  Students will read, analyze, and critique the arguments of historians and other chroniclers of the times with the aim of formulating and developing their own arguments.  Class discussions, exams, and written assignments will serve as opportunities for students to hone their analytical and argumentative skills. 

Required Texts:

Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society and Politics.  Free Press, 2001.

Howard-Pitney, Martin L King, Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents.  Bedford, 2004.

Ronald Takaki, Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II.  Back Bay Book, 2001.

Elaine May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era.  Basic Books, 2008.

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction.  Houghton Mifflin, 1990.

CP: Course Pack available at Speedway Printers in Dobie Mall

Course Requirements

Three reading handouts (15%)

Three in-class exams (60%)

Five-page argumentative Essay (25%)

Plus/Minus grades will be assigned as the final grades

A lecture and discussion course dealing with the history of the development of the American constitutional tradition from colonial times to the present.  Particular attention will be paid to the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, the rise of the Supreme Court and the doctrines of judicial review and judicial supremacy, and the expansion of the meaning of liberty in twentieth century applications of the Fourteenth Amendment to civil rights, civil liberties and other modern constitutional issues.  The course will always keep a sharp focus on the historical context in which these questions arose.

Texts/Readings

Most readings will be in primary materials, especially opinions of the U. S. Supreme Court from Marbury v. Madison to recent decisions.

Examinations and Grading

Two midterm examinations, each worth 25% of the course grade, and a final examination worth 50% of the course grade.  Exams will be essay format.

Prerequisites

Upper-division standing required.

Partially fulfills the legislative requirement for American history.

This course surveys the long and storied history of the religion now known as Hinduism, from the forgotten civilizations of the Indus Valley to the lively and robust traditions of the present day. As we move through the centuries, we will examine how legendary Hindu tales and doctrines continue to speak to each other in their own language, how they inform the lives of native speakers, and reward those who take the time to learn their language. By the end of this course, students will be able to identify key traditions, concepts, and personalities of the Hindu philosophical and mythological traditions and will have developed a foundational cultural literacy in the world’s third largest religion.

Course Description

Why have Jews been disliked, mistrusted or hated for so long? How, if at all, does judeophobia differ from other types of xenophobia or racism? In which societies have we historically seen intense mistrust and demonization of Jews? Where do we see it today? And where do we see the opposite “Jewcentric” phenomenon: philosemitism, and what some refer to as an encroaching judaization?

In this upper-­‐level undergraduate course, we tackle these and related questions. We identify distinct types of judeophobia/antisemitism over 2,500 years, identifying when and where new and discrete layers of antisemitic ideas developed and flourished. Although our primary focus is on antisemitism in contemporary and historical Christian and Muslim societies, we begin in the antisemitic bedrock— Ancient Greece and Rome. We also look at antisemitism in peripheral societies which have had few Jews. Finally, we consider judeophobic “self-­‐hatred” among Jews themselves and, perhaps most disturbing (though sociologists shouldn’t find this surprising), we look at the repeated role of intellectual elites—including those who consider themselves progressive—in generating and justifying new forms of judeophobia, and in so doing, perpetuating this ancient hatred.

Course Requirements

Final grade will use UT’s standard range (A, A‐, B+, B, B‐, C+, C, C-­, D+, D, D-­, and F) and is based on performance in the following assignments.

1. Two in-­‐class exams, scheduled on the Wednesday classes of weeks 8 and 15. Each is worth 30% of the total course
2. Either a paper or collaborative project: 30%
   • Paper: I’ll hand out a list of questions after the first
   • Collaborative project: Up to three people can collaborate on a It must be scholarly but can also use alternative media. All projects must have my approval and each member of the team will sign a declaration attesting to which parts of the project they contributed to, and roughly how much.
3. Class participation: general class discussion plus contributions to weekly “Antisemitism in the news” and the class facebook page (10%)

Required Readings From (among others):

Peter Schafer's Judeophobia

Robert Wistrich's A Lethal Obsession

Excerpts from Laqngmuir ("Towards a Definition of Anti-Semitism")

Phyllis Goldstein (2012) A Convenient Hatred: The history of Antisemitism. Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation

Bernard Lewis (1984) The Jews of Islam. Princeton University Press

Andrew G. Bostom (2009) The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism. Prometheus Books

Walter Laqueur (2006) The Changing Face of Anti-­‐Semitism. Oxford University

Alan Steinweis (2006) Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany. Harvard University Press

Sander Gilman (1991) The Jews Body. Routledge

Sander Gilman (1986) Jewish Self-­‐Hatred: Anti-­‐Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews. The Johns Hopkins University Press (section of “The linguistics of anti-­‐Semitism”) 

Wistrich’s A Lethal Obsession

Andrea Nüsse (1998) Muslim Palestine: The Ideology of Hamas

David Hirsh (2007) “Anti-­‐Zionism and Antisemitism: Cosmopolitan ” (http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/2061/)

Robert Michael (2005) A Concise History of American Antisemitism. Rowman and Littlefield

Garfinkle’s (2009) Jewcentricity. John Wiley and Sons

Grading Scale

Course is cross-listed with HIS 367Q; carries Global Cultures Flag

In Chinese history, food and healing shared the same set of cosmological assumptions, all of which had to do with harmonizing the “vital energy,” “breath” or “life force” (qi 氣) of the body with the mind. The Chinese holistic approach to the concept of “well-being” by eating, taking medicine and engaging in healing arts, was to ensure that all of these activities created a healthy balance. Lectures, discussion and coursework will focus on the cultural, historical, philosophical, social, and scientific background against which the connection between food and healing has evolved through history. The course will address how this holistic approach has manifested in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan today, and form the basis of final research inquiry projects, some of which may also be applied to greater Austin locales.

COURSE SECTION TOPICS:

Introduction – What is the connection between food and healing in Chinese history?

Section I – Concepts of well-being, the mind and body, “health and healing”

Section II – History of food, connection between food and healing, food as medicine

Section III – Healing Practices in Austin, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

This course fulfills part of the requirements for the Normandy Scholars Program as well as part of the American history requirement for the University.  It explores American involvement in the Second World War.  Among the topics covered are: American isolationism; the controversy over Pearl Harbor and American entry into the war; the rise of air power and strategic bombing; the conduct of war and diplomacy; everyday life and politics on the home front; the experience of battle; the use of the atomic bomb; the seeds of the Cold War; and conflicting visions of the postwar world. 

No course can be encyclopedic.  This one will divide its time between events in Europe and the Pacific without trying to cover either theater in all its detail.  Two events, one in each theater, will serve as case studies for in-depth analysis: 1) the D-Day invasion and the opening of the “Second Front” in Europe; and 2) the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan in the Pacific.

Texts:

David Kennedy, The American People in World War II

E. B. Sledge, With the Old Breed

John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

Michael B. Stoff et al., eds., The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction

to the Atomic Age

Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day

John Hersey, A Bell for Adano

Grading:

Class work consists of lectures and discussions of weekly reading assignments, lectures, and films.  Discussions constitute 20 percent of the course grade.  Five in-class quizzes based on lectures and readings make up another 20 percent of the grade.  A research paper, done in three stages, serves as the written portion of the workload and is worth 50 percent of the course grade.  Each student will also present his or her work orally.  The oral presentation is worth 10 percent of the grade.

How was an obscure, unemployed Austrian, who never rose above the rank of corporal in the German army, able to become the leader of a mass political movement which overthrew the most democratic political system Germany had ever known? Why did Germany begin the most devastating and brutal war in world history just two decades after having lost the First World War? Why did the Nazi state systematically murder 6 million Jews? How did the implementation of Nazi plans for a “racial empire” affect the lives of millions of Europeans during the Second World War? And what is the legacy of the Third Reich, for Germany today? These are the primary questions addressed by this course.

Texts:

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

David F. Crew, Hitler and the Nazis. A History in Documents (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)[also available on-line at the PCL as an e-book]

J. Noakes and G. Pridham(editors), Nazism. A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945 (University of Exeter Press Edition: Volumes 2 &3)

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

We are also going to be working with the images at these two web-sites: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/ and http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/

Grading:

A distinctive feature of this course is the fact that we will be working extensively with original documents, in translation. This will give you a more direct and immediate connection to the past, will allow you to experience, at first hand, the language and ideas of the period. It will also allow you to engage directly in the process of interpretation. Rather than simply ingesting the arguments of historians who write about the Nazi period, you  will have the opportunity to analyze the "raw materials" with which historians themselves work. The first and second document essays will ask you to comment on the meaning and significance of several documents(or parts of documents) assigned for the class. You will be given a copy of the document(s) which will be clearly identified for you (i.e. author, date, place). These are, therefore, not identification quizzes; your job is rather to write an essay in which you show why the particular documents are important in terms of the larger history of the period from which they derive and what they tell us about that particular phase in the rise or development of Nazism.

            Your general participation in class discussions (i.e. attendance + involvement) counts for 20% of the overall grade. There will be a take-home mid-term document essay (5-6 pages, 20% of the final grade).There is no final exam per se but you will have a second take-home document essay (5-6 pages, 20% of the final grade). You will also be asked to write one short essay on any one of the books by Remarque or Levi (4-5 pages, 20% of final grade). Finally, you will be asked to write two  brief (2-3 page) analyses of the visual evidence(photographs, propaganda, election posters, etc.) discussed in class and/or those that are available on the web-sites listed above. Each of these two assignments is worth 10% of the final grade. I will be using the full range of +/- grades.